Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/48

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THE SACRED GAMES OF GREECE.
23

thenes, Hercules, Eryx, Antæeus, Epeus, Euryalus, Entellus, Polydamus, Promachus and Glaucus.

Cyrene, famous in the time of Pindar for its athletes, appears to have still maintained its reputation to at least the time of Alexander the Great, for in the British Museum are to be seen six prize vases carried off from the games at Athens by natives of that district. These vases, found in the tombs of the winners, are made of clay, and are painted on one side with a representation of the contest in which they were won, and on the other side with a figure of Pallas Athenæ, with an inscription telling where they were gained, and in some cases adding the name of the magistrate of Athens, from which the exact year can be obtained.


VI.
THE SACRED GAMES OF GREECE.

It is not to be doubted that the Greek boxers attained to a high degree of skill in countering and parrying. No awkward or unskilled athletes were allowed to appear at the Olympian or other national games, where boxing was one of the five