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SIXTH CHAPTER.
The fistfight. Somewhat distinct from wrestling. Fistfight with bare or armed hands. Fists are inborn weapons, always ready, and the oldest. The antiquity of fistfighting made into a sport. First occurred only with clenched fingers. Later they also used gauntlets, belts, and straps. Over time, these became fitted with lead, copper, or iron knobs. The description of it by Mercurialis and Scaliger. The terrifying nature of this combat sport, depicted by Virgil. One sees there several circumstances of the fistfight. Fighters with gauntlets. Their heavysetness. Sameness of the gauntlets. Fighters placed together and standing upright. They strike each other cruelly. They strike at the face, chest, loins, and ribs. They wound each other severely. Attempt to hold on. Signs of defeat and victory.
§ I.
And then first that, which among Plutarch (in Lycurgus), Suidas (in the keyword) and others, among Mercurialis from Pliny (gymnastic art book 2, chapter 9), is called pugilism among the Latins, and by us fistfighting (art of poetry book, chapter 2): derived from the Greek [word], from which the Latin
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fist and fight and our word fist is derived, where only the p has been changed into a v (in the keyword pugilist). Those who practiced this sport were called pugilists. The actual practice of this sport the Greeks called (*) striking with fists.
§ II.
Interpreters differ as to whether this is older or younger than wrestling. To us it is a part of wrestling, namely that which happens with the hands: for every fight, struggle, and resistance depicts the form of a wrestling match. However, it was otherwise distinguished from wrestling as a special kind of its genus; as Strauchius also understood it (Olympia § 15). This kind of wrestling was at least introduced later into the Olympic arena, and is chronologically younger there than wrestling in the strictest sense of the word: for while this was introduced as early as the eighteenth Olympiad, the fistfight was not introduced there until the twenty-third Olympiad presented itself.
§ III.
The fistfight was again distinguished into a pure fistfight, that is, that which happened only with the hand, with clenched fingers, in which state we call the hand the fist; and into a fight in which (book 2, chapter 4) the hand was armed with certain protective and wounding implements, as will soon become apparent. The latter came into more common use, and is therefore usually
(*) The word [striking with fists] is also found used by the apostle in 1 Corinthians 9:26: "I fight so, not as one who beats the air." He alludes to the fistfight. Although Hammondus indicates that the apostle here has his eye on the Greek [sport], which consisted partly of a fistfight and partly of wrestling.
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intended by writers when they speak of a fistfight. In the exposition of its natural origin and progress, everything will become clearer; and about that we make the following account.
§ IV.
Fists are inborn weapons, and therefore we may think that before the invention of other weapons, prepared from wood, iron and such materials, they were used in battle: as they are still all too much used in private disputes of drunken, or otherwise, of angry, irate and such [people], who appoint might as the arbiter of their disagreements. They are also weapons that one always carries with them and that are ready, so that one does not have to search for them for long. These inborn and most ready weapons Lucretius not unpleasantly calls old weapons (book 5, v. 1284), to which he also counts nails and teeth:
The ancient weapons were hands, nails and teeth.
That is:
The ancient weapons are the hands,
Then also the nails and the teeth.
It is furthermore to be thought that these weapons were used even earlier than for serious battle, to give each other a soft tap or push with them, under jest and play (as we see the exuberant boys so mutually amuse themselves); but that thereafter the aging youth, and the disturbed [youth], struck more fiercely and thus made a game serious.
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§ V.
The playful use of the hands or fists has meanwhile remained, and become an art and ceremony, and even early on to that art which we now describe, namely the fistfight. Early on, I repeat, for Homer already depicts the practice of this among the Greek heroes before Troy, something that Virgil follows up with Aeneas with his Greek refugees. And Homer and others do place the practice of this in the first place, wrestling in the second, and running (however natural that is) in the third, or also in the fourth. Thus that prince (Iliad 23) of poets ACHILLES speaks to NESTOR:
That is:
--- I give them, come and get the prizes:
You shall not fight with fists, nor wrestle in the ring,
Nor shoot arrows, nor run hard and strong.
What NESTOR answers in like manner:
That is:
I have heroically conquered Clytomedes, the son of Enops, with the fistfight;
Ancaeus (who dared to challenge me) with wrestling; and with running
it is known that I am the master of Iphiclus.
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However, it entered the Olympic arena later, namely around the 18th Olympiad, and was therefore younger than wrestling, as was just said in § 2.
§ VI.
The fistfight first happened with clenched fingers, without any other addition. But after striking with the bare fist caused as much, and sometimes even more, pain to the one who struck as to the one who was struck, one thought of and decided to use some implements. These were now the cestus, from [the Greek word for] belts, straps: just as the Romans also called from this Greek word a belt, and in particular that of a bride, a girdle. The gauntlets were now of two kinds, namely a piece of heavy ox leather considered as a belt, or some straps made from it, and wound around the hands and arms, from which the fingers, at least the nails, protruded, to be able to scratch in case of necessity. Thus Feithius tells us: the fistfight happened with fists that were strengthened with ox-leather straps (Homeric Antiquities, book 4, chapter 6), with which they struck each other, as we see Euryalus and Epeus do in Iliad 23. So Theocritus says in Idyll 22 that Pollux was feared for his fists, and so on. That is: The fistfight happened with fists that were wound with ox-leather bands, with which they struck each other: as we see that Euryalus and Epeus in Iliad 23 did. So Theocritus also says in Idyll 22 that Pollux was feared for striking with his fists:
That is:
Who wound his hands with an ox hide.
What then appears more clearly from his fight with AMYCUS.
Likewise with Virgil: (Aeneid book 5, v. 401)
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In the middle he threw a pair of gauntlets of enormous weight,
with which the fierce Eryx was accustomed to fight
and to gird his arms with the hard leather.
Vondel gives this:
Thereupon he quickly threw two heavy gloves,
with which the severe Eryx used to defend himself
in the fighting arena, where he bound them firmly around his arms.
For anciently the pugilists had straps woven from raw ox leather, which were bound to the flat hand, so that the fingers were bare, so that they could scratch with their nails. The ancients called these soft. So far Feithius. Or, when the cruelty became greater, and the game began to look like murder, straps that were set with lead, copper, or iron knobs here and there (to which Virgil also evidently alludes in the quoted passage with Feithius), which from then on in particular boasted the name of gauntlets. Not that the word actually meant this, for it only means in general a strap, belt, bandage, but because now the gauntlets were usually so, and not otherwise, constituted.
§ VII.
These knobs were not unlike ram's horns, according to Manutius (book 2 on questions by letter, letter 8). Pollux, however, compares them to acorns (Onomasticon book 6, chapter 30). But let us first hear the description of Mercurialis (book 2, chapter 9), and then of Julius Caesar Scaliger. The first: Certainly, it resembled the fistfight, or was a kind of it, that battle which was fought with the gauntlets. For those were copper strips that were bound around the hands, but with which they were tied were certain
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straps, distinguished by dots, which were bound around hands and arms from all sides: so that the fighters could hit each other not only with some weight and thickness, but also with density.
Scaliger says: To the fists straps were added for protection: because (on the art of poetry book 1, chapter 22) those who struck with the bare hand often suffered more damage than they inflicted. Those straps, etc. That is: the fists are equipped with straps for strengthening, because those who struck with the bare hand often received more pain than they inflicted. The straps are called gauntlets with a Greek word; for [the Greek word] means a belt (Pedagogue book 2, chapter 6). In the beginning they were short; shortly thereafter, so that they would not fall off during striking, they were attached to both the elbow and the shoulder. Finally iron and lead were sewn to them, cruel to see: for they easily tore apart brains and throat. For this reason they also pulled on ear protectors for their ears.
§ VIII.
This combat sport was therefore terrifying, since it could shatter the teeth and jaws of the affected party and make the brains burst out, shattering the skull, and thus could kill him at once. We can see this vividly depicted in the fistfight that Virgil describes to have taken place between DARES and ENTELLUS: which two were among the most famous pugilists, and placed among the renowned heroes of this art, CASTOR, AMYCUS, EPEUS, BROTHEAS, AMMON, GLAUCUS, CARYSTIUS, and the like, of whom famous writers make mention. Let's hear Virgil: (Aeneid book 5, v. 400 et seq.)
--- after he had spoken thus,
he threw into the middle a pair of gauntlets of enormous weight,
with which the fierce Eryx was accustomed to fight, etc.
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Vondel gives it to us thus:
-- Thereupon he quickly threw two heavy gloves, with which the severe Eryx used to defend himself in the fighting arena, where he bound them firmly around his arms. The spectators listen attentively to him and stand terrified at the ox-leather glove, very stiffly lined with material of lead and iron. Even Dares stands here stricken with fear, and more astonished than anyone else in the crowd, and does not want to get into danger with that glove.
The strong son of Anchises grabbed the fighting implement in his hands, with all the bandages and long, tough straps, and examined it everywhere. Then the gray-haired man Entellus spoke: "How would the eye marvel at the weapons, the very glove of Hercules, coarse of limb and for his fierce fight, fought on this coast? Your brother Eryx once fought with this weapon, which you still see splashed with brains and blood. Once he dared to face Alcides with these weapons. And when my blood was formerly still hot and boiling, I was not yet gray with age, nor so slowed down, I used this weapon. But if this pleases you, and Dares may disapprove and scorn our weapon, if Acestes, the organizer of the battle, finds this advisable, and it also seems good to prince Aeneas: I am content. Let us enter the fighting arena with the same weapon. Be unconcerned, I will not oppose this: I will lay aside the gloves of Eryx; you too shake out the Trojan gloves." So he speaks, takes off his double coat, bares his coarse loins and coarse bones and skin, and arms, strong and thick, and places himself in the middle of the ring without a weapon, as big as he was created.
Prince Aeneas brings forth two gloves, just as thick and heavy, and winds them as firmly as he can,
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with the same weapon around the hands of both.
Then they stood on their toes, just as audacious, and swung and parried with their arms, bravely in the air. They engaged in battle, and fearful of the blow, they try to avoid the blow by bending their head, to avoid the fist of the enemy, and get heated during the fight. One, quicker on his feet, relies on his youth, and the other on his weight and thickness; but he stands too loosely and wavers, for his legs give way, which tremble under the heavy and sluggish mass of his body. He pants for breath, exhausted and weary from heaviness.
They strike for a long time in vain from both sides; they repeat blow upon blow on ribs, chest and loins, so terribly that it pops. They drive each other from all sides around the ears with the fist, where it hits, so that the jawbone and skull crack. The coarse Entellus stands and knows of no giving in, as solid as a pole, and without giving a shudder. He faces the blow, and parries it with his stance. His enemy, who now spies on him from one side, now from the other, neglects no opportunity, assails him without advantage, so many times in vain; like someone who with deliberation storms a super-strong city with high walls with siege engines, or besieges a castle on a high mountain.
Entellus, in order to hit, began to lift his coarse fist with force and brought it a blow from above. The other saw it coming to his head and nimbly dodged the blow with a light jump. Entellus, by this miss, this striking into the wind, falls, before he can repeat it, to the ground by his corpulence with this mass of his body; as once from the earth with a crack an old pine tree, which, risen high in the top, on Ida or Erymanthus, rotted and tottering,
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is torn from its root and felled.
Trojan and Sicilian swarm and bustle, upset with zeal, so that it sounds to the high arches of heaven. And the old Acestes comes at once, out of compassion, to his dear friend, just as old as he, having run ahead, and lifts him, although his party regrets it, immediately up again. The hero, not even frightened, nor paralyzed by that fall, hastily resumes this revenge and fights more fiercely. The revenge gives strength. The shame and the knowledge of his strength, so hard-pressed, then inflamed his blood and heart, and completely enraged, he applies himself with his fast right hand to follow him, to hit, again and again, and drives Dares across the field and the meadow without rest. There was no rest in the hero. He did not shrink back, but struck at Dares, pushed and turned, and hit him so that it cracked, as if hail was blowing and falling on a roof.
Prince Aeneas could not bear that Entellus won the fight any longer and continued in that glow. Therefore he separated the fighters, came to rescue Dares, so tired, and said: "What now? Do you not see that he is your master, that the tide has turned? Be silent out of respect for a stronger one. Wretched one, you rage! Alas, where are your senses?" So he speaks, suspends the fight, but all who love Dares, his comrades, lead him (who drags his legs from fatigue, and lets his head hang from both sides from distress, spitting clotted blood and pieces of teeth from his nose and mouth) to the shores, to the ship.
§ IX.
In this description by Virgil, several things occur to us that concern the circumstances of the fistfight, and in particular that with the gauntlets,
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straps and knobs. For 1. not only are the gauntlets described most clearly and painted vividly before our eyes as with their own colors, but also 2. in the coarseness of build of (see Theocritus Idyll 22, v. 43) HERCULES, ERYX, ENTELLUS it is sufficiently depicted that the pugilists had to be very heavy of body and as complete hulks. To this end, the practitioners of this were fattened up like lazy pigs in the gymnasium, as we have shown above in its place (herefor book 1, chapter 8, § 3); which they also had in common with the wrestlers (Suidas, Strauchius § 15); just as this fight must also be considered a kind of wrestling, where a distinction is made between straight and bent wrestling. To the first kind also belonged the fistfight, and even when it happened with the gauntlets. 3. that they were equipped with equal gauntlets, so that by the inequality of them, for example, if someone had a light one and his party the heavy one as of ERYX, no one would gain an advantage or suffer damage. 4. that the parties were placed together, and stretched out, stood very straight up and with outstretched arms. The first was called being composed, being placed together, by Polybius (histories book 1, fol. 24). The latter happened, to brace oneself in one's place, to elevate oneself against the party, in order to conquer better. But to elevate oneself so, and to stiffen the neck, was considered outside of the fistfight in ordinary intercourse as very improper and ugly, and whoever did it was considered a vain person, as appears from Plutarch (Plutarch). This standing upright, with an eye to the upcoming (Agonistica book 1, chapter 12) act, was called standing striking, or standing fistfighting. So they had to stand on a good stance, filled with dust and sand, so as not to slip, as appears from
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Philostratus (treatise 246); and so standing firm, erect and solid they were said to have an orderly stance, or posture. Chrysostom alludes to this (on Ephesians 6:13-14). So much depended on such a stance and posture, that often victory or defeat depended on it. Who now stood in such a posture, were said to stand opposite each other, to offer resistance. Sophocles alludes to this when he speaks of resisting love (at Stobaeus, treatise 84):
That is:
Who as a fighter with the fist and rough gloves
Tries to resist the rule of love,
Is a fool; for love rules even over the high gods.
Almost in the same way Plutarch also speaks about SOLON: (in Solon, towards the beginning) etc. That Solon had not been armed against the beautiful, nor had the power to resist love as a pugilist, with outstretched hands, etc. It is also called standing against the man, in Theocritus (Idyll 22, v. 65). However, these things were also common to the wrestlers, about which more below. But it further appears from Virgil 5 that they engaged in striking each other cruelly, and that the art consisted in inflicting accurate blows on each other, and avoiding them by bends of the body. Scaliger expresses this more circumstantially as follows (at the quoted place): the whole art is to avoid the blow, not by fleeing, but by bends and turns of the body. And then to catch the blow
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with a blow, if it is stronger. Finally, not to inflict a blow in vain: for they fell forward from the weight of the lead, if they tried to strike too hard. That is: the whole art consisted in avoiding the blow, not by flight, but by inclinations and bends of the body (which DARES could do better than the old and stiff ENTELLUS because of his agility. Therefore Virgil says about the former: (Aeneid book 5, v. 430))
He, better in the movement of his feet and trusting in his youth.
That is, according to Vondel:
One, quicker on his feet, relies on his youth.
After that, catch the blow with a blow, if the opponent is stronger. Finally, not to do a blow in vain: for whoever tried to strike too powerfully, fell forward, dragged down by the weight of the lead. (This last happened, according to VERGILIUS's story, to the aforesaid ENTELLUS, all the more because his heaviness was added to it:
----- Entellus, by this miss,
This striking into the wind, falls, before he can repeat it,
For his corpulence, to the ground with this mass.
etc. And at 6. that they mainly struck each other at the mouth, the face, the ears (as had to happen, as we showed earlier), but also at the chest, loins and ribs. Virgil expressed this thus:
They repeat many blows on the hollow side, and on the chest resound
loud blows, and around the ears and temples wanders
the hand continuously, the jaws crack under the hard wound.
Vondel has this:
They repeat blow upon blow on ribs, chest and loins,
So terrible, that it pops: they drive from all ends
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each other around the ears with the fist where it hits,
That bone and jaw and skull crack.
And at 7. that they wounded each other severely. For the head of DARES was battered, and he spit clotted blood and pieces of teeth. Then at 8. that the weaker party used many efforts and pains to hold on. And so elsewhere it is sufficiently shown that such a person is in great debilitation, fatigue, embarrassment and brought to giving in. Both the Greeks called (*) to toil, to become weary. To this Virgil at 9. should have pointed out the sign of defeat and of victory; however, he omits that, on the one hand because he shows DARES as defending himself desperately out of magnanimity, so that he would rather be beaten to death than to give the sign that he confessed himself defeated; and on the other hand because he brings in AENEAS, who pulls DARES from the ring before the extreme. Otherwise the sign that the defeated gave of his defeat (since here the victory could not appear from the matter itself, as in the running race,
(*) These two words to toil and to become weary we find together in Revelation 2:3: "you have... toiled and are not weary." This is borrowed from the combat exercises of the Greeks, in particular of the wrestlers, who lost courage when they were tired and exhausted. Paul also has this in mind when he says in Hebrews 12:3: "so that you do not faint and give up in your souls." The Jewish Philo contrasts the words to trust, to be brave and [to become weary]: be steadfast, or brave, do not become faint. Compare Psalm 27:3. See further Adami Observ. Theol. Philol. p. 406, 407.
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where the defeated visibly lagged behind, and as in the wrestling, where the defeated had to be felled three times) was either a verbal confession, or an actual termination, and the stretching out and lowering of arms and hands, which were previously outstretched and raised. The one was called to give up, the other to stretch out, or to offer, the hands. Thus did AMYCUS, conquered by POLLUX in the fistfight, according to the story of Theocritus (at the quoted place)
That is:
He lay to the ground, astonished and cruelly beaten,
And reached out (while he refused to venture
The further chance) both his hands:
What not? He was close to death, where he lay.
For although the fistfight did not aim to throw someone down, but only to hit him, it was nevertheless so that a weaker party could fall to the ground by frequent wounds. And although this falling down from such a wound (sufficiently distinct from a falling down by a heavy miss, which made ENTELLUS plop down) was a sufficient sign of victory, it was nevertheless the custom that even such a person gave up verbally, ended the fight and offered his hands; thus doing what someone who was still standing, as usually happened, had to do to get out, namely to give up the fight and offer his hands, as has been said. This offering of the hands happened by letting them from
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their raised position, in which they stood in posture to strike, sink, and at least let them hang down, which was called to let the hands sink (*). But the sign that the victor gave of his victory on this was also a stretching out of his hands, but different from the previous one, because this was without confession, and because it happened with raising them in the manner of the joyful and triumphant: why it is called (with regard to the discus-throwing) to stretch out, to raise the hands, by Statius. So he says: (Thebaid book 6, v. 659)
-- They stay at a distance, and bewildered confess
the defeat, barely do Phlegyas alone, and the fierce Menestheus
(they too were held by shame and the name of their great ancestors)
hold up the hand. ----
That is:
They stand from afar, and confess that they give up,
So completely astonished: only Phlegyas and besides him
The brisk Menestheus (but both only spurred on by shame
And the great name and fame of their fathers)
Hold on to victory, and raise their hands.
§ X.
Because now in the fistfight such an open giving up and
(*) Philostratus says in his Heroics: "letting the hands hang." Paul, with an eye to Isaiah 35:3, says in Hebrews 12:12: "slow hands," or possibly rather, "weak hands," as it is often spoken of in the Old Testament. See 2 Samuel 17:2, 2 Chronicles 15:7, Ezra 4:4 and elsewhere. The apostle undoubtedly alludes to the pugilists, of whom it was said that their hands became weak when they, being exhausted, gave up courage and were no longer able to inflict blows on the enemy. See Faber and Lydius.
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confession, and murderous cruelty took place, LYCURGUS forbade his citizens, the Spartans, this very thing, just as ALEXANDER THE GREAT is also said to have despised and disdained it. For the one was against a heroic magnanimity, and the other against all humanity. It is then rightly censured by Ammianus Marcellinus at Emperor CONSTANTIUS, that he rejoiced in the spectacle of this cruel sport more than in all others. However, because the Lacedaemonians in subsequent times were found to be so devoted to the fist sport, it seems to us that LYCURGUS abolished it in such a way that only the cruel seriousness was taken away, and the more pleasant jest was put in its place, namely in such a way that it would henceforth not proceed with real weapons, that is, gauntlets, but with softer ones, and those that did not cause wounds: as we read in Trebellius Pollio about pugilists (Trebellius Pollio) who did not fight the fistfight in earnest, but with bags; or, as other books read, which Cusaubonus also prefers, with soft-filled balls, which were undoubtedly sewn into and on the straps in place of the iron and lead knobs: as we, I repeat, read there of such pugilists and soft implements, so could such after LYCURGUS also have been in use among the Lacedaemonians: which also becomes credible from the fact that among them in later times delicate daughters bound on those straps and hit each other, as that soft sex is not suited for hardness, and as not the bloodiness, but the movement and exercise, skill and strength provides, which were the reasons that the daughters also watched the practice games, and in particular the fistfight. That the mentioned Spartan girls practiced the practice games and in particular the fistfight, is clear from Propertius: (book 3, elegy 13)
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O Sparta, we admire the many laws of your wrestling school,
But even more the many good things of the girls' school.
That is:
O Sparta, we are astonished at the laws of your arena,
But most of all when we direct our eye to the arena of the virgins.
Now she binds the joyous arms before the gauntlet with straps,
Now she swings the throwable weight of the discus in a circle.
That is:
The maidens there bind the knobbed glove
To their sturdy arms and throw the discus with their hand.
All this we understand as lighter play exercises with decorated, that is, softer weapons and gauntlets, although Propertius places this fistfight of the maidens next to the pancratium, which caused bloody wounds:
And a woman, covered with dust, stands at the finish line,
And suffers wounds from the hard game, called pancratium.
That is:
A woman covered with dust stands at the last mark,
Gets wounds from the game, called Pancratium.
For this he seems to have said only by way of exaggeration, a scratch or a bump, or a bruise, for the tenderness of the sex, for big wounds giving up.
§ XI.
The reader can find in Mercurialis on p. 154, 155 and 156 several images of such pugilists, who struck with the gauntlets or knobbed straps, as well as of these knobbed straps, wound around the arms, as Mercurialis found them at Pyrrhus
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Ligorius, who took them from coins, grave paintings and other old pieces.
§ XII.
See there what more brutal instruments! From them it is again clear to see, how bloody this fight, and moreover still called a game, must have been. And yet this cruel game, although reasonably censured by many, was nevertheless highly praised and glorified by others. For the victor was from ancient times (book 1, chapter 14) praised, as someone who obtained a praiseworthy victory, since the defeated had to make a struck-down confession of his shortcoming. Also, the victors were anciently awarded beautiful prizes, namely oxen, and also a beautiful woman. Thus HERCULES in Euripides has these victors, as well as the victors in the wrestling ring, give gifts: (Alcestis, act 5)
That is:
For whoever won in light games,
Went away with the horses,
But whoever could win in heavy ones,
Received as a prize oxen:
And then also a beautiful woman.
It would be a shame if I would refuse it.
The heavy games are the fistfight and the wrestling, as the Greek [text] itself says, and expressly calls it heavy, while the light [games], which are opposite to it, are running, jumping and discus-throwing. However
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in the Olympic arena the victory was rewarded with the wreath of honor: and in addition highly glorified with laudatory verses. Simonides for money made such a laudatory poem as befitted victorious generals (rhetoric institutions book 10, chapter 11). The most shameful thing was that these murderous victors were even placed among the gods. See Eusebius (preparation for the gospel, book 5).