DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9184#0323
Soo
New Chapters in Greek History.
[Chap. IX.
came. The degradation of Greek athletic sports may be
traced to several causes. The less pleasing of them—
boxing and the pancratium—came more into favour and
use, and at the same time changed their character. Boxing
had, indeed, from early times been practised at Olympia,
but was not at first savage in character. The early
cestus was very unlike the cruel instrument made of iron
and leather which suited the brutal tastes of the Romans,
and which was even introduced in late times at Pytho
and Olympia. The pancratium, in which two athletes
were set together to fight with fists and feet and in
wrestling until one confessed himself vanquished, must
always have been a sport unfitted for gentlemen. At
Sparta it was proscribed, it being contrary to the genius
of the people that any one of them should allow that he
was vanquished, even in sport. Yet for a time the victors
in boxing and the pancratium are frequently men of the
noblest and wealthiest Greek families, such as the Dia-
goridae of Rhodes, and the wealthy Dorians of Aegina.
It was only by degrees that the professional element
among the competitors came in, and the gentlemanly
spirit went out. The first Alexander of Macedon was
proud to enter among the runners at Olympia ; the third
Alexander was indignant when such a course was sug-
gested to him.
We cannot trace the change in detail, but only discern a
landmark here and there. It was Dromeus of Stymphalus
who, in the fifth century, substituted a meat diet for the
previous regimen of cheese and figs, and ever after his
time athletes who intended to be successful had to devour
great quantities of flesh, a diet unnatural in the climate of
Greece, and apt to produce sleepiness and slowness of
wit. But it was Herodicus of Selymbria, a contemporary
of Socrates, who ruined athletics, by introducing elaborate
rules for eating and drinking and exercise. In fact, he
New Chapters in Greek History.
[Chap. IX.
came. The degradation of Greek athletic sports may be
traced to several causes. The less pleasing of them—
boxing and the pancratium—came more into favour and
use, and at the same time changed their character. Boxing
had, indeed, from early times been practised at Olympia,
but was not at first savage in character. The early
cestus was very unlike the cruel instrument made of iron
and leather which suited the brutal tastes of the Romans,
and which was even introduced in late times at Pytho
and Olympia. The pancratium, in which two athletes
were set together to fight with fists and feet and in
wrestling until one confessed himself vanquished, must
always have been a sport unfitted for gentlemen. At
Sparta it was proscribed, it being contrary to the genius
of the people that any one of them should allow that he
was vanquished, even in sport. Yet for a time the victors
in boxing and the pancratium are frequently men of the
noblest and wealthiest Greek families, such as the Dia-
goridae of Rhodes, and the wealthy Dorians of Aegina.
It was only by degrees that the professional element
among the competitors came in, and the gentlemanly
spirit went out. The first Alexander of Macedon was
proud to enter among the runners at Olympia ; the third
Alexander was indignant when such a course was sug-
gested to him.
We cannot trace the change in detail, but only discern a
landmark here and there. It was Dromeus of Stymphalus
who, in the fifth century, substituted a meat diet for the
previous regimen of cheese and figs, and ever after his
time athletes who intended to be successful had to devour
great quantities of flesh, a diet unnatural in the climate of
Greece, and apt to produce sleepiness and slowness of
wit. But it was Herodicus of Selymbria, a contemporary
of Socrates, who ruined athletics, by introducing elaborate
rules for eating and drinking and exercise. In fact, he