CHAPTER XI

THE ATHLETIC FESTIVALS OF ATHENS

It is impossible within the limits of this work to give any account of the various local festivals which existed in every state of Greece. Such an account would too often resolve itself into a barren list of names. With regard to Athens we are more fully informed; and from the fifth century onwards we may regard Athens as typical of the Greek world. A brief account of the Athenian festivals and competitions will enable us to form some idea of the part which such events occupied in the life of the Greeks. Athens was not the most athletic of the states of Greece; but nowhere was the love of festivals more developed, and nowhere were competitions more various and more numerous. The Athenian must have spent a large portion of his life in attending festivals and witnessing competitions. In the following list I shall confine myself to those festivals at which we know that there were competitions, and to the festivals of Athens; but we must remember that there were many other festivals in Athens itself, and that there were numerous competitions, athletic or other, on the borders of Attica, at which Athenians could attend as spectators or competitors.

The Attic year[381] commenced with the month of Hekatombaion (July), and in this month took place the great festival of Athene Polias, the Panathenaea, extending over several days and attracting visitors from the whole Aegean world. The lesser Panathenaea were held yearly; the great Panathenaea of which details will be found below, were held every fourth year, the third year of each Olympiad.

In the next month, Metageitnion, the feast of the Heraclea took place at Marathon. These were athletic games which seem to have been much frequented in Pindar’s time.[382] The prize was a silver cup. There were also Heraclea held at Athens in Cynosarges; but we have no evidence of any competitions held there.

Next came the Eleusinia in the month of Boedromion, like the lesser Panathenaea, celebrated yearly; but every second year of the Olympiad they were celebrated as a trieteris, and every fourth year as a pentaeteris. On these occasions there were athletics, horse-races, musical competitions, and a special competition called “the contest of the fathers” (πάτριος ἀγών), which seems to have been equestrian in character. As at the feast of Athene the prize consisted in jars of olive oil, so at Demeter’s feast it consisted in measures of corn and barley. Epharmostus of Opous is stated by Pindar to have won a victory in wrestling at Eleusis, and Herodotus of Thebes in the chariot-race.[383] The Eleusinia claimed an antiquity greater than that of the Olympia or the Isthmia, and the earliest athletic implement which we possess is an inscribed jumping-weight found at Eleusis which cannot be later than the beginning of the sixth century (Fig. 60).

The month of Pyanepsion (October) was a very busy one for the athletic youth of Athens. First came the Oschophoria, a festal race in which two boys, chosen from each tribe, raced, dressed in women’s clothes, from the temple of Dionysus to the temple of Athene Skiras at Phalerum. They carried bunches of grapes, and the winner received as his prize a mixed drink, composed of wine, honey, cheese, flour, and oil.[384] On the sixth day of the month began the Thesea, the great athletic festival of the Athenian epheboi, and this was immediately followed by the Epitaphia. The details of the programme will be discussed below. Lastly, in connexion with the Apaturia there were musical competitions and torch-races in honour of Prometheus and Hephaestus.

With October the athletic season seems to have ended. The winter months and early spring were occupied with the dramatic competitions connected with the Dionysia and Lenaea. There may, of course, have been lesser competitions, of which we know nothing. At the “Country Dionysia,” for example, there appear to have been various rustic sports, such as the game of Askoliasmos,[385] which correspond to such sports as climbing the greasy pole and other Mayday festivities.

The month of Munychion or April was the beginning of the boating season. At the festival of Munychia there was a procession in honour of Artemis, followed by boat-races in the harbour.[386] At a later date these were replaced by a mimic naval battle, for which prizes were also given.[387] Then the epheboi sailed to Salamis to celebrate the Aiantea. There were more boat-races, and also a long-distance foot-race, in which the youths of Athens competed with the youths of Salamis.

In the same month took place the Athenian Olympia, founded by the Peisistratidae at the time when they commenced to build the temple of Olympian Zeus. There were athletic and equestrian competitions. It is perhaps to this festival that Pindar alludes, when he says that Timodemus won “at home crowns more than may be numbered in the games of Zeus.”[388] The festival was apparently a yearly one. It was reorganized on a more magnificent scale by Hadrian.

During the rest of the year there are few important competitions. There were musical competitions at the Thargelia, torch-races on horseback and on foot at the Bendidea, founded in the fourth century, and, lastly, more boat-races at the Diisoteria in the month of Skirophorion.

This list, though probably far from complete, will give some idea of the number of competitions and festivals in Attica. The competitions fall into two divisions, those, like the Panathenaea, which, though not Panhellenic, were open to competitors from all parts of Greece, and those, like the Thesea, which were practically confined to inhabitants of Athens. The character of these festivals will be readily understood from the programme of the Panathenaea and the Thesea, with regard to which we have considerable information from inscriptions and other sources.

The Panathenaic festival undoubtedly occupied several days. According to the highly probable scheme suggested by August Mommsen,[389] it began on the 21st day of Hekatombaion, and lasted nine days. The first three days were occupied by musical competitions, the next two by athletics, the sixth by horse and chariot races, the seventh by the Pyrrhic and other military competitions. The seventh day closed with the torch-races in the evening, which were the beginning of an all-night revel, Pannychis, which preceded the procession and sacrifices on the 28th day of the month—the great day of the festival. A regatta on the last day brought the festival to the end.

The details of the sacrifices and procession do not concern us here. The procession is known to us from the frieze of the Parthenon. Its object was the offering to Athena of the new peplos or mantle wrought by certain selected maidens of Athens, and interwoven with scenes representing the battle between the gods and the giants. In the procession the whole population of Athens was represented, and not only that of Athens but also that of Athenian colonies and allies who sent to the Panathenaea official deputies bearing their offerings and sacrifices.[390] An admirable account of the procession will be found in the British Museum _Guide to the Parthenon Sculptures_, while those who wish for fuller information as to the literary evidence will find it in Michaelis’ _Parthenon_ or Mommsen’s _Feste der Stadt Athen_.

The musical competitions certainly date back to the time of Peisistratus, who reorganized the earlier yearly festival as a pentaeteris, increased the programme, and gave to the festival a wider and more popular scope. It was either Peisistratus himself or his son, Hipparchus, who organized recitations by rhapsodists of the Homeric poems, which had perhaps taken place at a yet earlier date at Brauron. These recitations were confined to Homer, and it is recorded as a special mark of honour that an exception was made in favour of the _Perseis_ of Choerilus, which described the triumph of Athens over Xerxes.[391] There seem also to have been competitions in lyric and elegiac poetry.

According to Plutarch[392] Pericles was the first to introduce contests in singing and playing on the lyre and on the flute. The competitions were held in the newly built Odeum, and Pericles himself presided as judge. In the first part of his statement Plutarch is mistaken. Midas of Agrigentum, whose Pythian victory on the flute is celebrated in one of Pindar’s earliest odes, is also credited with a victory in the Panathenaea.[393] The existence of musical competitions at a yet earlier date is proved by two small sixth-century Panathenaic amphorae in the British Museum.[394] One represents a citharist playing on the chelys, the other a player on the double flute, standing on a platform before a bearded man, clothed in a long chiton and striped himation, while at the side of the platform is seated a judge similarly clothed and holding a wand. The vase from which our illustration is taken belongs to the class of vase described as imitations of Panathenaic amphorae (Fig. 32). The musical competition is represented on both sides. At a later date the musical prizes consisted in a sum of silver and crowns of gold. In any case, the small amphorae cannot have been used to hold oil, and may be regarded as commemorative prizes bestowed on musicians, perhaps in addition to some more substantial prize, on the analogy of the larger amphorae bestowed on victors in athletics or chariot-races.

An early black-figured kylix in the British Museum points to the existence of choral and dramatic competitions at the Panathenaea (Fig. 33). The central group represents a sacrifice to Athene, who stands beside her altar armed with shield and spear, much as she is depicted on Panathenaic vases. Advancing towards the altar is a procession formed of a tragic chorus, a comic chorus, and a dithyrambic chorus. Diogenes Laertius[395] states that dramatic competitions existed at the Panathenaea, but we have no further information concerning them.

The musical programme for the fourth century is partly known to us from an inscription, which is unfortunately much mutilated.[396] The opening lines, which apparently referred to the recitations of rhapsodists, are almost entirely wanting. Then come four competitions. For singers to the lyre there are no less than five prizes: a crown of gold valued at 1000 drachmae with 500 drachmae of silver for the winner; prizes of 1200, 600, 400, and 300 drachmae respectively for the next four in order of merit. The “men singers to the flute” receive only two prizes—the first a crown of 300 drachmae, the second a sum of 100 drachmae. For “men players on the lyre” there are three prizes: the first is a crown valued at 500 drachmae; the third is a sum of 100 drachmae; the amount of the second prize is uncertain. Flute-players again have only two prizes, the figures for which are missing in the inscription. There were doubtless many other competitions. The insertion of the word “men” before “singers to the flute” and “players on the lyre” implies that there were also musical contests for boys, as was undoubtedly the case at Aphrodisias.[397] Another competition mentioned in connection with the Panathenaea was called συναυλία,[398] by which perhaps is meant a duet on flutes. The preference shown at Athens for the lyre over the flute is noticeable in the value of the prizes assigned for these events. Playing on the lyre was part of every Athenian’s education, but whereas flute-playing had become popular in the early part of the fifth century, it did not commend itself to Athenian educationalists. Its moral effect was considered bad, and it was an ungraceful performance which distorted the face. So it was in the fourth century left for the most part to professional flute-girls.[399] From the number of prizes offered it is obvious that there must have been large entries for the musical competitions, and Mommsen is probably right in assigning three days to these events.

Next came the athletic competitions. The early Panathenaic vases show that all the events of the Olympic programme existed in the Panathenaea in the sixth century, and that there were competitions for men and boys, but there is no evidence as to the division of boys into boys and youths at this period. In the fourth century the inscription already mentioned proves the existence of all three classes.[400] There were five events for boys and youths respectively, the stade-race, the pentathlon, wrestling, boxing, and the pankration. There were two prizes for each event, consisting of so many amphorae of oil; the winner received five times as many amphorae as the second. The following table shows the amounts of amphorae awarded in the different events:—

Boys Youths (παῖδες). (ἀγένειοι).

1st 2nd 1st Prize. 2nd Prize. Prize. Prize.

Stadion 50 10 60 12

Pentathlon 30 6 40 8

Pale 30 6 40 8

Pygme 30 6 40 8

Pankration 40 8 50 10

The portion of the inscription referring to men’s events is wanting, but we know from Panathenaic vases and other sources that the programme for men included the diaulos, the dolichos, the hippios-race,[401] and the race in armour. When the last two events were introduced we cannot say: the diaulos and dolichos certainly existed in the sixth century. The dolichos is frequently represented on early Panathenaic vases, and a fragment of such a vase found at Athens bears the inscription: “I am a diaulos runner.” The prizes for men were of course proportionately higher than those for boys and youths. In inscriptions of the second century we find that the pentathlon has disappeared from the programme for boys; but two races have been added in its place, the dolichos and the diaulos. The programme for youths and men remains unchanged. The whole programme can hardly have taken less than two days. Probably the first day comprised the ten or eleven events for boys and youths, the second day the nine events for men. In the fourth century we learn from Plato that the sports opened with the stade-race, which was followed by the diaulos, the hippios, and the dolichos. The last event was the race in armour—a favourite subject of the Athenian vase-painters, and frequently associated on the red-figured vases with the pankration, which immediately preceded it. In the second century it seems probable from the inscriptions that each day began with a long-distance race; the first day with the boys’ dolichos, the second day with the men’s.

A noticeable feature in this programme is the large proportion of events for boys and youths. All events were open to competitors from all the Greek states; but events for the young naturally appeal chiefly to local competition. Such being the case, we should expect to find Athens well represented in the lists. But the reverse is the case. Out of more than sixty names only seven are Athenians, and of these five are pankratiasts.[402] These figures show how utterly unathletic Athens became after the fifth century in spite of all her competitions. Watching sports never makes an athletic nation; at Athens it produced a crowd of idle critics and spectators. Nearly half the victors known to us come from Asia Minor and the Aegean: not only Colophon and Ephesus, but Tyre and Sidon figure in the lists. On the mainland Corinth, Sicyon, Argos, Boeotia, and Epirus are best represented.

Previous to the erection of the Panathenaic stadium by Lycurgus the athletic competitions took place in the deme of Echelidae, and this site continued to be the scene of the chariot and horse races. The Hippodrome of Athens is stated to have been of the unusual length of eight stades.[403] The Athenians were at all periods passionately fond of horses. The four-horse chariot-race, the pair-horse chariot-race, and the horse-race are represented on the Panathenaic amphorae of the sixth century. The earliest of these vases which we possess, the Burgon vase in the British Museum, was the prize for the pair-horse chariot-race.[404] The apobates race must have existed in the fifth century, for the apobates is represented on the frieze of the Parthenon.

For the fourth century we have only a portion of the equestrian programme, preserved in the inscription already quoted. We have apparently only the last six events, with the number of measures of oil presented for each of them. The inscription runs as follows:—

1st Prize. 2nd Prize.

Chariot-race for colts (ἵππων ζεύγει 40 8 πωλικῷ)

Chariot-race for full-grown horses 140 40 (ἵππων ζεύγει ἀδηφάγῳ)[405]

War (πολεμιστηρίοις), horse-race (ἵππῳ 16 4 κέλητι νικώντι)

War (πολεμιστηρίοις), chariot-race 30 6 (ἵππων ζεύγει νικῶντι)

Processional chariot-race (ζεύγει 4 1 πομπικῷ νικῶντι)

Javelin throwing on horseback (ἀφ’ ἵππου 5 1 ἀκοντίζοντι)

In the light of later inscriptions it seems probable that the last four events, if not all six, were confined to Athenian competitors. In this case there must have been other events open to all comers. The introduction of local events of a military type was undoubtedly due to the development of Athenian cavalry in the latter part of the fifth century. According to Photius the war-horse was not really a horse used for war, but merely one equipped as for war in competitions. It is just possible that in the second century the race for war-horses had become a purely artificial event and the war-horse had then as little practical value as the Athenian hoplite of that time. But we can hardly suppose that this was the case in the fourth century, when Athens still possessed a real army. Every Athenian of the first two classes was bound to provide a horse for military service, and the races for war-horses must have been introduced in order to encourage cavalry training, just as the hoplite race had been intended for the benefit of the heavy-armed infantry. But the war-horse was not the same type of animal as the highly-trained and expensive race-horse, and the difference is marked in the amount of the prizes. The team of war-horses receives only 30 amphorae, the team of race-horses 140. The same difference exists in the present day between the prizes given at military or hunt steeple-chases, and those given for race-horses. Still smaller are the prizes for the processional chariots. In this event the chariots and horses may possibly have been provided by the State.

We do not know how many events constituted the full programme in the fourth century; an inscription of the second century enumerates twenty-four events, and another, which is incomplete, contained at least as many.[406] It is possible that on these occasions the programme was exceptionally elaborate, owing to the presence of kings and other distinguished visitors at the festival. Certainly the inscriptions prove that at this period the programme varied considerably from time to time. On one occasion, when four sons of King Attalus were present, it appears that there were three if not four chariot-races for their benefit. Three of their names appear as victors in the chariot-race; the name of the fourth also occurs, but the inscription is here broken, and the name of the event which he won is lost. Still, making allowance for such circumstances, we can form a fairly accurate idea of the programme as it existed at this time and probably also in the fourth century.

The programme is divided into open events (ἐκ πάντων) and local events (ἐκ τῶν πολιτῶν). The open events are the six events of the Olympic programme. These take place in the hippodrome. The local events take place partly in the hippodrome, partly in the city in the neighbourhood of the Eleusinium, where perhaps the races ended. Some of the events are ceremonial in character, others military. Of the latter some are confined to soldiers. There are three riding races for officers (ἐκ τῶν φυλάρχων), a straight race (ἄκαμπτον) and a diaulos, and a diaulos ἐν ὅπλοις, _i.e._ in which the riders wear full armour. Similarly there are three races for cavalry (ἐκ τῶν ἱππέων). In all these races the riders rode their war-horses (ἵππῳ πολεμιστῇ). There are twelve events open to all citizens—five held at the Eleusinium, seven in the hippodrome. These include no less than eleven chariot-races, three ceremonial,—the apobates race, and two races in processional chariots,—four races in racing chariots over the straight and the double course, and four races in war-chariots (ἅρματι πολεμιστηρίῳ, συνωρίδι πολεμιστηρίᾳ) by which perhaps we may understand that, as in Homeric days, there were two men in each chariot, the driver and the soldier. There was only one horse-race, a race ἵππῳ πολυδρόμῳ, by which word I am inclined to understand a war-horse, though it may be merely a variant for fully grown.

The “apobates”[407] was a ceremonial race peculiar to Athens and Boeotia, and recalled, according to tradition, the invention of the chariot by Erechtheus. At the founding of the Panathenaea he had himself appeared as charioteer, having with him in his chariot a companion armed with small round shield and triple-crested helmet, as represented in the frieze of the Parthenon. The event undoubtedly preserves the tradition of Homeric warfare when the chieftain was driven to the scene of action and dismounted to fight, remounting again for pursuit or flight. There is some doubt as to the manner of the race. According to one statement[408] the apobates mounted the chariot in full course, by placing a foot on the wheel, and again dismounted, the performance being repeated apparently at fixed intervals.

This account finds some confirmation in one of the groups of the Parthenon frieze, which represents the apobates in the very act of mounting a chariot.[409] Dionysius of Halicarnassus[410] makes no mention of the mounting, but states that at the close of the race, apparently the beginning of the last lap, the apobates dismounted, and from this point chariots and apobatai raced together to the finish. The two accounts are not really irreconcilable if we suppose that Dionysius is thinking merely of the finish, the most interesting part of the race. In most of the groups on the north side of the Parthenon the apobates is represented in the act of dismounting, as he is in Fig. 34. In those on the south side he is standing in the chariot or by its side.[411] The latter scene represents the moment before the race, the other scenes different moments in the race, and there is no need to assume with Michaelis two different motives for the south and north frieze. In inscriptions the twofold character of the race is brought out by the mention of charioteer and apobates as two separate victors. The charioteer is described as ἡνίοχος ἐγβιβάζων, the charioteer “who lets his companion dismount,” a title which suggests the assistance which the charioteer could render to his fellow by a momentary checking of the pace. The course of the race seems to have been from the Cerameicus to the Eleusinium, on the slopes of the Acropolis.

So extensive a programme required at least two days: in one inscription a torch-race is inserted in the middle of the programme, perhaps as marking the close of the first day. The popularity of the Panathenaea in the second century is proved by the number of distinguished competitors. Besides the sons of King Attalus mentioned already, we find Mastanabas, the son of King Mastanassus, King Antiochus, the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, and Ptolemaeus, king of Egypt, who competed as an Athenian citizen of the Ptolemaid tribe. There are numerous victors from Argos, and the lists include the names of several women. In one list alone we find two victories won by women, or perhaps by the same woman from Argos, and a third won by a woman of Alexandria.

Besides these individual competitions, there seems to have been a cavalry competition between tribes, which took place in the hippodrome, though we do not know on what day. This ἀνθιππασία[412] was a sort of sham-fight between two squadrons, each consisting of the cavalry of five tribes under the command of a hipparchos. Xenophon describes the sight with enthusiasm. They pursued one another in turn, charged, passed through each other’s lines, wheeled round, and charging down the whole length of the hippodrome came to a sudden halt, front to front. It seems that prizes were given to the tribe which performed best, or perhaps to their officers.

The day after the horse-races was occupied by a series of competitions between companies or tribes, in which the local and religious character of the festival is yet more clearly manifest. First came the Pyrrhic chorus, an event which took place at the lesser Panathenaea as well as the great.[413] Our inscription enumerates three prizes: one for boys, one for youths, one for men. Each prize is an ox of the value of 100 drachmae, which furnished the victors with a victim for sacrifice and provision for a feast. The composition of the Pyrrhic chorus is known to us from a relief on the basis of a statue set up by Atarbus to commemorate the victories gained at the Panathenaea by a cyclic chorus, and a Pyrrhic chorus that he had provided in the archonship of Cephisodorus, _i.e._ either 366 or 323 B.C.[414] On one side is represented the Pyrrhic chorus (Fig. 35): it consists of eight youths linked, and armed with helmets and shields, who move in rhythmic dance under the direction of a trainer, robed in a long mantle and holding in his hand a scroll. The whole Pyrrhic chorus of boys, youths, and men must therefore have numbered twenty-four. Whether they competed as a single chorus or as three is uncertain. On the other side of the relief we see a cyclic chorus, also consisting of eight youths, but clothed in long mantles wrapt close about them, and revolving apparently in a circle. Next came two competitions between tribes, for which the prize again is the sacrificial ox, destined perhaps to be led in the procession of the morrow. The first competition is for εὐανδρία, which in the fourth century seems to mean merely “good looks.” In the Panathenaic procession certain old men were selected for their beauty to carry the sacred olive branches. Each tribe chose certain representatives, and this competition was apparently intended to decide which tribe should provide these “handsome old men.”[415] The nature of the second competition is not stated in the inscription, but as the next line refers to the torch-race, it is probable that this too was a competition for good looks, to decide which tribe should take part in the evening’s torch-race. The torch-race at the Panathenaea was an individual competition, in which the winner received a hydria valued at 30 drachmae.

Lastly, the regatta which took place on the last day of the festival was also a competition between tribes. According to the inscription two prizes were offered: the winning tribe received 200 drachmae for a feast besides some other object, possibly three oxen, valued at 300 drachmae. The prize for the second place is also broken off in the inscription, but its value was 200 drachmae. Of the details of the regatta we know nothing. Perhaps we may connect with the Panathenaea a relief found at Athens representing torch-race, wrestling, and boat-race (Fig. 36). It forms part of an ephebic inscription of Roman times in the archonship of C. Helvidius.[416]

The prizes in the athletic and equestrian events consisted, as we have seen, in certain quantities of oil. This oil, which was obtained from the sacred olive-trees scattered over Attica, belonged to the state, and none might sell or export it except the victors in the games. The olive-trees were under the care of the Areopagus, and were every year inspected by its officials, and the oil itself was collected by the archon, who handed it over to the treasurers of the festival. In later time this system was abolished and the land was assessed at a certain number of olive-trees, each proprietor being required to supply a certain quota of oil to the state.[417]

Besides this the victor received as a memento “a richly painted amphora.”[418] In view of the care with which these amphorae were preserved it seems unlikely that the victor received more than one such amphora. A large number of them are still in existence. They date from the middle of the sixth to the close of the fourth century. They are painted in black on a red ground or panel. On one side is an athletic scene, typical of the event for which the amphora was given; on the other, the figure of Athene clothed in her aegis, and brandishing her shield and spear. She stands usually between two Doric pillars surmounted by some emblem, a cock, sphinx, siren, panther, or vase, or in later times by the figure of Victory or Triptolemus. Along the left-hand pillar runs an inscription: “One of the prizes from Athens,” ΤΟΝΑΘΕΝΕΘΕΝ.Α.ΘΥΟΝ: to which is added on the Burgon amphora[419] the word ΕΜΙ, “I am.” On the early amphorae the letters are parallel, on the later at right angles to the column. To the inscription is sometimes added the name of the archon. The earliest of these dated vases belongs to the archonship of Polyzelus in 367 B.C., the latest to that of Polemon in 312 B.C.[420] Two fragmentary inscriptions suggest that sometimes the name of the Kosmetes, or Agonothetes, was substituted for that of the archon.[421] The dates of the archon do not always coincide with the years in which the great Panathenaea took place; and Michaelis therefore assigns such vases to the lesser Panathenaea. It seems more likely that, as the oil was collected every year by the archons, the inscription merely records the name of the archon who collected the oil. On two vases we also find the name of the vase-painter.[422]

The scene on the reverse usually represents the actual contest. Occasionally the name of the event is added. On some of the sixth-century amphorae, made perhaps before the tradition was absolutely fixed, the painter seems to have allowed himself more licence in his choice of subject. Thus a British Museum amphora represents the proclamation of a victory in the horse-race (Fig. 37). The victorious youth is mounted on his horse, and in front of him stands a herald in full official robes, from whose lips issue the words: “The horse of Dyneicetus is victorious”: ΔΥΝΕΙΚΕΤΥ: ΗΙΠΠΟΣ: ΝΙΚΑΙ. Behind the rider an attendant bears a wreath and a tripod: we often hear of tripods as prizes; perhaps in early days they may have been given as prizes at the Panathenaea. On another amphora in the British Museum (Fig. 38) a seated athlothetes binds a fillet of wool on a youthful victor’s head. The latest of the signed vases has a more fanciful representation of victory.[423] Two naked youths have just received palm branches from an athlothetes, by whom a herald stands. One of the youths is standing still, the other, who is perhaps a victor in the foot-race, runs off joyfully. Occasionally the reference to the contest is more obscure. For example, on one early Panathenaic vase in the British Museum the battle of the Giants is depicted, on another an acrobatic scene[424] (Fig. 39). The Athenians were intensely fond of acrobatic performances, and, as we know from the story of Hippocleides,[425] even high-born Athenians did not disdain to acquire proficiency in them. The scene is certainly in keeping with all that we know of Athenian festivals, where such side-shows must have been common. Are we, however, to suppose that a sacred prize amphora was actually given as a prize for acrobats? or was this a special mark of honour bestowed on some popular acrobat, like the statue erected at a later age at Athens in honour of a professional ball-player? Perhaps the simplest course is to regard the vase as an imitation Panathenaic amphora. It was found at Camirus in Rhodes, and its provenance, its general character, and the absence of the usual inscription render this explanation probable.[426] Imitation Panathenaic amphorae are numerous: many of them bear representations of musical contests for which, in Aristotle’s time at least, a different prize was given. There are also numerous small amphorae, the object of which is uncertain. Were they prizes for boys’ events, or second prizes? These are some of the numerous questions with regard to these interesting vases which still await solution.

The painted vases come to a sudden close at the end of the fourth century.[427] The name “Panathenaic vase” occurs occasionally at a later date; but appears merely to denote a particular shape of vase. But a representation of a Panathenaic amphora was found a few years ago on the mosaic floor of a house in Delos, belonging to the early part of the second century.[428] The complete absence of any evidence for their existence in the previous century makes it probable that the vase, which represented a chariot-race, was an heirloom which had been won by some ancestor of the builder of the house. The Panathenaic amphora is, however, still represented on Athenian coins, and on a late relief adorning a marble chair which was probably one of the seats reserved for the judges or agonothetai at the Panathenaea[429] (Fig. 40). The vase, which holds a branch, stands on a table, on which are also three crowns. Underneath the table is a palm branch, and by the side of it is represented Athene’s sacred olive-tree. The appearance of the vase on the relief and on coins suggests that at this period the earthenware vase had been replaced by a metal vase, but this theory still awaits confirmation.

Though the Panathenaic programme contained a considerable number of local events, these were of quite secondary importance in comparison with the open competitions which, if hardly Panhellenic, were certainly Pan-Ionic. It was for these open competitions that the sacred oil and the Panathenaic amphorae were awarded. In the Thesea, on the contrary, most of the competitions were confined to the youth of Attica, and even in those which were open to foreigners, the extreme rareness of foreign successes sufficiently indicates the local character of the festival.

The Thesea[430] were instituted in the year 476 or 475 B.C. to celebrate the discovery and restoration to Athens of the bones of the national hero Theseus. The popularity of the worship of Theseus at this period is abundantly attested by the red-figured vases, on which the story of Theseus now takes the place of the labours of Heracles. The Thesea were associated with certain primitive agricultural rites, the Pyanepsia and Oschophoria, ceremonies of the harvest and the vintage, in which the legend of Theseus had been somehow incorporated. They were followed immediately by the Epitaphia, a funeral festival in memory of those who had fallen fighting for their state, which had been held occasionally from the earliest times, but did not take its place as a permanent festival till the time of Pericles, or even later.

Our knowledge of the programme of the Thesea is derived from inscriptions of the second century B.C.,[431] with regard to which I need only repeat that late though they are, such was the religious conservatism of the Greeks, that they may be considered as representing the general character of the festival in the fifth century, and that such changes as had been introduced were merely changes in detail. Theseus was the patron of the Athenian ephebos, and the Thesea were essentially the games of the epheboi. The festival was a yearly one, and included a procession, sacrifice, torch-races, athletics, and horse-races. There was also a banquet provided at the public cost for all free citizens.

The programme of sports opened with the usual competitions for heralds and trumpeters, followed by certain military competitions for general smartness and equipment, εὐανδρία and εὐοπλία. These were divided into three or more classes: first, “the picked troops,” οἱ ἐπιλέκτοι; next the foreign troops, οἱ ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν; lastly, the cavalry, οἱ ἱππεῖς, as a subdivision of which we find the Tarantini, so called from their equipment. The competition was between tribes, or, in the case of the foreign troops, regiments (τάγματα), the captain of the successful tribe or regiment being mentioned in the inscriptions. It is evident that εὐανδρία is used here in a slightly different sense to that in which it is used in the Panathenaic inscriptions. There, as we have seen, the object of the competition was purely ceremonial, here it is manifestly military. εὐανδρία like many another word varies in meaning with the object to which it is applied. When used of a regiment, it implies good physique, activity, and general smartness. There is a certain pathos in the existence of these elaborate military reviews and competitions at an age when Athens had no more any freedom to defend, and when her military service was of no practical value. It may be that with the loss of the reality she clung the more closely to the empty form and semblance of an army. But it seems to me more probable that these competitions were not the futile invention of her decadence, but were the survival of the great outburst of patriotism and militarism in the fifth century.

Next came torch-races. At the Thesea these seem to have been contests between teams. There are torch-races for boys, epheboi, and men; sometimes also for young men, νεανίσκοι, who come between the epheboi and the men. The teams are sometimes representatives of a particular palaestra or gymnasium—boys from the palaestra of Timeas or Antigenes, youths or men from the Lyceum. The mention of a torch-race of the Tarantini indicates that there were also torch-races on horseback.

The athletic programme contains the seven ordinary competitions—the dolichos, stade-race, diaulos, wrestling, boxing, pankration, and the race in armour—and in addition certain military competitions, hoplomachia, and javelin-throwing. The hoplomachia, which must have been somewhat similar to our fencing or bayonet competitions, was of two sorts: one with the hoplite’s round shield and spear, ἐν ἀσπιδίῳ καὶ δόρατι; the other with the oblong target and sword of the light-armed soldier, ἐν θυρεῷ καὶ μαχαίρα. There are no less than five different classes for these events: there were competitions for boys of the first, second, and third age, open competitions for boys (ἑκ πάντων), and competitions for men. The two younger classes of boys were excluded from the long race, but all classes took part in the five following events. The race in armour was confined to men, javelin throwing to epheboi. The hoplomachia was open to three classes of boys, and to the epheboi. The boys’ open competitions and the men’s were open to foreign competitors, though few appear to have been successful;[432] the other competitions were confined to the youth of Athens.

The equestrian events are similar in character. A chariot race is only mentioned in one inscription, and there the reference is possibly to an apobates race. The rest of the events are horse-races. There is one race apparently with race-horses (λάμπρῳ ἵππῳ), the rest are military races, either for officers or for men, over the single or the double course. Lastly, there is an open competition (ἐκ πάντων), and javelin throwing on horseback. Not a single foreigner occurs among the names of the victors; but it must not be forgotten how extremely fragmentary is our information.

At the Epitaphia which followed the Thesea there were further competitions, torch-races and military displays. We hear in particular of a race in heavy armour, in which the epheboi ran, starting from the Polyandreum in the Cerameicus.

Footnote 381:

The following section is taken chiefly from A. Mommsen’s _Feste der Stadt Athen_.

Footnote 382:

_O._ ix. 89, xiii. 110; _I._ viii. 79.

Footnote 383:

_O._ ix.; _I._ 1.

Footnote 384:

Athen. 495 F.

Footnote 385:

_Vide_ p. 296.

Footnote 386:

_I.G._ ii. 466, 468, 470, 471.

Footnote 387:

_I.G._ iii. 1160.

Footnote 388:

_N._ ii. 23.

Footnote 389:

_Op. cit._ p. 153.

Footnote 390:

_e.g._ Priene, _Priene Inschriften_, 5; a decree of the people of Priene not later than 326 B.C. for the sending of two Theoroi to Athens with a panoplia. Similarly Colophon 306 B.C., _I.G._ ii. 164, ii. 5.

Footnote 391:

Suidas, ii. 2, p. 1691.

Footnote 392:

_Pericles_, 13.

Footnote 393:

Schol. to Pindar, _P._ xii.

Footnote 394:

_B.M. Vases_, B. 139, 141; cp. _Berl. Vas._ 1873.

Footnote 395:

iii. 56.

Footnote 396:

_I.G._ ii. 965.

Footnote 397:

_I.G._ ii. 2758.

Footnote 398:

Pollux, iv. 83.

Footnote 399:

Plato, _Rep._ 398-399; Aristotle, _Pol._ 1341 a.

Footnote 400:

_I.G._ ii. 965; cp. 966-970.

Footnote 401:

Plato, _Leg._ 833 A.

Footnote 402:

Mommsen, p. 83.

Footnote 403:

_Etym. M._, ἐν Ἐχελιδῶν.

Footnote 404:

_B.M._, B. 130.

Footnote 405:

ἀδηφάγος, “eating its full,” appears to be a fanciful synonym for τέλειος, perhaps with a special reference to the cost of breeding race-horses. To those familiar with the ordinary type of horse existing in Greece to-day, there is a peculiar appropriateness about the word. In the Thesean inscription, _I.G._ ii. 445, λαμπρός has a similar meaning.

Footnote 406:

_I.G._ ii. 968, 969.

Footnote 407:

Mommsen, _op. cit._ p. 89.

Footnote 408:

Bekker, _Anecd._ 426.

Footnote 409:

_B.M. Guide to Parthenon_, p. 109.

Footnote 410:

vii. 73.

Footnote 411:

_Op. cit._ pp. 102 ff., 121.

Footnote 412:

_I.G._ ii. 1291, 5, 1305b; Xen. _Hipparch._ 3, 11.

Footnote 413:

Lys. 21. 1, 4.

Footnote 414:

Beulé, _L’Acropole d’Athènes_, ii. pl. 4; Schreiber, _Atlas_, xx. 8, 9.

Footnote 415:

Xenoph. _Quaest. Symp._ iv. 17; Athen. p. 565 F.

Footnote 416:

Ἐφ. Ἀρχ. 1862, Pl. xxix.

Footnote 417:

1-1/2 kotylai for each tree. These details are mostly derived from Aristotle, Ἀθ. πολιτ. 60.

Footnote 418:

Pindar, _N._ x. 36.

Footnote 419:

_B.M. Vases_, B. 130.

Footnote 420:

_B.M._ B. 603; _American Journal of Archaeology_, ii. p. 332, xii. p. 48.

Footnote 421:

Cecil Smith in _B.S.A._ iii. 194 ff.

Footnote 422:

Sikelos, 5th cent., Kittos, 4th cent., _B.M._ B. 604.

Footnote 423:

_Mon. d. I._ X. 48, g. 11.

Footnote 424:

B. 145; Salzmann, _Nécropole de Camiros_, lvii.

Footnote 425:

Hdt. vi. 129.

Footnote 426:

On either side of Athene is a diminutive figure of a man, a most unorthodox addition. The inscription is wanting on most of the smaller vases.

Footnote 427:

Cecil Smith in _B.S.A._ iii. 183 ff.

Footnote 428:

_Ib._ Pl. xvi.

Footnote 429:

Stuart and Revett, _Antiquities of Athens_, iii. 3, p. 20; Schreiber, _Atlas_, xxv. 9.

Footnote 430:

Mommsen, _op cit._ p. 278 ff.

Footnote 431:

_I.G._ ii. 444-450.

Footnote 432:

Only four foreigners’ names appear, Mommsen, _op. cit._ p. 295, n. 1; F. Mie in _Ath. Mitth._ xxxiv. p. 1. Mie distinguishes the term in ἐκ πάντων, which occurs in athletic and equestrian events, and denotes competitions open to all comers, and the term διὰ πάντων, which occurs only in musical competitions, and appears to denote a final competition in which all the competitors in different musical events took part.