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Chapter 17 § 150. Casting the javelin.
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A Day in Old Athens, by William Stearns Davis (1910) Professor of Ancient History at the University of Minnesota |
Chapter XVII. The Afternoon at the Gymnasia.
150. Casting the javelin.--The range of the quoit hurlers in turn seems very great, but we cannot delay to await the issue. Still elsewhere in the Academy they are hurling the javelin. Here is a real martial exercise, and patriotism as well as natural athletic spirit urges young men to excel. the long light lances are being whirled at a distant target with remarkable accuracy; and well they may, for every contestant has the vision of some hour when he may stand on the poop of a trireme and hear the dread call, "All hands repel boarders," or need all his darts to break up the rush of a pursuing band of hoplites.
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