Ancient fighters and fighting.

[Canelo and GGG]

i appreciate your work ,maybe its not 100% boxing but still good read

[Marchegiano]

Yeah, the Eurythmics, you never heard of them?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeMFqkcPYcg

Of course I have, i'm just ******. I didn't connect it.

i appreciate your work ,maybe its not 100% boxing but still good read

I really appreciate that.

[Marchegiano]

Herakleides Egyptian Champion, maybe a mummy.

A few years ago while trying to find out anything I could about Herakleides of Alexandria victor of the boxing tournament at 218th olympiad in the year 93 I stumbled on a few articles from Getty about a mummy they'd recently acquired. Looking into the mummy a little more I found quite a few reasons to believe Getty's Herakleides, son of Thermos/Herakleides, son of the lady Thermouthis or Thermoutharion might be the champion from 93 AD.

The mummy comes from the first century like the champ.

The mummy come from the same land as the champ.

The mummy shares the same name as the champ.

Right, ok, we all knew that much going in otherwise I'd've never even clicked on the Getty link, of course they shame a name and location, and the time period is interesting but hardly enough to place him as an olympic victor let alone a fighter and champion.

Well, this is where it gets interesting, as champion Herakleides would have been awarded a wreath crown and depicted in art nearly naked more often than not.

First century Roman Era mummies have portraits of the deceased. This is the mummy Herakleides:



This is a sample of Roman Era Egyptian mummy portrait:



Notice Herakleides' crown and lack or clothes? Clearly this man was an athlete and a victor. It's not hard to look up all of the victories from ancient games. I don't know of nor have I ever stumbled on any other athlete named, or even anything similar to, Herakleides who would have been depicted with a golden wreath crown and no clothes. If he won say a chariot race or some such he'd have clothes on in his portrait. You're welcome to dig through the databases yourself, but you'll not find another known olympiad named herakleides from the first century let alone another fighter.

One has to wonder how many Herakleides from Egypt in 93 could there possibly have been that won a downing event and was awarded a golden wreath. He's either 93's boxing olympiad or another combat sports champion who lived at the same time, in the same place, and had the same name, but we lost record of his victory. Youse can decide for yourselves which is more far fetched.

I understand it's not very strong evidence, but I think it's interesting all the same and thought some of you may like to know.

For more on the mummy check out this video, fair warning though it's pretty boring.

[The Old LefHook]

They even had runners back then.

[The Old LefHook]

I avert my eyes when I see two dogs coupling as well. It sounds as if perhaps Aelian did not, to be so impressed by this normal reaction of Kleitomachos.

[The Old LefHook]

A medical examination of the mummy's hands would be of interest. His remains might show evidence of other injuries consistent with those expected of a boxer.

[phallus]

A medical examination of the mummy's hands would be of interest. His remains might show evidence of other injuries consistent with those expected of a boxer.

don't just look for injuries, there are other signs of a boxer, like hardened bones in his hands from heavy training.

[Marchegiano]

Demarchos of Parrhasia - Cannibal

Victory of the Olympiad in the year 400 BC

Pausanias: Description of Greece - As to the boxer, by name Damarchos, an Arcadian of Parrhasia, I cannot believe what romancers say about him, how he changed his shape into that of a wolf at the sacrifice of Lycaean Zeus, and how nine years after he became a man again. Nor do I think that the Arcadians either record this of him, otherwise it would have been recorded as well in the inscription at Olympia, which runs: This statue was dedicated by Damarchus, son of Dinytas, Parrhasian by birth from Arcadia.

The festival of Lycaea involved human sacrifice to Zeus. A young boy was killed and then consumed by one of the participants, in this case by Damarchus, and as a result Zeus would transform the cannibal into a wolf.

According to Pausanias the werewolf could once again live as a man provided he abstained from human flesh for nine years; if however the wolf tasted the flesh of a man he would remain a beast forever.

Augustine and Pliny agree with the main aspects of the story but claim the requisite waiting period was ten years, not nine.

The story is briefly alluded to in Plato’s masterpiece, The Republic, however in Plato's version there is no suggestion that the change could be undone.

[Marchegiano]

A medical examination of the mummy's hands would be of interest. His remains might show evidence of other injuries consistent with those expected of a boxer.

I was positive something like that would come up eventually but it never did and I just kind of forgot about him until recently. I may call Getty and talk to someone there about it. They've scanned him so it may be as simple as asking a record keeper to look through some photos.

[Marchegiano]

They even had runners back then.

Well, yes and no, He got hit alot they just weren't scoring punches. They landed on his guard. According to historians anyway.

It's safe to say he wasn't elusive though because had Melankomas ran and danced the Hellano***ai probably would have killed him for mocking.

If by runner you meant overly defensive, yeah absolutely.

The first guy to really use footwork for elusiveness was Daniel Mendoza in the 1780s I believe.