. Greek athletic sports and festivals . bells, and that the scene depicted is not so much 1 Jlitlmer, pp. 87 fiF,, Figs. 69-74 ; cp. Hans Lucas, Jahrhuch, 1904, 2 Jiithner, Fig. 61, pp. 75, 76. 412 GREEK ATHLETIC SPORTS AND FESTIVALS CHAP. a boxing match as some sort of athletic dance. Certainly thestyle of the performance has as little connexion with trueboxing as these objects have with boxing gloves. But thecomposition of the group seems to show that it really is a crudeand barbarous representation of boxing. The helmet placedbetween the two figures is, of course, the prize for
. Greek athletic sports and festivals . bells, and that the scene depicted is not so much 1 Jlitlmer, pp. 87 fiF,, Figs. 69-74 ; cp. Hans Lucas, Jahrhuch, 1904, 2 Jiithner, Fig. 61, pp. 75, 76. 412 GREEK ATHLETIC SPORTS AND FESTIVALS CHAP. a boxing match as some sort of athletic dance. Certainly thestyle of the performance has as little connexion with trueboxing as these objects have with boxing gloves. But thecomposition of the group seems to show that it really is a crudeand barbarous representation of boxing. The helmet placedbetween the two figures is, of course, the prize for which theyare fighting, and cannot possibly represent any sort of barrierbetween the two combatants as a recent writer has suggested.^In archaic art the tripods, cauldrons, or helmets which are theobjects of competition are frequently represented. In a racethe prize is naturally placed at the finish; in a combat it isno less naturally placed between the combatants. The samescheme of composition occurs on the walls of tombs at Tarquinii. Fig. 130.—Bronze situla. Watsch. and Clusium,^ and on the fragment of a black-figured vase in theBritish Museum found at Daphnae in Egypt (Fig. 140).^ Onthe Etruscan tombs the scheme is not confined to boxers. Inthe Tomba degli Auguri at Tarquinii a pair of wrestlers * arewrestling over three large bowls placed between them; but noone could suppose for a moment that the bowls were in realityso placed. The numerous athletic scenes on those tombs bearwitness to the popularity of athletics and especially of boxingamong the Etruscans ; but they do not justify us in assumingany connexion between Etruscan art and that of the situlae, nor ^ R. M. Burrows, Discoveries in Crete, p. 35. As far as the athletic argumentis concerned, the connexion which Professor Burrows suggests between Crete andCentral Europe and Etruria appears to me entirely without foundation. 2 Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, passim. 3 Tanis, ii. 30. 4 Man. d. I. xi. PI. 25
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