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Greek Boxing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

K. T. Frost
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Extract

The boxing of the Hellenic world even in the fifth century B.C. could boast an antiquity and renown to which modern pugilism can offer no parallel. The ‘noble art’ was associated with some of the most famous names of the heroic age, including even kings and demigods, so that the opprobrium which has become attached, perhaps unjustly, to the term ‘prize-fighter’ was precluded from the titles of the Greek champions. The antiquity of the sport is shown by the vivid descriptions of Homer and the place assigned to it in the Funeral Games, while a fragment of a relief showing a boxer armed with ίμάντεσ discovered by Dr. Evans at Cnossus carries us back to a remoter past. In historic times especially in the earlier period we find the Ionians were the chief boxers and supplied most of the champions. The Dorians, especially the Spartans, do not seem to have looked upon pugilism with much favour, although some victors are known to bave come from the Peloponnesus.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 26 , November 1906 , pp. 213 - 225
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1906

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References

1 Annual of British School of Athens, 1900–1901, p. 95.

2 Krause, ii. 766.

3 See Oxyrhynchus papyrus, II. 222; Robert, C. in Hermes, Vol. xxxv. Part I. pp. 141–195Google Scholar.

4 Paus. v. 8. 9.

5 Pollux, iii. 150.

6 Laws, viii. 830.

7 Paus. viii. 40. 3.

8 The subject is fully worked out in Antike Turngeräthe by J. Jüthner.

9 Badminton, Library, Fencing, Boxing, and Wrestling, p. 135Google Scholar.

10 Badminton, , Fencing, p. 144Google Scholar.

11 Iliad, xxiii. 651–699. Aeneid, v. 362–484.

12 Fencing, Boxing, Wrestling, pp. 125–131.

13 E.g. ἐπὶ δ᾿ ὤρνυτο δῖος Επειόσ is not ‘Epeus made a rush at him,’ but ‘rose on tipeoe,’ see below, ζῶμα περίζωμα which was worn till 15th Olymp, see Pans. i. 44. 1. The belt proper = ζωστήρ iv. 132.

14 xxii. 107 ff.

15 Argonautica, ii. 67 ft.

16 Od. xviii. 4; also 50–100.

17 Il, iii. 193–4.

18 Argonautica, ii. 67 sqq.

19 Mr. R. J. Cholmely in his edition of Theocritus (Clarendon Press) gives a rather different version, and translates ὤμῳ as ‘straight from the shoulder, lit. with the weight of his shoulder.’ The literal meaning makes excellent sense, while the derived interpretation seems to me to read into the account an entirely modern idea. The very fact that Amycus is considered to have executed an unusual manœuvre by advancing his left side instead of standing squarely δοχμὸς ἀπὸ προβολῆς κλινθείσ shows how different was the orthodox Greek position from that of the English Ring.

20 Cf. Aen. v. 427:

Abduxere retro longe capita ardua ab ictu. Their heads held high are drawn back.

21 Wiener Vorlegeblätter viii. 1.

22 Loc. cit. Diagram of the events.

23 Schol. Plato, , Rep. i. 338Google Scholar c, d ἀντίχειρ οὐ συλλαμβάνει τοῖς δακτύλοις τὸ πληκτικόν

24 Schol, to Pind., Ol. xi. 19Google Scholar, p. 243 B λέγει οὖν τὴν Ηρακλέους τροπὴν εἰς παραμυθίαν Αγη σιδάμου ὀκλάσαντος μὲν ἐν τῷ τῆς πιγμῆς ἀγῶνι καὶ τὸν ἀντίπαλον ἄν παρὰ μικρὸν νικῆσαι ποιή σαντος εἰ μὴ ὁ ἀλείπτης αὐτοῦ Γλας ι0δών θάρσοσ ἐνέβαλε διὸ καὶ ἐνίκησεν

25 Aristid. xiii.; Panath. 160, quoted by Krause, p. 509 ὤσπερ οὖν οἰ πύκται περὶ τῆσ στὰσεως πρῶτον ἠγωνίσαντο Also Aesch., in Ctes. § 206Google Scholar Bekk. ὤσπερ οὖν ἐν τοῖς γυμνικοῖς ἀγῶσι ὁρᾶτε τοὺς πύκτας περὶ τῆς στάσεως πρὸς ἀλλήλους διαγωνιζομένους

26 τοὺς δὲ πύκτας οὺδὲ πάνυ βουλομένους ἐῶσιν οἰ βραβευταὶ συμπλέκεσθαι Plutarch, , Symp. ii. 4Google Scholar.

27 Ap. Rhod. ii. 86 στάντε δὲ βαιὸν ἄπωθεν

28 διαπυκτεύειν Paus. vi. 10. 1.

29 Plut., Lycurgus, c. 19Google Scholarἐν οἶς χεὶρ ἀνατείνεται

30 See Krause, p. 522, cf. Pausanias, viii. 40. 3.

31 Plutarch, , De profect. in virt. c. 8Google Scholar. At the Isthmian games Aeschylus remarked to Ion that while the spectators cried out whenever a blow was struck, the man who received the blow was silent.

32 κακῶν γὰρ ὄντων κ.τ.λ. Athen. x. 413, The parallel between this and Kipling's tirade against flannelled fools is very close: one might almost be a free translation of the other.

33 Also 100 drachmae to a winner at the Isthmian and other games. Plutarch, , Solon, c. 23Google Scholar. Krause, op. cit. ii. p. 765.