Single combat
Channel: all the knowledge of the universe PRINCIPIA
Date: 2022-01-09

Single combat, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=10032789 / CC BY SA 3.0

#Interpersonal_conflict
#Combat
Achilles fights Hector amidst the hostilities of the Trojan War, in a painting by Antonio Raffaele Calliano Single combat is a duel between two single warriors which takes place in the context of a battle between two armies.
Instances of single combat are known from Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
The champions were often combatants who represented larger, spectator groups.
Such representative contests and stories thereof are known worldwide.
Typically, it takes place in the no-man's-land between the opposing armies, with other warriors watching and themselves refraining from fighting until one of the two single combatants has won.
Often, it is champion warfare, with the two considered the champions of their respective sides.
Single combat could also take place within a larger battle.
Both ancient and medieval warfare did not always rely on the line or phalanx formation.
The Iliad notably describes the battles of the Trojan war as a series of single encounters on the field, and the medieval code of chivalry, partly inspired by this,
encouraged the single combat between individual knights on the battlefield, in which the loser was not usually killed but taken captive for ransom.
This tradition ended in the 14th century due to the use of the longbow and the pike square against mounted knights （Battle of Crécy, Battle of Laupen）,
and the tradition of single combat was continued away from the battlefield, with the pas d'armes and the early modern duel.
An important episode in "The Tale of Sinuhe", one of the most well-known works of Ancient Egyptian literature, concerns the protagonist – an Egyptian exile in Upper Retjenu （Canaan） – defeating a powerful opponent in single combat.
Duels between individual warriors are depicted in the Iliad, including those between Menelaus and Paris and later between Achilles and Hector.
The Hebrew Bible also ...