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THE
NORTH FRIEZE :
ACR (slab 17).
An
“apobate”:
an athlete that jumps off and on a moving chariot.
The
Apobates’game was one of the most ancient; it has been instituted by
Erechtheus and conceived according to the model of Athena’s fight
against the giants; the conqueror won the oil, extracted from the sacred
olive-trees and preserved in panathenaic amphorae. For the Greeks, sport
had a religious function, the gymnastic competitions took place in the
shrines in honour of a god. |
