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Demosthenes › Who Was
Definition and Origins
Demosthenes (c. 384 - 322 BCE) was an Athenian statesman who famously stood against Macedonian king Philip II and whose surviving speeches have established him as one of the greatest patriots and powerful orators from ancient Greece. He is not to be confused with the 5th century BCE Athenian general of the same name.
EARLY LIFE & WORKS
Born in c. 384 in Athens, Demosthenes' parents died while he was still only seven years old, and so he then lived under guardianship. Famously, at the age of 18, he prosecuted his guardians for wasting his inheritance, delivered his own speeches in court, and won the case. Studying under Isaeus and working as a speech writer ( logographos ) like his master, his first experience in court was as a prosecutor's assistant. We also know that in 358 BCE he was a grain-buyer ( sitones ). Then, from c. 355 BCE, he came to wider attention when he started to deliver his own speeches in the assembly of Athens.
61 speeches of Demosthenes - both public and private - have survived, along with the rhetorical openings ( prooimia ) for around 50 speeches and 6 letters. Probably, some of that number were speeches given by another orator by the name of Apollodorus but it is, nevertheless, a substantial amount of material. That is, even if, Demosthenes would have given many more speeches than that in his long and illustrious political career. Those that survive show a speaker who could use plain language and lucid argument to devastating effect. He was a master of metaphor but never overused it and, perhaps his greatest and most enduring quality, his work shows an absolute and convincing sincerity.
DEMOSTHENES AIMED HIS ORATORY IN THE ATHENIAN ASSEMBLY AT ONE PARTICULAR TARGET – PHILIP II OF MACEDON WHO SEEMED INTENT ON CONQUERING ALL OF GREECE.
DEMOSTHENES AGAINST PHILIP II OF MACEDON
Demosthenes aimed his oratory in the assembly at one particular target – Philip II of Macedon who seemed intent on conquering all of Greece. The four surviving speeches by Demosthenes on this topic are referred to as the Philippics and date to 351, 344 and 341 BCE. In them, he proposed that Athens prepare for invasion by forming two armies – one of citizens and another of mercenaries. The former would be put on standby while the latter would directly engage with the Macedonians in the north of Greece. The assembly did not take his advice and preferred, instead, the more passive approach of Demosthenes' great political rival Aeschines. The latter once disparagingly described Demosthenes' as, 'the pirate of politics, who sails on his craft of words over the sea of state' (Kinzl, 425)
Demosthenes went on two embassies to Philip's court c. 347 BCE but did not get on well with the Macedonian king or even with his fellow delegates. Returning to Athens Demosthenes' persistently passionate pleas and stark warnings of the dire consequences of rule under Philip were ignored. In one speech he states the threat to Athenian democracy in the following terms,
Do you not see that Philip has titles which are irreconcilable to this? King and tyrant are all enemies of freedom and are the opposite of law. Will you not be on your guard lest in seeking to change from war you find a despot?(3.20)
It was not until his 346 BCE speech On the Peace that the city took a more aggressive stance against Macedon, following the realisation of the ineffectiveness of the Peace of Philocrates. In 344 BCE Demosthenes was sent to Argos and Messene in the Peloponnese to dissuade them from forming an alliance with the dangerous and ambitious Philip. In c. 342 BCE war seemed inevitable and Demosthenes was charged with forming a Hellenic league to withstand the Macedonian army.Demosthenes also pushed the Athenians to ask Persia for assistance and to form an alliance with Byzantium.
Demosthenes
These political manoeuvres were all to no avail, though. In 340 BCE Philip declared war. As Demosthenes had already warned, Philip had been allowed to build a state of such power that the Greeks were soundly beaten at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BCE. The Athenians lost their independence and Demosthenes fled the city in fear of reprisals from Philip.However, when time passed without any action from the Macedonian king, Athens invited Demosthenes to give a funeral speech ( epitaphios ) in honour of the fallen at Chaeronea. The speech survives and is the last made by Demosthenes to do so, even if he made several more important speeches during the reign of Alexander the Great.
Demosthenes was far from finished, though. When Philip was assassinated in 336 BCE, Demosthenes was said to have been so delighted with the downfall of his old enemy that he went dancing in the streets of Athens, decked out in his finest clothes and wearing a garland. However, as Plutarch points out, this was said of Demosthenes by his number one critic Aeschines.Indeed, the whole city of Athens staged official celebrations but there was to be no respite from the Macedonian threat.
THE HARPALOS AFFAIR & EXILE
In 324 BCE Demosthenes' political reputation suffered a major blow when he was accused of taking bribes from Alexanderthe Great's treasurer, a man called Harpalos. The great orator had already been subjected to long-standing accusations of accepting bribes from Persia. Put on trial Demosthenes was found guilty and exiled. A year later, though, Demosthenes was pardoned and allowed to return to Athens after he had made clear just whose side he was on when he advised several Greekcity-states to take advantage of the death of Alexander and re-establish their autonomy by force. Yet again, though, the Greeks were no match for the Macedonians, and in 322 BCE Demosthenes once again had to flee his defeated city. This time he was not let off and the Macedonians followed him to Calauria (modern-day Poros) where, rather than be captured, Demosthenes committed suicide. According to Plutarch, on hearing news of Demosthenes' death his home city erected a bronze statue in his honour with the following inscription,
If only your strength had been equal, Demosthenes, to your wisdom.Never would Greece have been ruled by a Macedonian Ares.
LEGACY
Demosthenes may have been reassessed by modern scholars as a little more opportunistic than the traditional picture of him as a confirmed patriot and it is much debated whether the policies of his political opponents might have better served his city in the end but, certainly, his reputation as a great orator endures. Demosthenes' speeches show the full range of rhetorical technique and were admired in the ancient world as much as they are by modern historians. Cicero, the great Romanpolitician and orator, famously titled his speeches given in the Roman senate against Mark Antony, the Philippics in honour of his illustrious Greek predecessor. Another admirer was Winston Churchill who, in the years leading up to WWII, cast himself as Demosthenes and Hitler as Philip II.
Below is a selection of extracts from Demosthenes' work:
[Aeschines] bids you be on your guard against me, for fear that I should mislead and deceive you, calling me a clever speaker, a mountebank and a sophist and so forth. (Kinzl, 425)
Every deed of violence [is] a public offence. (21.44-5)
The private citizen should not be confused and at a disadvantage compared with those who know the laws, but all should have the same ordinances before them, simple and clear to read and understand. (20.93)
Where is the strength of the laws? If one of you is wronged and cries aloud will the laws run up and stand at his side to assist him? No. They are only writings and could not do this. Wherein then lies their power? In yourselves, if only you support them and make them all-powerful to help whoever needs them. So the laws are strong through you and you through the laws. (21.224)
Pankration » Ancient origins
Definition and Origins
Pankration is an ancient martial art which mixes wrestling and boxing. The sport can be traced as far back as the second millennium BCE in the territory of ancient Greece. Its name derives from the ancient Greek words pan (all) and kratos(strength, might, power) and literally means “all of the might.” In 648 BCE, the Pankration was introduced as a sporting event in the 33rd Olympic Games where it joined boxing and wrestling in a category called “heavy events.” That special group of sports was reserved for the best athletes with the greatest strength and stamina.
The Pankration event was the ancient crowd's favorite sport. It was believed that a military training based on this formerly unarmed combat system helped the Spartans to excel in hand-to-hand fighting. Soldiers trained in Pankration were highly appreciated in the famous Macedonian Phalanxes as Alexander the Great was said to have given them priority in the recruitment of his army.
THE PANKRATION IN MYTHOLOGY
Ancient Greek mythology appoints illustrious mythological figures as the first pankratiasts. Theseus, the founder-king of Athens, allegedly used techniques from that martial art to defeat the Minotaur (the half-human half-bull creature locked in the Labyrinth of Minos). Hercules is said to have won in Pankration contest in Olympia, as well as in another event organized by the Argonauts (the heroes that went on a quest for the Golden Fleece in Colchis). He reputedly used Pankration skills in one of his twelve labors too. Many Greek vases depict images of the hero defeating the Nemean lion with a specific strong lock believed to be part of the Pankration fighting methods.
THE RULES OF PANKRATION
The ancient sources represent the Pankration as a full-contact combat sport that allows the use of various techniques such as striking, grappling, and wrestling. In fact, Pankration was a combination of boxing, wrestling, and other fighting arts with the only difference that there were virtually no rules. To bite and to gouge an opponent's eyes, nose, or mouth with fingers were the only off-limits once in the ring. Anything else - such as kicking in the belly and the genitals - was permitted and even expected.
PANKRATION WAS A COMBINATION OF BOXING, WRESTLING, AND OTHER FIGHTING ARTS WITH THE ONLY DIFFERENCE THAT THERE WERE VIRTUALLY NO RULES.
The athletic event started after pulling lots and forming fighting pairs. At the end of every match, the lot drawing was repeated among the winners of the previous fights, and so on until one final winner has left. A sparring ended either by submission (the opponent would raise his index finger as a sign of being defeated) or by death. According to one story, the fighter Arrhichion of Phigalia won a Pankration competition at the Olympic Games literally dying in the ring. He was locked in a tight chokehold and had to break the ankle of his opponent in order to loosen the deadly clutch. At the same moment, though, when his competitor raised a finger for submission, Arrichion fell dead. Nevertheless, he was honored as a winner.
The sport had two main phases. During the first, called Ano Pankration (Upper Pankration), contestants had to fight upright. As the main goal was to knock down the opponent, punches, kicks and all kind of lethal blows were usually performed. The second phase, known as Kato Pankration (Lower Pankration) started with the first falling on the ground of some of the competitors. Here grappling, joint locking, and even strangulation were used as more effective methods of fighting on the floor.
Pankratiasts had the liberty to build their own fighting style. At the beginning of a sparring, some preferred to use short hooking blows called krocheirismos. A technique known as klimakismos (ladder trick) was often used to climb on an opponent's back, to lock legs tightly around his body and to strangle him from behind. That was probably the one that turned lethal for Arrhichion of Phigalia.
Very often the Pankration fighters got nicknames according to their preferred technique of defeating opponents. One pankratiast from the city of Sikyon was called “Fingertips” because of his habit to break his adversary's fingers at the start of a bout. Special local features also existed. The Spartans, for example, were famous for their heavy foot sweeps used to knock down their rivals. The Eleans, on the other hand, were quick on strangleholds.
Initially, the pankratiasts fought nude, with oiled bodies and bare hands. Later, they wore thong wrappings around their hands and forearms. When Pankration was adopted in Rome, fighters covered their genitals with loincloths and were even equipped with battle gloves (caesti) made with leather strips and filled with iron plates, blades, or spikes.
Agias, Son of Aknonios
A TRAINING FOR THE SPARTANS & ARMY OF ALEXANDER
Developed out of an existing ancient combat system, Pankration was part of the army training of many Greek city-states. It was the core of the military instruction of the hoplites (the famous Greek infantry). The Spartans were particularly well-trained and excelled in that art. In their last stand at Thermopylae, they allegedly used Pankration skills as their final weapon. Once the 300 lost their armaments, they fought with bare hands, feet, and teeth, relying on their abilities to use unarmed fighting techniques.
Alexander the Great also highly appreciated such military proficiency. He often sought to attract pankratiasts in his famous Macedonian Phalanxes as he regarded soldiers trained in Pankration as a valuable army asset. One Athenian Pankration champion from the Olympic Games in 336 BCE was quite popular among the Macedonian army where he was on a service.His name was Dioxippus, and the historian Curtius Rufus in his “Histories of Alexander the Great” informs us that one day he was challenged to a one-to-one combat. His adversary was one of Alexander's best soldiers, known as Coragus. The Macedonian ruler appointed a match between them in one of his banquets organized in Persia. In the bout, Dioxippus showed up naked and armed only with a club. Coragus presented himself in full armor. After а short fight, the Athenian champion defeated his armed and skilled opponent using only Pankration techniques. He could have killed him if it had not been for Alexander's intercession.
The Macedonian Phalanxes reportedly contributed to the spreading of Pankration to the East. It is suggested that following Alexander's conquests over Europe and Persia, the Greek unarmed fighting system eventually reached the Indus Valley.Some researchers even speculate that by practising their ancient military art along their route, Macedonian soldiers influenced the Indian combative art “Vajra Musti” and, ultimately, had an impact on the martial arts in China. According to Eastern tradition, the Chinese fighting systems evolved from Indian Buddhist doctrines that taught early Indian combative arts.
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