Pancratium

[Tai-Jutsuka]

What exactly is it and what does it consist of?

[Leonidas]

Pancratium is an ancient Greek style. So ancient in fact that it was old during the first Olympics around 730-ish BC. It consists of Greco Roman wrestling and Boxing (not really in the Western sense, more like the word boxing used in Kung Fu). It is sometimes thought of as the first complete martial arts. Competitors, kneed, elbowed, punched, kicked, headbutted, and of course wrestled there way to victory. It was used way back when everything including biting, groin strikes and biting was allowed. Matches didn't end until someone passed out from exhaustion, gave up or was killed. Deaths happened all the time.

[MA fanatic]

Dude, if you want to know more about that art, I would go to www.submissionfighting.com and click on the Underground forum. Post a thread about pancration. You should get many answers and web sites. There guys on there who compete in pancration and who research the art. Good luck.

MA fanatic

[bustr]

Pancratium survived as an event up until the early 70s. 17th, 18th and 19th century Western fighters didn't just wing it. They had techniques that were passed along from ancient times.

Here's an article:

http://ejmas.com/jmanly/jmanlyart_gorn_0401.htm

And here's a site with some traditional Western techniques:

http://keith.martialartsman.net/

This ones good too:

http://flybynight.korolev.com/schoolofarms/

[Silumkid]

There is a legend I heard about Pankration that may or may not be of enjoyment to you. Apparently, the claim is that it was one of the first recorded uses of the "spearhand" technique.

2 fighters (I can't recall the names) continually fought to a draw during a competition because of both their high skill. They decided the way to decide the contest was to see who could, or could not, withstand the strongest blow. The first competitor landed a powerful blow but it was not enough to stop the other fighter. the other fighter then struck a spearhand to the opponents' underarm and pierced it, killing him. this event is supposedly depicted on a piece of pottery (or something like that). I believe their is a modern advocate of the style by the name of Jim Arvantitis (spelling?). maybe a web search with Google may turn something up?