The Bronze Statuettes of Athletic Spartan Girl are bronze figurines depicting a

Sparta Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...

n young woman wearing a short

tunic A tunic is a garment for the body, usually simple in style, reaching from the shoulders to a length somewhere between the hips and the knees. The name derives from the Latin ''tunica'', the basic garment worn by both men and women in Ancient Rome ...

in a presumably running pose. These statuettes are considered Spartan manufacture dating from the 6th century B.C., and they were used as decorative attachments to ritual vessels as votive dedications, such as a

cauldron A cauldron (or caldron) is a large pot ( kettle) for cooking or boiling over an open fire, with a lid and frequently with an arc-shaped hanger and/or integral handles or feet. There is a rich history of cauldron lore in religion, mythology, and ...

, suggested by the bronze rivet on their feet. The figures typically have their hair hung down, right arm slightly bent, left hand lifted the hem of the chiton skirt and expose part of the left thigh, likely to facilitate the movement, and their legs in a wide stride. The style of the statuettes is attributed to Laconia (the region where Sparta is located) workshops in Archaic Period. The typical characteristics of Laconian bronzes are slender bodies with unproportional muscular legs, arched and swelling thighs, immature chests in female figures, and long faces with strongly marked facial features. Laconia bronzes were widely traded, which helps to explain why some of those Laconia manufacture were not discovered in the region. It may also suggest the possible presence of Laconian craftsmen at that site.

History

Female athletic costume in ancient Greece

The statuette in

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

is in a special kind of outfit: a short chiton affixed to the left shoulder leaving the right shoulder and breast bare. This is the type of athletic costume especially for the participant in Heraea Games, the earliest recorded women running competition held quadrennially in

Olympic stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games. An Olympic stadium is the site of the opening and closing ceremonies. Many, though not all, of these venues actually contain the words ''Olympic Stadium'' as ...

. Although women in Ancient Greece (except Sparta) were not encouraged to participate in athletic activities and were excluded from the

Olympic games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

, they could participate in the foot race at the Heraea, which was an athletic event for females of all ages. Thus, this particular piece depicts a participant in the Heraea. One speculation proposed that the costume is adapted from a light garment worn by men in hot weather or while performing hard labor. The piece from the

National Archaeological Museum, Athens The National Archaeological Museum ( el, Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο) in Athens houses some of the most important artifacts from a variety of archaeological locations around Greece from prehistory to late antiquity. It i ...

is wearing a different kind of dress. Unlike the costume for Heraea Game, the bodice of the chiton covers both shoulders and breasts. It may suggest that this running costume is for girls at local ritual festivals in Sparta that are documented in ancient literature. During the festival, some Spartan maidens ran a special race in honor of

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Roma ...

. This ritual celebrating the girls' rites of passage also involved dancing, singing and other athletic events. Sparta map

Athletic Spartan women

Women in Sparta led very different lives from their counterparts in the rest part of ancient Greece in terms of engagement in athletics. Spartan girls were offered a state-supervised educational system separated from the boys, including a physical training program. The aim of the program was to produce healthy mothers of healthy warriors. Spartan girls engaged in various athletic events including running and wrestling. They might even wrestle boys. Spartan girls were said to wear very little when they did sports. Wearing short

s exposing half of their thighs, Spartan females were called "thigh flashers" according to some accounts in ancient Greece. There were complaints that they left home "with bare thighs and loosened tunics" on their way to run and wrestle. Serving as supplements to those ancient literary sources, roughly forty bronze statuettes dating from the Archaic period are found showing young Spartan women dancing or running (including the two discussed ahead). There are even pieces depicting Spartan females playing sports in nudity, just as the Spartan males.

References

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History

Female athletic costume in ancient Greece

Athletic Spartan women

References

Further reading