Greek athletic sports and festivals (1910) (14583838857)

Identifier: greekathleticspo00gard (find matches)
Title: Greek athletic sports and festivals
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Gardiner, E. Norman (Edward Norman), 1864-1930
Subjects: Athletics Sports Olympics Fasts and feasts
Publisher: London : Macmillan and Co.
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University



Text Appearing Before Image:
.^ Some of the holds described must have been combined withvarious turns of the body. Thus to obtain a hold from behinda wrestler must either force his opponent to shift his position(fxeTa/Si/Sd^eLv), or shift his own position so as to get behind him(fxeTapaLvetv), wliile the wrestler so attacked will naturally turnround himself (/xera/^aAeo-^ai). The last two terms occur in ^ Quintus iv. 215 ; Nounus xxxvii. 553-60Lvide J.U.S. xxv. p. 25. For a brief account of these XVIII WRESTLING—THE HEAVE, CROSS-BUTTOCK 393 two consecutive lines of the Oxyrhynchus papyrus. One pupilis told to get behind his fellow and grip him, the other isordered at once to turn round himself.^ The use of thepreposition /xerd in these compounds suggests the afterplay of Cornish wrestling. A sudden turn of the body is often used when a hold hasbeen already obtained, in order to twist an opponent off hisfeet. The modern throws known as the buttock and cross-buttock find their Greek equivalent in the phrase eSpav
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 123.—B.-f. amphora. Munich, 495. crrpe(f)€Lv, to turn the buttock. The cross-buttock differs chieflyfrom the buttock in that the legs come more into play, and wemay therefore infer that this is the special throw whereofTheocritus speaks when he relates how Heracles learnt fromHarpalacus all the tricks wherewith the nimble Argive cross-buttockers (diro o-KcAewv eSpocrrpocjiOL) give each other the fall. ^It was evidently a favourite throw. Theophrastus, in hischaracter of the late learner who wishes to be thoughtthoroughly accomplished and up-to-date, remarks that in the ^ 1. 25 ai/ airov /xerajSas irXi^oV ai/ /ttera/SaXoO.^ xxiv. 111. 394 GREEK ATHLETIC SPORTS AND FESTIVALS chap. bath he is continually giving the cross-buttock as if wrestling. ^