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An Olympic Epigram: The Athletic Feats of Phaÿllos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

H. A. Harris
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Extract

The natural desire to know how the performance of Greek athletes compared with those of today has caused a great deal of attention to be paid to one of the very few pieces of evidence we possess, the anonymous epigram which speaks of a long jump of 55 feet and a discus throw of 95 feet:

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , March 1960 , pp. 3 - 8
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1960

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References

page 5 note 1 This supports the statement of the scholiast on Aristophanes that there was a second athlete named Phaÿllos in addition to the Krotonian. The point is not important for our purpose.

page 6 note 1 Gardiner's contention, ‘πάλιν is not the natural word for “a second time”, it rather means “back”’, is an extraordinary piece of special pleading, as a glance at L. & S. will show.

page 7 note 1 If anyone thinks that this is an impossible ambiguity in athletic jargon, let him consider for a moment the meanings of the word ‘wicket’ in the following phrases: a sticky wicket; hit wicket; to throw away one's wicket; to keep wicket; to win by one wicket; caught at mid-wicket; caught by mid-wicket. In spite of this lexicographer's nightmare we manage to discuss cricket without much misunderstanding.