2024年3月14日发(作者：仝丝柳)
第7章
Along these same lines, Pausanias attributes to Theseus the mythico-historical
moment when wrestling became a teachable skill or art:
CONTESTI NG VI RTUOSITYCercyon is said to have utterly destroyed all those
who tried a boutwith him except Theseus, who outmatched him mostly by skills （so-
phiai ） themselves. For Theseus ?rst invented the art of expert wres-tling
（palaistikēn technēn）， and through him afterward was establishedthe teaching of
the art. Before him men used in wrestling only sizeand bodily strength. （1.39.3）
With Theseus, then, wrestling was thought to have moved from a re-liance on brute
force to a more skillful art that depended on a set ofteachable tactics and a
clever, responsive body.
By the second century A.D., when Philostratus was cataloguing bodytypes for
various sports, wrestling's need for a clever body had solidi-?ed. Philostratus
emphasizes ?exibility of the chest and suppleness ofthe hips （Peri Gymnastikēs
35）， and discusses at length the notewor-thiness of wrestlers classi?ed as
''big little men'' （36）-these are menwho have an advantage attributable not to
bodily mass, but to quali-tative differences that make them ''lithe, supple,
impetuous, nimble,quick, and equable in tension'' （36）。 Such advantages were
shared by acompact but wily Odysseus in the wrestling match against the
massiveAjax:
As Ajax heaved him up Odysseus never missed a trick-he kicked him behind the
knee, clipping the hollow,cut his legs from under him, knocked him backward-pinned
as Odysseus ?ung himself across the chest!
（Iliad 23.806–10; trans. Fagles）Wrestling is therefore a sport in
which the possibility exists for thephysically smaller, weaker wrestler to
overtake a larger, stronger oppo-nent. As such, wrestling provides the most apt
analogue for the soph-ists' rhetorical art, which is commonly known for its
capacity to makethe weaker argument stronger （Aristotle, Rhetoric 1402a23–26;
DK 80A21）。
Furthermore, as a skill-based sport, wrestling had more terminologyavailable
for the sophists and others to appropriate in order to producea ''conceptualized
rhetoric,'' to borrow Kennedy's term （1980: 6–10）。
While wrestling's status as a technē makes it the most appropriate sportfor
sophists to link to rhetoric, it also （excepting the pankration） fea-tures the
most opportunities for bodily contact, as all body parts aremore or less mobilized
for the action. As such, wrestling enacted theclassic struggle, as wrestlers
grappled with legs, arms, heads, skin onskin, muscle on muscle.
Gathering CloudsWhen the sophists came on the scene in the ?fth century, as
the storygoes, they forced a confrontation between two modes of education-the old,
Archaic, and the ''new,'' sophistic. This confrontation, I willsuggest, produced
not a bifurcation of the two schools, but instead afusion, resulting in a
new ?gure altogether: a sophist-athlete.
Aristophanes' ?fth-century comedy the Clouds showcases this veryencounter in
the form of a dramatic agōn. At the center of the Cloudsisa contest, an agōn
pitting against each other two arguments （logoi） fortwo styles of education,
each of which seeks to cultivate a different typeof character. On one side stands
the broad-chested, mighty warrior–?gure of the old school, Kreitton Logos
（stronger argument）； and on theother, the sharp-tongued, cunning sophist
of the new school, HettonLogos （weaker argument）。16 The play also features
Socrates as a providerof sophistic training, the shape-shifting cloud-chorus as
goddesses ofdiscourse, and one Strepsiades, a comic fool at the heart of the
play'saction. Strepsiades' name betrays both his character and his quest. Theverb
strephō carries notions of twisting and turning, both in the sense ofrestless
tossing and turning in bed, the state in which Strepsiades ap-pears in the opening
scene, and the twisting or turning of a wrestlertrying to elude his adversary.
Strepsiades the twister seeks out sophistictraining, that which he calls
glōttostrophein, or ''tongue wrestling,'' as away to slip out of his creditors'
''holds'' on him.
The two participants in the agōn, Kreitton and Hetton, are generallyviewed
as caricatures of the old and new schools, binary opposites.
Kreitton defends his training techniques through nostalgia for the goodold
days when young boys observed custom （nomos） and the civic goodby submitting to
2024年3月14日发(作者：仝丝柳)
第7章
Along these same lines, Pausanias attributes to Theseus the mythico-historical
moment when wrestling became a teachable skill or art:
CONTESTI NG VI RTUOSITYCercyon is said to have utterly destroyed all those
who tried a boutwith him except Theseus, who outmatched him mostly by skills （so-
phiai ） themselves. For Theseus ?rst invented the art of expert wres-tling
（palaistikēn technēn）， and through him afterward was establishedthe teaching of
the art. Before him men used in wrestling only sizeand bodily strength. （1.39.3）
With Theseus, then, wrestling was thought to have moved from a re-liance on brute
force to a more skillful art that depended on a set ofteachable tactics and a
clever, responsive body.
By the second century A.D., when Philostratus was cataloguing bodytypes for
various sports, wrestling's need for a clever body had solidi-?ed. Philostratus
emphasizes ?exibility of the chest and suppleness ofthe hips （Peri Gymnastikēs
35）， and discusses at length the notewor-thiness of wrestlers classi?ed as
''big little men'' （36）-these are menwho have an advantage attributable not to
bodily mass, but to quali-tative differences that make them ''lithe, supple,
impetuous, nimble,quick, and equable in tension'' （36）。 Such advantages were
shared by acompact but wily Odysseus in the wrestling match against the
massiveAjax:
As Ajax heaved him up Odysseus never missed a trick-he kicked him behind the
knee, clipping the hollow,cut his legs from under him, knocked him backward-pinned
as Odysseus ?ung himself across the chest!
（Iliad 23.806–10; trans. Fagles）Wrestling is therefore a sport in
which the possibility exists for thephysically smaller, weaker wrestler to
overtake a larger, stronger oppo-nent. As such, wrestling provides the most apt
analogue for the soph-ists' rhetorical art, which is commonly known for its
capacity to makethe weaker argument stronger （Aristotle, Rhetoric 1402a23–26;
DK 80A21）。
Furthermore, as a skill-based sport, wrestling had more terminologyavailable
for the sophists and others to appropriate in order to producea ''conceptualized
rhetoric,'' to borrow Kennedy's term （1980: 6–10）。
While wrestling's status as a technē makes it the most appropriate sportfor
sophists to link to rhetoric, it also （excepting the pankration） fea-tures the
most opportunities for bodily contact, as all body parts aremore or less mobilized
for the action. As such, wrestling enacted theclassic struggle, as wrestlers
grappled with legs, arms, heads, skin onskin, muscle on muscle.
Gathering CloudsWhen the sophists came on the scene in the ?fth century, as
the storygoes, they forced a confrontation between two modes of education-the old,
Archaic, and the ''new,'' sophistic. This confrontation, I willsuggest, produced
not a bifurcation of the two schools, but instead afusion, resulting in a
new ?gure altogether: a sophist-athlete.
Aristophanes' ?fth-century comedy the Clouds showcases this veryencounter in
the form of a dramatic agōn. At the center of the Cloudsisa contest, an agōn
pitting against each other two arguments （logoi） fortwo styles of education,
each of which seeks to cultivate a different typeof character. On one side stands
the broad-chested, mighty warrior–?gure of the old school, Kreitton Logos
（stronger argument）； and on theother, the sharp-tongued, cunning sophist
of the new school, HettonLogos （weaker argument）。16 The play also features
Socrates as a providerof sophistic training, the shape-shifting cloud-chorus as
goddesses ofdiscourse, and one Strepsiades, a comic fool at the heart of the
play'saction. Strepsiades' name betrays both his character and his quest. Theverb
strephō carries notions of twisting and turning, both in the sense ofrestless
tossing and turning in bed, the state in which Strepsiades ap-pears in the opening
scene, and the twisting or turning of a wrestlertrying to elude his adversary.
Strepsiades the twister seeks out sophistictraining, that which he calls
glōttostrophein, or ''tongue wrestling,'' as away to slip out of his creditors'
''holds'' on him.
The two participants in the agōn, Kreitton and Hetton, are generallyviewed
as caricatures of the old and new schools, binary opposites.
Kreitton defends his training techniques through nostalgia for the goodold
days when young boys observed custom （nomos） and the civic goodby submitting to