We have lastly to speak of the swollen ear, which was an attribute of victor statues, both primary and secondary, since it characterized victors as such, and also early differentiated victors in various contests. Swollen ears may have played a role as a characteristic attribute of pugilists in early times.[1244] We found them on the Rayet head in the Jacobsen collection (Fig. 22), which belongs to the last quarter of the sixth century B. C. and comes from the funerary statue of an athlete, probably a boxer. In course of time, however, they came to characterize pancratiasts, wrestlers,[1245] and athletes in general. The assumption, then, that heads with swollen ears come from statues of boxers,[1246] and that the boxer was known throughout Greek history as the “man with the crushed ear” is erroneous.[1247] The earliest literary reference to the bruised ear is in Plato.[1248] The philosopher used the term slightingly of those who imitated Spartan customs, especially Spartan boxing. The Lacedæmonians never boxed scientifically, but fought with bare fists and without rules. Literary evidence, furthermore, shows that bruised ears did not play the part in boxing matches which other bruised features of the face did—the eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, and chin. Vase-paintings sustain this evidence, for we often see bloody noses and cuts on the cheeks and chin, but no crushed ears.[1249] In short, the crushed ear was merely a professional characteristic, a realistic detail, common to athletes of various sorts, and, as we shall see, to warriors, gods, and heroes. To quote Homolle: “_La bouffissure des oreilles ellemême n’est pas un trait personnel, mais un caractère professionnel; elle ne désigne pas Agias, mais en général le lutteur. Cette déformation peut atteindre même un dieu, s’il a pratiqué les exercices gymnastiques et passé sa vie dans les luttes_”.[1250] It is found constantly on athletic types of heads in sculpture, whether these represent gods or mortals. A few examples will make this clear. The following heads of athletes show the swollen ears: the bronze portrait head of a boxer or pancratiast from Olympia, dating from the end of the fourth century B. C. or the beginning of the third (Fig. 61 A and B);[1251] the marble head from the statue of the boxer Philandridas set up among the victor statues at Olympia, the work of Lysippos (Frontispiece and Fig. 69);[1252] the head of the statue of the pancratiast Agias at Delphi (Pl. 28 and Fig. 68) ;[1253] that of the _Seated Boxer_ in the Museo delle Terme in Rome (Pl. 16 and Fig. 27);[1254] that of the _Apoxyomenos_ of the Uffizi in Florence (Pl. 12);[1255] the bronze head from an athlete statue found at Tarsos and now in Constantinople, an Attic work of the end of the fifth century B. C.;[1256] the beautiful bronze head of a boxer in the Glyptothek (Pl. 3);[1257] the head of the so-called _Apollo-on-the-Omphalos_ in Athens (Pl. 7B);[1258] the athlete head from Perinthos (Fig. 33);[1259] the bronze copy of the head of the _Doryphoros_, found in Herculaneum and now in Naples, by the Attic artist Apollonios (Fig. 47);[1260] the Ince-Blundell head in England, to be discussed; four heads in Copenhagen;[1261] the remarkably beautiful bust of an athlete in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (Pl. 20), whose rounded skull, oval face, projecting lower forehead, and dreamy, half-closed eyes place it in the fourth century B. C., a work influenced by the art of Praxiteles.[1262]