Athletics of To-Day 1929

CHAPTER XX THROWING THE DISCUS Discus throwing was a standard event at the Olympic Games of ancient Greece and formed part of the pentathlon. Apart from competitive sport, the ancients regarded discus throwing as among the best of their remedial exercises. Homer men– tions the sport repeatedly, and Ulysses appears to have been ~~world's record holder" in those days, according to the Odyssey. The use of the discus is fully described by Statius in Thebais. But what weight and size of missile the ancients used and the manner in which it was thrown are matters which cannot now be accurately determined. There are in the British Museum specimens of discoi found by excavators which lead one to believe than an average discus was some 8 or 9 inches in diameter and weighed between 4 lb. and 5 lb., in which case it was a very similar implement to that in use to-day, which has a diameter of 8i ins. and weighs 4 lb. 6.4 ozs. In the British Museum there is also a restored copy of Myron's Discobolus lNo. I, Plate 45), a statue of a discus thrower in the act of delivering the throw. Mr. N. E. Norman Gardiner, however, who went deeply into the matter, has suggested that the restorer adopted a wrong attitude for the figure. The reader may judge of the matter for himself, by comparing the pictures Nos. I and 2, Plate 47, and by perusing this chapter. My own humble opinion is that the statue has not been wrongly reconstructed, but that Myron's conception and the meaning of the pose of his discus thrower have been misinterpreted by modern generations. I am further of the opinion that MYJ:on meant to depict his man at the commencement of the turning 278