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All
our Yesterdays...
GREEK
CHOOSES JUGGLING AS 'FIRST OF ALL EXERCISES'
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By
Arthur Watson, from "The Reliquary &
Illustrated Archaeologist," January 1907.
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A
large mass of material relating to games with balls, as played
by the
Greeks and Romans, was put together by Mercurialis, but his
chapters, De Sphoeristica. De Pi/oe ludo secundum Latinos. and
De Ludorum Pi/oe Effectibus do not contribute much to
the knowledge of what may specifically be termed juggling.
He
furnishes, however, an illustration taken from a Byzantine
coin of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus in which three players are
handling six balls, and where the
number of balls exceeds the number of players there is a
performance of the nature of juggling. It is probably the game
of trigon which is represented. A similar scene was depicted
on the walls of the Thermae of Titus.
Mercurialis
sets forth the advantage of ball games, especially those with
the small ball, which, he says, renders men quick in movement.
It was not, however, a suitable exercise for those with
defective sight or weak digestion, and, in illustration of
this statement, he quotes the following lines from Horace's
fifth satire of the first book:
Lusum
it Maecenas, dormitum ega; Virgiliusque Namque pila lippis
damnosum, et ludere crudis.
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Ball
play, we may assume, was not practised merely as an amusement,
but also as a means of keeping the body in health.
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Galen,
who lived in the second century, wrote a short treatise in
which he urges the claims of playing with the small ball as
the first of all exercises.
In
the first place the necessary apparatus is easy to provide.
Hunting requires no small expenditure, and can only be pursued
by those who have leisure; whereas ballplay is open to the
very poorest.
The
former needs nets, arms, horses and dogs, the latter only a
ball, and that a small
one, and it may be practiced by those who have great demands
on their time. It has the further advantage of being varied,
the movements being now rapid, now slow, and it calls into
play all parts of the body in turn, no part being exercised
for too long a time.
Skill
of eye is necessary, for the player will fail if he does not
carefully foresee whither the ball is tending. By wrestling
men become so heavy that they can scarcely breathe, and they
become neither fit for war nor for important business. On the
other hand, running is excessive in the opposite direction,
for by practicsing that exercise men become thin, and it does
not contribute to strength.
Victory
is not given to those who can run away, but to those who can
last out in a hand-to-hand fight. Running, too, does not bring
into play the various parts of the body equally, but while
some parts are over-wearied others remain idle. The right
exercise is one in which no part is exerted beyond what is
moderate.
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Play
with the small ball is suitable for young and old; further, it
is free from danger, and does not lead to those injuries which
are incident to running, horse riding or wrestling.
Galen
would probably not have approved of such games as cricket and
football, which might be include among the
"vehement" exercises. Although there is nothing to
show that he had in mind feats of juggling, yet what he says
would in large measure be applicable to it, for in juggling
exercise is not really to be excessive - skill of eye is
eminently called forth and
brings into mind a wide range of movements.
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Representations
of juggling in the Middle Ages may be found in
illuminated manuscripts in the British Museum. In the British
Museum manuscript Lansd. 420, f. 12b, an animal, possibly a
bear, is shown standing on its hind legs and juggling with
three knives, two being in the air and one on the left front
paw. Within quite recent times it may be noted that
performances have been given in London of a dog tumbler, cat
funambulist and sea lion as a juggler with one ball.
t
is not necessary, therefore, to assume that such medieval
representations are
quite without foundation, though, of course, the phenomenon of
a bear juggling with three knives would have to be seen to be
believed.
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