Origins and Development: The Early Greek World

There is evidence for what we would think of as combat sport as early as the Bronze Age in the Greek world. A fragmentary Minoan fresco from Akrotiri on Thera, an island in the Aegean, depicts two young boys fighting, though each seems to have a padded ‘boxing glove' on only one hand (c.

It is tempting, therefore, to read Homer's descriptions of athletic events, which include combat sports, in the Iliad and Odyssey as evidence for athletics in the Mycenaean world. After all, the epics are set in the later Bronze Age, around the grand narrative of the Trojan War (mid thirteenth century bce). But we are probably not correct to assign the stories completely to the Bronze Age. Due to multiple problems with interpreting the bardic tradition historically, it is difficult to say with certainty whether Homer's athletics are to be located in the Bronze Age, the later Archaic Age, somewhere in between, or in no historical era at all.

The most famous athletic events in the epics take place as part of the funeral of the hero, Patroklos. In book 23 of the Iliad, as the Achaean (Greek) heroes finally begin to return to their ships following the cremation of Patroklos, the great hero Achilles summons them back to assembly. He calls for treasures to be brought from his ships and promises these as prizes for various games to be held in Patroklos' honour: a chariot race, a foot race, boxing, wrestling, a weight-throw, armed combat, archery and spear throw­ing. Most of these events would become standard features of the Greek agonistic canon. Though the chariot race receives by far the most attention from Homer, we can see that combat sports are present from the very beginnings of Greek athletics.

When Achilles announces the competition in boxing, two lesser heroes stand up: Epeios and Euryalos. Epeios readily admits that he is a poor warrior but says that he is an unbeatable boxer and boasts that he will smash the bones of any man who comes against him. Euryalos has defeated all his boxing opponents in his native Thebes. The two men wear broad belts and wrapped ox hide leather thongs around their hands. Homer describes their ^fig^ht:

The two men, girt up, strode into the midst of the circle

And faced each other, and put up their ponderous hands at the same time And closed, so that their heavy arms were crossing each other, And there was a fierce grinding of teeth, the sweat began to run Everywhere from their bodies. Great Epeios came in, and hit him As he peered out from under his guard, on the cheek, and he could no longer

Keep his feet, but where he stood the glorious limbs gave.

As in the water roughened by the north wind a fish jumps

In the weeds of the beach-break, then the dark water closes above him,

So Euryalos left the ground from the blow, but great-hearted Epeios Took him in his arms and set him upright, and his true companions Stood about him, and led him out of the circle, feet dragging

As he spat up the thick blood and rolled his head over to one side. (Il. 23.685-97)^[1000] Of central importance to the fight are the spectators who gather around to watch: the two fighters step in to the middle of the circle, and the spectators - or some of them - come to Euryalos' rescue at the end and lead him off. Epeios himself participates in this broader camaraderie. In fact, he is the one who rushes to help Euryalos immediately after knocking him out and saves him from the indignity of falling to the ground, unconscious. Euryalos leaves the field on his feet supported by friends, his honour intact. The glory of Epeios' victory and the dignity afforded Euryalos are only possible because of the presence and interest of the spectators. They are the arbiters of social approval. One suspects that had Epeios continued to beat Euryalos or had vainly let him fall disgraced, that the spectators would have disapproved and Epeios' honour would have suffered. The other combat events (wrestling and armed combat) similarly involve individual champions competing in front of assembled people. In these other cases, too, the crowd is active, intervening in the case of the armed combat between Aias and Diomedes to stop the fight when Diomedes draws blood (II. 23.811-25).

Standing at the beginning of a long agonistic tradition, these events are different from later games in some ways. For example, Achilles offers actual, valuable prizes for the competitors, and in fact, usually even the loser is awarded a prize. The prize for the winner will always be important: indeed, the verb athleo, the root of athletes, means ‘to contend for a prize'.

Although the Greeks of later ages continued to admire the heroic single combat in battle (monomachia) celebrated in the Homeric epics, the oppor­tunity for community leaders (the basileis) to distinguish themselves in single combat was greatly diminished on the battlefield, as new, mass formations of heavily armed troops (hoplites) gradually replaced the aristocratic champions of earlier years. The hoplites fought as a unit in a tight formation several ranks deep, and advanced into battle behind a wall of overlapping shields and protruding spears. The military leader was removed from the ostentatious front. In this context a soldier who did break ranks in order to fight in single combat both risked his own life and compromised the integrity of the entire formation, so risking the lives of everyone. For example, the Spartan Aristodemus is said to have acted as a madman at the battle of Plataea in 479 bce because he left the formation to fight out in front in his eagerness to die before the eyes of his comrades.^[1001] Although the Spartans agreed that he had demonstrated extreme bravery, they nevertheless voted him no honours: the battlefield was no longer the place for individual acts of martial bravery that had been celebrated in the Homeric tradition. Indeed, such individua­listic values were now discouraged in war in favour of the collective discipline and courage demanded by hoplite warfare.^[1002] No longer as important on the battlefield, the old aristocratic values celebrating individual honour and victory in single combat were removed to the gymnasium and competitive athletic festivals.^[1003] In contrast with the group solidarity demanded of the contemporary hoplite battlefield, Greek athletics involved entirely individual competitions for personal glory and fame.