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Modern Sport Ethics
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CONTEMPORARY WORLD ISSUES

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND MEDICINE

Modern Sport Ethics

A REFERENCE HANDBOOK

Second Edition

Angela Lumpkin
Copyright © 2017 by ABC-CLIO, LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lumpkin, Angela, author.
Title: Modern sport ethics : a reference handbook / Angela
Lumpkin.
Description: Second Edition. | Santa Barbara, California :
ABC-CLIO An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, [2017] |
Series: Contemporary World Issues | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016034038 (print) | LCCN 2016046451
(ebook) | ISBN 9781440851155 (acid-free paper) |
ISBN 9781440851162 (Ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Sports—Moral and ethical aspects.
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Contents
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND MEDICINE

Preface and Acknowledgments, xvii

1 BACKGROUND AND HISTORY, 3

Introduction, 3
Brief Origin of Sport, 3
What Is Ethics?, 6
Ethical Theories, 7
Moral Reasoning, 10
Brief Historical Context for Amateur Sport and
Character Development, 13
Athletics in Educational Institutions, 15
Morals vs. Winning, 19
Has Winning in Sports Become Too Important?, 19
Gamesmanship and Violence, 22
Eligibility, 30
Elimination, 32
Cheating, 33
Gambling, 38

vii
viii Contents

Discriminatory Actions and Societal Factors, 40

Moral Callousness, 46
Synergy between Character Development and Sport, 47
Successful Programs That Help Develop Moral Values
and Character, 50
Resolving Ethical Dilemmas, 51
Conclusion, 52
References, 53

2 PROBLEMS, CONTROVERSIES, AND SOLUTIONS, 59

Introduction, 59
Controversies and Problems across All Levels
of Sport, 60
Youth Sport, 61
Problems and Controversies in Youth Sports, 62
Teaching Values in Youth Sports, 68
Interscholastic Sport, 69
Problems and Controversies in Interscholastic
Sport, 69
Teaching Values in Interscholastic Sport, 75
Intercollegiate Athletics, 75
Problems and Controversies in Intercollegiate
Sport, 76
Proposed Reforms and Teaching Values in
Intercollegiate Athletics, 91
Concluding Comments about Sport in
the United States, 93
 Contents ix

Performance-Enhancing Drugs, 94
Worldwide Perspective, 97
Amateurism in the Olympic Games, 98
Nationalism and Politics in the Olympic
Games, 101
Racism and Human Rights in the Olympic
Games, 105
Bidding Scandals in the Olympic Games, 112
Unethical Behavior among Officials in the Olympic
Games, 114
Use of Performance-Enhancing Drugs in the
Olympic Games, 117
Doping Scandals in International Cycling, 122
Gamesmanship and Cheating in International
Sports, 125
Gambling and Fixing Outcomes in International
Sports, 126
Codes of Ethics, 129
Examples of Sportsmanship in the Olympic
Games, 132
Concluding Comments about Worldwide Sport, 133
References, 134

3 PERSPECTIVES, 139
The Ethics of Parents Choosing an Early
Specialization vs. Early Sampling Pathway for
Their Children in U.S. Youth Sports,
Michael Sagas and Pete Paciorek, 139
The Ethics of Flopping, R. Scott Kretchmar, 145
x Contents

Assessing the Morality of NCAA Commercialism

through Utilitarian Moral Theory,
Robert C. Schneider, 148
Laremy Tunsil: Criminal? Rule-Breaker? or Morally
Righteous Guy? Ellen J. Staurowsky, 152
The College Sports Wasteland, Gerald Gurney and
Donna Lopiano, 157
Role of the President in Intercollegiate Fund-Raising,
Jody A. Brylinsky, 161
An Ethical Analysis of Distractions in Sport,
Danny Rosenberg, 165
Why Deflate-Gate Matters . . . Moral Controversy
in the Present World of Gaining Advantage,
Sharon Kay Stoll, 169
Lance Armstrong and the Tour de France,
A. J. Schneider, 172

4 PROFILES, 179
People, 179
Henry (Hank) Louis Aaron (February 5,
1934– ), 179
Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943–February 6,
1993), 180
Ernie Banks (January 31, 1931–January 23,
2015), 181
Margaret Ann (Peggy) Kirk Bell (October 28,
1921– ), 181
Lorenzo Pietro/Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra (May 12,
1925–September 22, 2015), 182
 Contents xi

William (Bill) Warren Bradley (July 28,

1943– ), 183
Walter Byers (March 13, 1922–May 26,
2015), 184
Ken Carter (February 13, 1959– ), 185
Roberto Clemente (August 18, 1934–December
31, 1972), 185
Anita Luceete DeFrantz (October 4, 1952– ), 186
Jean Driscoll (November 18, 1966– ), 187
Joe Dumars III (May 24, 1963– ), 188
Anthony (Tony) Kevin Dungy (October 6,
1955– ), 188
Fred Engh (August 13, 1935– ), 189
Henry Louis (Lou) Gehrig (June 19, 1903–June 2,
1941), 190
Grant Henry Hill (October 5, 1972– ), 191
Michael Terrence (Terry) Holland (April 2,
1942– ), 191
Robert (Bobby) Tyre Jones Jr. (March 17, 1902–
December 18, 1971), 192
Johann Olav Koss (October 29, 1968– ), 193
Michael (Mike) William Krzyzewski (February 13,
1947– ), 193
Richard Lapchick (July 16, 1945– ), 194
Dale Bryan Murphy (March 12, 1956– ), 195
Dikembe Mutombo (June 25, 1966– ), 196
James Naismith (November 6, 1861–November 28,
1939), 197
Alan Cedric Page (August 7, 1945– ), 197
xii Contents

Oscar Palmer Roberson (November 24,

1938– ), 198
Frank Robinson (August 31, 1935– ), 199
Jack (Jackie) Roosevelt Robinson (January 31,
1919–October 24, 1972), 200
Arthur (Art) Joseph Rooney Sr. (January 27, 1901–
August 25, 1988), 201
Wilma Glodean Rudolph (June 23, 1940–
November 12, 1994), 201
Bill Russell (February 12, 1934– ), 202
Dean Edwards Smith (February 28, 1931–February
7, 2015), 203
Dawn Michelle Staley (May 4, 1970– ), 204
Sharon Kay Stoll (December 16, 1946– ), 205
Charlene Vivian (Stoner) Stringer (March 16,
1948– ), 205
Jim Thompson (February 20, 1949– ), 206
LeRoy T. Walker (June 4, 1918–April 23,
2012), 206
Hazel Virginia (Hotchkiss) Wightman (December
20, 1886–December 5, 1974), 207
John Wooden (October 14, 1910–June 4,
2010), 208
Organizations, 209
United States Olympic Committee and the
National Governing Body for Each Olympic
Sport, 210
Non-Olympic Sports with National Governing
Bodies, 223
Single-Sport Organizations, 225
 Contents xiii

Multiple Sport Organizations, 230

Sport-Related Organizations, 236

5 DATA AND DOCUMENTS, 243

Youth Sport, 243

Table 5.1 Ethical Challenges Facing Youth Sports
Contrasted with the Ethical Rights of Youth
Sport Athletes, 244
Document 5.1 The Power of Positive, 246
Table 5.2 Examples of National Championships for
Young Athletes, 249
Interscholastic Sports, 250
Figure 5.1 Model for Increased Participation in
Sports, 251
Figure 5.2 Participation Numbers by Sex in
Interscholastic Sports, 253
Table 5.3 Estimated Probability of Competing in
Athletics beyond the High School Level, 254
Document 5.2 Arizona Sports Summit Accord, 255
Females in Sports, 258
Table 5.4 Significant Events Affecting the Exclusion
and Inclusion of Females in Sports, 259
Table 5.5 Basic Requirements of Title IX for
Intercollegiate Athletics, 263
Table 5.6 Application of Title IX to Intercollegiate
Athletics, 265
Table 5.7 Females in Intercollegiate Athletics in
NCAA Institutions, 267
Intercollegiate Athletics, 267
xiv Contents

Figure 5.3 Number of Men’s and Women’s Sport

Teams (Including Coed Teams) in the 10
Conferences in the NCAA FBS in the 2014
Reporting Year, 268
Figure 5.4 Number of Male and Female
Participants in the 10 Conferences in the NCAA
FBS in 2014, 269
Figure 5.5 Number of Athletes by Sex and
Governing Organizations in 2014, 269
Figure 5.6 Number of Athletes by Sex and
Divisional Level in 2014, 270
Figure 5.7 Comparison of Financial Support for
Male and Female Athletes in Intercollegiate
Athletics in 2014, 272
Figure 5.8 Average Football Stadium Capacities in
the 10 Conferences in the NCAA FBS, 272
Figure 5.9 Average Basketball Arena Capacities in
the 10 Conferences in the NCAA FBS, 273
Document 5.3 Quoted Excerpts from “A Call
to Action” from the Knight Commission on
Intercollegiate Athletics, 275
Race and Ethnicity, 280
Table 5.8 Examples in Several Sports of
Discrimination against and Effects on
African Americans, 280
Table 5.9 College Athletes in NCAA
Division I Institutions by Sex
and Ethnicity, 285
Figure 5.10 Percentage of Caucasian and African
American Football Coaches and Players in
NCAA Division I, 286
 Contents xv

Figure 5.11 Percentage of Caucasian and African

American Basketball Coaches and Players in
NCAA Division I, 287
Figure 5.12 Percentage of Players, Coaches,
Owners, and Top Management in Three
Professional Leagues, 287
Olympic Sports, 289
Table 5.10 Pros and Cons of Using Performance-
Enhancing Drugs in Sports, 290
Table 5.11 Sports for Males and Females in the
Olympic Games, 291
Table 5.12 Participation Numbers in the Summer
Olympic Games, 294
Table 5.13 Participation Numbers in the Winter
Olympic Games, 295
Conclusion, 297

6 RESOURCES, 301
Print Resources, 301
Ethical Issues in Sport for All, 301
Ethical Issues in Youth Sport, 309
Ethical Issues in Interscholastic Sport, 316
Ethical Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics, 320
Ethical Issues in International Sport, 328
Nonprint Resources, 334
Ethical Issues in Sport for All, 334
Ethical Issues in Youth Sport, 336
Ethical Issues in Interscholastic Sport, 337
xvi Contents

Ethical Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics, 338

Ethical Issues in International Sport, 340

7 CHRONOLOGY, 343

Examples of Unethical Behaviors in Sport, 343

Examples of Ethical Behaviors in Sport, 352

Glossary, 357
Index, 361
About the Author, 395

xvi
Preface and Acknowledgments

Examples of unethical conduct in amateur sport are reported

nonstop by the print, electronic, and social media. These uneth-
ical practices are associated with an overemphasis on winning
and commercialism that have taken amateur sport away from
the ideals of playing sports for the inherent joy and personal
satisfaction of challenging oneself against a respected opponent
or a performance standard. Cheating to gain unfair advantages,
gamesmanship ploys, the use of performance-enhancing drugs,
recruiting scandals, academic misconduct associated with
athletes, discriminatory practices against females and African
Americans, and other breaches of principled behavior have
become everyday realities in sports. Many fans, who increas-
ingly want to be entertained as they cheer their favorite teams,
have come to accept and cheer questionably ethical actions as
normative behavior and the way the game should be played to
help secure the all-important victory.
For well over a century, millions in the United States have
claimed youth, interscholastic, intercollegiate, and Olympic
sports teach positive values. Yet, many people argue sport ethics
is a contradictory combination of words or an oxymoron. For
ethical conduct to characterize sports, coaches, players, admin-
istrators, parents, and fans need to teach, model, and reinforce
character development and positive values. To address ethical
challenges like taunting, disrespect for opponents and offi-
cials, and cheating, this handbook on sport ethics emphasizes

xvii
xviii Preface and Acknowledgments

sportsmanship, respect for the game, fair play, and making

morally reasoned decisions as essential to ensuring positive val-
ues and character will be taught, learned, and demonstrated.
Chapter 1 includes a historical context for examining sport
ethics, specifically how character development and sports are
linked. A description of ethics, ethical theories, and moral
reasoning helps the reader gain a deeper understanding of the
interface between amateur sport, ethical conduct, and moral-
ity in sports. Achieving positive values through sport programs
sponsored by educational institutions is challenged by unethi-
cal behaviors. Numerous examples of gamesmanship and vio-
lence, violations of academic eligibility rules, sport dropout
due to physical and psychological burnout, cheating, and the
use of performance-enhancing drugs demonstrate the adverse
effects of unethical behaviors in sports. Specific suggestions are
described to show how character education can reduce unethi-
cal actions in sports.
Chapter 2 examines contemporary issues, controversies, and
problems confronting all levels of sports in the United States.
This chapter stresses that an overemphasis on winning is a lead-
ing culprit contributing to unethical actions in sports. Specific
ethical problems threatening the achievement of positive out-
comes in youth, interscholastic, and intercollegiate sports are
presented. Recommendations for teaching positive values to
youth, adolescent, and young adult athletes are offered. Ethi-
cal issues in sport transcend national boundaries, and unethi-
cal behaviors are found throughout the world. The Olympic
Games are described historically with an emphasis on these
controversies: amateurism; nationalism and politics; racism
and human rights; sexism and discrimination against females;
bidding scandals; unethical behavior of officials; and use of
performance-enhancing drugs and doping scandals. Examples
of gamesmanship, cheating, gambling, and fixing outcomes of
the selection host nations and competitions show how unprin-
cipled behaviors have become commonplace in international
sports. Given the global interconnectedness of sport, codes of
 Preface and Acknowledgments xix

ethics have been enacted to guide athletes, coaches, officials,

and fans in acting in morally appropriate ways, essential if
sport is to achieve the lofty goals of friendship, respect, and fair
competition.
Chapter 3 includes essays from scholars to bring diverse
voices in discussing ethical issues in sports. Each perspective
adds insights in exploring the pros and cons of ethical concerns
that plague sports at all competitive levels.
Chapter 4 personalizes this examination of sport ethics by
providing 39 biographical sketches of athletes, coaches, and
leaders whose ethical conduct in sport has been worthy of emu-
lation. Each profile shows how teaching and modeling positive
values has made a difference in the lives of those who subse-
quently demonstrated positive values in sports. This chapter
also describes 139 sport and sport-related organizations placed
into brief historical context. For each of the national governing
bodies, the international sport federation is listed. Whenever
a sport organization emphasizes ethical conduct, this is stated.
Chapter 5 includes 3 documents, 12 figures, and 13 tables
that provide evidence of existing ethical problems as well as
positive approaches for addressing them. These data and docu-
ments provide key facts or statistics to help readers understand
important ethical issues in sports. These entries are placed into
historical context. The reader is challenged to draw morally rea-
soned conclusions about ethical issues in sports using the facts
and evidence presented.
Chapter 6 provides over 150 citations of reference works,
books, magazine and journal articles, other print works, DVDs,
databases, and Internet sites, each with an annotation describ-
ing its relationship to sport ethics. These print and nonprint
resources are the best available for learning more about and
staying current with the latest challenges to ethical morality
in sports and possible ways to recapture the moral fabric of
amateur sports.
Chapter 7 provides the reader with a chronology of signifi-
cant events starting with the beginning of the modern Olympic
xx Preface and Acknowledgments

Games to the present that have illustrated unethical and ethical

conduct in sports. Thirty-eight examples chronicle the erosion
of positive values; 12 examples applaud the highest levels of
principled behaviors. All of these examples are provided chron-
ologically to contextualize unethical actions in sport.
The glossary provides brief definitions of over 44 key terms
associated with ethical conduct in sports.

Acknowledgments
Parents are the first teachers who begin the process of develop-
ing and modeling moral values for their children. I would like
to express my deepest appreciation to my parents, Carol and
Janice Lumpkin, who taught me what was morally right and
helped me learn an ethical code of behavior that has shaped
who I am as a person. I dedicate this book to honor them in
appreciation for their guidance and love.
Modern Sport Ethics
1  Background and History

Introduction
Sport ethics has been called an oxymoron because many
believe sport and ethics are incongruent or contradictory. Sport
describes competitive physical activities governed by rules.
These competitions usually involve one or more opponents
playing for fun and/or reward. Involvement in sport often
begins early as balls are some of the first toys given to children,
with parents often teaching their children how to throw, catch,
and kick. Playing sports and attending sport competitions are
frequently shared between children and parents as enjoyable
bonding experiences. Many children realize the significance
placed on sports; plus, sports are often integrated with friends,
food, and fun. Also, everyone is surrounded by mediated sports
on television, radio, the Internet, and social media.

Brief Origin of Sport

Even though the exact origin of rule-governed sport is unknown,
it is generally assumed individuals in prehistoric, Chinese,
Native American, and other early civilizations engaged in com-
petitive sporting activities. Sports in early eras were usually

These Princeton University athletes were members of the U.S. team in the
first modern Olympic Games held in Athens, Greece, in April 1896. Olym-
pic athletes initially and for nearly a century were required to be amateurs
competing for the love of the game based on the British Amateur Sport
Ideal. (AP Photo)

3
4 Modern Sport Ethics

linked with religion, war, and rites of passage into adulthood.

While competitions may have been recreational, the early
Mayan civilization took their ball matches more seriously than
most, since the losers were often killed.
Most historians credit the Greeks with formalizing competi-
tive sports based on historical documents recounting warrior/
athlete competitions. These competitions began as informal,
spontaneous displays of athletic prowess but later evolved into
Panhellenic festivals, including the ancient Olympic Games.
Athletic competitions in early Greece were held in honor of var-
ious gods and linked directly with religious observances. These
festivals included competitions in which athletes ran, jumped,
wrestled, boxed, threw the discus and javelin, drove chariots,
and rode horses as they demonstrated their skills as warriors.
Sport for men in subsequent civilizations was associated
with military preparedness, such as during the Middle Ages
in jousting, and in Germany, Sweden, and Denmark in gym-
nastics and fencing. The British were instrumental in promot-
ing sport competitions through colonization, leading to the
worldwide spread of soccer, rugby, field hockey, rowing, ten-
nis, badminton, golf, boxing, and horse racing. The British and
other predominately European immigrants brought their love
of sports to what became the United States of America.
Sports in the early years in the United States were primar-
ily recreational in nature as individuals of all ages played vari-
ous ball games. While a few females became sport enthusiasts,
mostly males competed in baseball, cricket, bowling, pool,
horseshoes, rowing, fox hunting, horse racing, running, box-
ing, and other physical activities. Baseball, which had become
the favorite ball-and-stick game in rural pastures and on city
streets and benefited from a set of written rules, was spread
during the Civil War as soldiers wearing blue and those wear-
ing gray played in military encampments and prison camps. As
the popularity of baseball as a participant sport grew nation-
wide, it became professionalized when Harry Wright paid the
  Background and History 5

Cincinnati Red Stockings’ players in the late 1860s. With pro-

fessional baseball players helping to popularize the game, base-
ball truly became the national pastime as many males (and a
few females) played pickup, and later organized, games.
The baseball nine, as a team was called on mostly men’s
college campuses, was soon supplanted in popularity by the
football eleven. As football, a uniquely American game that
evolved from rugby and soccer, gained supremacy in colleges, it
fostered the construction of stadiums seating thousands. News-
papers promoted games between teams representing Yale and
Princeton as their annual contest became a highlight on the
social calendar. Male collegians also played baseball and tennis,
rowed, ran track, boxed, and engaged in gymnastics, although
these sports were never as popular as football. Designed as a
winter sport to be played between football and baseball sea-
sons, basketball remained on the periphery on most campuses
until after World War II. While played on most campuses,
more importantly, it was spread worldwide by the Young
Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). Basketball did, how-
ever, become the most popular participatory sport for females
at women’s colleges. These women also informally played base-
ball, field hockey, tennis, and golf, shot archery, fenced, ran
track, rowed, and engaged in gymnastics.
Boys’ high school sports followed the lead of college sports,
with an emphasis on the team sports of football, baseball, and
basketball and track and field. Economic factors limited the
breadth of sport programs but did not deter the enthusiasm
displayed by communities in cheering for their local teams. In
some small towns, girls’ basketball at times rivaled the popu-
larity of boys’ basketball. The girls, however, usually played by
rules restricting their movement to a portion of the court due
to societal perceptions that the full-court game was too vigor-
ous for females.
Organized youth sports for boys can be traced back to the
1920s, when local communities began to establish teams,
6 Modern Sport Ethics

especially summer baseball teams, to prevent juvenile delin-

quency and promote local businesses (as sponsors). Illustra-
tions of the beginnings of national competitive sport programs
included American Legion baseball in 1925, Pop Warner Foot-
ball in 1929, Little League Baseball in 1939, and Biddy Bas-
ketball in 1951.
Youth, scholastic, collegiate, and Olympic sports mush-
roomed in fan popularity, participation, and competition in the
years after World War II due to economic prosperity, expand-
ing educational opportunities, and the media. Radio, free-to-
air television, cable television, and the Internet joined the print
media in publicizing sports and dramatically increased the rev-
enues associated with sports. With greater financial benefits to
coaches and institutions, most often associated with winning,
however, have come ethical concerns.

What Is Ethics?
Ethics is the study of morals, moral values, and character.
A person’s morals are those motives, intentions, and actions
that are right and good, rather than wrong or bad. Moral val-
ues communicate the relative worth each individual associates
with virtuous behaviors like honesty, respect, and responsibility
(Lumpkin, Stoll, and Beller 2012). People’s moral values char-
acterize who they are and what they will do. Family, religion,
peers, and societal influences help shape moral values.
In sport and other aspects of life, people usually make deci-
sions and act based on their moral values. Even though it is
assumed people’s lives reflect what they believe is right and
wrong, there is the possibility they may act differently in their
personal lives than they do in their professional roles or dif-
ferently depending on the situation. For example, sometimes
when confronted with problems, individuals may fail to
rationally analyze the issues, think through the ramifications
of different resolutions, or act based on their moral values.
Time constraints may lead to hasty actions that under other
  Background and History 7

circumstances would not go against the expectations of others,

rules, or laws. Sometimes self-interest or personal advantage
may cloud a person’s judgment leading to actions with unin-
tended consequences. Peer pressures or unique circumstances
may lead to people acting in ways that harm others.
Given these issues and possibly as a way to address these chal-
lenges, ethical pluralism suggests taking multiple approaches
to the same problem—that is, values may be situational, con-
textually based, or absolute. Considering the five ethical theo-
ries briefly described in the following section could help each
person understand how differently people may view the same
situation.

Ethical Theories
Utilitarian theory, or utilitarianism, states that the ultimate
standard of what is morally right is dependent on the greatest
amount of good for the greatest number of people—that is,
there is no specific standard of right because it depends on the
circumstances and resultant consequences. Individuals adopt-
ing utilitarianism make ethical decisions based on what they
think the anticipated short- or long-term consequences will be
for most people. The goal is to maximize utility, or the amount
of satisfaction, benefit, or enjoyment, for most individuals. The
challenge, however, is determining exactly what this collective
human welfare could be. For example, if a collegiate athlete
maintains his or her eligibility by receiving an unearned grade
from a professor and subsequently helps the team win a cham-
pionship, this would benefit the team, institution, and maybe
thousands of fans. It could be argued this produces the most
benefit, thereby offsetting the fact that the other students in
the course did not receive preferential treatment in the grades
they received.
The theory of ethical relativism argues that each individual
determines what is true, so all points of view are equally valid.
Since people believe different things are true, there are no moral
8 Modern Sport Ethics

absolutes and no definitive right or wrong. The relativist claims

social norms and cultures differ, so morals evolve and change.
A relativist might believe Caucasian males deserve preferen-
tial treatment in athletics because they are more skilled, even
though females do not receive similar treatment. For example,
the ethical relativist would not have supported the banning of
South Africa, due to its apartheid practices, from the Olympic
Games from 1964 to 1992, because discrimination against eth-
nic groups was acceptable in South Africa at that time. Most
reject the theory of ethical relativism because underlying moral
values relative to the treatment of others are violated.
Situational ethics is an ethical theory that takes into account
the context of a situation or an act when judging whether it is
ethical. Proponents of this theory willingly permit casting aside
absolute moral standards. In the absence of a universal stan-
dard or law, what matters is the outcome or consequences; so,
the end justifies the means. Possibly the following contrasting
realities can help illustrate the application of situational ethics.
In a pickup game of basketball played among friends, everyone
is expected to call his or her own fouls or acknowledge knock-
ing the ball out-of-bounds. Caring about one’s friends and
maybe getting to keep playing with the group leads to these
actions. But, once an organized game is played with officials,
most athletes will not admit to the same fouls or violations
as the end goal of winning is more important than expressing
concern for opponents. Situational ethics has been extended
by many athletes and coaches to mean trying to get away with
(i.e., not penalized by the officials) as many actions on the field
or court as possible to gain competitive advantages.
Non-consequential (Kantian) theory states that there is an
absolute moral code of behavior. Whatever is morally right is
always right, and wrong behavior is always wrong. In its strictest
application, an inherent rightness, or a categorical imperative,
exists and can be applied consistently and without partiality
in every situation. It is the moral duty of an individual to do
what is morally right without regard to the circumstances. In
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mistake. He has not troubled himself to seek in his royal features for
something by which he might be distinguished from the people about
him. Winged genii, king and viziers, all have the same eye, the same
nose and the same mouth. One would say that for each group of
bas-reliefs the original designer only drew one head, which was
repeated by tracing or some other process as often as there might
be heads in the composition, and that it was afterwards carved and
modelled in the alabaster by the chisel of the journeyman.
No, in spite of all that has been said, the Assyrians made no
portraits. They did not even attempt to mark in any precise fashion,
those physical characteristics by which they themselves were so
sharply divided from many of the races by whom they were
surrounded. Among the numerous peoples that figure in the sieges
and battles that cover the palace walls, although some, like the
Chaldæans, the Jews, and the Syrians, were near relations of their
own, others belonged either to the Aryan or Turanian family; but any
one who will examine the reliefs as we have done, will see that all
the prisoners of war and other vanquished enemies have the same
features as their conquerors.[162] The only exception to which we
can point is in the case of certain bas-reliefs of Assurbanipal in which
the episodes of an expedition into Susiana are retraced. There we
can perceive in some of the figures—by no means in all—an
endeavour on the part of the sculptor to mark the difference of race
otherwise than by details of costume and head-dress. Here and
there we find a head that suggests a negro;[163] but his
characteristics are never as clearly marked as in Egypt. This may be
merely the result of caprice on the part of some individual artist who
has amused himself by reproducing with the edge of the chisel some
head which had struck his fancy; but even here we only find one
profile several times repeated. The modelling is far from searching,
but wherever the work is in fair condition and the scale not too small
the character we have described may be easily distinguished. The
only differences over which the Assyrian sculptors naturally troubled
themselves were those of costume and equipment; thus we find
them recording that the people subdued in one of the expeditions of
Sennacherib wore a crown or wreath of feathers about their heads
(Fig. 48).[164] So, too, in the relief of a man with apes, the foot-
covering, a kind of buskin with upturned toes (Fig. 64), should be
noticed. But the lines of his profile remain unchanged; and yet there
can be no doubt that the sculptor here meant to represent a man of
negro race, because, as Layard, who dug up the monument, tells us,
traces of black paint might be distinctly perceived upon the faces of
this man and his companions.[165] On a Babylonian stele that we
have already figured (Fig. 43), some have attempted to recognize a
Mongol type, and thence to confirm the hypothesis that would make
a Turanian race the founders of the Chaldæan civilization. This, too,
we think a mistake.[166]
At first sight this curious monument surprises those who are
accustomed to Assyrian art, but the nature of the material has not a
little to do with that. The hardness and darkness of basalt affect the
treatment of the sculptor in quite a different way from a gypseous
stone like alabaster. Add to this that the proportions are quite unlike
those of the Ninevite reliefs. This Marduk-idin-akhi is a work of the
ancient school, which made its figures far shorter than those of such
Assyrian reliefs as have come down to us. Finally the head-dress
should be noticed. In place of being conical it is cylindrical, a form
which overweights the figure and shortens its apparent proportions.
On the whole, any one looking at this stele without bias on one side
or the other, will, we think, acknowledge that the type it presents is
the same as the figures at Nimroud, Khorsabad, and Kouyundjik. It
is, moreover, identical with that we see in monuments even older
than this royal Babylonian stele, such as the fragmentary relief found
by M. de Sarzec at Sirtella (Fig. 67).
 Fig. 67.—Fragment of a Chaldæan bas-relief. Louvre.
Limestone. Height 3¾ inches.
The type which crops up so often in the pages of this history was
fixed, in all its main features, in the earliest attempts at plastic art
made by the Chaldæans. By them it was transmitted to their
scholars, the Assyrians, and during long centuries, until the fall of
Nineveh and Babylon, the painters and sculptors of Mesopotamia,
from the shores of the Persian Gulf to the foot of the mountains of
Armenia, did not cease to reproduce and perpetuate it, I might say to
satiety; they reproduced it with infinite patience, and, so far as we
can see, without once suspecting that the human visage might
sometimes vary its lines and present another aspect.

§ 4. On the Representations of Animals.

In the preceding pages our chief aim has been to determine the
nature and the mode of action of the influences under which the
Assyro-Chaldæan sculptor had to do his work. We have explained
how certain conditions hampered his progress and in some respects
arrested the development of his skill.
The height to which the plastic genius of this people might have
carried their art had their social habits been more favourable to the
study of the nude, may perhaps be better judged from their treatment
of animals than anything else. Some of these, both in relief and in
the round, are far superior to their human figures, and even now
excite the admiration of sculptors.
The cause of this difference is easily seen. When an artist had to
represent an animal, his study of its form was not embarrassed by
any such obstacle as a long and heavy robe. The animal could be
watched in its naked simplicity and all its instinctive and
characteristic movements grasped. The sculptor could follow each
contour of his model; he could take account of the way in which the
limbs were attached to the trunk; he saw the muscles swell beneath
the skin, he saw them tighten with exertion and relax when at rest.
He was not indifferent to such a sight; on the contrary, he eagerly
drank in the instruction it afforded, and of all the works he produced
those in which such knowledge is put into action are by far the most
perfect; they show us better than anything else how great were his
native gifts, and what a fund of sympathy with the beauties of life and
with its inexhaustible variety his nature contained. Whether he model
an animal separately or introduce it into some historic scene, it is
always well rendered both in form and movement.
This is to be most clearly seen in the rich and varied series of
Assyrian reliefs, but the less numerous works of the same kind of
Babylonian origin show the same tendency and at least equal talent.
In copying the principal types of the animal world with fidelity and
vigour, the Assyrian sculptors only followed the example set them by
their south-country masters.
 Fig. 68.—Head of a cow, bronze.
British Museum. Width across the
cheeks 3¾ inches.
A cow’s head in bronze, which was brought from Bagdad by Mr.
Rassam, is broad in treatment and of great truth (Fig. 68); the same
good qualities are to be found in a terra-cotta tablet found by Sir
Henry Rawlinson in the course of his excavations in the Birs-
Nimroud (Fig. 69). It represents a man, semi-nude and beardless
and with a stout stick in his hand, leading a large and powerfully
made dog by a plaited strap. It is a sort of mastiff that might be used
for hunting the wild beasts in the desert and marshes, the wild boar,
hyena, and panther, if not the lion. The characteristics of the species
are so well marked that naturalists have believed themselves able to
recognise it as that of a dog which is still extant, not in Mesopotamia
indeed, but in Central Asia.[167] We may seek in it for the portrait of
one of those Indian hounds kept, in the time of Herodotus, by the
Satrap of Babylon. His pack was so numerous that it took the
revenues of four large villages to support it.[168]
Similar subjects were represented upon other tablets of the same
origin. One of them shows a lion about to devour a bull and disturbed
by a man brandishing a mace. Nothing could be more faithful than
the action of the animal; without letting go his prey he raises a paw,
its claws opened and extended and ready to be buried in the side of
the rash person who interrupts his meal.[169]

Fig. 69.—Terra-cotta tablet. British Museum. Height

3⅗ inches.
We may also mention a cylinder which, from its style, M. Ménant
does not hesitate to ascribe to the first Chaldæan monarchy. It
represents two oxen in a field of wheat. The latter, by a convention
that also found favour with the Greeks, is indicated by two of those
huge ears that so greatly astonished Herodotus.[170] Was it on a
similar principle that the Chaldæan engraver gave his oxen but one
horn apiece? In spite of this singularity and the peculiar difficulties
offered by work in intaglio on a very hard material, the forms are well
understood, and the artist has not been content to give them merely
in outline. At the croup and under the belly an effort has been made
to model the figure and to mark its thickness.
Judging from their style and inscriptions, several more of these
engraved stones may be ascribed to the oldest Chaldæan schools of
art, but we are satisfied with again reminding our readers that it was
in Lower Mesopotamia that everything had its beginning. We shall
take our remaining examples from the richer deposits of Assyria.

Fig. 70.—Cylinder of black marble. National Library, Paris.

Among all those animals that attracted the attention of man either
by their size or strength, either by the services they rendered or the
terror they caused, there were none that the chisel of the Assyrian
sculptor did not treat and treat with taste and skill. With their passion
for the chase the kings and nobles of Assyria were sure to love dogs
and to train them with scrupulous care.[171] They did more. They
employed sculptors in making portraits of them. In the palace of
Assurbanipal terra-cotta statuettes of his best dogs have been found
(Fig. 71). They belong to the same race as the Chaldæan mastiff
above mentioned, but their strength, their fire, I might almost say
their ferocity, is better shown in those pictures where they are no
longer in a state of repose, but in movement and action. Look at the
series of slabs representing the departure for the chase. The hounds
are held in the leash by attendants who carry bags on their
shoulders for the smaller game (see Fig. 72). Mark the tightened
cord, the straining bodies, the tension of every muscle in their desire
to get at their quarry! We can almost fancy we hear the deep,
confused bayings with which they prelude the regular music of the
hunt itself when the game is afoot. These animals are represented
with no less truth and vivacity when a kill has taken, or is about to
take, place. As an example of this we may point out a relief from the
same palace in which two of these bloodhounds launch themselves
upon a wild ass whose flight has been arrested by an arrow. The ass
still manages to stagger along, but he will not go far; the hounds are
already upon him and have buried their teeth in his flanks and croup.
[172]

Fig. 71.—Terra-cotta dog. British Museum. Height

2⅖ inches.
Other domestic animals are figured with no less sure a hand; to
each is given the proportions and attitudes that really characterise it.
We shall now study them all in succession; others have done so, and
have found much precious information upon the fauna of Western
Asia and upon the state of Mesopotamian civilization;[173] we shall
content ourselves with mentioning the principal types and those in
which the sculptor has shown most skill.
Fig. 72.—The hounds of Assurbanipal. British Museum. Height 26 inches. Drawn
by Saint-Elme Gautier.

The colossi of the gateways have already given us an opportunity

for showing how art enlisted the powerful limbs and natural majesty
of the bull in its service. Elsewhere the bovine race occupies a less
important part in Assyrian sculpture than in that of Egypt, in whose
tombs scenes of agricultural art are of such constant occurrence. We
find, however, the wild bull,[174] which the kings of Calah hunted in
the neighbouring desert (Fig. 15), and the draught ox, which, after a
lucky raid, the terrors of Asia drive before them with their prisoners
and other booty (Vol. I. Fig. 30).[175]—We may also point to the
heifer’s head in ivory which acts as tail-piece to the third chapter of
our first volume. We sometimes find also sheep and goats of both
sexes (Fig. 54);[176] but of all the animals that have close relations
with man, that which occurs most often on the palace walls is the
horse. They did not use him as a beast of burden; it was the mule
that was used for drawing carts (Vol. I. Fig. 31), for carrying women
and children and merchandise (Vol. I. Figs. 30 and 115). As with the
Arabs of to-day, the horse was reserved for war and hunting. But the
Assyrians were not, like the Egyptians, content to harness him to the
chariot; they rode him as well. Their armies comprised a numerous
and well-provided cavalry; and the Assyrian artist drew the horse a
great deal better than his Egyptian confrère.
The horses we meet with in the Assyrian sculptures are of a
heavier breed than Arabs; they are generally shorter and more
thickly set. Travellers believe the breed to still exist in the horses of
Kurdistan, a country which was bordered by ancient Assyria and
dependent upon it.[177] The head is small, well-formed, and well-
carried (Fig. 73), the shoulders sloping, the neck and limbs well set
on, and the muscles strongly marked. We have already had
occasion to figure horses at full speed (Vol. I. Fig. 5), standing still
(Vol. I. Figs. 67 and 115), and proceeding at a slow pace (Figs. 21
and 31).[178] No observer can avoid being struck by the truth of
attitude, and movement given by the Assyrian sculptor to horses
both driven and mounted. Nowhere is this merit more conspicuous
than in one of those bas-reliefs of Assurbanipal that figure the
episodes of a chase of wild asses (Fig. 74).
 Fig. 73.—Chariot horses; from Layard.
Contrary to their usual habits the herd have allowed themselves
to be surprised. One of those armies of beaters who are yet
employed by eastern sovereigns on such occasions, has driven
them upon the hunters. The latter, preceded by their dogs, throw
themselves upon the herd, which breaks up in all directions. They
pierce those that are within reach with their arrows; those that do not
fall at once are pursued and brought down by the hounds. We
cannot reproduce the whole scene,[179] but we doubt whether there
is any school of animal painters that has produced anything more
true to nature than the action of this poor beast stopping in the
middle of his flight to launch futile kicks at his pursuers.
Fig. 74.—Wild ass. From the hunt of Assurbanipal, in the British Museum. Drawn
by Saint-Elme Gautier.
The ibex and the wild goat figure in the same sculptured pictures.
One marching in front of the herd turns and anxiously sniffs the wind,
while her companion quietly browses by her side; farther off, two kids
trot by the side of their mother. The alarm has not yet been given,
but upon the next slab the artist shows the headlong flight that
follows the discovery of the enemy. Naturally it is the wild and
domestic animals of Mesopotamia and the districts about that are
most commonly figured in these reliefs, but the sculptor also took
advantage of every opportunity and pretext for introducing into his
repertory those rare and curious animals which were only seen in
Nineveh on rare occasions. Thus the camel that we find in so many
pictures is the same as that which now occupies the same region
and marches in its slow caravans;[180] but on the obelisk of
Shalmaneser we find the double-humped Bactrian camel (Fig. 49).
[181] The clumsy tribe of the pachyderms is not only represented by
the wild boars that still have their lairs in the marshes of the lower
Euphrates;[182] the rhinoceros and the Indian elephant also occur on
the obelisk (Vol. I. Fig. 111).[183] The apes shown in our Fig. 64 also
seem to belong to an Indian species.[184]
The sculptor was not always as happily inspired by these exotic
animals as by those of his own country, and in that there is nothing
surprising. He only caught a passing glimpse of them as they defiled,
perhaps, before the people in some triumphal procession. On the
other hand, the fauna of his native land were known to him through
long habit, and yet his reproductions of the elephant and the
dromedary are very good, much better than those of the semi-human
ape. His idea of the rhinoceros is very faulty; the single horn planted
on the nose leaves no doubt as to his meaning, but the lion’s mane
with which the animal’s back is clothed has never belonged to the
rhinoceros. The artist may have worked from a description.
In these pictures birds hold a very secondary place; Assyrian
sculpture was hardly light enough of hand to render their forms and
feathers. For such a task, indeed, painting with its varied handling,
its delicate lines and brilliant colours is required. It was with the
brush that the Egyptians succeeded, in the frescoes of their tombs,
in figuring the principal birds of the Nile Valley with all their elegance
of form and brilliant variety of plumage. In Assyria, among a nation of
soldiers and in an art whose chief inspiration had to do with war, the
only bird we find often reproduced is the eagle, the symbol of victory,
who floats over the chariot of the king, and the vulture who devoured
where they fell the bodies of the enemies of Assyria; and even these
images are rather careless and conventional, which may perhaps be
accounted for by their partially symbolic character and their frequent
repetition.[185] A group of partridges rising and, in those sculptures of
the later Sargonids in which the artists show a love for picturesque
detail, birds hopping in the trees or watching over their nestlings,
have been mentioned as showing technical excellence of the same
kind as the hunting scenes.[186] The ostrich appears on the
elaborate decorations of the royal robes (Fig. 75) and upon the
cylinders (Fig. 76). Perhaps it was considered sacred.
 Fig. 75.—Embroidery on the king’s robe; from Layard.

Fig. 76.—Fight between a man and an ostrich.

Chalcedony. National Library, Paris.
As for fishes, crabs, and shells, these were scattered broadcast
over the watercourses in the reliefs, but they are never studied with
any great care (see Vol. I., Figs. 34 and 157), nor is any attempt
made to distinguish their species. They seem to have been
introduced merely as hints to the spectator, to dispel any doubt he
may entertain as to the meaning of those sinuous lines by which the
sculptor suggested rivers and the sea. Where these indications are
not given we might indeed very easily mistake the artist’s intention
(see Vol. I., Figs. 38 and 71).
 Some of the animals in the Assyrian reliefs are then nothing but
determinative signs, a kind of pictorial gloss. Of these it will suffice to
mention the existence. Their forms are so much generalized that
they offer no matter for study. On the other hand, our best attention
should be given to those figures whose modelling has strongly
interested the artist, who has taken a lively pleasure in reproducing
their various aspects and in making them live again in all the
originality of their powerful and exceptional natures. In this respect
the lion deserves particular notice. He interested the Assyrian
sculptors more profoundly than any other animal and they devoted
extraordinary attention to illustrating his various attitudes and
characteristics. One is inclined to believe that the more skilful among
them chose a lion for treatment when they wished to display all the
talent they possessed and to gain a reputation for complete mastery
of their art.[187]
Here we find the great beast stretched carelessly upon the
ground, full of confidence in his strength and careless of danger
(Plate XI.); there he rises to his feet and advances ready to collect
himself and spring upon any threatening enemy or passing prey
(Plate VIII.). We sometimes find both these motives united, as in a
bas-relief of Assurbanipal, which is unfortunately mutilated (Fig. 77).
Here a lioness is stretched upon the ground, her head upon her
forepaws and her tail outstretched behind her, in a favourite attitude
of very young cats. The lion stands upright before her in a proud,
extended attitude like that of the colossal lion from Nimroud (Plate
VIII.); his head and the hind parts of his body are unfortunately
missing.
 BRONZE LION
FROM KHORSABAD
Louvre

Elsewhere we find the lion cautiously emerging from a stoutly-

built timber cage (Fig. 78). He has been captured in a net or snare
and shut up in this narrow prison until the day of some great hunt.
[188] When that arrives the door is raised at a given signal by a man
perched on the top of the cage and protected by a timber grating. In
spite of this defence the service would hardly be free from danger
but that the lion is too pleased to find himself at liberty to look behind
him.[189]
 Fig. 77.—Lion and lioness in a park. British Museum.

The lion finds himself confronted by the Royal huntsman who

fights, as a rule, from his chariot, where two or three companions,
chosen from his bravest and most skilful servants, are ready to lend
him help if necessary. The British Museum possesses a great
number of sculptured pictures in which every incident of the hunt is
figured up to its inevitable end. We reproduce two figures from the
slabs representing the great hunt of Assurbanipal. The first shows a
huge lion mortally wounded by an arrow which still stands in his
body. It has transfixed some great vessel, and the blood gushes in a
wide torrent from his open mouth. Already the chills of death are
upon him and yet with his back arched, and his feet brought together
and grasping the soil, he collects his energies in a last effort to
prevent himself rolling over helplessly on the sand.
Fig. 78.—Lion coming out of his cage. Height of relief about 22 inches. British
Museum.
Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.
 Fig. 79.—Wounded lion. Height of slab about 22 inches. British Museum. Drawn
by Saint-Elme Gautier.
Still more expressive, perhaps, and more pathetic, is the picture
of a lioness struck down by the same hand, but in a different fashion
(Fig. 80). One of three arrows that have reached her has transfixed
the spinal column at the loins. All the hinder part of the body is
paralysed. The hind feet drag helplessly on the ground, while the
poor animal still manages for a moment to support herself on her
fore paws. She still faces the enemy, her half opened jaws are at
once agonised and menacing, and, as we gaze upon her, we can
almost fancy that we hear her last groan issue from her dying lips.
We might multiply these examples if we chose, but the two
fragments we have reproduced will, we hope, send our readers to
the British Museum to see the Hunt of Assurbanipal for themselves.
In any case they are enough to prove that the Assyrian sculptor
studied the lion from nature. He was not without opportunities. He
was, no doubt, allowed to assist at those great hunts of which he
was to be the official chronicler. He there saw the king of beasts
throw himself on the spears of the footmen or fly before the arrows of
the charioteers, and break the converging line of beaters; he saw
him fall under his repeated wounds and struggle in his last
convulsions. Later on he could supplement his recollections, he
could complete and correct his sketches by the examination of the
victims.[190] At the end of the day the “bag” was displayed as it is
now at the end of a modern battue, when the keepers bring
pheasants, hares and rabbits, and lay them in long rows in some
clearing or corner of the covert. In one of the Kouyundjik reliefs we
see the king standing before an altar and doing his homage to the
gods after the emotions and dangers of a hunt that was almost a
battle.[191] He seems to pour the wine of the libation upon four dead
lions, which his attendants have arranged in line upon the ground.
There must also have been tame lions in the palaces and royal
parks. Even now they are often to be met with in that country, under
the tent of the Arab chief or in the house of the bey or pacha.[192]
When captured quite young the lion is easily educated, and,
provided that his appetite is never allowed to go unsatisfied, he may
be an inoffensive and almost a docile companion until he is nearly
full grown. We are ready to believe that the lion and lioness shown in
our Fig. 77 were tame ones. The background of the relief suggests a
park attached to the royal residence, rather than a marsh, jungle or
desert. Vines heavy with fruit and bending flowers rise above the
dozing lioness; we can hardly suppose that wild animals could
intrude into such a garden. It follows, then, that the artist could study
his models as they moved at freedom among the trees of the royal
demesne, basking idly in the sun or stretching themselves when they
rose, or burying their gleaming teeth on the living prey thrown to
them by their keepers.
Thanks to such facilities as these the Ninevite sculptors have
handed down to us more faithful reproductions of the lion than their
more skilful successors of Greece or Rome. For the latter the lion
was little more than a conventional type from which ornamental
motives might be drawn. Sometimes no doubt they obtained very
fine effects from it, but they always considered themselves free to
modify and amplify, according to the requirements of the moment.
Thus they were often led to give him full and rounded forms, which
had a beauty of their own but were hardly true to nature. The