Excerpt from Light Gymnastics for Elementary Schools
At no time and in no country has so much attention been given to physical education as in ancient Greece.
Not only did the Greeks aim thereby to attain strength, health and vitality, but their desire also was to develop a mentally healthy, beautiful, well-proportioned people; the best citizen for the country in time of peace and the best, soldier in time of war. The high esteem in which bodily exercises were held in old Hellas is shown by the festivals which were held at regular intervals throughout the country, in which physical exercises were given the most prominent part. The best known of these festivals were bold near the city of Olympia, viz.: the Olympian games. The principal events consisted of running, jumping, throwing the discus, throwing the spear and wrestling. These five events constituted what is known as the Pentathlon. The order and prominence given each is not known, but it is believed that wrestling was the last. Great honors were bestowed upon the victorious youth; his name was proclaimed throughout the country and monuments were often erected to him in his native city. The excellent results obtained by the careful training of the Grecian youth maybe estimated by the record of phayllus, of croton, a Gracia colony, who executed a jump (probably a hop, step and jump) of 55 feet, at oue of the festivals, an olympiade, aud of another gymnast whose record was 52 feet, while the best hop, step and jump of modern times is 4? feet 7 inches, which was attained by a professional gymnast in England.
The Romans of old rank far behind the Grecians in physical training. They never placed so high an educational value upon gymnastics as the Greeks did. Of greatest importance to the Romans was the training of capable soldiers.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге Light Gymnastics for Elementary Schools (Classic Reprint)