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Weightlifting in Antiquity: Achievement and Training

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Nigel B. Crowther
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Extract

The late Professor H. A. Harris, who made many contributions to this journal, has added much to our knowledge of Greek and Roman athletics. Like Gardiner before him, he valued highly the opinions of modern athletes and was proud to be considered in their ranks; but it is difficult for a scholar (even when athlete) fully to understand all the intricate fields of sporting endeavour. Harris is so clearly right in his discussions of many fields of athletics that one is reluctant to take issue with his interpretations in a few areas, but he was unfortunately not fully versed in some of the ‘heavy’ events, as discus throwers have seen. In the case of weightlifting Harris discounts many of the ancient achievements without an adequate discussion of their feasibility. Since it has become almost fashionable for modern scholars not to take seriously these recorded feats, it is worth while to review them in the light of modern weightlifting—a comparison which has not been closely examined before—and to discuss the various lifts and training techniques of the ancients.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , October 1977 , pp. 111 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1977

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References

NOTES

1. Cf. Greek Athletes and Athletics (London, 1964), p. 89Google Scholar, where he states that the discus is thrown from the back of the hand, corrected in the preface to Sport in Greece and Rome (London, 1972). This error was not pointed out by reviewers, but by discus throwers.Google Scholar

2. Cf. Gardiner, E. N., JHS 27 (1907), 2.Google Scholar

3. Sport, pp. 142 ffGoogle Scholar. Readers of this chapter of Harris should think in terms of kilograms rather than pounds, which are incorrectly given.

4. Moretti, L., Iscrizioni agonistiche greche (Rome, 1953), pp. 4 ffGoogle Scholar. This is an example of the scholar's difficulties in the sporting world. Moretti commendably seeks a modern parallel for ancient feats, but lists only the press, snatch, clean and jerk (in which records have subsequently improved by over 50 per cent), but says nothing of the one-arm press or jerk, deadlift, or modern rock-lifting (see below). Cf. also Biliński, B., L'agonistica sportiva nella grecia antica (Rome, 1960), p. 40Google Scholar. Gardiner, however, loc. cit., and in Athletics of the Ancient World (Oxford, 1930), p. 54Google Scholar, does think the feat possible.

5. The deadlift is under the control of the International Powerlifting Federation, from whom verification may be obtained, but records may be consulted in Guinness Book of Records 24 (London, 1977), 335Google Scholar: e.g. Reinhoudt, D. (U.S.A.) 401·5 kg.Google Scholar

6. Cf. the discussion of Dittenberger, W., Purgold, K., ad Inscr. Ol.Google Scholar

7. JHS 27 (1907), 2.Google Scholar

8. Cf. Menke, F. G., The Encyclopedia of Sports 5 (London, 1975), p. 1083.Google Scholar

9. Harris, , Sport, pp. 143 ff.Google Scholar, discusses the side of the stone which appears to have a handle or unfinished cleat, but a handle is not necessary for the lift, since the palm of the hand could be used for lifting the weight from the shoulders. Two hands could of course be used to lift it to the shoulders. If it did have a handle, it would be a similar stone to those used today by the Basques, but a handle there is essential because of the time factor (see below).

10. Cf. Arlott, J., The Oxford Companion to Sports and Games (Oxford, 1975), p. 1098Google Scholar; the thirty minutes consisted of three periods of ten minutes.

11. Cf. Dittenberger, Purgold ad loc., Harris, , Sport, pp. 146–7.Google Scholar

12. Cf. also Inscr. Ol. 5. 719Google Scholar, the partial inscription on the fragment of a limestone ball, which may have been a similar stone.

13. It is reputed that on 24 Apr. 1960 a small (55 kg) American woman lifted one side of a motor vehicle weighing 1,632 kg to free her trapped son; cf. Guinness, 335.Google Scholar

14. Athenaeus, loc. cit., quoting Dorieus says that it was a four-year-old steer; cf. Phylarchus, , FHG 1. 335Google Scholar. This kind of exhibition was probably well known at the time; cf. Pausanias' story (from Lyceas) of Biton the Argive who lifted a bull and carried it to the temple of Zeus at Nemea (2. 19. 5). Pausanias also records that Milo carried his own statue into the Altis at Olympia (6. 14. 6).

15. Cf. Guinness, 335.Google Scholar

16. For another stone-lifting feat, cf. Ael. V.H. 8. 18Google Scholar. Stone-throwing in the literal sense was a feature of warfare in antiquity: cf. Diomedes in Horn. Il. 5. 302 ff.Google Scholar, Hector, in Il. 12. 445 ff.Google Scholar, Roman soldiers in Vegetius (of the fourth century A.d.) 2. 23 et al., but this hardly comes under the heading of weightlifting.

17. See Jerome's other passage cited below for lifts which were probably attempted with this kind of weight.

18. Sport, p. 149.Google Scholar

19. Vase illustrations suggest exercises with halteres which are not part of jumping, although these may be ‘warm-ups’ before jumping, cf. Gardiner, , Athletics, pl. 105, dated to about 500 B.c.Google Scholar

20. Cf. Epict. 3. 12. 9 , where the same term ὕπερον is also used, together with ὅλμος which is probably a stone weight and στέγη δερματίνη of uncertain meaning. Harris, , Sport, pp. 148 f., suggests that the weight was in the shape of a pestle, but this shape of weight would be of dubious value in training since it is unevenly balanced.Google Scholar

21. This is a more reasonable interpretation than Harris, 's conjecture of juggling (Sport, pp. 149 f.).Google Scholar

22. Gardiner, , Athletics, p. 153Google Scholar, suggests the exercise was for the legs, which would involve walking with weights. The size of weights which could be used in a lunging movement would be of little value in leg development.

23. Galen also describes an exercise in which one holds or walks with a weight (2.9.13).

24. Cf. Jüthner, J., Philostratos über Gymnastik (Leipzig–Berlin, 1909), p. 303Google Scholar. For the various halteres used, cf. also Jüthner, , Über antike Tumgeräthe (Vienna, 1896), pp. 3–13Google Scholar, and Die athletischen Leibesübungen der Griechen, ed. Brein, F., 2 i (Vienna, 1968), pp. 175 ffGoogle Scholar. (especially for vase illustrations), Gardiner, , JHS 24 (1904), 181 ff.Google Scholar, Athletics, pp. 145 ff.Google Scholar, Ebert, J., Zum Pentathlon der Antike (Berlin, 1963), passim.Google Scholar

25. Cf. Harris, , Greek Athletes, p. 26Google Scholar, on Philostratus' general lack of knowledge of sports.

26. We may note that balteres when not of stone were of lead (Luc. Lex. 5Google Scholar, Anach. 27Google Scholar, Etym. Magn. 71. 20Google Scholar, Sen. Ep. 56. 1Google Scholar, Quint. 11. 2. 42) , that exercises were performed in gymnasia (Luc. Lex. 5Google Scholar, Iambl. Vit. Pyth. 21, p. 97)Google Scholar, or baths (Sen. Ep. 56. 1Google Scholar, Juv. 6. 419 ff.) . For numerous other references, see Jüthner, , RE 72 (1912), 2284 ff.Google Scholar

27. Juvenal may be exaggerating when he describes the weight as gravis massa. Cf. also Mart. 7. 67. 5–6Google Scholar. For women and athletics in Rome, see Mähl, E., Gymnastik und Athletik im Denken der Römer (Amsterdam, 1974), pp. 54 ff.Google Scholar and pl. 7, a fourth-century mosaic from Sicily. However, the famous ‘bikini girls’ of this mosaic are sometimes said to be pantomime actresses. Cf. Harris, , Sport, pl. 44.Google Scholar