Athletics in the Ancient World by E. Norman Gardiner

Author:E. Norman Gardiner [E. Norman Gardiner]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-01-11T16:00:00+00:00

The frescoes of the Tomba delle Bighe (Fig. 75) may be dated about 500 B. C. and might be the work of a Greek artist. At either end of the frieze of the back wall and once on each of the side walls the stand is represented. It is a platform supported by wooden posts, and over it we see draped a curtain or awning, like the vela of the Roman Amphitheatre. On the platform are seated the Etruscan nobles and their families, men and women, young and old, all appropriately dressed and eagerly watching the sports. On the ground, under the stand, sprawl the common people paying but little attention to the games. The most interesting scene of all is on the right wall where we see the preparation for the chariot-race and the parade of chariots before the grand stand. First come two horses led by their riders or grooms, then three youths preparing to harness the horses to a biga, then the actual parade, the horses of the first chariot just starting, the second moving somewhat more quickly, the third as it nears the stand at a brisk trot. On the back wall between the two stands are two boxing-matches, a wrestling group, a mounted horseman leading a second horse with a rider preparing to leap on it by means of a pole, other athletes apparently waiting their turn. On the left wall we see a pankration scene and the judge with uplifted whip preparing to punish some breach of the rules, an armed dancer, various diskos-throwers, and other draped figures, obvious imitations of scenes from the Greek palaestra so common on Greek vases, but here incongruous.

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