Fig. 132.
the enemy, but only one side, and, as a rule, the left. It was in the nature of the contest that a constant change between attack and defence must take place; the attitude represented on numerous monuments, in which the left arm is used for parrying, the right for attack, was the common one, not only as an opening, but repeated at each new phase, though a change would sometimes take place, and the right arm be used in defence, the left for attack. On the vase painting represented in Fig. [132] we see two boxers, whose huge proportions show that they were endowed with unusual strength; both have covered their arms and hands with heavy thongs, one is apparently countering with the left, the other parrying with the right; his left aims at his enemy’s head. On the right stands a winged Goddess of Victory, on the left a
Fig. 133.
boxer with the thongs, raising his left arm to his head. The vase painting, Fig. [133], represents two boxers, one of whom aims a well-directed blow with his left at the breast of the other, who totters. On one side lie some poles, as well as implements belonging to the wrestling school, strigil, sponge, etc. There are also two boxers on the vase painting represented in Fig. [127]. The one to the right has “got home” so effectively on the head with his left, that the other, who has tried to guard with his left arm, has to give ground, and seems to have had enough, for he is raising the first finger of his right hand, a sign that he begs for mercy and declares himself conquered. The thongs here are only worn on the right hand of one of the combatants, but this was probably merely an omission on the part of the painter.
As preliminary practice in boxing, especially in learning the commonest attacks and parries, they used a kind of quintain (κώρυκος), a bladder or leather ball, hung up and filled with sand; this exercise is often represented on old monuments, and most clearly on the so-called “Ficoronese Cista.” This striking at the quintain was one of the regular contests in the gymnasium, for though the dangerous fighting with the leaded thongs was left to professional athletes, yet a trial of skill in the commoner kind of harmless boxing, in which there was no risk of losing teeth, etc., was a very favourite practice, and this, no doubt, is meant when we find boxing mentioned even among the gymnastic exercises of boys.
Similar was the Pancration, as difficult as it was dangerous, which was unknown to the heroic age, a combination of boxing and wrestling, which, though included among the exercises of the boys and youths, was only of real importance for professional athletes. Here all the parts of the body came into play, tricks and cunning feints to lead an opponent astray were permissible, and as important as bodily strength and powerful fists. The combatants fought naked, like the wrestlers, after oiling and strewing dust over their bodies; but they did not use thongs, which would have been in the way in wrestling, nor were they permitted to strike with the whole fist, but only with the bent fingers. They began the fight standing, as in wrestling, and the special difficulty was, in taking the offensive, to avoid being seized by an opponent as well as to parry an unexpected blow from his fist. Blows were dealt not only in the standing fight, but also in the ground wrestling, and in the pancration they made even more use of their feet for hitting and kicking than in the separate contests in wrestling and boxing; they also tried to twist their opponent’s hands and break his fingers, since the main object was to make him incapable of fighting. It is, therefore, natural that among professional athletes the pancration was regarded as the most important of all modes of fighting.
Another contest, the Pentathlon, was of a very different nature. In the pancration the two modes of wrestling and boxing were combined together, but in the pentathlon the different contests were undertaken one after another by a number of competitors, and he who did well in all of them, and took the first place in some, was declared victor in the whole. The contest consisted in jumping, running, throwing the quoit, throwing the spear, and wrestling. Although the combination of these five contests was arranged with a view to the public games, yet it also had some educational importance; for difficult and easy contests were here combined, both those which required skill as well as those in which mere bodily strength carried off the palm, and thus the pentathlon was well calculated to develop the whole body harmoniously, and to keep professionals from devoting too much attention to one side of gymnastics to the disadvantage of the others. For this reason it was introduced among the exercises of the boys. We have no conclusive information about the proceedings in the pentathlon, the order in which the various contests followed one another, and the conditions on which a combatant was declared to be victorious. There is a good deal of difference of opinion among the moderns who have ventured hypotheses on the subject. One great difficulty in deciding this question arises from the fact that, though a considerable number of combatants might take part in the four first-mentioned contests, wrestling must in the nature of things be performed by only two; we must therefore assume that the contests were arranged in such a manner that only two combatants should be left for the last. Probably they began with running, for which a considerable number could enter; supposing there were very many, they may have had several series of combats afterwards. The five best runners would then enter upon the second contest, perhaps throwing the spear; then the worst of these five would be thrown out, and the remaining four enter for the next, the jump; the three best jumpers would then throw the quoit, and the two best quoit-throwers would wrestle finally for the palm. Whether this or something similar was the arrangement, it might happen that a combatant who had never taken the first place in one of the first four contests might carry off the victory at last, but they avoided this by the rule that, if anyone took the first place in the first three contests or in three of the four, the two last or the last might be left out, and he would be considered victor in the pentathlon. Consequently, the final wrestling match only took place if after the fourth contest the victory was still undecided—that is, if among the two best quoit-throwers neither had taken the first place three times. It might, therefore, happen that a man who took the first place twice and the second place once in the first three contests was thrown out in the fourth, and the victory fell to another who had never taken the first place except at the last. Still, this apparent injustice was counterbalanced by the fact that the last contest was really the most difficult, while a certain average excellence in the former contests was required of everyone who entered the pentathlon at all; also it was no small merit to keep a place among the victors in all five contests, though it might not be the first or second. Of course these are merely hypotheses; we have not sufficient materials for attaining certainty in this matter.