It is time to turn our attention to the places where athletes trained. The two buildings that served this purpose were the gymnasion and the palaistra, and they could be found in every city-state;some larger cities had several. Each had a distinct architectural form, but the two were so interconnected physically and functionally that even in antiquity one word, usually gymnasion, was often used for both buildings.
The distinction between the gymnasion and the palaistra was kept by Vitruvius, an architect and architectural historian of the Augustan period who wrote a kind of manual of building types. One section of his work was devoted to the palaistra and the gymnasion even though he was a Roman writing in Latin and it was not common to build palaistra! in Italy, as he acknowledges (On Architecture 5.11; A179). If we compare his idealized version to the plan of the actual palaistra at Olympia, however, we find a striking similarity (fig. 260).
Vitruvius begins his specifications for the ideal palaistra with a large central courtyard, open to the sky and surrounded by roofed colonnades. The ancient name of this area was self-descriptive: peristyle (surrounded by columns). Although he does not say so, we know that this area would have been filled with skammata, the pits where boxers, wrestlers, and pankratiasts practiced. Indeed, the word palaistra was derived from pale (wrestling), and the connection of the building with wrestling was always understood.
Next Vitruvius prescribes single colonnades on three sides, with a double colonnade on the north to protect the room behind from storms and sun. Behind the single colonnades he set exedrai (bays) with seats where classes would be held in philosophy, rhetoric, and other disciplines. One wall of the exedra would be open, and this opening usually would have columns to support a roof (fig. 261). There are many of
Fig. 260 Plan of the palaistra at Olympia. After A. Mallwitz, Olympia und seine Bauten (Munich, 1972), fig. 231.
These in the palaistra at Olympia, some with benches attached to the three solid walls (see fig. 260, rooms VI, VIII, XVIII) and some without (see rooms V, VII, XVII). These introduce us to the fundamental feature of the palaistra-gymnasion; it is a place where the mind as well as the body is exercised and trained.
In the middle of the north side of the courtyard, behind the double colonnade, Vitruvius recommends setting an especially large exedra with seats. This is the ephebeion, where the ephebes—the young men training to become citizens — receive their lessons about the heritage and traditions of their homeland. This corresponds to room XII at Olympia. To the right of the ephebeion Vitruvius wants three rooms; the korykeion (punching-bag room), the konisterion (dust or powder room), and (at the corner of the colonnade) the loutron (bath). A pool in room X at Olympia shows another point of agreement between that real palaistra and Vitruvius’s ideal, but there is only one other room at Olympia (XI) instead of the two that he recommends.
To the left of the ephebeion, Vitruvius places the daiothesion (room for storing oil). This room seems to have gained importance as the city provided oil on an increasingly regular basis for the young men who would become its new citizens. Funds, called aleimmata (anointing accounts), were set up and even endowed, and they were probably administered from the daiothesion. To the left of the elaiothesion is, in
Fig. 261 Reconstruction of an exedra; this example is the Ephebeion in the palaistra at Priene. After M, Schede, Die Ruinen von Priene (Berlin, 1934), p. 85, fig. 95.
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The Vitruvian account, a cluster of rooms that include a furnace and a hot bath. Here Vitruvius uses Latin words instead of transliterated Greek, thereby betraying the addition of a Roman installation at the northwest corner of his courtyard. These warm baths do not exist in the Greek palaistra at Olympia. It may be that room XIV was the konisterion, which is not located on the other side of the ephebeion, but the entrance of this room, directly from the northwestern entrance of the building, suggests that it probably served as an apodyterion.
Vitruvius does not mention the apodyterion (perhaps he reflects the Roman prejudice against nudity), but this undressing room is listed in other sources as a standard feature of the palaistra, and we can assume that one was located in every palaistra whether specifically mentioned or not. Room V in the palaistra at Olympia (fig. 262) has also been suggested as some kind of undressing room, a suggestion supported by its location between the two entrances at the southern corners of the building. Some palaistrai also had another room Vitruvius does not mention, a sphairiste-rion (ball room). The image of something resembling a handball court comes to mind, but we do not really know what the room was for (exercise or storage), and we do not know what architectural requirements were necessitated by its function. Room XIX in the palaistra at Olympia may be a sphairisterion, but there seems no way to identify it positively.
The picture of the palaistra that emerges from the text of Vitruvius and the physical remains at Olympia indicates that it was the ancient equivalent of the school-
Fig. 262 View from apodyterion of the palaistra at Olympia across the southeast corner of the court toward rooms VI-VIII (seefig. 260) (photo: author).
House, a place where body and mind were trained. This is why we sometimes hear of a palaistra existing independent of the gymnasion; the latter was more specifically, if not exclusively, for physical exercise. At the same time, the distinction between the words and the buildings were frequently blurred, and references to a “gymnasion” may actually mean a palaistra or a palaistra-gymnasion complex.
We should recognize, however, that the palaistra took different forms depending on its location. At Delphi, influenced at least in part by the rugged terrain, the palaistra has no large central courtyard (see fig. 186), but the builder placed great emphasis on the bath, whereas the bath at the Olympia palaistra is only subsidiary. The difference probably has to do with the relative lack of water at Olympia (although there was a bathing establishment just southwest of the palaistra) in contrast to the plentiful water supply at Delphi. Whatever the reason, the loutron in the Delphi palaistra was truly monumental (see fig. 184). A massive, well-built wall holds the terrace above, while a channel cut through the length of the wall brought water to a series of holes, from which it flowed into tubs mounted along the base of the wall. This is similar to the arrangement at Nemea (see fig. 194), although the circular pool has a different shape and larger capacity than the pool at Nemea; the Delphic pool has a diameter of 9.7 meters and a depth of 1.9 meters.
The holes along the wall that brought water to the tubs were masked by lions’ heads whose mouths provided ornamental spouts. We see such “shower heads” in vase paintings of the sixth and fifth centuries B. c. (fig. 263). It would therefore appear
Fig. 263 Two athletes shower beneath lion-head spouts in a fountainhouse, flanked by pairs of athletes oiling themselves. Black-figure hydria by the Antimenes Painter, ca. 520 B. c. Leiden, Rijksmuseum voor Oudheden, inv. no. pc 63.
That the fourth-century tubs at Delphi and Nemea were a relatively late development. Indeed, it is possible that the showering athletes of the vase paintings are using a fountainhouse intended for common use, not just for athletes, and that the loutron was a late-classical-period development in palaistra architecture.
V itruvius describes the ideal gymnasion as a building composed of three colonnades surrounding an open space; the fourth side is open. A double colonnade adjoins the back (north) wall of the palaistra, with two single colonnades a stadion (about 200 meters) in length perpendicular to the first on the other sides. The single colonnades are called xystoi, and they provide a covered track for running in bad weather. Outside, parallel to each xystos is an open-air track called the paradromis. The situation at Olympia once again strongly resembles the Vitruvian ideal. Set against the back wall of the palaistra is a single colonnade, longer than the back wall of the palaistra (fig. 264). At right angles to it is a gateway, which forms the main entrance to the gymnasion, and immediately next to (north of) it begins a xystos, which is, indeed, a stadion long, as was proven by test excavations at the northern end based on the Olympic stadium. There, some 150 meters north of the last excavated section of the xystos the end of the building was discovered. The remainder of the xystos has never been excavated, which is unfortunate since we know both that the official list of Olympic victors was kept there and that excavations in the xystos at Delphi in the 1980s uncovered plaster from the wall painted with lists of Pythian victors. The Olympian xystos differs from Vitruvius’s ideal in having a double colonnade (fig. 265). Perhaps more athletes used it than frequented an ordinary gymnasion. The xystos on the other side of the open space was washed away by the Kladeos River, although a few traces indicate that it did exist.
Although Vitruvius does not mention it (nor does any other written source), the large open space between the three colonnades must have been the practice area for javelin and diskos throwers. One xystos and its corresponding paradromis may have been for sprinters and the other for long-distance runners, and there must have been an area set aside for the jumpers. Thus the palaistra and the gymnasion provided exercise and training space for all the festival events.
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Fig. 264 Model of Olympia with the gymnasion and its xystos (X) extending out of the photo to the left at the base of the Hill of Kronos, with the palaistra (P) adjacent to its right (south) end (photo: © The British Museum, neg. inv. no. PS 254952}.
Vitruvius’s final words as he closes his chapter on the palaistra-gymnasion are significant: “Behind a xystos the stadium is to be planned so that large crowds can watch the athletes in comfort.” The significance of this will become clear when we move from the palaistra-gymnasion at festival centers like Olympia and Delphi to the ones in city sites, at least in the Hellenistic period. A prime example can be found in Delos, which was always important as the birthplace of Apollo, and particularly flourishing as a commercial center in the second and early first century b. c. The Delian palaistra has a central court with a variety of rooms opening off it on three sides. The most immediately recognizable is the northern exedra, which must be the ephebeion (fig. 266). A marble bench runs around its walls, and we can imagine young men sitting there learning, willy-nilly, about their civic responsibilities (see fig. 261). The gymnasion which is attached to the palaistra at Delos consists of a xystos or covered track, as we would expect, but the paradromis is actually slightly separated from it, at a lower level. The slope between the two was intended to accommodate spectators, who would come to watch competitions. In other words, the paradromis also served as a stadium.
The same architectural arrangement can be seen at other sites, including Priene (fig. 267), and from it we can understand Vitruvius’s final statement. At city sites, the practice track was also used for the competition stadium, conserving space and using facilities more efficiently. At festival centers, on the other hand, the stadium and the gymnasion are separate buildings because space is not as great a problem and the officials place more emphasis on pomp and ceremony than on the efficient use of facilities. Further, the significance of a victory at Olympia could never be approached by one at a city, and a separate stadium symbolizes that greater significance.
Fig. 265 Xystos ofgymnasion at Olympia with its double colonnade, trom the south. Late 4th-early 3rd century B. c. (photo: author).
The palaistra-gymnasion would be equipped with a variety of gear, and we could guess at the nature of some of this equipment. The names of the rooms given by Vitruvius indicate that oil and powder were stored there, as well as utensils for applying them. Punching bags were also present. We are especially fortunate, however, to have a list of the valuables in the building at Delos. In the second century b. c. annual inventories were made of the movable wealth of the city-state, and these inventories were made building by building, including the gymnasion (as the Delian palaistra-gymnasion was termed; ID 1417AI. H8-154; A 180). The list mentions only valuable objects (specifically items made of bronze), so it does not identify everything that was in the building, but it does give an idea of the furnishings. For example, a total of ninety-eight shields, scattered in various rooms, is given. These shields were used in the local chremctitic (money) games in the hoplitodromos, the hoplomachia, the pyrrhkhe, and the apobates. On the other hand, the list mentions only one helmet box, and it is described as “archaic with copper inlay, without inscription.” Probably the owners of the helmets, which were made to fit their own heads, took them home while the state provided the shields for the competitions.
There were also a number of torches in the building. Torches are associated with the torch races (lampadedromia), and the ones on the list are actually dedications by victors, indicating that the palaistra-gymnasion also functioned as a trophy room. Twelve different torches are listed along with the name of the victor who dedicated each, and many are described as “on the wall.” In these cases we can visualize a stone block embedded in the wall and jutting out from it on which sits the torch trophy (fig. 268). There were also “many dedicatory plaques” in the building at Delos that were probably victory trophies from competitions other than the lampadedromia.
More utilitarian, at least in some sense, were the three elevated tubs, the ten tubs on the floor, and a semicircular stool that are listed for the loutron of the palaistra-gymnasion. The custodian’s office contained two water jugs, two jars, an urn, and a basin for holy water. (The last resembled the one depicted in figure 20.) Elsewhere were two amphoras and two sundials. One of the latter was in the sphairistera, which was presumably a closed room and therefore not sunlit. Still, keeping time was important in the palaistra-gymnasion.
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I'ig. '06 Aerial view of the palaistra-gymnasion of Delos from the northeast. The ephebeion (E) opens left onto the courtyard of the palaistra, while the xystos (X) and the paradromis (P) of the gymnasion continue oil the photograph toward the lower right (photo: © H. R. Goette, Berlin).
Fig. 267 The palaistra-gymnasion at Priene with seats for spectators between the xystos and the paradromis-stadium. Drawing by author.
Statues and statuettes, all apparently of bronze, are also in the inventory. Six of these are not identified, although the names of the dedicators are frequently given, as is a brief description; “a totally nude male statue,” “a totally nude male statue bolding a staff,” “a female statue holding a drinking cup in her hands,” are typical examples. Perhaps the person making the inventory was unable to identify the figure portrayed. The statues that are identified are of divinities: three of Herakles, two of Eros (one of which is aping Herakles, holding a lionskin and a club), one of Apollo, and one of Pallas Athena. Each of these deities has a role to play in the typical palaistra-gymnasion and their presence is not surprising. Herakles is the hero-god associated with the heavy
Fig. 268 The wall support for a torch trophy.
The roughened surface marks the portion of the marble block that was embedded in the wall; the smoothed surface projected from it. This projection has a socket on top into which the torch trophy was set, and an inscription on the front recording the name of the c'ictor-dedicator and other information, such as the date of the victory. In this case a certain Antiochos won the “epitaphia” torch race in the annual Hermaia when Apolexides was archon (ca. 7 B. c.), and when Philios and Apollonides were the paidotribai and Demetrios was the assistant paidotribes. Athens, Epigraphical Museum, inv. no. 8626 (IG IP 2997) (photo: author).
Events of wrestling, boxing, and the pankration. Apollo supervised lessons in music, and Athena in letters, while Eros assisted in the sexual education of young men.
The Delian inventory lists forty-one stone herms in the custodian’s office, and this requires special comment. The herm in its best-known form was a semi-aniconic or quasi-anthropomorphic statue of the god Hermes (fig. 269): a square stone pillar surmounted by the bearded human head of the god. Small square stubs of stone projected at the sides to imply shoulders, and an erect phallus was attached to the front of the pillar somewhere near the middle. Herms can be found at entries throughout the ancient world, hut they were especially appropriate to the palaistra-gymnasion for Hermes was the god of speed, worshiped hy runners and pentathletes.
Several herms have been found at the palaistra-gymnasion at Delos (fig. 270). These may actually be some of the forty-one listed in the inventory, but they are not necessarily portrayals of Hermes. Many herms carried the heads of gymnasiarchoi, leaders of the gymnasion, whose portraits were sometimes set up by their grateful students (see, for example, fig. 278).
These are the key items of the Delian inventory, but there must have been hundreds of other pieces of equipment and furnishings in the palaistra-gymnasion that were not valuable enough to be listed in the annual inventories. Chairs, stools, writing tablets and styli, diskoi, and javelins were all surely available in the building, and there must also have been large pots into which the athletes dumped the mixture of dust and sweat (gloios) they scraped off their bodies.
Finally, a word about size. As we have seen, the gymnasion was a large area defined on two sides by xystoi or covered colonnades that were at least 200 meters long. The distance between them, to judge from the remains at Olympia, was at least too meters so they occupied some 20,000 square meters. The fourth side seems to have had no strict architectural limit. Large as this area seems, we know that in at least two cases the gymnasion was popularly considered to extend over an even greater area. Both gymnasia were in Athens: the Akademy at the northwest of the city, and
Fig. 270 The base and the shaft of a herni from Delos. Note the socket for the phallus and the various inscriptions, including the relief portrayal of a victory crown. Marble, 2d century B. c. Delos, palaistra-gymnasion (photo: author).
The Lykeion to the east. In both cases we should envision something like a college campus with areas of trees and grass surrounding buildings—the palaistra and the gymnasion in the narrow technical sense described above. The total area of these sprawling suburban schools is not known, but the Akademy has been estimated at about 180,000 square meters.
Both the Akademy and the Lykeion were training grounds where young athletes prepared for competition. But not only athletes studied in these palaistrai-gym-nasia — or at least it is hard to believe that certain young men were considered athletic (fig. 271). Rather, these were training grounds for every young man and for every aspect of the man. Successful athletes emerged from the playing fields of the Akademy and Lykeion, and successful poets, playwrights, politicians, and philosophers emerged as well. Here young legs and young minds were stretched and prepared for all life’s competitions. Here Plato and Aristotle and many before and after them engaged young men in the total human experience. We should always remember that Plato’s Akademy and Aristotle’s Lykeion —terms which came to represent types of philosophical schools—were first and last gymnasia and that there is no inherent reason to separate the activities of the mind from those of the body.
Fig. 269 Aberibboned athlete crowning a berm, which shows on its side the kerykeion (caduceus) of Hermes. Nike prepares to tie a ribbon on its head. Red-figure krater, ca. 430 B. c. Agrigento, Museo Archeologico, inv. no. Ri/S/a.
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Fig. 271 Young men in thegymiiasion. From left, a runner in the starting position, a fat boy holding an ankyle or a himas, a stool with piled-up clothes, a javelin thi'ower, and a diskos thrower. All, including the fat boy, wear crowns. The inscription reads. “Pheidippos painted it." Red-figure kylix by Pheidippos, ca. 510 B. c. London, The British Museum, inv. no. e 6 (gr 1846.5-12.2) (© The British Museum).
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