The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-04-12
People Watched Wrestling
Matches in Early Days.
Spartan Was the First Recorded
Victor in Mat Game.
EGYPTIANS WRESTLED
In TOmbs of Ancients Holds
Are Cut in Stone.
Homer Watched and Described
Noted Matches of Ancients.

Wrestling is as old as the hills. In
the days when men lived in caves,
clothed themselves with fig leaves in
summer, girdled their loins and limbs
with skins of fur in winter, wrestling
was pratt of their mode of fighting,
when hands were the only weapons
used in warfare or the chase; when
physical strength was the dominant de-
structive force. Its birth as an art was
in the days of antiquity handed down
to US in poetry and legend by the bards
of those hoary days.
That the changes wrought in the
mode of life during the long cycle of
years to the present day has not in
jured that art; that it exists practical
ly as it was in the uncertain ages of the
past, softened and meuowed since, per-
haps, in some of the rude essentials, is
made manifest by the records, which
have stood all these years hooking the
attempts of the old milestone of mans
handicraft, Father Time, to efface
them.
In the temple tombs of Benz Hasan,
located near the banks of the Nile,
hewn in stone, wrestlers are depicted IN
various positions, exemplifying all the
holds and falls that the modern ex-
ponents Of wrestling now use in their
bouts. In tombs Nos. 16 and II the fig
ures of the wrestlers represent nearly
$50 positions. 1t would seem from this
that the Egyptians were masters of the
art of wrestling and that the present
day athlete scarcely deviateS from the
methods employed by men in this sport
when the earth was young and Egypt
was the head, legs and torso of cfviltza-
ton.
1t was from the Egyptians that the
Greeks obtained their knowledge of
wrestling. The figures in the Benz
1-asan tombs prove this. The Greeks
were the greatest fighters of those days,
Il hut that thew
adopted sports as a means to develop
their physical condition. Hence it was
that at their games held at Olympia
and elsewhere at stated intervals wrese-
ling was part of the program. At these
games the champions of the friendly
nations met in rivalry. There was great
glory attached to a victory. The sue
cessful competitor was treated like
hero His return to his native land and
his entry into his home city were made
the occasion for triumphant process
sion. He was the hero of the day-of
the hour.
The Olympic games-their revival
dates from 776 B. C.-were held every
four years at Olympia in Ellis. They
were started as a religious festival in
honor of Jupiter, but the games, like
the play, soon became the thing, and
the people soon lost sight of the SOL
emnity and sanctity attached to the
meetings and assembled there just to
see the sport.
1t was in the eighteenth Olympiad,
70S B. c., that the first record of wrest-
ling was established. Eurabatos, a
Spartan, was the victor. He carried off
the prize-a crown of wild olive made
from a tree which stood within the in
closure at Olympia.
From the dawn of literature there are
records of wrestling bouts. To Homer
we owe that glittering, glowing de-
scription of the encounter between
Ajax, who was the incarnation or
strength, the physical power in man,
and Ulysses, the crafty, the champion
of every art and vile. Homer, before
he was stricken blind, witnessed many
great wrestling bouts in the Greek
cities In his Had he graphically de-
scribes the wrestling bout between
Ulysses and Ajax.
That Shakespeare, in his day, realiz-
ed it's popularity and made use of it
to work out point in his plots is made
evident in that scene between Orlando
and the dukes wrestler in las You
Like It." Although the play was sup
posed to take place in France, the
wrestling in this scene is a replica of
that practiced in England at that time:
In the long time wrestling has held
sway, there have been many styles
catch-as-catch-can, Graeco-Roman, col
lar and elbow, recumbent' upright Ter
minology of wrestling styles are
meagre. The names in many instances
were purely local, as, for instance, Cum
berland and Westmoreland, which in
America, is called back wrestling. Col
lar and elbow wrestling originated in
the counties of Cornwall and Devon
England, and still is practiced there.
The atch-as-catch-can and Graeco-
Roman styles are now the only ones
used in championship matches. The
former is all that its name implies A
wrestler may catch his adversary on
anv part of the body, neck, head or
limbs. In the latter style the hold
is restricted to that part of the body
above the waist line.
IL a