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Edward M. Plummer. Athletics and Games of the Ancient Greeks
Athletics and Games of the Ancient Greeks
Table of Contents
I. ATHLETIC GAMES AMONG THE HOMERIC HEROES
II. THE OLYMPIC GAMES IN ANCIENT TIMES
III. THE OLYMPIC GAMES IN ANCIENT TIMES
IV. TOYS AND GAMES FOR CHILDREN AMONG THE ANCIENT HELLENES
Отрывок из книги
Edward M. Plummer
Published by Good Press, 2021
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Euryalos alone dared to accept this challenge. The antagonists cast about themselves girdles and wound about their hand strips of raw oxhide. The struggle was violent, for “sweat flowed from all their limbs.” But finally, Epeios smote the other on the cheek, and Euryalos collapsed. “As when beneath the North wind’s ripple a fish leapeth on a tangled-covered beach, and then the black wave hideth it, so leapt up Euryalos at that blow.”
The wrestling-match was ordained as the next event. Again Achilles offered two prizes, one for the winner and one for the loser. Only Odysseus, the type of artfulness and trickery, and Telamonian Aias, the representative of bodily size and brute force, essayed to struggle. After they had girt themselves they went into the midst of the ring. Here they stood locked in each other’s arms, like two gable rafters joined by a builder. Their backs were gripped with such force that they creaked; the sweat ran down their bodies in streams; blood-colored welts appeared on their sides and shoulders. Thus they struggled with the advantage on neither side until the spectators began to grow weary. At last when Aias had lifted Odysseus off his feet, the latter mindful of his wiles, smote the former in the hollow of his knee, and Aias fell backward, and Odysseus fell upon his chest. But victory was not bought with one throw. So they rose again and locked. After Odysseus had tried futilely to lift Aias from the ground the two fell together in the dust. They rose and would have wrestled the third time had not Achilles restrained them by declaring the contest a draw.
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