The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-07-21
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

Start out to run down a subject and tLere is no telling the road and the by paths you will have to take before you find what you are seeking. I was re- minded of this when I thought it might be interesting to give a little history of boxing.
 l expected to have to go through Eng fish history. memoirs and pamphlets, but U my amazement found that if wanted to get started right on my way it would be necessary to go back centuries before the birth of Christ. for boxing is no twentieth century fad, and the use of fists is enshrouded in Homeric times.
 
 I'll try to be as free as possible from anything which smacks of classical learn ing and will take some things as settled in spite of the fog of controversy which down the centuries has ragged around the gods of Greece and Rome until there is as much confusion in their religions as ob- tains among those of protesting Chris- tians.
 | I have recent and very learned work on the subject, but have purposely put | 1t beyond my reach while writing this story, for I have no desire to start any thing even in ancient forms of belief, and ] will therefore try to steer close to ac- cepted traditions as they are current in the minds of ordinary scholars, without any attention whatever being paid to the O nH 6o;, cta d-. | point of the average student are hopeless ] ly apart in their versions and interpreta- tions.
 | Greece, as Mir Ernest Renan, in whose class I had the privilege of sitting during my student days in Paris. said, | Never had sacred book; she never , had any symbols, any councils, any sacer- dotal caste organized for the preserva- days at theological seminary in Amer l ica there were times when I wished that the same thing had applied to Christian l ity, for to tell the truth, dogmas have never fascinated me.
 1 That this was true. that is the absence ! of caste or priestly guild, can easily | be seen, for from the very character of the Greek religion there was no place in l trines, such as they were, were not the work of theologians. but of the unre- | strained imagination of poets and the common people. Christianity, therefore, 1 failed in the third and fourth centuries A. D. in an attempt to systematic Pa- ganism. It was impossible to build up a strong religious system upon the basis or such a shifting legend without large in1portations of foreign ideas from the east.
 | But am fast getting submerged in comparative religions when my intention IS to Write about sports instead of get ting together the material for a sermon But it is impossible to understand a Greek festival without touchins unon tbe rehgious side of those in which ath- let'cs took the leading part, for they spring from the religion of the Greeks: they remain all along connected with if and are highly characteristic of it. l
 The gods of Greece were not. as a rule. represented either as themselves cruel or delighting in cruelty There were signs of human sacrifice. and of vengeance bein wreaked by the deities, but alongside other religions of the time we are struck by the absence of cruelty They were never honored by pain or self-tortures hardly even by self-abnegation. This is not defense of them, but a mere state ment of fact Furthermore, 1t has been pointed out that the beliefs of Greece did not form one of the creeds that re- fuse and restrain" The gods were hon. ored not by pain but by pleasure This gives me a chance to say that at their great festivals there were notes of tumultuous rejoicing. Their theatrical per- lformances, we'll as their games. were regarded as religious ceremonies. and so were the great athletic festivals intended originally to do honor to certain deities But l will only touch slightly on one, the great Olympian, confining myself to just one of the games which took place as far as we know as early as centuries before the birth of Christ
 Boxing is said to have been invented by Theseus, according to the Creeks, and Pollux, Hercules and other Greek heroes are described as excelling at it. If you want to get at the genesis of modern prize fighting you will not find it at an
 Irish wake but it will be necessary to go
 back to the funeral of Patroclus during
 the siege of Troy. This is the first in- stance l have been able to find in my Iinvestigations of the subject. The con
 testants were Epseus, son of Panoepus,
 and Eurpalus, son of Mecstus.
 Homer has reported the contest in con-
 siderable detail in The Iliad," Book B. I'll admit that it does seem bit
 strange to think of the immortal singer
 of old reporting a scrapping match. After
 weiting. Epius lands a mighty blow upon
 the cheek of Eurpalus and knocks him
 senseless. so that he is laid out
 And raised him up, thereby showing
 courtesy and generosity to a fallen foe, which was to be repeated in England cen
 turies later by Tom Savers in his famous
 hsht in 1858 with Tom Paddock. Savers had dealt a stunning blow with his left : and was swinging with his right to finish
 the fight. but seeing the condition of his
 adversary forebore, and offering his
 hand in friendship, led Paddock to his , seconds, who very properly threw up the sronge
 Pindar in the seventh ode. singing of the Olympian games praises Diagoras. a professional pugilist. and sets out in detail his many victories, and utters a
 prayer to Zeus to glorifv the man "who