This highlight object from our exhibition Defining beauty: the body in ancient Greek art is an amphora or large storage jar which is over 2,500 years old. It depicts people taking part in some of the events that were part of the ancient pentathlon – a group of five athletic events that would have been part of ancient Games. While nudity was not the norm in war or daily life, men practised and performed athletics naked to demonstrate publicly their readiness for battle. Outward physical perfection was believed to reflect inner moral virtue, and victorious athletes gained near heroic status.
Competitors in three events – the long jump, javelin and discus – are shown on this amphoradancing, perhaps a victory celebration. The other events in the ancient pentathlon were running and wrestling. The figure on the left holds weights used by jumpers. The javelin throwers hold their javelins with the leather thongs used to make them spin in the air and ensure a steadier flight. An athlete’s winning performance could be commemorated in a statue or in the commissioning of a victory ode, by which eternal fame was ensured. Such statues, inscribed with the names of both the victor and the sculptor, were displayed in the sanctuary of the festival deity, like a vast open-air museum. They became exemplars for the body culture of future athletes, whose statues in turn set the standard for their successors.
Large storage jars like this one were filled with olive oil and given as prizes in the Panathenaic Games in Athens. Developed as a great festival around the middle of the 6th century BC, the games combined athletics competitions with religious ceremonies and musical events. It was the oil rather than the container that was valued, but the vessels were often kept as souvenirs. This side shows the goddess Athena, the city’s protector.
Defining beauty: the body in ancient Greek art is on from 26 March to 5 July 2015.
You can also find out more about the exhibition in the catalogue by Ian Jenkins.
Black-figured Panathenaic prize-amphora. Greek, made in Athens about 530–520 BC, attributed to the Euphiletos Painter, from Vulci, Italy.