Modern Athletics 1868

4 MODERN ATHLETICS. any records ofthe "long jump," the "high jump," or the "hurdle jump." The ancients seem to have leapt with masses of metal {aXtripes, graves masses), something like our dumb bells, in both hands, though probably this was not the earlier practice. In the account of the Phasacian games (OdysseyVIII.), Amphialus is said to habveen far the first; but, very provokingly,it is not reported whether it was the "high jump," orwhether he reached 5ft. 9in., as Messrs. Little andBoupell, of Cambridge University, did at the champion meeting of the Amateur Athletic Club on March 23rd, 1866. The foot race.—There were diversities in th:is eitherthe simple foot race (Spo/xos)i,n which the performers wentin a straight run fromthe starting-post to_ the goal; or the double foot-race (biavXosSpofxos), in which the goal was rounded, and the starting-point was also the winning- post; or the raceof the heavy armed {rcovSttXitcov 8popos), in which the runnerswere in panoply. This last is some­ thing for ourvolunteers, in full marching order, to look forward to. In the Phaeacian games (Odyssey VIII.) the course seems to have been a straighotne, and the "blame­ less Clytoneus" wasthe victor, the rest were nowhere, the difference being represented as thaitn the speed ofmules against oxen in ploughinga furrow—an agricultural com­ parison not probablyappreciated at BeaufortHouse, but Avell understood by any heavy-land farmer, if horses be substituted for mules. The race in the funeralgames at the tomb ofPatroclus (Iliad 23) wasthe SiauXo?, and, as usual, Ajax'sluck was bad; he would have been the victor, but for the help whichthe goddess Athene somewhat un­ justly gaveOdysseus. The foot-racein thefilth book of the iEoeid, except sfoar asit is a mere copy of thegames in the twenty-third Iliadis, afterthemanner usualin Virgil's own days in the circus atRome; as the Ludus Trojce (revived and celebrated by Augustus) in the same book,was de­ scribed by Virgilunder the form ofan equestrian exercise, in which Ascanius and a certain number of selected Trojan boys exhibit theevolutions of a mock battle. The disc-throwing has no exact parallel in modern times, though putting the weight or throwing the hammer is ejusdem generis. This has beentermed by some among ourselves an "ungraceful and unmeaningeffortbut disc- throwing wasespecially laudedamong the ancients. It was practised in theheroic age. Whilst Achilles continuedstill