Neo-Pancratium

By By R. Logan-Browne (Health and Strength Magazine, 1898)

The ancient Pancratium was a mode of battle which for brutality would put any modern prize-ring to the blush. The word is composed of two Greek words, one meaning all and the other strength. The custom was so named because it called all the powers of the fighter into action. In this contest the combatants, naked and oiled, fought against each other in a personal conflict, and the contest continued until one of the combatants declared himself vanquished. It was a union of boxing and wrestling, and was opened by an attempt to force one’s adversary into an unfavorable position with the sun shining into his eyes. Then began either wrestling or sparring. As soon as one party was either thrown or knocked down, the other kept him so, and pommelled him into submission; and when he arose at last, to receive the plaudits of the assembly, it was occasionally from the corpse of his antagonist. According to Pausanias, Pancratium was evidently the best liked of all the ancient Olympic contests, for he says of it in one instance “that for the future they took care that neither the pentathlon nor the horse races should stand in the way of the Pancratium.” To win the prize both in the boxing and in the Pancratium on the same day was considered the highest honor to be won at Olympia. Strangling, striking with the hands, knees and elbows, twisting and dislocating the limbs, breaking the fingers and toes and all practices except biting and kicking were allowed. The boxer’s cestus of course was not used, since the hands were required in grasping one’s antagonist. It was really a contest for personal supremacy, and to engage in it an athlete must have been of the greatest courage and of the most symmetrical development.

Sometimes the prize was awarded without a contest, as when Dromeus won the olive wreath, he being presumably so terrible a competitor that no one entered against him. In the following Olympiad, however, he was beaten by Theagenes. The same champion often won the prize in two or more Olympiads, as in the case of Arrachion, whose second contest is thus described by Pausanias: “For when he contended for the prize of wild olive with the only one of his antagonists that remained, his opponent got hold of him first and hugged him with his feet and grappled his neck tightly with his hands, And Arrachion broke the finger of his antagonist and gave up the ghost, being strangled; and his antagonist also, though he had throttled Arrachion, fainted away from the pain his finger gave him. And the people of Elis crowned the dead body of Arrachion and proclaimed him victor.” There is also a story of two of these combatants, neither of whom could worst the other, agreeing to take a blow in turn at each other. One, rising on tip-toe, struck the other full on the top of the head, but did not disable him. The other dug his five fingers into his adversary’s stomach and pulled out his entrails. The dying fighter in this contest was crowned with the victor's wreath, it being held by the judges that the blow with the five fingers extended was a foul one. It may be suggested that the Pancratium is too terrible to serve any useful purpose in these modern times, save perhaps as a salutory reminder that even a society as civilised as that of classical Greece required an outlet for those primitive and violent impulses which, if left unexpressed within the confines of sport, might wreak havoc without. Vis-a-vis its unalloyed form, replete with the breaking of fingers and throttling, no gentleman could disagree.  However, several years ago it occurred to me that the ancient Pancratium, suitably adapted, might afford us an excellent method of physical culture and athletic contest, with the additional benefit of being a secure and versatile method of self-defence against roughs and thugs. With the above in mind, I have undertaken a series of experiments in reviving this archaic sport.  The first order of business was to select a committee representing both scholarly and athletic interests, and in this I had good fortune of securing the enthusiastic co-operation of my colleagues within the Department of Classical Studies and several well-regarded Professors of Physical Culture.  With the former providing translations and access to a wide range of pictorial resources, including illustrated vases, friezes and other artworks of the Golden Age, and the latter volunteering their expertise in the antagonistic arts and a willing body of first-rate student athletes, we were well-prepared for the task at hand. In re-constructing Pancratium for the modern age, our raison d’etre has been that whilst blows are legitimately outlawed in wrestling, they are the boxer’s stock in trade, and whilst gripping and throwing are banned in the ring, they are practiced safely by wrestlers everywhere.  By combining these two sports we may approximate the Pancratiast’s art in all but the its most savage aspects, thereby enjoying its benefits without suffering its excesses.  Our Committee has elected to name the result Neo-Pancratium, for although our experiments have referred to classical sources wherever possible, there are certain aspects of the ancient Greek practice that we have determined as being unsuitable for this more refined era.  Never-the-less, we feel confident that this new sport will serve its several purposes most admirably.

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