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Throwing the Diskos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

E. Norman Gardiner
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Extract

‘Then the son of Peleus took an unwrought metal mass which anciently the mighty Eetion was wont to hurl.’ This σόλος αὐτοχόωνος, which was at once the weight to be thrown and the prize in the Homeric competition, was apparently a mass of pig iron just as it came from the furnace; probably, as Mr. J. L. Myres suggests to me, ‘the contents of one of the old open-hearth furnaces of the Mediterranean world, the natural unit quantity for the purveyor and buyer of the metal, the classical analogy to which is the mass of iron (μύδρος σιδήρεος) which the Phocaeans threw into the sea before their voyage westwards.

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Research Article
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The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 27 , November 1907, pp. 1 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1907

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References

1 Iliad xxiii. 826 ff.

2 Hdt. i. 165.

3 Apollonius Rhodius iii. 1366, 1372; iv. 657, 851; Nicander, , Ther. 905 Google Scholar; Nonnus, , Dionys. xxxvii. 667 Google Scholar; Quint. Smyrnaeus iv. 436.

4 Il. xxiii. 431, 523: cp. ii. 774; Od. iv. 626; viii. 129, 186; xvii. 168.

5 Inschr. von Olympia, 717; Jüthner, Antike Turngeräthe, p. 22 Google Scholar.

6 Chryssaphis, Bulletin du Comité dis Jeux Olympiques, 1906, p. 57 Google Scholar.

7 Var. Hist. xii. 22.

8 I.G. xiii. No. 499.

9 Aelian, op. cit. viii. 18; Paus. vi. 11; I1. v. 302; xii. 415. In the Odyssey the Cyclops and the Laestrygones hurl rocks at the ships of Odysseus, ix. 481, 537; x. 121.

10 Jüthner, op. cit. pp. 20, 22, collects and discusses the scholia.

11 C.I.G. i. 1541.

12 Lewy, , Semitische Fremdwörter, p. 145 Google Scholar; Bérard, , L'Odyssée et les Phéniciens, i. p. 334 Google Scholar.

13 Thus in the latest version by Mr. A. S. Way:

There in athlete-strife did they supple their limbs till the sweat of them dripped As rain, and the pebbles are flecked as With scarf-skin strigil-stripped To this day; and their quoits and wondrous armour are there, all stone.

To this day ; and their quoits and wondrous armour are there, all stone.

14 De Apollonii Argonauticarum rebus geographicis, p. 96.

15 Il. ii. 774=Od. iv. 626; xvii. 168.

16 Ther. 905.

17 Jüthner, op. cit. pp. 19 ff., collects and discusses the scholia at length.

18 Ammon. 40 δίσκος μὲν γάρ ἐστι λιθος τετρημένος ὤς φησι Τρύφων ἐν πέμπτῳ περὶ ῾Ελληνισμοῦ, σόλος ὁὲ τὸ χαλκοῦν ὁλοσφύριον Oayssey viii. 190 schol. BHQT. ὁ δίσκος λίθος ἧν. καὶ ᾿Ερατοσθένης ἐν ᾿Ολυμπιονἱκαις ἱστορεῖ τὸν μὲν σόλον λέγων σιδηροῦν ἤ ξύλινον ἤ χαλκοῦν τετρημένον κατὰ τὸ μέσον καὶ ἔχοντα καλώδιον έξημμένον, οὖ ἐχόμενοι βάλλουσιν οἱ ἀγωνζόμενοι

19 Krause, Gymnastik, p. 800 Google Scholar.

20 Kietz, Diskonwurf, p. 21 Google Scholar.

21 Od. viii. 186 ff.

22 Od. iv. 626, xvii. 168; Il. ii. 774.

23 Il. xxiii. 431.

24 Ol. x. 72 πέτρῳ ; Isthm. i. 23 λιθίνοις δίσκοις.

25 B.M., Vases, B. 134, 142, 271Google Scholar; Athens Nat Mus. 832; Munich 408; Berlin Vas. 1727.

26 Cambridge, , Fitzwilliam Museum, 70, 72Google Scholar; Kavvadias, , Γλυπτά τοῦ Ἐτνιχοῦ Μουσ. 93 Google Scholar; Salzmann Nécropole de Camiros, Pl. VIII.

27 Olympia iv. 179; Jüthner op. oit. p. 28.

28 Jahreshefte ii. p. 201, Pl I.

29 Jüthner op. cit. pp. 27, 28.

30 The figure on the B.M. diskos is described in the Catalogue as an athlete holding a measuring cord. The interpretation does not concern us at present: I hope to deal with it in another article.

31 For particulars of these two I am indebted to Dr. Zahn, from whom I received a diawing of No. 12.

32 B.M., Bronzes, 3207 Google Scholar.

33 Pausanias vi. 19, 3; i. 35, 3.

34 e.g. at the Panathenaea, Nemea, and Isthmia, παῖδες, ἀγένειοι, ἄνδρες. Elsewhere we have four or even five classes, C.I.G. 1590, 2214; I.G. ii. 444.

35 Heroic. p. 291.

36 Theb. vi. 675.

37 In the last Olympic games a dislcos of 2 kilos was used. The winner in the Greek style threw it 115 ft. 4 in., the winner in the free style 136 ft. The free style is possibly more effective, the modern Greek style certainly less so than that employed by the ancient. Greeks.

38 Lucian, Anach. 27 Google Scholar. Galen, de val. tuenda ii. 9–11 Google Scholar, iii. Homer, Statius loc. cit.

39 Jüthner op. cit. p. 29.

40 ib. p. 30. E.g. B.M. Vases E 78; vol. xxvi, of this journal, Pl. xiii.

41 Im. i. 24 (Benndorf and Schenkl). The earlier text of Kayser reads διακέχωσται for διακέχώρισται, ἤ δή καὶ μή, συναναπάλλεσθαι for συναναβάλλεσθαι and inserts ἐργάζεται after τἀ ἔμπροσθεν Benndorf is text is undoubtedly superior; but I regret the alteration of συναναπάλλεσθαι which has considerable MSS. authority, and, being the rarer word, is more likely to have been changed. The word is so wonderfully appropriate and lifelike.

42 His reference of διακεχώρισται to the two grooves on the starting slabs is quite-pointless.

43 B. C. H. 1899, P. 566, 1. 32.

44 In my criticism of the modern Greek style I rely on the photographs in Chryssaphia's article and on descriptions from eye-witnesses, especially Mr. G. S. Robertson.

45 Eustathius, ad Hom., Od. viii. 202 p. 1591, 42Google Scholar; Nem. vii. 70.

46 B.M. Vases B 574; Krause, Gymn. xiv. 49 Google Scholar; cp. J.H.S., xxiv. p. 186.

47 Jüthner op. cit. p. 32, Figs. 26, 27; Coll. Dutoit, Paris, 1879, 79; Girard, L'Éducation Athénienne, f. 23 Google Scholar; Pottier, Louvre 9, 73Google Scholar.

48 Lucian, Philopseud. 18 Google Scholar; Anachars. 27; Dialog. Deor. xiv. 2; Statius, Theb. vi. 679–712 Google Scholar.

49 Op. cit. p. 202.

50 Op. cit. p. 32.

51 Furtwängler, Antik. Gemmen xliv. 26, 27Google Scholar.

52 Op. cit. pp. 84, 85.

53 Gaz. Arch. 1888, p. 291.

54 Right foot in front, Gerh., A. V. 259, 260 (b.-f. vases)Google Scholar; Mus. Chius, ii. t. 196 (r.-f. kylix); B.M. Vasas E 6 (r.-f. kylix). Left foot in front. Arch. Zeit. 1878, 11, 1879, 4; Ann. d. I. 1846, 4. M.; Gerh., A. V. 39, 294Google Scholar; Ant. Bild. i. 4, 68; d'Hancarville i. 68; B.M. Vases B 142, 326, 361, 576, 691, E 288; Mus. Greg. lii. 1 a, 4, lviii. 1, lxx. 2 a, Bibliothèque Nationale, 354.

55 Cp. vases where I do not know the position of feet. Schöne, Mus. Bocchi 1 Google Scholar (a fragment of kylix), r-f. krater, Naples 3084, r-f. kylix, Munich, 803; r-f. hydria, Munich, 377; r-f. amphora, Hermitage, St. Petersburg 1669; r-f. fragment, Berlin 4041. This very incomplete list will give some idia. of the frequency of this type.

56 Mus. Chius ii. 195; Kietz op. cit. p. 75.

57 This movement of the left leg is part of the scheme prepared by Six, the only fault of which is the endeavour to include too many types in one series.

58 E.g. B.M. Vanes E 393, 395.

59 Reinach, Répertoire ii. 544, 3, 4, 5Google Scholar; Arch. Ans. 1904, p. 36, Fig. 8; Ann. d. I. 1879, p. 133, No. 5 (= Kietz, Fig. 2) ; B.M. Bronzes, 502; Munich Antiquarium, 128; Burlington F. A. Club Catalogue, 1903, Pl. I,. 38 a, b. A similar type is found on the coins of Abdera, Kietz, Fig. 4.

60 Reinach, op. cit. iii. 153, 6.

61 ib. iii. 153, 5 (according to Reinach, identical with ii. 544, 5, but this is apparently an error, or else the drawings are wrong, as the position of the legs is reversed); B.M. 504, 559.

62 Reinach, op. cit. ii. 544, 6, 7, 9; 545, 1, 2, 4; 814, 4.

63 Jüthner, op. cit., Fig. 44; J.H.S. vol. i. Pl. VIII.

64 So too has the diskobolos on a vase figured by Tischbein i. 54 (Krause xiii. 44), of which I can find no particulars. He has his right arm bent at the elbow, and the whole attitude is supple and vigorous.

65 Munich, 408; Furtwängler Reichhold, Pl. XLV.

66 Berlin Vas. 1727; Arch. Zeit. 1881, Pl. III.

67 Loc. cit. p. 202.

68 B.M. Bronzes 675; Murray, Greek Sculpture i. p. 274 Google Scholar. Perhaps the same moment is represented on the B.M. kylix E 96, where the right hand grasps the diskos as usual, while the left, instead of supporting it underneath, rests flat on the surface.

69 No. 7412, Chryssaphis op. cit., Fig. 2. Though the surface is much corroded, it is of fine and vigorous workmanship. It will be shortly published in the catalogue of the Athenian bronzes by the Ephor M. Stais, who has kindly sent me through Mr. Dawkins a photograph of it. On a B.M. gem, 1817, the diskobolos holds the diskos high above the head in both hands.

70 Gerh., A.V. 272 Google Scholar; B.M. Vases, E 256. Cp. relief on Athenian stele, Sybel, Weltgeschichte der Kunst, p. 107 Google Scholar; Murray, Greek Sculpture i. p. 138 Google Scholar.

71 R.-f. amphorae, Munich, 1, 9 = Kietz op. cit., Figs. 6, 7; Ἐψ. Ἐρχ. 1886, Pl. IV; B.M. Vases, E 96.

72 Gerh., A. V. 22 Google Scholar.

73 B.M. Vases, B 136.

74 V. supra pp. 14, 18.

75 Statins loc. cit.

76 Habich, G. in Jahrb. 1898, p. 57 Google Scholar. This view is refuted by A. Michaelis in the same vol. p. 175.

77 Pourtalès xiii. 3 = Reinach ii. 545, 3; Arch. Anz. 1904, p. 36, n. 7.

78 A very similar type occurs on the r.-f. kylix in Rome, , Mus. Greg. lxx. 2 Google Scholar, a.

79 J.H.S. xxiv. 191, Fig. 10.

80 R.-f. kylix in Louvre, figured by Pottier, Daris, Fig. 6; Gozzadini, di un ant. Necrop. viii. 1 Google Scholar; Mus. Greg. lii. 1, a; B.M. Vases, R. 576.

81 The position of the right foot may be due to a dislike of foreshortening.

82 E.g. Artemis of Ephesus, , B.M.G. Ionia xiii. 1, 2, 7, 8, 12Google Scholar; Artemis Leukoph at Magnesia, ib. xix. 4, 5, 67.

83 Gerh., A. V. 105 Google Scholar.

84 Philopseud. 18. Μῶν τὸν δισκεὑοντα, ἧν δ᾿ ἐγώ, φὴς τὸν ἐπικεκυφότα κατὰ τὸ σχῆμα τῆς ἀφέσεως, ἀπεστραμμένον εἰς τὴν δισκοφόρον, ἠρέμα ἀφέσεως, ἀπεστραμμένον εἰς τὴν δισκοφόρον, ἠρέμα ὀκλάζοντα τῷ ἑτέρῳ, ἐοικότα συναναστησομένῳ μετὰ τῆς βολῆς

85 Le Musée, Vol. iii, p. 178, Fig. 12.

86 Cp. Figs. 11, 12.

87 Op. cit. p. 32.

88 V. supra, p. 9.

89 Le Musée, Vol. iii, Fig. 32.

90 Masner, Mus. für Kunst und Industrie, Wien, 318 Google Scholar.

91 Arch. Zeit. 1881, Pl. ix.

92 Branteghem Coll. 223.

93 Furtwängler op. cit. xliv. 26, 27; lxvi. 8; B.M. Gems, 742.

94 ib. xliv. 25.

95 ib. xliv. 28 (=Krause xiii. c. 54 b), 30.