SOLON The place itself, Anacharsis, we call a gymnasium, and it is consecrated to Lyceian Apollo; you see his statue—the figure leaning against the pillar, with the bow in his left hand; his right arm bent back above his head indicates that the god is resting, as if after long exertion.
As for these forms of athletics, that one yonder in the mud is called wrestling, and the men in the dust are wrestling too. When they stand upright and strike one another, we call it the pancratium.Solon’s statement is not quite full enough. The pancratium included not only boxing, but kicking and wrestling, and was practised not only upright but on the ground. fi was a rough and tumble affair, in which only gouging and biting were barred. Some, at least, of the wrestlers in the mud were engaged, strictly speaking, in the pancratium, as the choking and striking show. . We have other such athletic exercises, too—boxing, throwing the discus, and jumping— in all of which we hold contests, and the winner is considered best in his class and carries off the prizes.
