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Phayllus and his Record Jump

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

E. Norman Gardiner
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Extract

The marvellous jump recorded in this epigram has naturally given rise to much controversy. Intimately connected with it is the equally disputed question of the meaning of the terms σκάμμα, τὰ ἐσκαμμένα, and Βατήρ as applied to the long jump.

Most of the discussion on this point might have been avoided if scholars had considered the whole of the evidence and not confined their attention to one or two passages. The discussion has mostly turned upon the words of Pindar (Nem. v. 19, 20) μακρά μοι δὴ αὐτόθεεν ἅλμαθ´ ὑποσκάπτοι τις, and upon the scholiast's note on this passage. In J.H.S. vol. i. 213 Prof. Percy Gardner gave the following explanation: ‘After every leap a fork was drawn across to mark the length, so that he who leaps beyond all marks distances his rivals.’ In J.H.S. vol. ii. p. 218 Mr. Myres suggested that ‘the σκάμμα might be a line drawn for the jumper to jump at like the handkerchief or piece of paper sometimes used in the present day.’ He further suggested that the three lines seen on the B.M. vase B 48 represented the ἐσκαμμένα. Both these gentlemen have I believe since altered their views, but as statements bearing the authority of their names are always liable to be repeated without further investigation, the errors still persist.

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Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 24 , November 1904, pp. 70 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1904

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References

1 Anth. Pal. App. 297.

2 Apostolius, xvii. 62. Gregorius Cyp. iii. 29.

3 Cp. Libanius loc. cit.

4 =Suidas (2) who reads ἐξέβη instead of περιέστη

5 =Apostolius, xvii. 62, who reads πρῶτος for πρότερος and πρότερος for τῶν σκαμμἁτων Also = Eustathius, Od. viii. 1591Google Scholar, with verbal differences.

6 Cp. J.H.S. xxii. pp. 10 sq. where Mr. Bernard Cook clearly shows the relations of these paroemiographers.

7 In J.H.S. xxiii, p. 57, I misinterpreted this passage.

8 Phil., Gymn. 55Google Scholar.

9 Xen., Anab. iv. 8. 26Google Scholar.

10 Lucian, , Anacharsis, 2Google Scholar.

11 Schol. Theecrit. iv. 10; Festus, v. rutrum.

12 Theocrit. iv. 10.

13 Krause, , Gymnastik der Hell. p. 105Google Scholar, n. 2.

14 Op. cit. ix. 23.

15 Fedde, , Gymn. Programm. Breslau, 1888, p. 13Google Scholar; Fünfkampf der Sell. Leipzig, 1889; Wassmannsdorf, , Monatschrift, 1885, p. 270Google Scholar.

16 Frazer, , Pausanias, iv. p. 89Google Scholar.

17 Jüthner, , Ant. Turngeräthe, f. 10, A. 3, 1884, xvi.Google Scholar; Krause, op. cit. ix.B, 25 B; B. M., Vases, E 391Google Scholar.

18 Philologus, 1891, p. 478.

19 S. v. Σέλευκος

20 S. v. ὑπερακοντίζειν and passim.

21 iii. 147.

22 Quintus Smyrnaeus, iv. 466. τῶν δ᾿ ἄρ᾿ ὑπέρθορε πολλὸν ἐῦμμελίης ᾿Αγαπήνωρ σἡματα

23 Ant. Turngeräthe, pp. 40, 69.

24 Grenfell and Hunt, Oxyrhynchus Papyri, iii. No. 466.

25 Cp. Zannoni, , Scavi di Bologna, 77. 1Google Scholar.

26 Plut., Alexander, 34Google Scholar.

27 Pausanias, x. 9.

28 Anth. Pal. App. iii. 95.

29 I am indebted to Mr. Walter Headlam for the following information on this point. ‘With a decimal system derived from counting on the fingers πεμπάζειν the Greeks used πέντε and δέκα just as we use ‘half-a-dozeu’ or ‘a dozen’ to mean either a large or a small number. See Aristoph., Nub. 10Google Scholarἐν πέντε υισὑραις Ach. 710 (κατεπἁλαισεν ἀν Εὐἁθλους δέκα) Plut. 737 (the scholiast here quotes a proverb πρὶν εἰπεῖν πέντε λόγους); Antiphanes. 205, 4 (ii. 99 Kock: ὔψετ᾿ ἐκ τούτου πονηροὺς πέντε παῖδας γεγονότας); Lynceus Com. i. 6 (iii. 274 K.) ib. 8 13; Apollodor. Caryst. 5. 21 (iii. 282 K.); Poseidipp. Com. 15 (ἐν ἡμέραις δέκα) Herodas iii. 23, v. 60; Theocrit. iii. 10; Menander 363. 2 (πεντάκις τῆς ἡμέρας) 532, 9 πέντε μῆνας οὐ) Lucian ii. p. 714, 698, 554 (ὁ μὲν πέντε . . ., ὁ δὲ δέκα . . .) iii. p. 119; Anth. Pal. ix. 144, 207, 320, 395; xii. 181 etc. To these might be added many compounds such as πεντακυμία (Luc. i. 653), δεκάπαλαι (Aristoph., Eq. 1154)Google Scholar.

30 I have failed to find any clue for determining the date of the epigram on Phayllus. The phrase πέντἰ ἑπὶ πέντε πόδας occurs in an epigram of Lucillus, Anth. Pal. xi. 87, and its general character is very similar to that of many athletic epigrams bearing his name, which are undoubtedly late. Most of them are sarcastic, and all are marked by the same exaggeration.

31 Scheibel, , Scaliger's, Όλ. Ἀναγραφή p. 15Google Scholar, n. 89.