Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

:71 LIjCTA. LUDI.
also presided over the i7raci. Theselns is said by athlete fell, the other allowed him to rise and con.
Pausanias (i. 39. ~ 3) to have been the first who tinue the contest if he still felt inclined. (Plat. de
reduced the game of wrestling to certain rules, Legg. vii. p. 796; Corn. Nep. Epamn. 2; Lucian,
and to have thus raised it to the rank of an art; Lexiph. 5.) But if the same athlete fell thrice, the
whereas before his time it was a rude fight, in victory was decided, and he was not allowed to go
which bodily size and'strength alone decided the on. (Senec. de Beneft v. 3; Aeschyl. Agam.. 171
victory. The most celebrated wrestler in the Anthol. Gr. vol. ii. p. 406, ed. Jacobs.) The
heroic age was Heracles. In the Homeric age & wAIvSrLs was only fought in later times, at the
wrestling was much practised, and a beautiful de- smaller games, and especially in the pancratium.
scription of a wrestling match is given in the Iliad The place, where the wrestlers contended, was ge(xxiii. 710, &c.; compare Od. viii. 103, 126, 246; nerally soft ground, and covered with sand. (Xen.
Hesiod, Scul. Hlerec. 302, where!'dXetv A Xruclv Anab. iv. 8. ~ 26; Lucian, Anach. 2.) Effeminate:signifies the rdxc ),. During this period wrestlers persons sometimes spread large and magnificent
contended naked, with the exception of the loins, carpets on the place where they wrestled. (Athen.
which were covered with the 7repi/uea (11. xxiii. xii. p. 539.) Each of the various tribes of the
700), and this custom remained throughout Greece Greeks seem to have shown its peculiar and nauntil 01. 15, from which time the perizoma was no tional character in the game of wrestling in some
longer used, and wrestlers fought entirely naked. particular trick or stratagem, by which it excelled
(Thucyd. i. 6, with the Schol.; Paus. i. 44. ~ 1; the others.
Dionys. vii. 72.) In the Homeric age the custom of In a diaetetic point of view the aAXv6ar~Ls was
anointing the body for the purpose of wrestling does considered beneficial to the interior parts of the
not appear to have been known, but in the time of body, the loins, and the lower parts in general,
Solon it was quite general, and was said to have but injurious to the head; whereas the crdr.n opO*
been adopted by thile Cretans and Lacedaemonians was believed to act beneficially upon the upper
at a very early period. (Thucyd. I. c.; Plat. de Re parts of the body. It was owing to these salutary
Publ. v. p. 452.) After the body was anointed, it effects that wrestling was practised in all the gymwas strewed over with sand or dust, in order to nasia as well as in the palaestrae, and that in 01.
enable the wrestlers to take a firm hold of each 37 wrestling for boys was introduced at the
other. At the festival of the Sthenia in Argos the Olympic games, and soon after in the other
IraAF was accompanied by flute-music. [STHENIA.] great games, and at Athens in the Eleusinia, and
When two athletae began their contest, each Thesea also. (Paus. v. 8. ~ 3, iii. 11. ~ 6; Pind.
might use a variety of means to seize his antagonist 01. viii. 68; Gell. xv. 20; Plut. Symp. ii. 5.) The
in the most advantageous manner, and to throw most renowned of all the Greek wrestlers in the
him down without exposing himself (Ovid. Met. historical age was Milon of Croton, whose name
ix. 33, &c.; Stat. Thleb. vi. 831, &c.; Heliodor. was known throughout the ancient world. (Herod.
Aethliop. x. p. 235); but one of the great objects iii. 137; Strab. vi. p. 262, &c.; Diodor. xii. 9.)
was to make every attack with elegance and Other distinguished wrestlers are enumerated by
beauty, and the fight was for this as well as for Krause (p. 135, &ec.), who has also given a very
other purposes regulated by certain laws. (Plat. de minute account of the game of wrestling and every
Leg. viii. p. 834; Cic. Orat. 68; Lucian, Anach. thing connected with it, in his Gymnastikund Agon.
24; Aelian. V. IH. xi. 1.) Striking, for instance, d. Hell. pp. 400-439. [L. S.]
was not allowed, but pushing an antagonist back- LUDI is the common name for the whole variety
ward ((cOetouls) was frequently resorted to. (Plut. of theatrical exhibitions, games and contests, which
Sy/zsp. ii. 5; Lucian, Anucld. 1. 24.) It is pro- were held at Rome on various occasions, but chiefly
bably on account of the laws by which this game at the festival of the gods; and as the ludi at cerwas regulated, and the great art which it re- tain festivals formed the principal part of the soquired in consequence, that Plutarch (Symp. ii. 4) lemnities, these festivals themselves are called ludi.
calls it the TEXYic-reva7o, mal iraovpy7-aroup'o'rv Sometimes, however, ludi were also held in honour
~a0Az ciTrTV,. But notwithstanding these laws, of a magistrate or of a deceased person, and in this
wrestling admitted of greater cunning and more case the games may be considered as ludi privati,
tricks and stratagems than any other game, with though all the people might take part in them.
the exception of the pancratium (Xen. Cyrop. i. 6. All ludi were divided by the Romans into two
~ 32); and the Greeks had a great many technical classes, viz. ludi circeenses and ludi scenici (Cic. de
terms to express the various stratagems, positions, Leg. ii. 15), accordingly as they were held in the
and attitudes in which wrestlers might be placed. circus or in the theatre; in the latter case they
Numerous scenes of wrestlers are represented on were mostly theatrical representations with their
ancient works of art. (Krause, p. 412, &c.; see various modifications; in the former they consisted
woodcut in PAINCRATIUAI.) of all or of a part of the games enumerated iii the
The contest in wrestling was divided by the an- articles CIRcus and GLADIATORES. Another dicients into two parts, viz. the ercArl opOBi or pOla vision of the ludi into stati, iumperativi, and votivi,
(ipOo'da38hv craXaaLeIV), that is, the fight of the was made only with regard to religious festivals,
athletae as long as they stood upright, and the and is analogous to the division of the feriae.
ax&Mi'v ~is or Icvxlsrs (lucta voluzttoria), in which [FERIAEx.]
the athletae struggled with each other while lying The superintendence of the games and the soon the ground. Unless they contrived to rise again, lemnities connected with them was in most cases
the a&ximvanois was the last stage of the contest, intrusted to the aediles. [CADILEs.] If the lawwhich continued until one of them acknowledged ful rites were not observed in the celebration of the
himself to be conquered. The 7rdArj ip6'7 appears ludi, it depended upon the decision of the pontiffs
to have been the only one which was fought in the whether they were to be held again (instauurari) or
times of Homer, as well as afterwards in the great not. An alphabetical list of the principal ludi is
national games of the Greeks; and as soon as one subjoined. [L. S.]