PANCRATIASTS. 249 
victories by seizing and bending his adversaries’ fingers, holding them 
fast till he yielded. 1 Since a Delphian inscribed base? 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 1 is said, however, of Sostratos’ mode of fighting in the Delphi 
inscription, ahetetet 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.’ 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 Woltlseas 
at Delphi shows that the statue was represented in a similar way.' 
The same lunging attitude is also shown on the Halimous grave-relief.° 
Sometimes the contest ended with the preliminary sparring, though 
usually it developed into wrestling and boxing. 
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). 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’ that on the head is a cap with a ring in the 
top, by which it could be suspended as a decorative piece, or per- 
haps 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 archzologists. The Plinian passage, therefore, is to be 
1He won three victories in Ols. (?) 104, (?) 105, and 106 (= 364-356 B.C.): P., VI, 4.1; Hyde, 37; 
Foerster, 349, 353, 359. This explanation of Pausanias has been accepted by Krause and most 
modern authorities, but is found untenable by Gardiner, who bases his interpretation, not on Pau- 
sanias, but on the accurate definition of Suidas. 
2B. C. H., VI, 1882, pp. 446 f. 
3He won in Ols. 81 and 82 (=456 and 452 B. C.): Oxy. Pap.; P., VI, 4.3; Hyde, 38; Foerster, 
202, 203; cf. Pliny, H. N., XXXIV, 59. He was probably merely represented in the prelim- 
inary tactics of getting a grip. 
4See Reisch, p. 46; J. G. B., 120. 
5Anz. d. Wiener Akad., 1887, pp. 86 f. (Benndorf); Reisch, /. c. 
6A. de Ridder, Les bronzes antiques du Louvre, I, 1913, Pl. 63, no. 1067, and p. 131 (=pancra- 
tiast); Rev. arch., 1869, II, p. 292; Bulle, no. 96 (right); Reinach, Rép., I, 2, 543, 4. It is 0.275 
meter high. 7See supra, p. 167. 
8H. N., XXXIV, 55. Hauser, Jh. oest. arch. Inst., XII, 1909, pp. 116 f. His reasoning is ac- 
cepted by Bulle. 
