Ancient Greek boxing facts for kids
Boxer resting after contest (bronze sculpture, 300–200 BCE).
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| Also known as | Ancient Olympic boxing |
|---|---|
| Focus | Striking |
| Hardness | Full contact |
| Country of origin | Greece |
| Descendant arts | Boxing |
| Olympic sport | Ancient |
Ancient Greek boxing dates back to at least the 8th century BC (Homer's Iliad), and was practiced in a variety of social contexts in different Greek city-states.
Most sources about ancient Greek boxing are fragmentary or legendary, making it difficult to reconstruct the rules, customs and history surrounding this activity in great detail. Still, it is clear that gloved boxing bouts were a significant part of ancient Greek athletic culture throughout the early classical period.
Contents
Origins
There is archaeological and artistic evidence of ancient Greek boxing in Αncient Greece as early as the Minoan and Mycenaean periods.
There are numerous legends about the origins of boxing in Greece. One legend holds that the heroic ruler Theseus invented a form of boxing in which two men sat face to face and beat each other with their fists.
In time, the boxers began to fight while standing and wearing gloves and wrappings on their arms below the elbows, but otherwise they fought naked.
Rules
The rules for the sport were:
- No holds or wrestling
- Any type of blow with the hand was allowed but no gouging with the fingers
- No ring was used
- There were no rounds or time limits
- The winner was decided when one fighter gave up or could not move
- No weight-classes, opponents were selected by chance
- Judges enforced the rules by beating offenders with a switch
- Fighters could opt to exchange blows undefended if the fight lasted too long
Unlike modern boxing, the Greeks did not enclose the competitors in a ring to encourage fighting in close quarters.
Therefore, most boxers fought defensively as opposed to offensively to encourage patience and caution. In addition, boxing in Ancient Greece was not divided into individual rounds. Competitors fought until finish, usually by surrender or mutual exhaustion.
Images for kids
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Boxers training by balancing balls on their clenched fists. This is a 16th Century interpretation of Ancient Greek training methods from De Arte Gymnastica by Girolamo Mercuriale, 1569.
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See also
In Spanish: Boxeo en la Antigua Grecia para niños
