PANCRA´TIUM (pankration) is composed of pan and kratos, and signifies an athletic game, in which all the powers of the fighter were called into action. The pancratium was one of the games or gymnastic contests which were exhibited at all the great festivals of Greece; it consisted of boxing and wrestling (pugmê and palê), and was reckoned to be one of the heavy or hard exercises (agônismata barea or barutera), on account of the violent exertions and great weight of body it required, and for this reason it was not much practised in the gymnasia; and where it was practised, it was probably not without modifications to render it easier for the boys. According to the ancient physicians, it had very rarely a beneficial influence upon health .
At Sparta the regular pancratium was forbidden, but the name was there applied to a fierce and irregular fight not controlled by any rules, in which even biting and scratching were not uncommon, and in which, in short, everything was allowed by which one of the parties might hope to overcome the other. In Homer we neither find the game nor the name of the pancratium mentioned; and as it was not introduced at the Olympic games until 648 B.C. , we may presume that the game, though it may have existed long before in a rude state, was not brought to any degree of perfection until a short time before that event. It is scarcely possible to speak of an inventor of the pancratium, as it must have gradually arisen out of a rude mode of fighting, which is customary among all uncivilised nations, and which was kept up at Sparta in its original state. But the Greeks regarded Theseus as the inventor of the pancratium, who for want of a sword was said to have used this mode of fighting against the Minotaurus . Other legends represented Heracles as having been victor in the pancratium , and later writers make other heroes also fight the pancratium ; but these are mere fictions. After the pancratium was once introduced at Olympia, it soon made its way into the other great games of Greece also, and in the times of the Roman emperors we also find it practised in Italy. In 01. 145 = 200 B.C. the pancratium for boys was introduced at the Olympic games, and the first boy who gained the victory was Phaedimus, a native of a town in Troas . This innovation had been adopted before in others of the national games, e.g in the Nemean ; and in the 61st Pythiad we find a Theban boy of the name of Iolaidas as victor in the pancratium at the Pythian games . At the Isthmian games the pancratium for boys is only mentioned in the mythical age till quite late times, but it may have been practised during the Greek classical period.
The name of these combatants was pankratiastai or pammachoi. Other predicates applied to the pancratium are amachos, aleiptos, aêttêtos, aprosmachos, asunexôstos, peristhenês, megauchês: cf. Krause, Gymnastik und Agonistik. The combatants fought naked, and had their bodies anointed and covered with sand, by which they were enabled to take hold of one another
When two pancratiastae began their contest, they stood with outstretched arms: and the first object which each of them endeavoured to accomplish was to gain a favourable position and grip, each trying to make the other stand so that the sun might shine in his face, or that other inconveniences might prevent his fighting with success . This struggle was only the introduction to the real contest, though in certain cases this preparatory struggle might terminate the whole game, as one of the parties might wear out the other by a series of stratagems, and compel him to give up further resistance (apagoreuein). Sostratus of Sicyon had gained many a victory by such tricks . When the al contest began, each of the fighters might commence by boxing or by wrestling, accordingly as he thought he should be more successful in the one than in the other. The using the teeth and butting with the head were considered unfair fighting (kakomachein) and contrary to the law of the games (nomos enagônios): The victory was not decided until one of the parties was killed, or lifted up a finger, thereby declaring that he was unable to continue the contest either from pain or fatigue . It usually happened that one of the combatants, by some trick or other, made his antagonist fall to the ground, and the wrestling which then commenced was called anaklinopalê, and continued until one of the parties declared himself conquered or was strangled, as was the case at Olympia with Arrhichion or Arrachion of Phigalia, (= 564 B.C.), who, however, was declared victor, as his opponent gave up at the last moment from the pain of a broken toe . A lively description of this struggle is given by Philostratus Sometimes one of the fighters fell down on his back on purpose that he might thus ward off the attacks of his antagonist more easily, and this is perhaps the trick called huptiasmos. The usual mode of making a person fall was to put one foot behind his, and then to push him backward, or to seize him round his body in such a manner that the upper part being the heavier the person lost his balance and fell.......
Exerpt from A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin)
at the Perseus Archives
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