PANCRĂTĬUM

( παγκράτιον ), is derived from πάν and κράτος , and accordingly signifies an athletic game, in which all the powers of the fighter were called into action. The pancratium was one of the games or gymnastic contests which were exhibited at all the great festivals of Greece; it consisted of boxing and wrestling ( πυγμή and πάλη ), and was reckoned to be one of the heavy or hard exercises ( ἀγωνίσματα βαρέα or βαρύτερα ), on account of the violent exertions it required, and for this reason it was not much practised in the gymnasia. In Homer we find neither the game nor the name of the pancratium mentioned, and as it was not introduced at the Olympic games until Ol. 33, we may presume that the game, though it may have existed long before in a rude state, was not brought to any degree of perfection until a short time before that event. The name of the combatants was Pancratiastae ( παγκρατιασταί ) or Pammachi ( πάμμαχοι ). They fought naked, and had their bodies anointed and covered with sand, by which they were enabled to take hold of one another. When the contest began, each of the fighters might commence by boxing or by wrestling, accordingly as he thought he should be more succe ful in the one than in the other. The victory was not decided until one of the parties was killed, or lifted up a finger, thereby declaring that he was unable to continue the contest either from pain or fatigue. PĂNĒGỸRIS ( πανήγυρις ), signifies a meeting or a embly of a whole people for the purpose of worshipping at a common sanctuary. The word is used in three significations:—1. For a meeting of the inhabitants of one particular town and its vicinity; 2. For a meeting of the inhabitants of a whole district, a province, or of the whole body of people belonging to a particular tribe [ Delia ; Panionia ]; and 3. For great national meetings, as the Olympic, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean games. Although in all pane gyre is which we know, the religious character forms the most prominent feature, other subjects, political discu ions and resolutions, as well as a variety of amusements, were not excluded, though they were perhaps more a consequence of the presence of many persons than objects of the meeting. Every panegyris, moreover, was made by tradespeople a source of gain, and it may be presumed that such a meeting was never held without a fair, at which all sorts of things were exhibited for sale.