Greek Combat Sports

It is perhaps no coincidence then that the earliest agonistic festivals began at this same time. The earliest games at Olympia most famously have been dated to 776 bce, and the rise of the gymnasium as an athletic training facility first begins to appear in cities soon thereafter.

Wrestling (Greek: pale) was the earliest of the combat sports introduced to Olympia (traditional date 708 bce). As Homer describes, the two men stood together (systasis) gripping each other about the shoulders, their heads touching, and attempted to throw one another to the ground. Victory was won by the first wrestler to throw his opponent to the ground three times, though he would then have to fight again until only two men were left for the final match. As was normal in Greek athletics, each athlete oiled himself and then rubbed in dust (as Perpetua's Egyptian opponent had done), thus making it more difficult for his opponent to grip him tightly. The gymnasia of various Greek city-states included a palaestra, or wrestling area, which was specifically designed for wrestling and the other combat sports.

Boxing (pyx or pugme) was also found at the great festivals in the early days (traditionally at Olympia from 688 bce). Depictions of ancient Greek boxers especially on vases invariably show considerable bloodshed. Blows seem especially aimed at the head. Just as Homer describes the leather strips used by Epeios and Euryalos to wrap their hands, so later Greek boxers wrapped their hands too. Initially these strips (himantes) were of soft leather, wrapped around the knuckles and hands, then up around the forearm, and were meant to protect one's hands, not for one's opponent. These early leather wraps were nicknamed ‘myrmikes' (ants) since they left smaller cuts all over the opponent's face and body. In the later Classical period thicker strips of leather were wrapped across the knuckles (known as the ‘sharp himantes'), which could inflict much more serious damage to an opponent. Centuries later, in the Roman period, metal was added to the leather to create even more dangerous, even lethal, gloves (the caestus). As with wrestling competi­tions, boxers drew lots to compete in rounds: losers were eliminated and victors carried on to fight the next opponent until only two remained. There were no rounds or time limits though there were rules, as the existence of referees (e.g. the Hellanodikes at Olympia) to supervise the fighters attests; these rules are difficult to recover now, however. Fights continued until one boxer was either unable or unwilling to continue, and submission was signalled by holding up a finger, at which point the referee would intervene with his switch (rhabdos) and stop the fight and award the victor.

Pausanias, writing in the later second century ce, describes a famous boxing match, itself ancient history by his day, that makes clear the extreme violence possible in boxing matches, and more importantly, the reaction of the watching officials and spectators.

The Argives gave the crown of victory at the Nemean Games to Kreugas although he was dead because his opponent, Damoxenos of Syracuse, broke the agreement which had been reached between them. While they were boxing evening came on and they agreed in front of witnesses that each would allow the other in turn to land a punch. Now at that time boxers did not yet wear the sharp himantes on their wrists, but boxed with the soft himantes which were bound in the hollow of the hand so that the fingers were left bare. These soft himantes were thin ox hide plaited together in some ancient way. Now Kreugas aimed his punch at Damoxenos' head. Then Damoxenos told Kreugas to raise his arm and, when Kreugas had done so, Damoxenos struck him under the ribs with his fingers straight out. The combination of the sharp fingernails and the force of the blow drove his hand into Kreugas' guts. He grabbed Kreugas' intestines and tore them out and Kreugas died on the spot. The Argives expelled Damoxenos on the grounds that he had broken his agreement by giving his opponent several blows (i.e. each finger) instead of the agreed upon one blow. They gave the victory to dead Kreugas and erected a statue of him in Argos. (Paus. 8.40-5)

This episode highlights the importance of rules to govern the contest, the bravery of the athletes and the appreciation felt for an athlete who gave all, even his life, for victory.

The most violent of the combat sports was the pancratium (Greek pankra­tion, ‘all powerful'). It combined boxing and wrestling, including wrestling on the ground and even kicking, in a form of combat in which virtually no move or hold was barred. It is comparable to modern mixed martial arts. The third century bce writer Philostratus describes a painting of a famous pancratiast, Arrhachion, and explains the nature of the sport as follows.

The pancratiasts, my boy, practice a dangerous brand of wrestling. They have to endure black eyes which are not safe for the wrestler, and learn holds by which one who has fallen can still win, and they must be skilful in the various ways of strangulation. They bend ankles and twist arms and throw punches and jump on their opponents. All such practices are permitted in the pancratium except for biting and gouging. Indeed, the Spartans permit even this... (Philostr. Imag. 2.6) Like boxing, victory was determined when one fighter was no longer able or willing to continue, and again submission was signalled by holding up a finger. As indicated, however, victory, especially in one of the great games, was all important. The painting of Arrhachion commemorated his third Olympic victory (in the 54th Olympiad; 564 bce), which became especially famous because of the manner in which it was realised. Speaking as an art historian, Philostratus vividly describes what you see when looking at the painting, bringing the action to life. The passage is long, but worth citing in full.

Now you have come to the Olympic Games and to the best of the contests at Olympia. This is the pancratium for men. Arrhachion is being crowned although he dies at the moment of his victory, and the Hellanodikes (referee) is crowning him... Arrhachion seems to have overpowered not only his opponent, but the Greek spectators as well. They are jumping up from their seats and shouting, some waving their hands, some leaping from the ground, and others are slapping one another on the back. His astonishing feat has left the spectators beside themselves. Who is so stolid as not to shriek aloud at this athlete? This present accomplishment surpasses his already great record of two previous victories at Olympia, for this one has cost his life and he departs for the land of the Blessed with the dust still on him. But do not think that this is accidental, for he planned his victory cleverly... Arrhachion's opponent, having already a grip around his waist, thought to kill him and put an arm around his neck and choked off his breath.

It is almost as if we are there at Olympia watching the final moments of the contest. Although caught in a lethal choke hold by his opponent, Arrhachion refuses to submit - all he need do was wiggle a finger at the watching referee - and instead, with the last moments of his strength, he counters his opponent's hold with a desperate move. The effect on the spectators is electric: they are overwhelmed with the excitement and intensity of the moment and Arrhachion's choice. The artist is able to capture what this means: though dead, Arrhachion is victorious and so he is painted as if in the bloom of youth, while his opponent, though alive, has submitted and so is painted as if dead. Nearly 800 years later, Perpetua too would envision her own death as a sort of pancratium, and like Arrhachion find in that struggle a glorious victory that brought eternal life.

Derived from an aristocratic impulse to prove one's excellence in an ostentatious display of physical prowess, Greek athletics produced individual champions. To come in second place was to lose.

You with determination fell on the bodies of four men, for whom a cheerful homecoming - comparable to yours - has not been allotted at the Pythian games, nor when they came to their mothers did pleasant laughter awaken delight; but they cower in the alleyways aloof from their enemies, stung by their misfortune. (Pind. Pyth. 8.81-7)

This is probably extreme, but it does emphasise the singular importance of the individual in Greek athletics. Masculine and military virtues were empha­sised by athletes whose bravado often extended to the boast of ‘victory or death'. Arrhachion, for example, was so celebrated because he chose death rather than defeat at Olympia; we learn from another source that seeing him on the point of surrender, his trainer shouted and urged him to desire death, ‘What a noble epitaph, not to have conceded at Olympia!'^[1005] Philostratus states that one contestant was inspired by a message his trainer sent to his mother: ‘Believe it if you hear that your son is dead; do not, if you hear that he has lost.'^[1006] Writing in the early first century ce, Philo Judaeus of Alexandria also comments on the ‘victory or death' ideology of Greek athletes:

I know that wrestlers and pancratiasts out of love of honour and eagerness for victory - although their bodies fail, still continue and struggle on with spirit alone, which they have accustomed to despise terrors - often persevere until the end of their life.... It is said that two athletes in a sacred contest possessed of equal strength both suffered and returned the same punishments, they neither yielded until both died... to die for the olive or parsley is a glory to competitors.

(Philo, Quod omnis probus liber sit, 17.110-13)

The epitaph of the boxer Agathos Daemon, from the second century ce, indicates that later Greeks were still willing to pay the ultimate price for victory, or at least present themselves as so willing: ‘Agathos Daemon, also known as the Camel, from Alexandria, a boxer in the man category, Nemean victor, who died here while fighting in the stadium, having prayed to Zeus for a crown or death. Age 35. Farewell.’^[1007] The agonistic spirit of Greek athletics celebrated the individual champion and proclaimed the ostentatious victory to be more important than anything else, including the athlete’s own life. In this, combat sports represented the purest form of the struggle for individual excellence.