. Greek athletic sports and festivals . ingwrestling. Twisting the arm has already been illustrated inour chapter on wrestling (Figs. 129-131). Similarly in theUffizi group (Fig. 163) the upper wrestler twists his opponentsarm across his back, and the same motive occurs in one of the Lucian, Anachars. 9 ; Aristoph. Eq. 273, 454 ; Pollux, iii. 150. XX THE PANKRATION—KICKING 447 groups on the frieze of Lysicrates monument. Pausanias tellsus of one Sostratus, a pankratiast of Sicyon, who, like Leontiscusin wrestling, forced his opponents to yield by twisting andbreaking their fingers.^ At first s
. Greek athletic sports and festivals . ingwrestling. Twisting the arm has already been illustrated inour chapter on wrestling (Figs. 129-131). Similarly in theUffizi group (Fig. 163) the upper wrestler twists his opponentsarm across his back, and the same motive occurs in one of the Lucian, Anachars. 9 ; Aristoph. Eq. 273, 454 ; Pollux, iii. 150. XX THE PANKRATION—KICKING 447 groups on the frieze of Lysicrates monument. Pausanias tellsus of one Sostratus, a pankratiast of Sicyon, who, like Leontiscusin wrestling, forced his opponents to yield by twisting andbreaking their fingers.^ At first sight we are apt to condemnsuch practices as brutal and unsportsmanlike, but the principleof twisting an opponents limb so as to incapacitate him hasbeen reduced to a science in Japanese wrestling. The samemay be said of strangling, the method of finishing a contestof which the Eleans much approved. Almost any neck holdcan be used to throttle an opponent. Reference has alreadybeen made to the familiar hold known as getting the head in. Fig. 162.—Graeco-Roman gems in British Museum. chancery, illustrated on the gems in Fig. 162. The mosteffective and favourite method of strangling an opponentis that known as KAt/xaKtcr/xos,^ which consists in mountingon an opponents back, winding the legs round his stomach,and the arms round his neck. The klimakismos can beemployed both in the standing pankration and on the the Tusculan mosaic both types are represented (), and we have references to both types in literature. Itis the favourite method of attack employed by Heracles inhis contests with the Triton and Achelous (Fig. 160), and isbest known to scholars from the account of the latter contest ^ Paus. vi. 4, 2. , xxvi. 15, 448 GREEK ATHLETIC SPORTS AND FESTIVALS chap. given in the chorus of the Trachiniae, 497-530. In the stand-ing pankration, in order to execute the klimakismos it wasnecessary to get behind ones opponent either by making himturn round or by spri
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