The number of competitors varied. Lucian, in the passage referred to, speaks of five or twelve competitors,[[639]] and this statement agrees generally with our other evidence. Pindar’s heroes, the Aeginetan wrestlers Alcimedon and Aristomenes,[[640]] were each victorious over four rivals, that is, in four rounds. The same number is mentioned in the Olympic inscriptions on the wrestler Xenocles and the boxer Philippus.[[641]] Four rounds imply nine to sixteen competitors. A long epigram on Ariston,[[642]] who won the pankration in Ol. 207, tells us that there were seven competitors, and that he took part in all three rounds and did not owe his crown to the luck of the lot.
Sometimes a famous athlete was allowed a walk over, in which case he was said to have won ἀκονιτεί, without dust, that is, without having even dusted his body with the fine sand which athletes used before exercise. Such a victory is recorded of Milo at some unknown festival when he was the only competitor in wrestling.[[643]] The first victory of this sort recorded at Olympia is that of Dromeus in the pankration of Ol. 75.[[644]] An inscription found at Olympia enumerating the victories of the Diagoridae at Rhodes records that Dorieus won a victory in boxing (ἀκονιτεί) at the Pythia.[[645]] These instances, which could be multiplied, are sufficient to prove that Philostratus is mistaken when he asserts that no crown was awarded at Olympia without competition (ἀκονιτεί).[[646]] The case of Dorieus disproves the similar statement made by Heliodorus with regard to the Pythia.[[647]] There can hardly have been any necessity for such a rule in early times, but a rule requiring more than one competitor may well have been introduced at the time of the athletic revival under the Empire, if not at the Olympia or Pythia, at some of the many festivals which bore their names. A rule to this effect might be reasonably expected at festivals where valuable prizes were offered.
The Greeks distinguished two styles of wrestling, one which they called “upright wrestling” or wrestling proper (ὀρθὴ πάλη, or σταδιαία πάλη,[[648]] or simply πάλη) in which the object was to throw an opponent to the ground (καταβλητική), the other “ground wrestling” (κύλισις or ἁλίνδησις) in which the struggle was continued on the ground till one or other of the combatants acknowledged defeat. The former was the only wrestling admitted in the pentathlon and in wrestling competitions proper; the latter did not exist as a separate competition, but only as part of the pankration, in which hitting and kicking were also allowed.[[649]]
In the practice of the palaestra ground wrestling as well as wrestling proper was freely indulged in. We gather from Lucian that separate places were assigned to the two exercises. Ground wrestling took place in some place under cover, and the ground was watered till it became muddy.[[650]] The mud rendered the body slippery and difficult to hold, and so rendered accidents less likely; while wallowing in the mud was supposed to have a most beneficial effect on the skin. Wrestling proper took place on the sandy ground in the centre of palaestra. This was called the skamma, the same word that is used for the jumping pit. It denotes a place dug up, levelled and sanded so as to form a smooth soft surface. For actual competitions a skamma must have been provided somewhere in the stadium, probably, where such existed, in the semicircular theatre at the end.
In heroic times boxers and wrestlers wore a loin-cloth (περίζωμα), such as is occasionally depicted on black-figured vases (Fig. [128]), but this loin-cloth seems to have been usually discarded even in the sixth century. Wrestlers, especially boys, sometimes wore ear-caps (Fig. [17]), but there is no evidence of their use in competitions. For obvious reasons they always wore their hair short.[[651]] Professional athletes under the Empire wore the little hair that was left uncut, tied up in an unsightly little topknot called the “cirrus.”[[652]]
In the present chapter we are concerned only with wrestling proper. Before discussing its rules let me utter an emphatic protest against the slanderous fallacy implied in the use of the term Graeco-Roman to describe a style of wrestling in vogue in some of the Music Halls at the present day. There is nothing in Greek wrestling proper, or in the pankration, which bears any resemblance to, or can offer any justification for, this most useless and absurd of all systems, which, as Mr. Walter Armstrong remarks, might have been invented for the express purpose of bringing a grand and useful exercise into disrepute.
We have no definite statement as to the rules of Greek wrestling, and are forced to infer them from the somewhat fragmentary evidence of literature and art. The two essential points which distinguish one style of wrestling from another are the definition of a fair throw and the nature of the holds allowed.
In most modern styles a man is considered thrown only when both shoulders, or one shoulder and one hip touch the ground at the same time; in the Cumberland and Westmorland style he is thrown if he touches the ground with any portion of his body, or even with his knee. A throw may be either a clean throw or the result of a struggle on the ground. With the Greeks it is practically undisputed that only clean throws counted; if one or both wrestlers fell to the ground the bout was finished. Further, it is certain that a fall on the back, on the shoulders, or the hip counted as a fair throw.[[653]] An epigram on one Damostratus is conclusive evidence for the back, an epigram on Cleitomachus for the shoulders.[[654]] Another epigram relates how Milo, advancing to receive his crown after a “dustless” victory, slipped and fell on his hip, whereupon the people cried out not to crown a man who had fallen without an adversary.[[655]] The question of a fall on the knee is more difficult. The passages quoted from Aeschylus are doubtful, and capable of being interpreted either way. So is the epigram on Milo ascribed to Simonides, which states that he won seven victories at Pisa without ever falling on his knee.[[656]] The evidence of the monuments is divided. We have a group of bronzes, apparently copies of some well-known Hellenistic original, which represent a wrestler who has fallen on one knee (Figs. [130], [131]). His victorious opponent stands over him with one hand pressing down his neck, with the other forcing back his arm. There can be no doubt that he is in a position to throw him on his back if necessary, but he seems to make no effort to do so. On the other hand, we have a group of vases and wall-paintings representing the throw known as “the flying mare,” in which the wrestler as he throws his opponent over his head sinks on one knee (Figs. [114], [115]). Various explanations are possible, the most plausible being that these scenes really belong to the pankration; but none of them is quite convincing. Where the evidence is so evenly balanced, certainty is impossible. On the whole I am inclined to abandon the view which I formerly held and to accept Jüthner’s view that a fall on the knee did not count.
What happened if both wrestlers fell together? The only evidence for this is the wrestling match in the Iliad, described in our second chapter. There it will be remembered that in the first bout Odysseus fell on the top of Ajax, in the second they both fell sideways, after which Achilles declared the contest drawn. From this we inferred that if both wrestlers fell together no fall was counted. The accounts of wrestling in later writers are merely literary imitations of Homer, and of little independent value.
One fall did not decide the victory; three falls were necessary. There are numerous allusions in literature to the three throws.[[657]] The technical word for winning a victory in wrestling was τριάσσειν, “to treble,” and the victor was called τριακτήρ. At first sight it seems uncertain whether the reference is to three bouts or three falls. But the latter interpretation is the only one which suits every passage, and is rendered certain by the categorical statement of Seneca that a wrestler thrice thrown lost the prize.[[658]]