Modern Olympics
owes little to Delphi.
Where is pankration
or charioteers?
One game we have from
sources far older:
pommel-horse vaulting
comes to us from Crete.
In frescoes at Knossos
lithe figures turn handsprings
over the sweat-streaming
flanks of the bull
tossed into somersaults
head-down and one-handed
poised, hanging high in
the grip of a god.
image courtesy of Wikimedia
Collection available! Knocking from Inside
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Bull-Dancers
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3 comments:
'hung high in the grip of a god', love that phrase and the way you took sports back to the earliest of times.
Interesting. I never made that connection between the bull jumpers and the gymnastics vaulters.
(Also, I don't follow gymnastics but is the vault just a women's event or do men do it too?)
Nice imagery.
~ Jas.
Absolutely beautiful. I've stood in awe in front of this fading frescoe. You capture the energy and immediacy beautifully, especially in the last two stanzas. Very nice.
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