. Greek athletic sports and festivals . he illustrations in modern books on athletics. TheGreek vase painter instinctively avoided violent movement,and often preferred to represent a sport not by the actualperformance but by some preliminary scene. Hence thelarge number of vases on which he has represented boxing 1 Dion Chrysostom, Orat. 29. 2e 418 GREEK ATHLETIC SPORTS AND FESTIVALS CHAP. by groups of men holding or adjusting the himantes.^ Evenwhen he did depict the actual fight he confined himself toa small number of conventional types. There is less con-ventionality and more originality sh
. Greek athletic sports and festivals . he illustrations in modern books on athletics. TheGreek vase painter instinctively avoided violent movement,and often preferred to represent a sport not by the actualperformance but by some preliminary scene. Hence thelarge number of vases on which he has represented boxing 1 Dion Chrysostom, Orat. 29. 2e 418 GREEK ATHLETIC SPORTS AND FESTIVALS CHAP. by groups of men holding or adjusting the himantes.^ Evenwhen he did depict the actual fight he confined himself toa small number of conventional types. There is less con-ventionality and more originality shown on the early black-figured than on the red-figured vases; but the crowding offigures on these early vases was incompatible with a truerepresentation of open fighting, and consequently on many ofthese vases the boxing is confined to short arm punching andchopping, the grotesque efiect of which is frequently heightenedby the blood which flows copiously from the noses of thecombatants. A good example of this style is seen in Fig. 142,. Fiu. 142.— stamnos. Bibliotheque Nationale, 252. taken from a black-figured stamnos in the Bibliotheque Nationalein Paris, where, it will be observed, the athletes all wear thearchaic loin-cloth. On the red-figured vases a more open styleof fighting prevails. We are not, however, justified thereby inassuming any change of style in the actual fighting; thedifference is due chiefly, if not entirely, to artistic causes. Inspite, however, of this lack of variety on the vases we can, Ithink, draw certain conclusions from them as to the attitudeand methods of the Greek boxer. There can be no doubt as to the position assumed by theGreek boxer when he first puts up his hands. It is the ^ Jiithner, p. 71. XIX POSITION OF THE GREEK BOXER 419 moment most frequently depicted on the vases. He standswith body upright and head erect, the feet well apart, and theleft foot advanced. The left leg is usually slightly bent, thefoot pointing straight forwards
Size: 2123px × 1177px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, books, booksubjectfastsandfeasts
