BOXERS. 235 
Xenophanes.’ However, boxing was farolderthanepic poetry. Wehave 
already seen that it was the only form of real athletics in Aegean Crete. 
One of the oldest representations of a boxing match is seen on the frag- 
ments of a bronze shield discovered there in the grotto of Zeus on 
Mount Ida. Here on a single concentric ring are seen two warriors, 
armed like Assyrians with corslets, shields, and helmets, fighting with 
doubled fists.?, The high antiquity of boxing in Greece is also shown 
by myths. At Olympia Apollo is said to have beaten Ares, and Poly- 
deukes won a victory there.* Apollo appears as the god of boxing in the 
Iliad,® and the Delphians sacrificed to Apollo Ivx«rys.7 Herakles, 
Polydeukes, ‘T'ydeus, and Theseus were all famed boxers; the latter 
was said to have invented the art. The historical boxing match 
was introduced at Olympia in Ol. 23 (=688 B.C.), and Onomastos of 
Smyrna, the first victor, instituted the rules of the contest.? The 
boys’ contest was instituted in Ol. 41(=616 B.C.).!° It was by far the 
most popular contest there. Of the 192 monuments erected to 187 
victors mentioned by Pausanias, 56, or nearly one-third, were erected 
to men and boy boxers for 63 victories. 
Greek boxing" is conveniently divided into two periods by the kind 
of glove used in the matches. From Homer down to the end of the 
fifth century B.C., soft gloves ((uavres, tuavres NemwTol or werAtxat) Were 
used; fromthentolate Roman days the heavy gloves (c@aipar or iwavrTes 
ofets) were the fashion. ‘The weighted Roman cestus was not used 
in the Greek contest. Before discussing representations of boxers 
in art, we shall devote a few words to these two kinds of boxing-gloves, 
which frequently give us the date of a given monument.” The Cretans 
are thought to have worn boxing-gloves, as they seem to be visible 
on the so-called Boxer Vase from Hagia Triada (Fig. 1). Here, on the 
top and lower two rows, a leather gauntlet appears to cover the arm to 
beyond the elbow, being padded over the fist and confined at the wrist 
by a strap. Mosso derives the later Greek glove, which appears on 
athlete statues, from this primitive thong.’’ In any case the antiquity 
lruxtoctvn adywoeooa: frag. 19, 1. 4 (= Philos. Fragm., ed. Didot, I, p. 104 =Athen., X, 6, p. 
414a). Apollon. Rhod. calls it as dmnvéa rvyuaxiny, Il, 76-7. The parts injured were 
especially the nose, ears, cheeks, chin, and teeth; cf. Krause, p. 516 and n. 18. 
2See Orsi, Museo Ital. di antich. class., I, Pl. V, p. 808; cf. Juethner, pp. 65-6, and Frothingham, 
A. J. A., IV, 1888, p. 444. 
3See Krause, pp. 497 f. Ph., 9, says that it was an invention of the Spartans and was first used 
among the Bebrykes. 
4P., V, 7.10; cf. Plut., Quaest. conviv., VIII, 4.4 (which speaks of victories of Apollo in boxing). 
5P., V, 8.4. 6X XIII, 660. Plat, 1.¢. 
8The schol. on Pindar, Nem., V, 89, Boeckh, p. 465, says that Theseus instituted the art of boxing. 
9P., V, 8.7; Afr., s. 2. Onomastos; Ph., 12; Homeric Hymn to Apollo, 149; cf. Foerster, 28. The 
dateis also given by Ph., /. c. WP V.8.9;5:Ph., b3 
uSee K.T. Frost, J. H. S., XXVI, 1906, pp. 213f; Gardiner, Ch. XIX, pp. 402 f.; Krause, pp. 497 f. 
12See Krause, I, pp. 502 f.; Juethner, pp. 65 f.; Gardiner, pp. 403 f. 
Mosso, The Palaces of Crete, 1907, p. 339, and fig. 160 on p. 341. Orsi, l. ¢., believes the 
object over the fists in the bronze shield fragment from Mount Ida to be part of a glove, though 
Juethner rejects this view, interpreting it merely as an ornament. 
