Note 13 — Chapter II · ATHLETICS IN HOMER

Athenaeus, pp. 153, 154. The true Hoplomachia, as described in Homer and practised apparently by the Mantineans and Cyrenaeans, must not be confounded with the later so-called Hoplomachia, competitions in which were held at the Athenian Thesea between boys of all ages as well as men, and which was regularly taught in the gymnasia by officials known as Hoplomachoi. The latter was merely a military training in the use of arms, and the competitions therein were probably as harmless as modern fencing competitions. The Spartans at all events regarded the Hoplomachia as unpractical and useless for a nation of soldiers, and Plato, though he recommends the armed combat between men in heavy or light armour as preferable to the pankration for his ideal state, yet has no great regard for the fashionable exponents and teachers of the art in his time. Plato, Laches 182, Gorg. 456, Leg. 834. Cp. Dar.-Sagl, s.v. “Hoplomachia.”