Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1877 — Old Greek Athletics. [ARTICLE]

Old Greek Athletics.

Thebe is no doubt that among the Greeks the pursuit of high muscular condition was early associated with that of health, and that hvgiene and physical training were soon discovered to be closely allied. Thus Herodicus, a trainer, who was also an invalid, was said to nave discovered from his own case the method of treating disease by careful diet and regimen, and to have tous contributed to the advancement of Greek medicine. Pausanias also mentions (vi. 3,9) the case of a certain Hysmon, an Elean, who, when a boy, had rheumatism in his muscles, and on this account practiced for the pentathlon that he might become a healthy and sound man. His training made him not only sound, but a celebrated victor. It would be very interesting to know in detail what rules the Greeks prescribed for this purpose. Pausanias tells us (vi. 7,9) that a certain Dromeus, who won tea victories in long races at various games (about 01. 74) was the first who thought of eating meat in his training, for that up to that time the diet of athletes had been cheese from wicker baskets. It must be remembered that meat diet was not common among the Greeks, who, like most Southern people, lived rather upon fish, fruit and vegetables, so that the meat dinners of Bceotia were censured as heavy and rather disgusting. However, the discovery of Dromeus was adopted by Greek athletes ever after, and we hear of their compulsory meals of large quantities of meat, and their consequent sleepiness and sluggishness in ordinary life, in such a way as to make us believe that the Greeks had missed the real secret of training, and actually thought that the more strong nutriment a man could absorb the stronger he would become. The quantity eaten by athletes is universally spoken*of as far exceeding the quantity eaten by ordinary men, not considering its heavier quality. Our suspl cion that, in consequence,,Greek athletic performances were not greater, if even equal, to our own, is, however, hard to verify, as we are without any information as to the time in wljich their running feats were performed. They had no watches, or nice measures of short divisions of time, and always ran races only to see who would win, not to see in how short a time a given distance could be done. Nevertheless, as the course was over soft sand, and as the vases picture them rushing along in spread-eagle fashion, with their arms like the sails of a windmill—in order to aid the motion of their bodies, as the Germans explain (after Philostratoe)—nay, as we even hear of their having started shouting, if we can believe such a thing, their tune performances in running must have been decidedly poor. In toe Olympic games, the running, which had originally been toe only competition, always came first. The short race was once up the course, and seems to have been about 125 yards. About the year 720 B. C. races of double the course, and long races of about 3,000 yards, were added; races in armor were a later addition, and came at the end of the sports. It is remarkable that among all these Varieties hurdle-races were unknown, though jumping was assigned a specialjilace, and thought very important. We have several remarkable anecdotes of endurance in runniag long journeys cited throughout Greek his-

tory, and even now the modern inhabitant* are remarkable for this quality. I have seen a young man koep np with a hone ridden at a good pace across a rough country for many miles, and have been told that the Greek postmen are quite wonderful in their speed and endurance. But this is compatible with very poor performances at prize meetings. There were short races for boys at Olympia of half the length. Eighteen years was beyond the limit of age for competing, aa a story in Pausanias implies, and a hoy who won at the age of twelve was thought wonderfully young. The same authority tells ur of a man who won the short race at lour successive meetings, thus keeping up his pace for sixteerf years—a remarkable case. There seems to have been no second prize in any of the historical games, a natural consequence of the abolition of material rewards. There was, of course, a good deal of chance in the course of the contest, and Pausanias evidently knew cases where the winner was not the best man. For example, the races were run in heats of four, and if there was an odd man over, the owner of the last lot drawn could sit down till the winners of the heats came together, and run against them without any previous fatigue. The limitation of each heat of tour competitors arose, I fancy, from their not wearing colors (or even clothes) arid so not being easily distinguishable. They were accordingly walked into the arena through an underground passage in the raised side of the stadium, and the name and country of each proclaimed in order by a herald. This practice is accurately copied in the present Olympic games held at Athens every four years.—Macmillan's Magazine.