Vase-paintings[1753] show many grips and throws of the pankration—the flying mare, leg hold,[1754] tilting backwards by holding the antagonist’s foot, “chancery” (i. e. catching the adversary around the neck with one arm and hitting his face with the other fist), stomach throw (i. e., seizing the adversary by the arms or shoulders and at the same time planting one’s foot in the other’s stomach, and then throwing him over one’s head),[1755] jumping on the back of one’s opponent,[1756] strangling, wrestling and boxing combined, and kicking and boxing combined. Ground wrestling is very commonly depicted on vases and especially on gems, since such groups were adapted to oblong or oval spaces.[1757] We reproduce a pancratiast scene from a Panathenaic amphora of Kittos, dating from the fourth century B. C., in the British Museum (Fig. 59).[1758] This is a conventional representation of wrestling and boxing combined. The pancratiast at the right of the group has rushed in with his head down and has been caught around the neck by his adversary’s arm, a hopeless position, from which he can not escape. The latter is either about to complete the neck hold (if it be an actual case of “chancery”), or perhaps to hit him with his right hand. A third pancratiast is looking on from the extreme right, while a paidotribes, switch in hand, appears at the left. The fight on the ground is well depicted on the r.-f. kylix of the British Museum already discussed as showing boxing scenes (Fig. [55]).[1759]
Fig. 59.—Pankration Scene. From a Panathenaic Amphora by Kittos. British Museum, London.
We have but few representations of pancratiasts in sculpture. The preliminary sparring—known as ἀκροχειρισμός[1760]—must have characterized the statue of the Sikyonian pancratiast Sostratos at Olympia by an unknown sculptor, since Pausanias says that this victor was known as ὁ ἀκροχερσίτης, explaining the epithet as that of one who gained his victories by seizing and bending his adversaries’ fingers, holding them fast till he yielded.[1761] Since a Delphian inscribed base[1762] gives the same number of victories as Pausanias, we infer that they were given also on the Olympia base, the source of Pausanias’ information. Since nothing is said, however, of Sostratos’ mode of fighting in the Delphi inscription, Pausanias must have argued it from the pose of the statue. The Sicilian wrestler Leontiskos of a century earlier, whose statue was by Pythagoras, had, according to Pausanias, used similar tactics, for “he vanquished his adversaries by bending back their fingers.”[1763] These cases show that statues of pancratiasts and wrestlers were frequently represented in vigorous lunging attitudes as well as in groups. The epigram on the base of the monument of the pancratiast Teisikrates at Delphi shows that the statue was represented in a similar way.[1764] The same lunging attitude is also shown on the Halimous grave-relief.[1765] Sometimes the contest ended with the preliminary sparring, though usually it developed into wrestling and boxing.
Fig. 60.—Bronze Statuette of a Pancratiast (?), from Autun, France. Louvre, Paris.
A good representation of a pancratiast trying to kick his antagonist seems to be furnished by the small bronze statuette from Autun, South France, now in the Louvre (Fig. [60]).[1766] This statuette is of mediocre workmanship, its hard muscles, imperfect proportions, and realism showing that it comes from the Hellenistic period of Greek art. It represents a bearded athlete, who holds his hands ready to strike and his left foot raised apparently to kick his adversary’s leg. The foot is just ready to return to its original position, so that the motive of this poor little statuette discloses a transient period of time between two movements, just as the Diskobolos and Marsyas of Myron did. We have already noted[1767] that on the head is a cap with a ring in the top, by which it could be suspended as a decorative piece, or perhaps as part of a steelyard. Hauser believes that this motive was known to the elder Polykleitos and that this is the interpretation of that sculptor’s statue of a nudus talo incessens mentioned by Pliny, a statue which has formed the basis for much discussion among archæologists.[1768] The Plinian passage, therefore, is to be translated as “the nude man attacking with his heel (talo)”—in other words, it describes a statue represented as kicking, which was allowable in the pankration. The manuscripts of Pliny all read talo, which Benndorf[1769] thought could be retained only by assuming that the naturalist mistranslated his Greek source γυμνὸς ἀστραγάλῳ ἐπικείμενος, translating the word ἐπικείμενος “standing upon,” as incessens “pursuing.” He therefore assumed that Polykleitos’ statue stood upon an astragalos (talus) basis, which he believed was the forerunner of the statue of Opportunity (Καιρός) by Lysippos,[1770] and he referred it to the knuckle-bone basis found at Olympia.[1771] Woelfflin,[1772] however, has shown that talo incessens can only mean “mit einem Knochel nach Jemand einwerfen.” Following this, Furtwaengler showed[1773] how impossible on grammatical and other grounds it was to read talo in Benndorf’s sense, since the passage then would mean “advancing towards” or “pursuing,” by means of a knuckle-bone, which is manifestly nonsense. The word could be only instrumental in use, as Woefflin said, i. e., the weapon by means of which the man was attacking. Furtwaengler, therefore, followed Benndorf’s earlier alternative reading telo, assuming that Pliny mistakenly wrote talo because he was influenced by the presence of the same word in the passage immediately following: duosque pueros item nudos talis ludentes qui vocantur astragalizontes.[1774] But Hauser’s interpretation of talo meets all the conditions better, since it keeps the manuscript readings, makes grammatical Latin, and seems to be illustrated by the statuette in question.
Sometimes the statues of Olympic pancratiasts were represented at rest with the weight of the body equally on both legs, as we see from the recovered basis of the statue of the Athenian Kallias by the Athenian sculptor Mikon.[1775] Furtwaengler has identified a statue in the Somzée Collection as a copy of this work.[1776] The footprints on the recovered base of the statue of the Rhodian Dorieus show that it was represented at rest with one leg slightly advanced.[1777] We have actual remnants of statues of Olympic pancratiasts in the marble head found at Olympia, which we are to assign to the statue of the Akarnanian Philandridas by Lysippos, mentioned by Pausanias (Frontispiece and Fig. [69]),[1778] and the beautiful statue of Agias discovered by the French at Delphi in 1894, a work by the same sculptor (Pl. [28] and Fig. [68]).[1779]