228 VICTOR STATUES REPRESENTED IN MOTION. 
build, short thighs, flat abdomen, long skull, and oval face are all 
Polykleitan characteristics, and remind us of the series of kindred 
works already discussed, which, as Furtwaengler believed, went back to 
the original statue of the boy wrestler Xenokles at Olympia, the work 
of the younger Polykleicos.1 
WRESTLERS. 
Wrestling (7aA\7n) 1s perhaps the oldest, and in any case is the most 
universal, of athletic sports. Wall-paintings at Beni-Hasan on the Nile, 
dating from about 2000 B. C., show nearly all the grips and throws now 
known.2. Plato says that this sport was instituted in mythical times.° 
In Greece its origin is lost in mythology.’ The very name palaistra, 
“wrestling school,’ indicates the early importance of the contest. 
It was one of the most popular of Greek sports from the time of Homer 
down.’ This popularity is shown by the frequency with which 
it appears in mythology and art. Early b.-f. vases picture Herakles 
wrestling with giants and monsters. Here we see the same holds 
and throws as in the palzstra scenes on later r.-f. vases. ‘The whole 
history of coins down to imperial days shows such scenes. No other 
exercise required so much strength and agility, and consequently wrest- 
ling matches early became a part of the great games. At Olympia 
wrestling was introduced in Ol. 18 (= 708 B. C.), the same year in which 
the pentathlon was instituted.° The boys’ match appeared there less 
than a century later in Ol. 37 (=632 B.C.).7 Pausanias mentions 
statues erected to 36 victors (for 45 victories), which makes this contest 
second only in importance to boxing there. 
There were two sorts of wrestling in Greece, wrestling in the proper 
sense (690) man), where each tried to throw his antagonist to the 
ground, making his shoulders touch three times, and ground wrestling 
1M>p., pp. 279 f. Furtwaengler wrongly ascribed the statue of Xenokles to the elder Ploykleitos. 
*See the fine drawings of these and other groups from tomb no. 17 (of Khety) in Champollion, 
Monuments de l’ Egypte et de la Nubie, 1845, IV, Pls. CCCLXXII-CCCLXXVIII; Pl. CCCL- 
XXIII, 3 =Perrot-Chipiez, I, p. 793, fig. 521; CCCLXXIV, 4= zbid., p. 792, fig. 520. Another. 
scene from the tomb of Nevothph is pictured in Champollion, Pl. CCCLXIV, I. See also 
Arch. Survey of Egypt, Beni Hasan, Pt. I, 1894, Pl. XV; cf. a poor reproduction of several scenes 
in Springer-Michaelis, p. 27, fig. 68. 
3De Leg., VII, 796 A, B, C. 
4Philostr., Imag., II, 32 (p. 857), ascribes its origin to Hermes’ daughter Palaistra; Apollodoros, II, 
4.9, says that the same god’s son Autolykos was the teacher of Herakles. Pausanias, I, 39.3, says 
that the systematic instruction in the art began with Theseus. Eustathius, schol. on J/., XXIII, 
p. 1327, says that Kerkyon discovered it. Ina scholion on Pindar, Nem., V, 49, Boeckh, p. 465, 
Pherekydes and Polemon are quoted as saying that Theseus’ charioteer Phorbas invented the art, 
and Istros is quoted as saying that Athena taught Theseus. At Olympia Herakles was a victor 
in wrestling: P., V, 8.4. 
’Ajax (Telamon) and Odysseus contended in a wrestling bout which ended in adraw:Il., XXIII, 
710-734; in line 701, and in Od., VIII, 126, itis called radatcpootvy adeyewh; it appears among the 
Phaiakians in Od., VIII, 103, 246. It was pictured along with boxing on the shield of Herakles 
by Hesiod: Scut., 302 (=€kxnédr). 
SPR oie ea ee TPE eos 
