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TWELFTH CHAPTER.
The jump was also part of the Games. Three or four types of jumps. A jump without having anything in one's hands. Another, where one held something in one's hands, under the arms, or on the shoulders, or above the head, for support and propulsion. These heavy weights were called halteres. The description of this game is most extensively indicated by Mercurialis, who also provides an illustration of it. The jump on greased leather sacks filled with wine. Mercurialis provides a report and an illustration of this from Stephanonius.
§. I.
Another exercise and contest was the jump (Mercurialis, book 2, chapter 11), which Mercurialis describes as a shortened run, a broken run, he says. The action was called jumping, and it is distinguished from dancing, a jumping and hopping to the beat.
§. II.
That the jump also belonged to the Games is clearer than daylight from Pindarus (Pindarus), when he lists these five:
That is:
Jump, discus throw, javelin throw, the run and wrestling.
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Here he substitutes the wrestling with the boxing, because he distinguishes the javelin throw from the discus throw. Otherwise, the boxing is often placed first, and the throwing of the discus or javelin is omitted. This is what Homer does (Homer, Odyssey, 8, verse 103):
That is:
The boxing, the wrestling, and with it
The jumping game, and the run driven as fast as possible.
However, this is just by the way.
§. III.
Seneca distinguishes the jump into three types (Seneca, letter 15), and says: the jump, namely that which lifts the body up, or that which throws it into the distance, or (so to speak) the Salian, or (to say it even more disparagingly) the fuller's jump. That is: the jump, or that namely, which lifts the body up, or that which throws it into the distance, or (so to speak) the Salian, or (to say it even more disparagingly) the fuller's jump. The type that lifts the body is jumping straight up; the one that flings it away is jumping forward; the Salian is that frantic jump that the Salii, priests so called, made, which Seneca by way of contempt also calls that of the fuller, unless he distinguishes the Salian and the fuller's jump from each other, which is doubted among us. If that were the case, he would list four types of jumps.
§. IV.
Subsequently, the jump had this distinction, that some jumps (as anointed and naked, or half-naked as they were, about which more can be seen in Faber) (Faber, Agon, book 2, chapter 4) were performed without having anything in their hands: others again, so that they had some heavy weights, for support and propulsion,
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in their hands, also under the arms, also on the shoulders, and above the head: which were also called halteres. This Aristoteles partly explains, saying (Aristoteles, Problems, 8, §5):
That is: just as this is also a part of the pentathlon, the game with the halteres, or weights. And he who runs, and swings them with his hands. For he who has the halteres, jumps farther than he who does not have them, and he who runs faster, swings, than he who does not swing.
§. V.
However, the most clear description of this game appears to us from Mercurialis (Mercurialis, at the cited place), who speaks about it as follows: "What we however properly call the jump, on the authority of Antyllus, etcetera."
"That is: but what we properly call the jump, on the authority of Antyllus, we find to have been used in the exercise schools in two ways: on the one hand when the jumpers lift themselves up with empty hands: about which Aristotle writes (Aristotle, on the common locomotion of animals), that it is hard work to make a correct movement with the jump, and cites as proof those horses, which the riders make stand still for show, and do not allow to proceed, and which quickly tire and feel exhaustion from this movement; on the other hand, when they grasped some weights with their hands, so that they could thereby make a more powerful jump; which weights, although I know that they are called halteres by Aristoteles and Theophrastus, I will however show below that the halteres were another type of exercise.
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Meanwhile, I want to note the error of Conarius, who in his explanation of the second book of Galen, 'on the composition of medicines by place', ignorant of this matter, criticizes Budaeus, because he said 'that the competitors in the art of jumping have used halteres, or weights': for although I concede to him, what he says about the distinction between halteres and 'halkteres', yet Aristoteles in 'Problems', 5, 8 and Theophrastus in his 'book on fatigue' (which he denies) say that the pentathlon competitors and others jump better, if they have a stone or halteres in their hand, than when they swing with empty arms: the same that is also found to be established by Themiftius in his fourth discourse. Why perhaps also in Galenus, in his second book on the preservation of health, and in Artemidorus, not 'haltersin' and 'halkteresin' should be read, but 'halters' and 'halteria': since I have not been able to find, that in any other writer the word 'halkteres' has been used. But in what manner this art of jumping was performed by the athletes, as well as by others, I suspect it was this: namely that they sometimes jumped over flat places with consecutive jumps, and then they also had a line, from which they began the jump, called 'bateer', and a measure, called 'kanon', and then another finish line, the goal, to touch which was a great, but to exceed which was a very great praise, in all probability, which is also called 'skammata', or perhaps, as it stands in the old dictionary, 'eskammena', I think. Although I also know, that 'skamma' and 'skammata' have meant the demarcations and
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restrictions that were placed for the competitors, just as today ropes or wooden pieces are placed for players and fighters, which it is not allowed to touch, let alone to jump over, from which the saying comes, against those who cross the line (literally: jump over the demarcation) (Julius Pollux, Onomasticon, book 3, chapter 30, number 6). They now sometimes jumped from low to high, sometimes from high to low, of which the jump from low to high was the hardest: since only ascending is judged as heavier than descending by Aristoteles (Aristoteles) and Theophrastus (Theophrastus). I also find, that the jumpers not only had weights in their hands, in order that they could be better exercised, but also sometimes had heavier weights on their head, sometimes on their shoulders, sometimes at their feet, as can be seen in that old illustration in which the jumpers are very neatly depicted: which we have received as old and authentic from Ligorius. See the figure in Mercurialis p. 163.
§. VI.
Here we see someone, who has halteres, elongated, round pieces, thinner and easy to grasp in the middle, in his hands: another holds a heavier piece in both hands in front of him: yet another has a larger piece on his head, and supports it with both his hands: then there is one, who holds such a load under his arm: but we see one most heavily burdened; for he carries two heavy pieces of lead, on each shoulder, two heavy halteres in his fists, and two more heavy lead clogs weigh down his feet. Truly, if he could make high jumps, he must have been terribly strong.
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We then turn back to Mercurialis, who continues and speaks as follows: "Did these weights only serve to cause more exercise? I believe that those, who exercised for their health, had this goal. But for others, it served for a certain vain glory, namely because those, who, laden with heavier weights, jumped longer and higher, were rewarded with greater prizes and honors.
§. VIII.
Among the Ancients, there were also other types of jumps and jumping games in use, which were related to the Olympic jumping game, insofar as a jump is a jump; about which we will not now deal: we can only not overlook the jump on greased leather sacks, filled with wine, of which game and the circumstances thereof the aforementioned Mercurialis gives us this report: "there were also those, etcetera."
"There were also those who with their feet jumped on greased leather sacks, filled with wine: among which those were considered as winners, who could conduct themselves so skillfully, that they did not fall to the ground because of the slipperiness: and these carried away the leather sack with wine as a prize for victory. But he who fell to the ground on his backside, aroused a comical laugh among the spectators. This was now in ancient times especially observed in games dedicated to Bacchus, which were called 'askoliasmos', in which leather sacks, made of goat's hide, were trod on with jumps, in contempt for the goats, because they had damaged the vineyard. About this, Aristophanes speaks in Pluto: 'jump here
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in the open air on the leather sack'. Or let's rather arrange and present it in verse, then it gets this form:
Come, forth with new courage,
The hide trod with the foot.
And Eubulus at the interpreter of Aristophanes:
That is: laying the leather sack in the middle, then jump on it, but laugh bravely at him who falls to the ground. Of this also Virgil mentions in the Georgics, 2, verse 383:
'and happily between the cups
they jumped in the soft meadows on the greased sacks.'
That is:
While, already happy from the wine, already singing,
And in the soft meadow on slippery sacks they jumped.
But one must know, that what is written in Julius Pollux as 'jumping on a leather sack' was said both about these and about those who, with one foot lifted and the other on the ground, jumped among the Ancients. To this point Mercurialis, who has also shared an illustration by Petrus Stephanonius, to be found at his place on page 146.
He who meanwhile wishes to know more about the jump on the leather sacks, see what Francis Rous has noted very learnedly (Fr. Rous, Attic Antiquities, book 2, chapter 11).