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Wrestling. I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

E. Norman Gardiner
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Extract

The popularity of wrestling among the Greeks is proved by the constant use of metaphors from this sport and by the frequency with which scenes from the wrestling ring appear, not only in athletic literature and art but also in mythological subjects. Despite the changes in the spirit of Greek athletics caused by the growth of professionalism, which affected wrestling and boxing more perhaps than any other sport, the popularity of wrestling whether as a pastime or as a spectacle remained unabated. On early black-figured vases Heracles is constantly represented employing the regular holds and tricks of the palaestra not only against the giant Antaeus, but against monsters such as Achelous or the Triton, or even against the Nemean lion, and centuries later we find Ovid and Lucan describing these scenes in language borrowed in every detail from the same source.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 25 , November 1905 , pp. 14 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1905

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References

1 Krause, , Gym. der Hell., p. 428Google Scholar.

2 Ox. Pap. iii. 466.

3 Lucian, , As. c. 9Google Scholar. Cp. Aristoph., Pax 895Google Scholar, Av. 442, and the expressions ἀνακλινοπάλη, κλινοπάλη; Martial xiv. 201, Suetonius, Domita. 22Google Scholar. In all these cases the metaphors are from the pankration rather than from true wrestling.

4 H. J. Hancock, Japanese Physical Training, passim.

5 Hermotim. 40.

6 Paus. vi. 11, 4.

7 Inschrift, v. Olymp, v. 153.

8 Anth. Pal. xi. 316.

9 Ol. viii. 90, ἐν τέτρασιν παίδων ἀπεθήκατο γυίοις ∣ νόστον ἔχθιστον.

10 Pyth. viii. 81, τέτρασι δ᾿ ἔμπετες ὑψόθεν σωμάτεσσι.

11 Inschrift, v. Olymp., 164.

12 Cp. ib. 183. Similarly in Phlegon's, list of Olympic victors for Ol. 177Google Scholar, Ἰσίδωρος Ἀλεξανδρεὺς πάλην ἄπτωτος περίοδον.

13 Cp. Paus. vi. 4, 6, epigram on Chilon, = Anth. Pal. App. i. 102Google Scholar and Bacchylides xii. 8.

14 Inschr. v. Olymp. 174.

15 Ib. 225, 226.

16 Ib. 54.

17 Ib. 56, 1. 17. Other instances of this phrase and a full discussion of it will be found in the notes on inscription 54 by Dittenberger and Purgold.

18 J.H.S. 1904, p. 73.

19 Hom., Il. xxiii. 683, 700Google Scholar; Thue. i. 6.

20 E.g. Mus. Greg. xvii. 1, a; v. Scherer, , De Olympionicarum statuis, p. 20Google Scholar.

21 Panaetius, kylix, Arch. Zeit. 1878, 11Google Scholar; Krause, p. 517, n. 20.

22 Philostratus, , Im. ii. 32Google Scholar; Eurip., Bacchae, 455Google Scholar; Plut., Arat. ii. 3Google Scholar, 6.

23 Cp. Ovid, , Met. ix. 35Google Scholar; Statius, , Theb. vi. 847Google Scholar.

24 Anacharsis 2, 28, 29; Plut. Symp. iv. αἱ μὲν γὰρ παλαιόντων ἐπιβολαὶ καὶ ἓλξεις κονιορτοῦ δέονται.

25 Philostratus, , Im. ii. 32Google Scholar.

26 Paus. i. 39, 3; Schol. Pindar, , Nem. v. 49Google Scholar.

27 Cp. Pindar, , Ol. viii. 19Google Scholar; ix. 91, 110; Isth. vi. 20, and passim; Anth. Plan. iii. 2, App. 86. Aelian, , Var. Hist. ii. 4Google Scholar, tells us of a trainer who punished a pupil merely because the populace applauded him: ‘ἀλλὰ σύ γε κακῶς καὶ οὐχ ὡς ἐχρῆν ἐποίησας ὅπερ ἐχρῆν ἄμεινον γενέσθαι οὐ γὰρ ἄν ἐπῄνεσαν οὗτοι τεχνικόν σε δράσαντά τι’. Eurymenes who won a victory at Olympia in 472 B.C. (v. Ox. Papyri II. 222) was trained at Samos by Pythagoras, and though small of stature, thanks to the σοφία of Pythagoras, defeated many mighty opponents, Diog. Laert. viii. 1. 12. On the other hand Damagetas in an epigram puts into the mouth of a Spartan youth the typically Spartan boast that he owed his victory to brute force, not to skill

κεῖνοι τεχνάεντες ἐγώ γε μὲν ὡς ἐπέοικε τοῖς Λακεδαιμονίων παισί, βίᾳ κρατέω,

Anth. Plan. I. 1. and Plutarch, , Apophthegm. Lac. Var. 27Google Scholar (233 E), tells us that the Spartans allowed no trainers for wrestling, ἵνα μὴ τέχνης ἀλλ᾿ ἀρετῆς ἡ φιλοτιμία γένηται.

28 Smith, Dict. Ant. s.v. ‘lucta.’

29 οὕτω δ᾿ Ἀτρέως παῖδας ὁ κρείσσων ἐπ᾿ Ἀλεξάνδρῳ πέμπει Ξένιος Ζεύς, πολυάνορος ἀμφὶ γυναικὸς πολλὰ παλαίσματα καὶ γυιοβαρῆ γόνατος κονίαισιν ἐρειδομένου διακναιομένης τ᾿ ἐν προτελείοις κάυακος θήσων Δαναοῖσιν Τρωσί θ᾿ ὁμοίως.

30 I have adopted the old interpretation of this expression, which seems to me so obviously appropriate to the context as to admit of no doubt. If, however, Dr. Verrall's suggestion is correct, that the snapping of the shaft is part of the marriage ceremony, the passage has no connexion at all with wrestling.

31 vi. 27.

32 Anth. Pal. xi. 316.

33 Anth. Plan. iii. 24.

34 Arch. Zeit. 1878, x.

35 Montfaucon, , Ant. Expl. iii. 166, 2Google Scholar; Reinach, , Répertoire de la Statuaire, ii. p. 538Google Scholar.

36 B.M., Bronzes 853Google Scholar; Stephani, , C.R. 1867, Pl. I.Google Scholar; Jahrb. 1898, p. 178; Reinach, loc. cit.

37 Anacharsis 24. For vase-paintings representing this throw v. Hartwig, Meisterschalen, xv. b, and Fig. 20 a, b (= B.M. E 94); for Etruscan wall-paintings, Dennis, , Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, ii. p. 323Google Scholar (= Krause, op. cit. xii. b, 39 e); 327, 7 (Gori, , Mus. Etr. iii. 84–87)Google Scholar; 333 (= Dar.-Sagl. 4624); 343 (= Krause, xii. b, 39 b, Mus. Chius. cxxvi.).

38 Ovid, Met. ix. 32sq.Google Scholar; Lucan, , Phars. iv. 612sq.Google Scholar; Statuts, , Theb. vi. 831Google Scholarsq.

39 P. 433 sq.

40 xxiii. 707–739. The quotations are from the translation of the Iliad by Messrs. Lang, Leaf, and Myers.

41 A fragment of a red-figured kylix in Berlin, No. 2276, reproduced by Hartwig, Meisterschal.

12, though representing the pankration, gives a realistic illustration of these words.

figure to the right is not only bleeding copiously at the nose, but also bears on his back the marks of his opponent's fingers.

42 Pausamas viii. 40 describes a similar arrangement in boxing, Creuges and Damoxenus agreeing to strike one another in turn without guarding themselves. This was called a κλῖμαξ.

43 Ὣς εἰπὼν ἀνάειρε δόλου δ᾿ οὐ λήθετ᾿ Ὀδυσσεύς

κόψ᾿ ὔπιθεν κώληπα τυχών, ὑπέλυπε δὲ γυῖα

κὰδ δ᾿ ἔβαλ᾿ ἐξοπίσω ἐπί δὲ στήθεστιν Ὀδυσσεὺς

κάππεσε. 725–728.

44 Wrestling (All England Series), p. 8.

45 Nothing can be inferred from Pindar, , Pyth. viii. 81Google Scholar, τέτρασι δ᾿ ἔμπετες ὑψόθεν σεμάτεσσι. There is no authority for translating ἔμπετες ‘fell uppermost upon.’ Here and in Aeschylus, , Agamemnon 1174Google Scholar, which Dr. Fennell in his edition of the Pythian Odes quotes in support of his translation, ἐμπίπτειν has its usual meaning ‘to attack.’

46 Ol. ix. 91.

47 iv. 215 sq.

48 E.g. the Metope from the Theseum.

49 Dionys. xxxvii. 553–601.

50 The evidence on this point is collected in my article on the Pentathlon, vol. xxiii, p. 63 of this Journal. The quotation from Plato, , Euthydemus 277Google Scholar C, is inaccurate. It should be ‘ἔτι δὲ ἐπὶ τὸ τρίτον καταβαλὼν ὥσπερ πάλαισμα ὥρμα τὸν νεανίσκον’. The inaccuracy does not affect the argument as the passage still implies three falls, Cleinias having been already twice thrown in the argument.

51 ii. 5, 10, 10.

52 Leg. 834 A. The verdict of the fourth century should not unduly prejudice us against the pankration. Originally an exercise of skill like boxing and conducted in the true spirit of sport, like boxing also it degenerated into brutality under the influence of specialisation and professionalism.

53 1327, 8 R.

54 The vase-paintings representing these two subjects are collected by Klein, , Euphronios, pp. 122 and 193Google Scholar.

55 M. d. I. i. 22, 8b and 10b (I have failed to discover where these vases are now); amphora in Lamberg collection, J.H.S. i. Pl. VI.

56 Luciau, , Anacharsis 9Google Scholar, refers to kicking in the stomach, λακτιζόμενον ἐς τὴν γαστέρα; cp. Aristoph., Eq. 273, 454Google Scholar, γαστρίζειν. Pollux, iii. 150, includes in his list of terms connected with the pankration, λὰξ ἐνάλλεσθαι, an expression very descriptive of the left hand pankratiast in the Lamberg amphora.

57 Thus in Ovid, , Met. ix. 37Google Scholar; Luean, , Phars. iv. 612Google Scholar; Statius, loc. cit. Lucian, Anacharsis I, describes how one youth ἀράμενος τὸν ἕτερον ἐκ τοῖν σκελοῖν ἀφῆκεν εἰς τὸ ἔδαφος, but the context proves that he is speaking of the pankration.

58 Plato, , Euthydem. 278 BGoogle Scholar; Demosthenes 273. ἀγκυρίσαι is used by the comic poets iu the same way, Aristoph. Eg. 262; Eupplis, Τάξ. 6.

59 P. 23 n. 36.

60 P. 127 sqq.

61 M. d. I. vi. vii. 82, Schreiber, , Atlas xxiii. 10Google Scholar.

62 Aelian, , Var. Hist. xi. 1Google Scholar: Ὀρίκαδμος πάλης ἐγένετο νομοθέτης, καθ᾿ ἑαυτὸν ἐπινοήσας τὸν Σικελὸν τρόπον καλούμενον.