On the other hand the Homeric heroes were well aware of the advantage that lay in the possession of powerful and well-matched horses. Admetos, son of Pheres, is said by Homer to have possessed the best horses of those that were gathered before Troy; they were very swift, and were classified and paired with regard to speed, color, age, and stature; they were “matched to the measure of a levelling-line across their backs.” Il. ii, 763-765.
Achilles, being the distributor of prizes and the chief mourner of Patroklos, his beloved friend, did not contend in the chariot-race, although his own skill and his horses, Xanthos and Balios—the immortal steeds bestowed on Peleus by Poseidon—would undoubtedly have won for him the victory. Through skill and cunning, Antilochos quickly overtook Menelaos, left him behind and won the race, although his horses were much inferior to those of the latter.
It should be mentioned that in the race, as in hostile combat, the Homeric hero made use of two horses. In the race he stood alone in his chariot and managed his horses himself, but in the turmoil of battle, he was accompanied by a comrade as driver (ἡνίοχος). This was beautifully illustrated by scenes on the Cypseline chest, a work of art, which belonged, probably, to the seventh century B. C.
After the chariot-race came the boxing-match. Achilles offered two prizes to the antagonists, one to the winner and one to the loser. He stipulated that the two contestants should be men of first-class reputation. The well-known champion, Epeios, boldly claimed the first prize, and in order to deter any one from contesting this claim, gave voice to the following prediction: “I will utterly bruise mine adversary’s flesh and break his bones; so let his friends abide together here to bear him forth when vanquished by my hands.”
Euryalos alone dared to accept this challenge. The antagonists cast about themselves girdles and wound about their hand strips of raw oxhide. The struggle was violent, for “sweat flowed from all their limbs.” But finally, Epeios smote the other on the cheek, and Euryalos collapsed. “As when beneath the North wind’s ripple a fish leapeth on a tangled-covered beach, and then the black wave hideth it, so leapt up Euryalos at that blow.”
The wrestling-match was ordained as the next event. Again Achilles offered two prizes, one for the winner and one for the loser. Only Odysseus, the type of artfulness and trickery, and Telamonian Aias, the representative of bodily size and brute force, essayed to struggle. After they had girt themselves they went into the midst of the ring. Here they stood locked in each other’s arms, like two gable rafters joined by a builder. Their backs were gripped with such force that they creaked; the sweat ran down their bodies in streams; blood-colored welts appeared on their sides and shoulders. Thus they struggled with the advantage on neither side until the spectators began to grow weary. At last when Aias had lifted Odysseus off his feet, the latter mindful of his wiles, smote the former in the hollow of his knee, and Aias fell backward, and Odysseus fell upon his chest. But victory was not bought with one throw. So they rose again and locked. After Odysseus had tried futilely to lift Aias from the ground the two fell together in the dust. They rose and would have wrestled the third time had not Achilles restrained them by declaring the contest a draw.
From this detailed account it is evident that the Homeric athletes practiced what has been styled the standing wrestling, as distinguished from wrestling on the ground. In the former variety the antagonists struggled until they fell, whereupon they rose and struggled again. When an antagonist had been thrown three times the contest was decided in favor of the other. In the latter variety the contestants continued the struggle on the ground, after they had fallen. At a later period standing wrestling was practiced at all the great games. Plato, who was always alive to the value of these contests, as a preparation for war, greatly preferred standing wrestling, because it exercised the muscles of the upper part of the body as those of the arms, sides, shoulders, and neck. Wrestling insures not only health and strength, but also a fine carriage, and is an exercise well adapted to draw out all the resources of the athlete. Plutarch then rightly calls wrestling the most artistic and cunning of athletic exercises.
In heroic times, it should be noted that athletes did not wrestle entirely naked. The oil which the Homeric heroes employed after the bath and in anointing the dead, was never used in their gymnastic exercises. The poet, who often minutely describes minor and unimportant things, does not mention oil in this connection. He certainly would not have passed over in complete silence, the use of oil in these contests had he been familiar with the custom.
After the wrestling-match had been concluded, the foot-race was ordained, and prizes for it were offered by Achilles. The competitors were three,—Odysseus, Aias, son of Oileus, and Antilochos, son of Nestor. Odysseus was the victor in the race.
That portion of the twenty-third book of the Iliad, that describes the duel with spears, between Diomedes and Telamonian Aias, the contest with the iron diskos, and the contest of archery, has been pronounced, on good internal evidence, to be a late interpolation. It should accordingly be considered as data for an account of the athletics of later times.