Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

666 LAMPADEPHORIA. LAMPADEPHORIA.
an ordinary article of dress among the poorer another by a chain of runners, each of whom
classes. (Becker, Gallus, vol. ii. p. 99.) formed a successive link. The first, after running
5. Nonius defines it to be " vestimentum a certain distance, handed it to the second, the
militare cluod supra omnia vestimenta sumitur," second in like manner to the third, and so on, till
but quotes no authority except Virg. Aen. iv. it reached the point proposed. Hence the game is
262. [W. R.] used by Herodotus (viii. 98) as a comparison
LAGE'NA. [VINUM.] whereby to illustrate the Persian &y'yapYove, by
LAMPADA'RCHIA. [LAMPADEPHORIA.] Plato (Leg. p. 776, b.) as a living image of suc,
LAMPADEPHO'RIA (Xnactral1popia), toirch- cessive generations of men, as also in the wellbear-ing (as Herodotus calls it), or XAae7ra6r-polfa, known line of Lucretius (ii. 77.)
torch-r-ace (as some lexicographers), also Xamcr~adi;xOes &yci, and often simply Xanurcs, was a " Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt."
game common no doubt throughout Greece; for (Compare also Auctor, ad Herenn. iv. 46.) And
though all we know concerning it belongs to it is said that the art consisted in the several runAthens, yet we hear of it at Corinth, Pergamus, ners carrying the torch unextinguished through
and Zerinthus (Bdckh, Publ Econ. of At/hens, p. their respective distances, those who let it go out
463, 2nd ed.; MUller, Minerv. Polias, p. 5); and losing all share of honour. Now, if this were all,
a coin in Mionnet, with a Xaunrds on it, which is such explanation might content us. But, secondly,
copied below, bears the legend'AiupLroXirLT'. we are plainly told that it was an &ycv,, the runAt Athens we know of five celebrations of this ners are said a&lcXXao-Oan (Plat. Rep. 1. c.); some are
game: one to Prometheus at the Prometheia said to have won (zucat' Aau7rdis, Andoc. in Alcib.
(Schol. ad AAristoph. Ran. 13]; Ister. ap. Hlarpocr. ad fin.; compare Biickh, Inse. No. 243, 244); the
s. v.); a second to Athena at the Panathenaea* Schol. on Aristoph. Ran. (I. c.) talks of ross
(Herod. vi. 105, and /1. cc.); a third to Hephaestos r''dcrovs TrpExoVras, which shows that it must have
at the Hephaesteiat (Herod. viii. 9, and 11. cc.); a been a race between a number of persons; the
fourth to Pan (Herod. v. 105); a fifth to the Thra- Schol. on the same play (v. 133) speaks of aheyaL
cian Artemis or Bendis. (Plat. de Rep. p. 328, a.)'robs 6potE'as, Tobs'rpiXovTas, which shows that a
The three former are of unknown antiquity; the number must have started at once.
fourth was introduced soon after the battle of Ma- This second account implies competition. But
rathon; the last in the time of Socrates. in a chain of runners, each of whom handed the
The race was usually run on foot, horses being torch to the next man successively, where could the
first used in the time of Socrates (Plat. I. c.); competition be? One runner might be said to
sometimes also at night. (Interp. vetus ad Luecret. lose - he who let the torch out; but who could be
ii. 77. ap. Wakef.) The preparation for it was a said to win?
principal branch of the'yvvcarorapxia, so much so We offer the following hypothesis in answer to
indeed in later times, that XaureraapXia seems to this question. Suppose that there were several
have been pretty much equivalent to the yvjuvar- chains of runners, each of which had to carry the
apXia. (Aristot. Pol. v. 8. 20.) The gymnasiarch torch the given distance. Then both conditions
had to provide the Xaecirds, which was a candle- would be fulfilled. The torch would be handed
stick with a kind of shield set at the bottom of along each chain, - which would answer to the
the socket, so as to shelter the flame of the candle; first condition of successive delivery. That chain
as is seen in the following woodcut, taken from a in which it travelled most quickly and soonest
coin in Mionnet (pl. 49. reached its destination would be the winner, —
6.) He had also to pro- which would answer to the second condition, it
vide for the training of the being a race between competitors.
runners, which was of no In confirmation of this hypothesis we observe
slight consequence, for the Z as follows: -The inscription in Bbickh, No. 245,
race was evidently a se- consists of the following lines: -
vere one (compare Aris- X Aevrc3a veicioas aeLVv Pdp/~ols'rTlv a' aveOlca
toph. Vesp. 1203, Ran. l I ErX 77'es EiUXOUS AOOS.
1085), with other expenses, which oii the whole This Eutychides was no doubt the gymnasiarch
were very heavy, so that who won with the Epfos he had trained, just as
Isaeus (de Philoct. lIscered. p. 62. 20) classes Andocides (I. c.) talks of his eevrscm1rcai Xa/ulrd3
this office with the Xopw'ela and'rpnlpapXta, and as gymnasiarch; so too Inscr. No. 250 records a
reckons that it had cost him 12 minae. The dis- like victory of the tribe Cecropis.* Now we know
charge of this office was called yvl2vaerapXE7v that the gymnasiarchs were chosen one from each
XaaycFrrd (Isaeus, 1. c.), or E'V eras Xacmrdoi yvchva- tribe. If theneach furnished a chain of Xay7rarqp6olapXELartOe (Xen. de Vectig. iv. 52). The victo- pot,there would havebeen ten (in latertimes twelve)
rious gymnasiarch presented his Xaycras as a votive chains of runners. Perhaps, however, the gymoffering (&ed0eci a, Bbckh, Isscr. No. 243, 250). nasiarchs were not all called on to perform this serAs to the manner of the Xalnra87sjpopia, there vice, but each once only in the year, which would
are some things difficult to understand. The case allow us for each of the three greater celebrations
stands thus. We have two accounts, which seem
contradictory. -First, it is represented as a course, * No. 244 gives a list of oi vznLscaares'rvV:n which a XaeA7ras was carried from one point to Xaysrdaa, the woinners in the torch-race, fourteen in
number. Who were these? If the several links
* Probably the greater Panathenaea. (B6ckh, of the winning chain, it is rather against analogy
ubi supr.) that they should be named. No one ever heard
~ The ceremony at the Apaturia was different, the names of a chorus; yet they can hardly be
[APArURIuL.] fourteen winning gymnasiarchs.