Fig. 160. Heracles and Triton. B.-f. amphora, in British Museum, B. 223.
Fig. 162. Graeco-Roman gems in British Museum.
Ground wrestling must have been the most distinctive, as it certainly was the most decisive, part of the pankration. It was probably as complicated if not as long as it is at the present day, the combatants sometimes sprawling at full length, sometimes on their knees,[[761]] sometimes on the top of one another. It is this part of the pankration to which Plato objected and which led him to exclude it from his ideal state as useless for military training, because it did not teach men to keep their feet.[[762]] Perhaps in Plato’s time the pankratiast, like the modern Graeco-Roman wrestler, was apt to neglect the preliminary contest and go down on the ground at once. Such grovelling, if it existed, was a sign of the decay of these antagonistic sports, which, as we have seen, had set in before Plato’s time; it was unknown to Pindar, who specially emphasizes the importance of boxing in the pankration.[[763]] Ground wrestling is seldom represented on the vases, except in the contest of Heracles and Antaeus (Fig. [161]); but groups of the kneeling type are frequent on later gems, being particularly suitable for oblong or oval spaces. The examples given in Fig. [162] from gems in the British Museum explain themselves.
Fig. 161. Herakles and Antaeus. R.-f. kylix. Athens.
Fig. 163. Group of pankratiasts. Uffizi Palace, Florence. (From a photograph by Brogi.)
The most important and interesting of all the monuments connected with the pankration is the group of wrestlers in the Uffizi gallery in Florence (Fig. [163]). Unfortunately, it is considerably restored, but in spite of recent criticism there seems to be no reason for doubting the general correctness of the restoration.[[764]] The underneath wrestler supports himself on his left arm, and his opponent’s immediate object is to break down this support. This can be effected by a blow. For the underneath wrestler’s right arm being secured, he can only guard his head with his left. The situation can be illustrated by the description in Heliodorus of the match between Theagenes and the Aethiopian champion.[[765]] Theagenes forces the latter on to his knees, twines his legs round him, and then knocks away his wrists, with which he is keeping his chest off the ground. Having broken down this support, he forces him down on his stomach on the ground. While a wrestler is supporting himself on his hands and knees, his position is far from hopeless, and he may by a quick and vigorous movement often overturn his adversary and reverse matters. Such is the moment selected by the sculptor; the victory is still undecided, the uppermost wrestler is anxious to make sure of victory, the other is eagerly watching to take advantage of any carelessness on his opponent’s part. How fatal any such carelessness may be we learn from the story of Arrhichion.[[766]] Arrhichion was being strangled by his opponent, who was on the top with arms and legs entwined round him; but even as he was expiring he took advantage of a momentary relaxation of the grip to kick his right leg free, and rolling over so as to crush his opponent’s left side, he seized his right foot and twisted it out of its socket with such violence as to force him to yield, and so even with his last breath he secured the victory.