Kalos kagathos (Beautiful and Virtuous)
Education and Training
It is precisely this ideal which the numerous images of youths shown exercising reflect in ancient art.
It is precisely this ideal which the numerous images of youths shown exercising reflect in ancient art.
The vessel is attributed to the potter and painter Douris. This small vessel features a unique shape (approximating an aryballos) and a remarkable craftsmanship and painting, attributed to a master painter and potter, known by the name Douris. It was filled with scented oil which was used as body-ointment, applied by young athletes after training in the wrestling field (palaestra). The vase was found deposited as a grave gift in a youth’s burial.
The space of palaestra is denoted as a stoic building with the presence of an Ιonic column. On the walls, on both sides of the vase, equipment such as strigils, sponge and a pair of sandals, is hanging, denoting training areas.
The palestra is indicated by an Ionic column, while objects, used in the context of sports, together with sandals are hanging on the walls.
On the vase’s obverse, two young naked athletes, one holding a strigil, and the other an aryballos, run towards their bearded trainer, who stands on the right holding a rod with a curved leafy tip. The stockier athlete with the aryballos turns back his head as if addressing his fellow athlete.
The neck of the vase is decorated with a multi-faceted scene of athletes in the palaestra. Eight mature men wearing himatia and holding gnarled sticks are interspersed among the youths, presumably the pedodribai who supervised and guided the young men in their training.
Trainers and paidotribes stand out in the iconography of ancient art, as the himation they wear is in stark contrast with the nudity of the youths during their training.
The base’s three sides are decorated with relief scenes featuring athletes. The best-preserved scene is one of the narrow sides depicting six athletes standing in pairs. Some converse with each other and others remove sweat, dust, and oil from their bodies with the strigils after their participation in the contest.
The youth is frontally depicted standing. He rests his weight on the right leg, while the left one is relaxed slightly forward. In his right hand he holds a strigil with which he scrapes residues of sweat and dirt off the skin of his left forearm and upper arm, having completed his physical training. The head with the long locks of hair and the gentle smile turns slightly to the right.
Marble, funerary stele of a young athlete. A young man is standing, holding a strigil in his right hand and an aryballos or sphere in his left.
The main figure of the stele is a nude young athlete using his strigil in order to clean the left part of his body, under the gaze of his servant.
On both sides of the vase, scenes of young and mature bearded athletes are depicted practicing in the palaestra.
Curved base, globular body, short, collar neck, everted, double-stepped, banded rim. Vertical strap handle, slightly raised above the lip where it grows, ending in the upper part of the body. The point at which it joins the rim features plastic decoration of an astragalus motif.
The outer surface of the blade is decorated with a fish rendered by small dotted incisions, whereas the rest of the motifs are less distinct: incised band with pairs of tendrils on either side, triangular ornaments and clusters of undulating lines.
The strigil was an essential piece of equipment for athletes to remove the layer of sweat, dust, and oil from their bodies after exercise or during the games. They were used in sports since the beginning of the 6th c. BC until the late Roman era. They are, however, a common tool for hygiene, used by women as well.
