Fig. 110. One of a pair of bronze wrestling boys, generally known as Diskoboloi. Naples. (Photograph by Brogi.)
Generally the wrestlers stand square to one another, and prepare to take hold somewhat in the style of Westmorland and Cumberland wrestlers, “leaning against one another like gable rafters of a house,” or “butting against each other like rams,” or “resting their heads on each other’s shoulders.”[[664]] This position, known apparently as σύστασις, is frequently depicted on the vases (Fig. [111]). Needless to say, this type does not represent a preliminary “butting-match,” as a certain foreign archaeologist seems to imagine, it is the natural position of two wrestlers engaging. Sometimes their heads do crash together as they meet. I read recently an account of a wrestling match in which the heads of the two wrestlers met with a noise which could be heard through the whole house.
Fig. 111. Panathenaic amphora, in British Museum, B. 603. Archonship of Polyzelus, 367 B.C.
Sometimes instead of taking hold from the front the wrestlers try to obtain a hold from the side as in preparing for “the heave,” and in such a case the bodies are turned sideways to one another, a position described as παράθεσις.[[665]] A not very satisfactory illustration of such a position is shown on a British Museum kylix representing Theseus and Cercyon[[666]] (Fig. [112]), with which we may compare the group of Heracles and Antaeus on the frieze of the theatre at Delphi,[[667]] where the sideways position is more clearly marked. Theseus and Heracles seem in both cases to have avoided the ponderous rush of their foes by stepping sideways.
Fig. 112. R.-f. kylix, in British Museum, E. 84.
Fig. 113. Group from British Museum amphora, B. 295 (Fig. 143).
In endeavouring to obtain a hold wrestlers frequently seize one another by the wrist. This action which is probably denoted by δράσσειν is often a purely defensive movement to prevent an opponent from obtaining a hold on the neck or body. Sometimes, as on a Munich amphora (Fig. [123]), each wrestler holds the other by the wrist. Sometimes one wrestler holds both his opponent’s wrists. Such holds are merely momentary and of little importance. A more effective hold was obtained by seizing an opponent’s arm with both hands, one hand seizing the wrist, the other gripping him at the elbow or under the armpit (Fig. [113]). This seems to have been a very favourite hold and led to one very effective fall of which we have many illustrations.