_Greek Sculpture_, Fig. 138. The identification of this statue is uncertain. It has been suggested that the word “Polyzalos” on the basis is an adjective, and that the victory recorded is that of Arcesilas of Cyrene. This view has been assailed in _Ath. Mitth._ xxxiv. by A. D. Keramopoullos, who believes that the statue was vowed by Gelon and actually set up by Polyzalos.
_O._ i. 56, xiii. 10; _N._ i. 65; _I._ iii. 2.
_O._ vii. 89; cp. vi. 76, where χάρις is αἰδοία as the giver of αἴδως.
σωφροσύνη does not occur in Pindar; σώφρων only twice: _P._ iii. 63, of Cheiron; _I._ vii. 27, of the sons of Aeacus. For the meaning of αἰδώς cp. Gilbert Murray, _The Rise of the Greek Epic_, p. 88.
L. Dyer, “The Olympian Theatron” in _J.H.S._ xxviii. p. 265.
Paus. vi. 20, 14. _Vide infra_, Fig. 164.
These figures are taken from the lists given in Hyde’s _De Olympionicarum Statuis_.
CHAPTER VI PROFESSIONALISM AND SPECIALIZATION, 440-338 B.C.
Literature and art purified and refined athletics for a while, but at the same time by encouraging competition intensified these very evils which result from excessive competition, and when the Panhellenic movement had spent its force, and strife and faction once more resumed their sway in the Greek world, the decline of athletics was rapid. Nowhere is excess more dangerous than in athletics, and the charm of poetry and art must not blind us to that element of exaggeration which existed in the hero-worship of the athlete. The nemesis of excess in athletics is specialization, specialization begets professionalism, and professionalism is the death of all true sport.
We have seen how even before the time of Pindar the growth of competition had developed athletics beyond their legitimate sphere of exercise and recreation till they became an end in themselves, and how success in the great games demanded an undue expenditure of time and of money. During the fifth century specialization made rapid progress in the hands of professional trainers, whose business it was to train competitors for the great games.[144]
The earliest trainers were boxers and wrestlers, who probably confined themselves to giving instruction in these exercises. Such training was of course necessary and useful, but shortly after the Persian wars it was discovered that excellence in any particular event could be secured by special training and special diet, and the trainer began to take upon himself the whole direction of his pupil’s life. This specialized artificial training was good neither for the athlete nor for the nation.