246 VICTOR STATUES REPRESENTED IN MOTION. 
PANCRATIASTS. 
The pankration (rayxparvoy)! was a combination of boxing and wrest- 
ling, in which the contestants fought either standing, or prone on the 
eround. While the wrestler merely tried to throw his opponent in a 
series of bouts, the pancratiast continued the fight on the ground until 
one or the other acknowledged defeat. The etymology of the word 
shows that it was a contest in which every power of the contestants 
was exerted to the utmost.? Strangling, pummeling, kicking, and, in 
fact, everything but biting and gouging were allowed. Both Lucian? 
and Philostratos* speak of the prohibition against biting and gouging, 
which statements Gardiner thinks are quotations from the rules gov- 
erning the contest at Olympia, as they are twice quoted by Aristo- 
phanes.® Philostratos, however, says that the Spartans allowed both 
biting and gouging, but that the Eleans allowed only strangling. A 
case of gouging the eye of an opponent with the thumb 1s seen on the 
r.-f. kylix in the British Museum, already mentioned (Fig. 55). Here 
the official is rushing up with his rod to punish such a breach of the 
rules. Philostratos calls the men’s pankration the “‘fairest’’ of contests 
at Olympia, probably in reference to the impression made on the spec- 
tators by the various positions of the contestants, who had to rely quite 
as much on skill as on strength. Pindar wrote eight odes in praise 
of this contest.’ However, even though it was carefully regulated 
at Olympia by rules, it was a dangerous sport—ro dewov aeOdov, 0 
TayKpat.oyv KaNéovow, in the words of the protesting philosopher Xeno- 
phanes® But it was never the brutal sport which some modern writers 
have pictured it.? Plato, to be sure, kept it out of his ideal State,!° 
not, however, because of its brutality, but merely because its distinc- 
tive feature, the struggle on the ground, was of no service in training 
a soldier. ‘The Greeks themselves considered the boxing match far 
more dangerous. Inasmuch as gloves were not used in the pankra- 
tion, this seems reasonable.’ We have in the preceding section men- 
1On the pankration, see Gardiner, Ch. XX, pp. 435 f.; id., J. H. S., XXVI, 1906, pp. 4 f. and 
Pls. III-V; Krause, I, pp. 534 f.; ete: 
?For the etymology, see Plato, Euthydem., 271 C, D; definition, Pollux III, 150; Plut., Quaest. 
conviv., II, 4 (containing also fanciful etymologies of wan); cf. Philostr., Imag., II, 6 (contain- 
ing a full account of the contest in the description of the death of Arrhachion); cf. schol. on 
Plato, de Rep., I, 338 C, D. 
3Vita Demonactis, 49 (against biting). 40. c. (against biting and gouging). 
5 Aves, 442-3; Pax, 898-9. 
SF 78; another example is seen on ar.-f. kylix in Baltimore: Gardiner, p. 437, fig. 152; J. H. S.., 
XXVI, p.9, fig. 3; Hartwig, Die griech. Meisterschalen, P|. LXIV; Perrot-Chipiez, X, p. 629, fig. 350. 
(Nem., LL Tl, Vs fsthm 1VeVe Vievule Mle 
8Frag. 19,1. 5 (ap. Atheneum, X, 6=414a). 
°F. g., Mahaffy, in his Old Greek Life, 1886, p. 56; see Gardiner, pp. 435-7, in refutation of 
such an exaggerated view. 10De Leg., VIII, 832 E; 834A. 
Older writers, ¢. g., Faber, Agonisticon (published in 1592), I, 9, p. 1828, thought that the glove 
was used, an opinion long ago refuted by Krause, I, p. 539, n. 2. Waldstein, J. H. S., I, 1880, 
p. 185, wrongly says that the pancratiast sometimes wore gloves. Pausanias does not mention. 
them, nor do we see them on any of the vase-paintings. 
