Palaestra

of the palaestra at Olympia (left) and a  (right)]]

A **palaestra** was a building in ancient Greece. It is the place where wrestling was taught and practiced. It  of a large square or rectangular courtyard. This courtyard was open to the sky. It was  by s. Off these colonnades were dressing rooms, lecture rooms, bath rooms, and rooms for  . Wrestlers practiced under the colonnades in all weathers.  

Palaestras were often near gymnasiums. They were sometimes a part of gymnasium es. Most cities in the Greek world had a palaestra. Large cities may have had . Some palaestras were privately owned. Most were  with taxes. The palaestra was very much a part of the everyday lives of Greek men and boys. Some men felt as much  for the palaestra they grew up in as modern men feel for their *alma mater*. Some men were buried in their  palaestra.

## What was a palaestra? 
 in the palaestra at Olympia]]

A palaestra was a building in ancient Greece where wrestling was taught and practiced. The word *palaestra* is based on the Greek word *pale*, which means wrestling. Almost every Greek city had at least one palaestra and some large cities had several.            

Palaestras were often located near or were attached to gymnasiums. The gymnasium probably first appeared in the sixth century BC. Retired athletes owned and operated small palaestras. Greek males of all ages joined palaestras. Elderly (old) men sometimes had their own palaestras.

## Design of the palaestra 
 would bring good luck. (Marble; ca. 520 BC; 66 cm (25 ¾ in.); National Archaeological Museum, Athens)]]

Vitruvius was a Roman architect who lived in the age of Augustus. He made a plan for the perfect palaestra in his book *On Architecture*. This palaestra is similar to the one at Olympia, Greece, the site of the ancient Olympic Games. Vitruvius' palaestra has a large courtyard open to the sky. This courtyard is surrounded by roofed . 

The wrestlers themselves turned over the soil and sand with a pick axe. This was considered a meaningful exercise and the pick axe became a symbol for wrestling in Greek art. It is likely the wet *skamma* was located under the colonnades to prevent evaporation. Greek physicians thought a mixture of mud and oil had curative powers and a mixture of mud and oil was often used in the pits. 

To the right of the *ephebeion* Vitruvius would have had three rooms: the punching bag room, the dust and powder room, and a room for bathing. To the left of the *ephebeion* would be a room for storing oil, and a group of rooms for a furnace and hot baths. Hot baths were a Roman necessity and were not found at Olympia however. This may have been because of the scarcity of water at Olympia. The baths at Olympia were simple but those at Delphi were large and elaborate.

Vitruvius does not mention the undressing room (*apodyterion*) but there certainly would have been at least one in every palaestra. *Pale* and *pankration* were both practiced in the nude. Vitruvius does not mention a ball room (*sphairisterion*) either, which some palaestra had. It is not known if this room was used for ball games, storage, or exercise.

On rainy days, wrestling was taught and practiced beneath the two to four roofed s that lined the yard. Just off these colonnades were dressing rooms, rooms for bathing, storage rooms, and rooms for lectures and meeting friends. These rooms were often used for homosexual or  s. 

Hermes Enagonios ("Hermes of the Contest") presided over the palaestra. He was depicted on a rectangular piece of marble as a head and an erect penis. Hermes was the god of wrestling and sometimes said to be the father of Palaestra, the goddess of wrestling. In Greek art, a herm often indicates the scene is a palaestra. Statues of Apollo and Herakles also stood in a palaestra.

## Life in the palaestra 
Wrestling was a highly  sport in ancient Greece. It was less rough than boxing or the pankration, required less space than other sports, and, as a result, was the most popular sport among athletes. References to the sport are frequent in the literature of ancient Greece, especially poetry. Death was not unknown in the palaestra. One wrestler fell on a hard surface and died ten days later from chest injuries.

In a place where men, young men, and boys were nude, homosexual  was . The authorities tried unsuccessfully to  it. Greek vase paintings of males in the palaestra show teens goosing each other or older males offering love gifts such as hares to teens. In *Lysis*, the Athenian philosopher Sokrates is pulled into a palaestra by a group of teenagers. They tell him that one of their number is in love with another. Most Greek males ed a homosexual relationship a  palaestra experience. Archaeologist Stephen Miller writes that Eros was worshipped as much as Hermes and Herakles in the palaestra.

## Notes 
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