A.
The Gymnic Events[4]
Stadion . A straight sprint from one end of the track in the stadium to the other, a distance of 600 ancient feet or, at Nemea, nearly 178 m. (see p. 176).
Diaulos . A double stadion race, probably run in individual lanes, down and back up the track to finish at the starting line (about 355 m. total at Nemea).
Hippios . A double diaulos race four lengths of the track, or about 710 m.[5]
Dolichos . A long-distance race whose total length the sources give variously as 7, 10, 20, or 24 lengths of the stadium track.[6] The evidence, at least for Olympia, slightly favors the 20-length distance, which would make the dolichos about 3,600 m., or roughly 2¼ miles.
Hoplitodromos . A race the length of a diaulos , but with the competitors carrying bronze shields and wearing helmets and, originally, metal greaves on their shins.
Pyx . An event in some ways like modern boxing, but with significant differences. The competitors bound their hands and wrists with long leather thongs that protected their knuckles and strengthened their wrists but also damaged their opponents. There were no weight divisions and no rounds, and the judges' only duty was to prevent fouls. The victor was decided either by knockout or by one competitor's acknowledging defeat.
[4] Gymnic events were so called because those who competed in them were gymnos , "nude."
[5] This race seems to have been held only in the Isthmian and Nemean Games, and not always even in these; see Pausanias 6.16.4.
[6] J. Jüthner, Die athletischen Leibesübungen der Griechen (Vienna 1968) 108-9 and n. 232, collects and discusses the ancient sources.
Pankration . Much like the pyx in the method of deciding the victor, but a combination of wrestling and boxing with no holds barred except biting and gouging. This brutal event more than once ended with the death of one of the contestants; competitors specialized in such maiming tactics as breaking fingers as well as in strangleholds, and other deadly stratagems.
Pale . An event in which, unlike modem wrestling, the opponents wrestled only from an upright position, the object being to throw one's opponent to the ground within an area apparently marked off by a layer of sand or dust. Three clean throws of the opponent were needed for a victory.
Pentathlon . A five-part competition consisting of a stadion and a wrestling, or pale , bout (both like the individual events described in the preceding paragraphs); the throwing of the javelin (akon ); the hurling of the discus (diskos ); and a long jump (halma ). In antiquity the javelin, discus, and long jump events existed only as parts of the pentathlon. Although the winner of this event would emerge dearly when only two men competed, it is not known how the winner was determined in a larger field. Several different systems (point, round-robin, and so forth) have been proposed in modem times,[7] but the ancient evidence is inconclusive. Because of its combination of demands on the contestants' speed, strength, endurance, and coordination, the pentathlon was a great favorite of the ancient philosophers', but the most famous athletes of antiquity were only rarely pentathletes.