WRESTLING IN WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 February 1939, Page 2

WRESTLING IN WAR

FEATS OF ANCIENT GREEKS. Historians say that wrestling and the pancration (an ancient mixture of boxing and wrestling, similar io the all-in modern wrestling) were invented for their utility in war. For proof they point to fear of arms. That wrestling and the pancration were invented for their utility in war, is proved, in the first place, by the feat of arms at Marathon, which was so performed by the Athenians that it seemed like a wrestling match: and. secondly, at Thermopylae, where the Lacedaemonians fought often with their bare hands, when their swords and lances were broken. And of all the contests which were customary, the pancration was pre-eminent, although it was composed of imperfect wrestling and imperfect boxing. It is mentioned that boxing was in-', vented by the Lacedaemonians. They boxed because they had no helmets, and they considered that fighting with such was not according to the customs of the country; but the shield took the place of the helmet if one understood how to carry it. In order, then, to parry blows directed at the face, and when they came to withstand them, they practised boxing and sought, in this manner, to harden the face.