Title: Greek athletic sports and festivals Year: 1910 (1910s) Authors: Gardiner, E. Norman (Edward Norman), 1864-1930 Subjects: Athletics Sports Olympics Fasts and feasts Publisher: London : Macmillan and Co. Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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Text Appearing Before Image: danother in the very act of turning (Fig. 55). Their attitudeseems to show that the turn took place round a pillar, andthat the runners had not merely to toe the line. The most1 B.M. Vases, E. 22 ; Gerh. A. V. 258, 1. ^ rpj^^j^ ^i 537 U 290 GREEK ATHLETIC SPORTS AND FESTIVALS CHAP. complete picture of the race is represented on a red-figuredkylix in Berlin (Fig. 56). On one side we see a group ofthree. To the right a runner is in the position of the start;to the left another is almost in the act of swinging round thepost at the turn. Both these runners move to the left; thecentral runner, who is already starting back, moves to the right.On the other side we see three runners in full race, one ofwhom is guilty of the fatal mistake of looking round. Is heprotesting against his fellow-runner for some unfairness 1 Finally, on a red-figured vase in the British Museum, we seethe finish of the race (Fig. 57). A bearded runner who haspassed the winning post looks back in triumph on his rival,

Text Appearing After Image: i^pwVi Fig. 58.—Panathenaic amphora, British Museum, B. 608.Archonship of Pythodelus, 336 b.c. who, as he reaches the goal, seems to have thrown down hisshield in disgust. The winner holds in his hand his helmet,which he has just taken off. This gesture, which occurs on anumber of vases, seems to be symbolical of victory. Whatcould be more natural at the finish of a 400 yards race overthe hot sand and beneath the scorching sun of Olympia thanto take off the heavy, cumbrous helmet ? The action remindsone, too, of a cricketer who after a fine innings takes off hiscap as he returns to the pavilion. Of the style of the runnerslittle need be said; it resembles the style of the stade runnerin the swinging of the arm, and for obvious reasons of symmetrythe vase painter always makes the right arm work with theright leg, the left arm, which holds the shield, being generallystationary. The type of runner represented on Panathenaic xiii THE FOOT-RACE—RACE.IN ARMOUR 291 vases is, as we should

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