Halteres (ancient Greece)
- This article concerns an ancient sports object. For halteres as used in insect anatomy, see Halteres.
Halteres (Greek: ἁλτῆρες, [1] from "ἅλλομαι" - allomai, "leap, spring";[2] cf. "ἅλμα" - alma, "leaping"[3]) were a type of dumbbells used in Ancient Greece. In ancient Greek sports, halteres were used as lifting weights,[4][5] and also as weights in their version of the long jump,[6] which was probably a set of three jumps. Halteres were held in both hands to allow an athlete to jump a greater distance; they may have been dropped after the first or second jump. According to archaeological evidence, the athlete would swing the weights backwards and forwards just before take-off, thrust them forwards during take-off, and swing them backwards just before releasing them and landing. Halteres were made of stone or metal, and weighed between 2 and 9 kg (4 and 20 lb).
Writing in Nature, biophysicist Alberto E. Minetti of Manchester Metropolitan University calculates that halteres added about 17 cm (7 in) to a 3 m (10 ft) long jump.[7]
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Athlete holding halteres. Ancient Greek Attic black-figure lekythos, 525–500 BC, from Sicily. Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich.
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Young boy holding a discus at the palaestra. Near him, a pick to prepare the landing ground for the long jump and a pair of halteres used to maintain equilibrium during the jump. Interior of an Ancient Greek Attic red-figure kylix, 510–500 BC, Louvre Museum, Paris.
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Long jumper with halteres. red-figure kylix, ca. 510 BC. Ancient Agora Museum, Athens.
[edit] References
- ^ ἁλτῆρες, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
- ^ ἅλλομαι, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
- ^ ἅλμα, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library
- ^ Norman Gardiner, Athletics in the Ancient World, Dover, 2002, on Google books
- ^ Bill Pearl, Getting Stronger: Weight Training for Sports, Shelter, 2005, on Google books
- ^ Stephen G. Miller, Ancient Greek Athletics, Yale University Press, 2006, on Google books
- ^ Minetti, Alberto E (14 November 2002). Nature 420: 141–142. doi:10.1038/420141a.
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