So much for the actual throw and the number of throws necessary for victory. We pass on to the question of the means employed by the Greek wrestler to throw his opponent. In particular, was tripping allowed, and were leg-holds allowed? In the artificial “Graeco-Roman” style of to-day tripping is forbidden and no holds are allowed below the waist. Tripping is seldom represented in art; but the frequent references to it in literature from the time of Homer to that of Lucian leave no doubt that it played an important part in Greek wrestling, as it has in every rational system in every age.[[659]] The evidence for leg-holds is less definite, but it seems certain that in practice at least the Greeks made little use of them. This is the natural inference from a passage in the Laws,[[660]] where Plato contrasts the methods of the pankration in which leg-holds and kicking played a conspicuous part with the methods of upright wrestling. The latter is the only form of wrestling which he will admit as useful in his ideal states, and he defines it as consisting in “the disentangling of neck and hands and sides,” a masterly definition showing a true understanding of wrestling, for the wrestler’s art is shown more perhaps in his ability to escape from or break a grip than in his skill in fixing one. The vases show that the omission of leg-holds in Plato’s definition is no accident. In the pankration one competitor is frequently represented in the act of seizing another’s foot in order to throw him; Antaeus and Cercyon, whose methods Plato in the above passage strongly condemns, are commonly depicted as grabbing at the feet of Heracles and Theseus. But in wrestling proper, though arm, neck, and body-holds occur constantly, we never see a leg-hold. It is probable that this is the result not so much of a direct prohibition as of the practical riskiness of such a hold under the conditions of upright wrestling. A wrestler who stoops low enough to catch an opponent’s foot is certain to be thrown himself if he misses his grip. On the other hand, there is no practical objection when once the wrestlers are engaged to catching hold of an opponent’s thigh whether for offence or defence. Indeed, one of the commands of the papyrus implies that it was lawful to take a grip between an opponent’s legs, or round the thigh.[[661]] In wrestling groups which represent the heave we sometimes see a wrestler trying to save himself by seizing the other’s legs. Perhaps we may recognize as a wrestling scene a group which occurs on an Etruscan tomb.[[662]] One man has lifted another on to his shoulder, with his right arm clasped round his right thigh, and his left hand holding his right hand. He may intend to throw him, or he may merely be carrying him. Further, we must remember that upright wrestling formed part of the pankration, and such groups may therefore belong to the pankration.
The conditions of Greek wrestling may be summed up as follows:—
1. If a wrestler fell on any part of the body, hip, back or shoulder, it was a fair fall.
2. If both wrestlers fell together, nothing was counted.
3. Three falls were necessary to secure victory.
4. Tripping was allowed.
5. Leg-holds, if not actually prohibited, were rarely used.
The positions of the Greek wrestler, the grips and the throws which he employed, are known to us from numerous monuments. In view of the number of the monuments and the complexity of the subject it is impossible within the limits of this work to treat them exhaustively, and I must confine myself to the most important and most interesting of the types represented.
The attitude adopted by the Greek wrestler before taking hold was very similar to that of the modern wrestler. Taking a firm stand with his feet somewhat apart and knees slightly bent, rounding (γυρώσας) his back and shoulders, his neck advanced but pressed down into the shoulder blades, his waist drawn in (σφηκώσας), he tried to avoid giving any opening (λαβή) himself, while his outstretched hands were ready to seize any opportunity offered by his opponent.[[663]] This position is frequently represented in art; but no better illustration of it can be found than the Naples wrestling-boys, generally miscalled Diskoboloi (Fig. [110]).
