[Illustration: FIG. 135. ATHLETES ENGAGED IN THE PENTATHLON (BRITISH MUSEUM, B 134).]
From the theatre we naturally turn to the palaestra and gymnasium, which played so important a part in the public and private life of the Greeks, and, like the former, may be said to be vested with a religious significance, as exemplified in the Olympic and other great games. Hardly any class of subject is found so frequently and consistently on the vases. The series of Panathenaic amphorae alone supply instances of every form of athletic exercise in which the Greeks indulged.[1624] Many vases, especially the R.F. kylikes, represent groups of athletes in the palaestra engaged in various exercises, such as boxing, wrestling, running, and leaping[1625]; in other cases we have single groups of boxers[1626] or wrestlers,[1627] or of the παγκράτιον, a somewhat brutal combination of the two.[1628] A boxer is sometimes seen putting on his caestus.[1629] The πένταθλον, which played so important a part in the national games, is not infrequently found, though often only three or four out of the five contests appear.[1630] Here, again, we also find single figures of diskos-throwers[1631] or javelin-throwers,[1632] representations of the long-jump,[1633] and men marking the ground with a pick-axe or poles.[1634] An athlete is seen binding round his javelin the cord or ἀγκύλη by which it was thrown,[1635] and the pick-axe afore-mentioned also appears in such a way as to indicate its general use by athletes—viz. for digging up the ground over which jumps were made, by way of exercising the limbs.[1636] A variation of the javelin contest was one in which the competitors were mounted, and aimed at a shield set up as a target as they rode past.[1637] Other important contests are the foot-race[1638]; the horse-race, generally taken part in by boys (κέλητες)[1639]; the chariot-race[1640]; the torch-race (λαμπαδηδρομία)[1641]; and the race of armed warriors (ὁπλιτοδρομία).[1642] In the latter contest various types may be distinguished: the arming for the race[1643]; the start[1644]; the race itself, with runners turning at the end of the stadion[1645]; the finish[1646]; and a variation in which the runner carried his armour.[1647] On the earlier vases this race is run in full armour; on the later, only with helmets and shields. Frequently the victorious athlete, horseman, or hoplite is seen proclaimed as winner,[1648] and receiving his prize[1649]; also receiving a crown from Nike.[1650]