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The Greek race is certainly well-known for its athletic and military achievements in the PreChristian era. In truth, we must credit them for both the word "athlete" and the ideal it expresses. It was also the Greek soldier who would represent the standard for the rest of the world to follow for centuries. The contribution of the Greeks to the evolution of the martial arts, as we presently know them, is now certainly evident. Fighting systems that have originated in both Eastern and Western parts of the world may indeed be linked to this ancient combat form.
Over 2000 years ago, the ancient Greeks had developed a brutal, all-out combat form which they named Pankration (pronounced pan/cray/shun or pan-crat-ee-on depending on the dialect). The term is derived from the Greek adjectives pan and kratos and is translated to mean "all powers" or "all-encompassing." First introduced into the Olympic Games of 648 B.C., pankration would soon become the most popular and most demanding of all athletic events. It integrated every physical and mental resource - hands and feet, mind and spirit - in the closest simulation of no-holds-barred competitive fighting that any culture has ever allowed. Only biting and gouging were prohibited. Anything else went, although the tough Spartan contingent allowed these, too, in their local athletic festivals. The techniques included a murderous mixture of Hellenic boxing and wrestling: hook and uppercut punches, full-powered kicks, elbowing and kneeing, joint locks, as well as numerous submission chokeholds.
Kicking was an essential part of pankration, especially rising kicks to the groin or stomach, and powerful leg sweeps meant to take an opponent off his feet. Kicks above the belt were used sparingly, with blows aimed to the head or face only when one's adversary was on the ground and too weakened to block or catch the attacker's foot. Due to this unique tactic alone, some combative experts credit pankration as the first comprehensive unarmed fighting system on record.
Pankration bouts were extremely brutal and sometimes life-threatening to the competitors. Rules were minimal in number. In addition, there were no weight divisions and no time limits. The fighting arena or "ring" was no more than twelve to fourteen-feet square to encourage close-quarter action. Referees were armed with stout rods or switches to enforce the rules against biting and gouging. The rules, however, were often broken by some participants who, realizing they were outclassed by a heavier and stronger foe, would resort to such measures to escape being seriously maimed. The contest itself continued uninterrupted until one of the combatants either surrendered, suffered unconsciousness, or, of course, was killed.
Although knockouts were common, most pankration battles were decided on the ground where both striking and submission techniques would freely come into play. Pankratiasts were highly-skilled grapplers and were extremely effective in applying a variety of takedowns, chokes, and punishing joint locks. Strangulation was most feared during ground combat, and was the leading cause of death in matches. A fighter would immediately raise his arm in defeat once his opponent's forearm had secured a firm grip across the windpipe or carotid artery.
The feats of the ancient pankratiasts became legendary in the annals of Greek athletics. Stories abound of past champions and masters who were considered invincible beings. Arrichion, Dioxxipus, and Polydamos are among the most highly-recognized names, their accomplishments defying the odds by besting multiple armed opponents in life-and-death combat, and battling and killing lions when human competition was no longer a feasible challenge. It is also theorized that the famed strongman Hercules was the first Olympic victor in pankration. Exhibitions of superhuman strength were frequently witnessed by the awe-struck Greek people. Practitioners displayed the power of pneuma (Gr. inner energy) by breaking stones and planks with their bare fists and driving their hardened feet through forged war shields.
The Romans would later adopt pankration into their particular athletic contests, but their modifications would degrade it to a mere blood sport. The fighters were now armed with the dreaded caestus, a weighted and spiked glove which reigned blows with deadly results. In Rome it was not unusual for such public brutality, as it was the rule rather than the exception, to quench the spectator's thirst for gore. This alteration, however, diminished the skill and aesthetic value that the Greek race had come to admire in their athletes. Rarely, if ever, did a true Greek pankratiast participate in the savage gladiatorial arenas of Rome, even though the were often tempted by higher purses and positions within the powerful Roman empire.
Pankration was basic to the majority of the Greek warriors who served under Alexander the Great during his invasion of India in 326 B.C. Many authorities now contend that this dispersal of pankration techniques throughout the subcontinent laid the foundation for countless Asian martial arts which evolved soon thereafter, including Chinese kung fu, Okinawan karate, and Japanese jiujitsu. This theory has been the subject of a raging controversy for the past twenty years.
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PANKRATION Pre-Christian form of Greek fighting. Pankration, sometimes spelled pancration, or pancratium or even pankratium, was a combination of earlier forms of boxing and wrestling practiced by the Greeks. Some historians trace its origin to the Indian vairamushti system.
It should be noted, however, that pankration and the Pyrrhic dance, a Greek armed and unarmed war-dance similar to modern karate kata (formal exercises), both antedate Indian statues depicting temple guardians in poses similar to those used in latter-day fighting arts. In 648 BC pankration was introduced to the Greek Olympic Games. A subdivision, boy's pankration, was added in the 2nd century BC, which attests to the popularity of the sport.
The object was, as in boxing, to force an opponent to acknowledge defeat, and to this end almost any means might be applied. Though rules were enforced by officials with a switch or stout rod, a whipping must have been more desirable than being killed, for the rules were often broken. Serious injuries and fatal accidents did occur, but they were rare, rarer probably than in ancient Greek boxing.
Facing one another, much as in the position taken by wrestlers, pankratiasts, as they were called, tried to bring one another violently to the ground by grappling, hitting, kicking, leg-sweeping, choking, or joint-locking.
There was much preliminary sparring. Hands were bare and generally held open, although the clenched fist was used for hitting; feet were also bare. As in Greek boxing, there were no rules against hitting a man when down. More often than not, the contest was decided on the ground, even though, when both fighters were down, hitting was usually ineffective. Biting and gouging were prohibited. Kicking was an essential part of pankration and the stomach area was a common target. Because of this comparatively rare tactic, historians speculate that pankration may have been one of the first, if not the first, total martial art known to mankind. Such throws as the flying mare and various foot-and-leg holds, although too risky for Greek wrestling proper, were freely employed in the pankration. A pankratiast sometimes threw himself on his back to accomplish a throw.
Much later, these techniques became common in judo, called sacrifice throws. Another type of sacrifice throw was the stomach throw. Seizing his opponent by the shoulders or arms, the pankratiast threw himself backwards, simultaneously planting his foot in his opponent's stomach, pulling him over his head. This technique, later a favorite among the Japanese, is depicted in the tombs of Beni-Hassan, giving rise to the belief that it may have been used by the ancient Egyptians. Locks applied to an opponent's limbs or neck were as common in pankration as in jujutsu.
Opportunities for applying them were more frequent when one or both combatants were on the ground, where the struggle was usually decided. The Eleans especially commended strangling as a means of defeating the adversary. The favorite stranglehold of pankratiasts was the "ladder-trick":the attacker jumped on his opponent's back, entwined his legs around the body, and his arms around the neck. A trained pankratiast realized when his opponent had secured an injurious grip and acknowledged defeat at once.
The decisive struggle on the ground was said to be as long and as complicated as it is in modern wrestling. It was to this aspect of pankration that Plato objected, saying it "did not teach men to keep their feet."
In the palaestra, the Greek wrestling school, pankration was given a separate training room, known as the Korykeion, equipped with punching and kicking balls, called korykos, suspended from the ceiling beams. The Greek boxer and the pankratiast used the punch-ball much as the modern boxer does. Another larger ball, used for kicking practice, hung about 2 feet from the floor. Pankration was taught progressively: when a student had thoroughly learned the movements and their combinations, he would be permitted to engage in "loose play," as it is called in fencing.
As would be expected in such a brutal sport, pankration did not escape criticism-principally due to the advent of professionalism. An excess of purses and honors in all Greek sports had precipitated social complications. The "evil" effects of professionalism were considered worst in boxing, wrestling, and pankration. In Greece itself, the problem was increased by the absence of weight classifications, making these events the monopoly of heavyweights.
In 1973 Jim Arvanitis and martial arts journalist Massad Ayoob wrote an account of this little-known, but historically important, discipline. They pointed out that Alexander the Great made friends with Dioxippus, the champion pankratiast who won the Olympic crown by default in 336 B C because no one dared compete against him. Later, as Alexander marched in conquest across the in 326 BC, laid the groundwork for kung-fu in China. Still, due to inadequate evidence, the links in martial arts evolution remain unsubstantiated.
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Vuistvechten en pankration: de dood loert.......
De Grieken hebben altijd een bovenmatige belangstelling voor de atletiek gehad. De stadionloop, de kortste en ook de oudste loopwedstrijd, bleef de meest populaire, maar de gevechtssport bezorgden de toeschouwers meer gemoedsbeweging. Geweld was een vertrouwd bestanddeel in het leven van de oorlogvoerende Grieken. De moderne literatuur idealiseert dan ook gewillig de antieke spelen, die nochtans door de wreedheden van die tijd werden gekenmerkt.
Het worstelen was de minst gewelddadige discipline. De worstelaars mochten elkaar niet slaan, elkaar niet wurgen, noch elkaars ledematen omdraaien. Het kwam er voor de kampers op aan de tegenstander met drie zuivere worpen te verslaan. Hierbij moest de tegenstander plat op de grond gehouden worden, hetzij op de heup of op de rug.
Het vuistgevecht was wel gewelddadig. De beoefenaars van deze rauwe sport lieten rondom hun handen en polsen lederen banden winden die voorzien waren van een ijzeren beslag. Om hun hoofd te beschermen droegen ze een lederen of een bronzen helm. De twee tegenstanders vochten door tot ط·آ£ط¢آ©ط·آ£ط¢آ©n van hen zich niet meer kon verdedigen, knock-out werd geslagen of de rechter wijsvinger opstak ten teken van opgave.
Dit bronzen standbeeld van een vuistvechter uit de eerste eeuw voor onze tijdrekening bevindt zich in het Thermenmuseum in Rome
De eerste rake klap op het hoofd was meestal beslissend. Hoewel het ten strengste verboden was te pogen zijn tegenstander tijdens de vuistkamp te doden, zijn er toch verscheidene gevechten met een noodlottige afloop geweest. Zo is het verhaal bekend van Kleomenes van Astypolaea die, in -492, zijn tegenstander Hikkos van Epidauros doodde en door de juryleden de overwinning werd ontzegd en de olijfkrans niet kreeg. Kleomenes werd krankzinnig en terug in Astypolaea gekomen trok hij naar het schoolgebouw, sloeg de steunpilaar ervan doormidden zodat het dak instortte en een zestigtal kinderen bedolven werden.
Vier jaar later werd Dionietos van Kreta op zijn beurt gediskwalificeerd omdat hij zijn tegenstander Herakles had gedood.
Nog brutaler dan het vuistvechten was het pankration, een combinatie van worstelen en boksen, waarbij zo goed als alles was toegelaten. De tegenstanders schopten, sloegen en stompten elkaar. Ze gingen elkaar letterlijk te lijf, trachten elkaars ledematen om te draaien of schopten naar de meest weke delen van elkaars lichaam. Enkel was het verboden zijn vingers in de ogen van de tegenstander te planten. Deze verbodsregel werd opgeheven toen twee Spartanen in onderling akkoord besloten te vechten tot hun krachten het begaven. In ieder geval kwam er maar een einde aan het gevecht als ط·آ£ط¢آ©ط·آ£ط¢آ©n van de twee pankratiasten zijn nederlaag toegaf of de strijd staakte. De scheidsrechter had alleen tot taak tussen te komen als de worsteling onontwarbaar was geworden. De felheid van het pankration vergde van de beoefenaars ervan ware heldenmoed, maar sloot dan ook weer geen daden van verheven menselijke waardigheid uit. In -564 werd Arrachion, die al twee keer Olympisch kampioen was geweest, in zijn derde poging om de titel te behalen door een naamloze tegenstander gewurgd. Op het ogenblik dat hem de keel werd dichtgeknepen, brak Arrachion een teen van zijn tegenstander. Arrachion stierf, maar op hetzelfde ogenblik gaf de wurger op en werd de zege toegekend aan de inmiddels overladen pankratiast uit Arkadiط·آ£ط¢آ«.
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