gymnasium and athletics Wrestling, compared to boxing, was a mild event Boxers bound their hands and wrists with heavy strips of leather, leaving only their fingers free They combined blows to the head or neck with closed fists with open hand slapping to divert attention, cut the face, or close the eyes of the opposition The bout lasted until one of the contenders was too exhausted to continue, knocked out, or raised his right hand to signal defeat BALL GAMES Although not included in the Olympic Games, ball games were popular forms of exercise and play among the Greeks Homer observed that women, children, and old men played ball games In Sparta, the city-state known for its taste for war, the terms for “ball player” and “youth” were synonymous In some palaestras, a room known as the sphairisteria was set aside for a ball game similar to modern handball Although the rules of this game are unknown, records indicate that it was competitive Moreover, the Greeks played a form of field hockey, in which two opposing teams hit a small ball with curved sticks One writer observed that the teams “strived to be the first to drive the ball to the opposite end of the ground from that allotted to them.” Another ball game, episkyros, involved two opposing sides throwing a ball back and forth “until one side drives the other back over the goal line.” PROFESSIONAL ATHLETICS Greece’s best athletes, those who competed in the Olympic Games and similar athletic competitions, were professionals Although they did not receive material rewards for their Olympic performances, wealthy patrons financed their favorite athlete’s training, travel, and livelihood While the dominance of wealthy aristocrats in Greek sport gave the impression of amateurism, the emergence of lower and working-class athletes in the middle of the fifth century b.c.e supported by wealthy citizens exposed the professionalism inherent in Greek sport The emergence of athletic guilds in the second century b.c.e legitimized professionalism, as the organizations provided athletes with a mechanism for collective bargaining to achieve an equitable competitive environment Through collective bargaining, athletes gained a voice in scheduling games, making travel arrangements, obtaining personal amenities, and securing old-age pensions in the form of working as trainers and managers Greek intellectuals praised athletics and exercise for preparing the body for the physical demands of life and forging the bond between the mind and body Socrates said that the “body must bear its part in whatever men 179 do; and in all the services required from the body, it is of the utmost importance to have it in the best possible condition.” For Plato, a student of Socrates, himself once a wrestler, who competed in the Isthmian Games, the ideal was the body and the mind “duly harmonized” through athletics In The Republic, Plato engaged Socrates in a dialogue, arguing that gymnastic exercise was the “twin sister” of the arts for “the improvement of the soul.” Philosophers like Euripides criticized the athlete’s unyielding pursuit of glory through athletics and sport at the cost of maintaining lifelong health “In their prime they made a brilliant spectacle as they go about and are the pride of the state; but when bitter old age comes upon them,” observed Euripides, “they become like old coats that have lost their resilience.” The athlete provided Greek artists and sculptors a subject in whom they could express their regard for physical beauty, strength, and symmetry While Myron’s fifth-century b.c.e statue of the discus thrower, Discobolus, captured the physical ideal expressed by Plato, other sculptors and artists demonstrated the realism of athletics and sport For example, Apollonius’s firstcentury b.c.e bronze statue The Boxer not only displays the combatant’s beautifully proportioned muscular body but also the scarred face, gnarled hands, and broken nose common to the sport Depictions of trim and finely proportioned runners painted on vases and cups were often juxtaposed against gaunt charioteers, grossly disproportioned wrestlers, and pitifully plump gymnasts Similarly, dramatists and poets found inspiration in athletics In Electra, Sophocles portrays Agamemnon’s son, Orestes, as a bold yet reckless charioteer competing in the Pythian Games at Delphi, who dies after being thrown from his chariot after losing control of it through a tight curve In the following lines, the poet Pindar of Thebes celebrated the athlete’s pursuit of victory: For if any man delights in expense and toil And sets in action high gifts shaped by the gods, And with him his destiny Plants the glory which he desires, Already he casts his anchor on the furthest edge of bliss, And the gods honor him At the height of Greek culture and society gymnasiums and athletics had spread throughout the entire Mediterranean region Even as Greece declined in influence through the second century b.c.e., foreign cities and towns continued to build stadiums, hippodromes, gymnasiums,