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Greek Javelin Throwing1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

H. A. Harris
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Extract

Field events are notoriously the Cinderellas of the athletic world, and this was as true in antiquity as in our own day. The Greeks practised three, long jump, discus, and javelin, and in their festivals did not accord them the status of separate events but grouped them, together with a foot race and wrestling, which were also solo events in their own right, in the pentathlon. This was first included in the Olympic programme in 708 b.c.; other festivals imitated Olympia, and, with the astonishing conservatism of the Greek athletic world, the pentathlon remained unchanged until the disappearance of the festivals a thousand years later.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , March 1963 , pp. 26 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1963

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References

page 26 note 2 I.G. ii2. 2311.

page 26 note 3 C.I.G. 2758.

page 27 note 1 The chief authorities are still Jüthner, J. (Antike TurngerätheGoogle Scholar and articles in Pauly-Wissowa and elsewhere) and Gardiner, E. N. (Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals (London, 1910)Google Scholar, Athletics of the Ancient World (Oxford, 1930)Google Scholar, and especially his article ‘Throwing the Javelin’ in J.H.S. xxvii (1907), 249–73).Google Scholar

page 27 note 2 Good reproduction in Blümel, C., Sport der Hellenen (Berlin, 1936), 83.Google Scholar

page 28 note 1 Pindar, Nem. vii. 70.Google Scholar

page 28 note 2 Another example in Greece & Rome, Second Series, vii. 1 (03 1960), Suppl. Pl. cc.Google Scholar

page 28 note 3 Good reproduction in Carità, R., Lo sport nell'arte (Bergamo, 1960), 22.Google Scholar

page 28 note 4 See my article in Class. Rev. N.S. xi (1961), 3–5.

page 29 note 1 xxxvii. 41.

page 30 note 1 Philop. 6.Google Scholar

page 30 note 2 xxiii. 1. 9.

page 30 note 3 J.H.S. xxvii (1907), 258.Google Scholar

page 31 note 1 I am indebted to Mr. K. W. Sharpe and Mr. J. P. W. Rees for help in these experiments and in taking the accompanying photographs.

page 34 note 1 Sources for the History of Greek Athletics (Cincinnati, 1955), 222.Google Scholar

page 35 note 1 Text and good discussion in Moretti, L., Iscrizioni Agonistiche Greche (Rome, 1953), pp. 82 ff.Google Scholar

page 35 note 2 xiv. 1. 23.

page 36 note 1 viii. 33.

page 36 note 2 Cyr. vi. 2. 32.Google Scholar

page 36 note 3 Curtius, E. and others, Die Ausgrabungen zu Olympia (Berlin, 1875–1881), iv, No. 1061, 1062.Google Scholar

page 36 note 4 On this last point I am much indebted for help to Mr. R. A. Higgins of the British Museum.