Wrestling Two Persons

sport in which two persons strive to throw each other to the ground . It is one of the most primitive and universal of sports . Upon the walls of the temple-tombs of Beni Nile, are sculptured many hundred scenes from wrestling matches, depicting practically all the holds and falls known at the present day, thus proving that wrestling was a highly developed sport at least 3000 years before the Christian era . As the description of the bout between Odysseus and Ajax in the 23rd book of the Iliad, and the evolutions of the classic Greek wrestlers, tally with the sculptures of Beni Hasan and Nineveh, the sport may have been introduced into Greece from Egypt or Asia . In Homer's celebrated description of the match between Ajax and Odysseus the two champions wore only a girdle, which was, however, not used in the classic Greek games . Neither Homer nor Eustathius, who also minutely depicted the battle between Ajax and Odysseus, mentions the use of oil, which, however, was invariable at the Olympic games, where wrestling was introduced during the 18th Olympiad . The Greek wrestlers were, after the application of the oil, rubbed with fine sand, to afford a better hold . Wrestling was a very important branch of athletics in the Greek games, since it formed the chief event of the pentathlon, or quintuple games (see GAMES, CLASSICAL) . All holds were allowed, even strangling, butting and kicking . Crushing the fingers was used especially in the pancration, a combination of wrestling and boxing . Wrestlers were taught to be graceful in all their movements, in accordance with the Greek ideas of aesthetics . There were two varieties of Greek wrestling, the irhXo 6p817, or upright wrestling, which was that generally practised, and the AXivbilwis (ccukwwts, lucta volutatoria) or squirming contest after the contestants had fallen, which continued until one acknowledged defeat .