Drinking cup (kylix) depicting pentathletes

The exterior of this drinking cup shows scenes of youthful athletes working out under the watchful gazes of their trainers, probably preparing to compete in the pentathlon--a multipart event consisting of running, discus, long jumo, javelin, and wrestling components. Although no scenery is included, the setting is surely the palaestra, an athletic training ground that was often incorporated into a larger complex, the gymnasium, at the center of social and intellectual activity in ancient Greek cities. Men and boys frequented the palaestra for recreation, instruction, and preparation for competition and to maintain their bodies in a state of battle readiness.

On one side of the cup, a nude youth practicing the long jump appears in midflight, holding a pair of halteres (jumping weights); while modern scholars debate exactly how these were used, according to Aristotle, "a pentathlete using halteres jumps farther than one without them" (On the Movement of Animals 3.705a) To the right of the jumper, a trainer--only slightly older, judging by his lack of a beard, but clothed, a mark of his higher status--stands ready with a rod. At the left is another youth holding weights, preparing for his turn to jump. On the other side of the cup, not pictured here, a trainer looks upon a discus thrower in the midst of his backswing; a youth holding a discus also appears on the bottom of the interior.

Athletic scenes were a popular subject for the decoration of Greek vases. The male Athenian who used these vessels at symposia would have been intimately familiar with the palaestra, where many of them underwent the kind of athletic training depicted on the cup.