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Pankration is a combinatrion of boxing and wrestling. Sort of like today's MMA or UFC only more brutal. The only rules were no eye gouging (although it looks like there were ways around that. Hey he's not poking his eye, he's only trying to REMOVE it!), or biting. Everything else goes. In order to win, the victor had to make his opponent submit or be rendered unconscious from having his arm ripped out of his socket or some other pleasant thing like that. Nice relaxing sport, no? 😮There is no record of a Spartan victor in pankration and some theorize that Spartans would not compete in this sport because they would rather die than submit to someone else.
I think that if the Spartans competed in other inter-city athletic events, they too would have competed in the pankration. After all, they would have had to “submit” to others whenever they lost.
Wasnt it a Spartan mother who reprtedly told her son to “come back with his shield, or on it”. With an attitude like that I can believe that the Spartans would not agree to compete in a competition that involved direct submission to an opponent. They were a notoriously stiff necked lot. this begs the further question of competition at any level. If they would refuse to submit in physical combat, what were the consequences for a Spartan that lost any other Olympic event?
It is much more humiliating to lose by submission then losing, say, a foot race.
this begs the further question of competition at any level. If they would refuse to submit in physical combat, what were the consequences for a Spartan that lost any other Olympic event?
Interesting question. My guess is it's not war or battle so the attitude probably wasn't the same. Since only the best athletes of a state made it to the games, maybe that in itself was good enough for them? Or, with war, they had to win, that's what they were bred, trained, and known for. It WAS about them. With competition, it wasn't about them, it was about the gods.I bet if there were team sports at the Olympics, the Spartans would have excelled.
I bet if there were team sports at the Olympics, the Spartans would have excelled.
You are probably right there. Their military training would have admirably suited them for team sports.
Spartans were as much good individuals as they were team players…maybe even better individuals.In fact, recent studies of hoplite warfare(P.Krentz) reveal much more individual, more open style of hoplite combat until much later date than believed (late 5th BC and 4th BC when skill became too expensive for the period of crisis so individuality lost it's predominance in favor of team work)...So in time of Spartan greatest power (600)550-470 BC their battle tactic did not rely that much on ''team'' work(in sense of phalanx cohesion as in Macedonian dense phalanx) as it relied on personal skill and strength, spear fight, shield fight, sword fight, wrestling and PANKRATIO!You will see that there is no SINGLE ONE Spartan victor(excluding horse races which are not athletic event really) in post earthquake era of 465/4BC, when they truly lost their power.(not in 371 BC which was a final blow) while they were the most numerous victors until that date...Most famous wrestlers, most famous sprinters, most famous youth competitors.And it should be noted 5th,4th,3rd centuries BC were much better recorded, so the number of Spartan victors prior to 5th BC is probably even higher...especially in wrestling,(one Spartan had the same number of victories as much more famous Milo of Kroton)Why there were no Spartan pankratio winners? Spartans boycotted the event since they could not display the full range of techniques they know, due to the restrictions and rules...Those techniques were deep in their mind set, since they trained to kill, and were used automatically after 23 years of training, so controlling might be impossible. It also meant that Spartan could loose in competition when he could have won in real life or in war against that same guy, so it is not something they felt was right.War and Olympic games were very close, they had very strong agon which was the same intensity in both competitions, Olympic games derived from war techniques and skills.''Wasnt it a Spartan mother who reportedly told her son to "come back with his shield, or on it". With an attitude like that I can believe that the Spartans would not agree to compete in a competition that involved direct submission to an opponent''THat is just an anecdote and a very late (Roman era) quote which can not be taken as a fact. Especially since Spartan battle dead were buried where they died,except for the king...Wrestling involved submission as well, in close enough sense, but they competed and excelled very much in it. Also dying in pankratio happened when competitors refused to raise hand in admitting defeat, so loosing Spartan could die in Olympics if he lost.. So reason was not that but what I said above.All best
