Fig. 128. B.-f. amphora. Vatican.
These movements may be illustrated by a group on a black-figured vase in the Museo Gregoriano (Fig. 128). The wrestler to the left has obtained a hold round his opponent’s waist, either from in front or from behind. In the former case his opponent must have immediately turned round. Anyhow, by throwing his weight well forward, he frustrates the attempt to lift him, and puts himself in an advantageous position for swinging the other off his feet. Somewhat similar must have been the motive of a much mutilated group on a metope of the treasury of the Athenians at Delphi, representing the exploits of Theseus, except that the figures are more upright.[682]
Fig. 129. Bronze group, in the British Museum.
A throw somewhat resembling the cross-buttock is represented in a recently acquired bronze of the British Museum (Fig. 129). As two other replicas[683] exist it seems probable that it is a copy of some well-known Hellenistic group in bronze or marble. A thick-set bearded man is wrestling with a powerful youth, and with his back turned to him twists him off his feet by a most curious arm-lock. With his right hand he forces his opponent’s right arm back across his own thigh, while he has slipped his left arm under his left armpit and gripped his neck, thus rendering the imprisoned arm quite useless, and obtaining a leverage similar to that of our half Nelson. Perhaps the grip was obtained in the following way. The man seizes the youth’s right arm, and by a quick movement pulls him towards him and turns him round, μεταβιβάζει, at the same time stepping himself to the left so as to be behind him. He then slips his left hand under his left armpit so as to grasp his neck and force it down. The grip obtained he turns round to the right and twists him over.
We have seen that tripping (ὑποσκελίζειν) was at all times an essential part of Greek wrestling. There are various technical terms for the different chips, but their interpretation is very uncertain and the monuments give little help. The words βάλλω, βολή, and their compounds, are used to denote both arm and leg movements. Perhaps we may recognise in ἑμβοληή the modern “hank” and in παρεμβολή the “back heel,” the foot being hooked round the opponent’s leg from the inside and the outside respectively. The latter term occurs in an amusing passage of Lucian’s Ocypus.[684] Ocypus, who is suffering from gout but will not acknowledge it, alleges, among various excuses for his lameness, that he hurt his foot in trying a back heel. By analogy the term διαβολή, if used of a leg movement, may mean the “outside stroke.” The chip by which Odysseus threw Ajax is described by Eustathius as μεταπλασμός or παρακαταγωγή. From the Homeric account these terms ought to correspond to the “inside click” or “hank.” Some such click is perhaps intended on the vases in Figs. 116, 123, where one wrestler, lifted from the ground, clicks his foot round his opponent’s leg.
The best illustration of tripping is furnished by a group of bronzes representing a wrestler fallen on one knee and supporting himself on his left arm, while his opponent stands over him with his left leg still hooked round his, and his right foot behind. So far all the bronzes agree, but in the position of the arms there are two varieties. In the St. Petersburg bronze (Fig. 130) the victor forces the other’s head down with his left hand, and with his right presses his right arm back in the same way as in the bronze in the British Museum (Fig. 129). In the Constantinople bronze (Fig. 131) he holds his opponent’s neck with his right hand, while with his left he has twisted backwards his arm and shoulder. In both cases he makes the attack from behind. In the first case he seizes his opponent’s right hand with his own right, places his arm across his neck, and at the same time hooks his left leg round the other’s left leg; then pressing his neck forward he forces his right arm backwards, using it as a lever to twist him off his feet. The other as he falls puts out his left hand to save himself and falls with his left hand and right knee on the ground. In the other type he seizes the other’s left hand with his own left and pulls it across his back, at the same time forcing his head forwards and downwards with his right hand, and hooking his left leg. The fall is still more inevitable. All the bronzes seem to represent the fall as completed, and the victor has no appearance of continuing his attack. If a fall on the knee was a fair fall no further explanation is wanted. In any case the fallen man’s position is hopeless, and he can at any moment be rolled over on the ground.
Fig. 130. Bronze. St. Petersburg.
Fig. 131. Bronze. Constantinople.
These bronzes are probably copies of some well-known Hellenistic group. The number of replicas which exist of it attest the importance of the original statue and the popularity of the throw represented. It is the sort of attack that must naturally have commended itself to boys playing tricks on one another, or street roughs attacking innocent passers-by from behind. And it is, I believe, the very trick by which Aristophanes, in the Knights, describes the way in which Cleon cheated simple old country gentlemen. “Whenever you find such a one,” say the chorus, “you fetch him home from the Chersonese, and as the old gentleman is walking along unsuspectingly star-gazing you suddenly throw your arm across his neck (διαβαλών), hook his leg (ἀγκυρίσας), and, pulling his shoulder back, kick him in the stomach (ἐνεκολήβασας).”[685] Horse-play of this character was not unknown among the fashionable youth of Athens. Demosthenes relates how Conon and his sons set upon Ariston, tripped him up, threw him in the mud, and jumped upon him; and several of the terms which the orator uses are, like those of Aristophanes, terms familiar in the wrestling school.
In no sport is there greater variety of styles and rules than in wrestling. Almost every country has a style of its own. In Greece the Panhellenic festivals helped to preserve uniformity of rule, but there was still room for much diversity of style.[686] The Sicilians in particular had a style of their own, the rules for which had been drawn up by one Oricadmus.[687] There was also a “Thessalian chip,”[688] but in what the Sicilians or Thessalians excelled we do not know. The Argives, who were specially famed for their skill in wrestling, are described by Theocritus as “cross-buttockers.” On the other hand, the Spartans disdained the science of wrestling and the teaching of trainers, and relied on mere strength and endurance.[689] Plutarch ascribes the victory of the Thebans at Leuctra to their superiority over the Spartans in wrestling.[690] Individuals, too, had their favourite chips. It is recorded of Cleitostratus of Rhodes who won the wrestling at Olympia in Ol. 147 that he owed his victories to the use of the neck-hold.