ANACHARSIS 
And why are your young men doing all this,
Solon? Some of them, locked in each other’s arms,
are tripping one another up, while others are choking
and twisting each other and grovelling together in
the mud, wallowing like swine. Yet, in the beginning, as soon as they had taken their clothes off, they
put oil on themselves and took turns at rubbing each
other down very peacefully—I saw it. Since then, I
do not know what has got into them that they push
one another about with lowered heads and butt their
foreheads together like rams. And see there! That
man picked the other one up by the legs and threw
him to the ground, then fell down upon him and
will not let him get up, shoving him all down
into the mud; and now, after winding his legs about
his middle and putting his forearm underneath his
throat, he is choking the poor fellow, who is slapping
him sidewise on the shoulder, by way of begging off,
I take it, so that he may not be strangled completely. The under man is trying to break his opponent’s hold, a "half Nelson,” by striking him on the upper arm. 
Even out of consideration for the oil, they do not
avoid getting dirty; they rub off the ointment,
plaster themselves with mud, mixed with streams of


 

sweat, and make themselves a laughing-stock, to me
at least, by slipping through each other's hands
like eels.
 
Another set is doing the same in the uncovered part
of the court, though not in mud. They have a layer
of deep sand under them in the pit, as you see, and
not only besprinkle one another but of their own
accord heap the dust on themselves like so many
cockerels, in order that it may be harder to break away
in the clinches, I suppose, because the sand takes off
the slipperiness and affords a firmer grip on a dry
surface.
 
Others, standing upright, themselves covered with
dust, are attacking each other with blows and
kicks. This one here looks as if he were going to
spew out his teeth, unlucky man, his mouth is so full
of blood and sand; he has had a blow on the jaw, as
you see. But even the official there does not separate
them and break up the fight—I assume from his
purple cloak that he is one of the officials; on the
contrary, he urges them on and praises the one who
struck the blow.
 
Others in other places are all exerting themselves;
they jump up and down as if they were running, but
stay in the same place; and they spring high up and
kick the air. “The exercise is that known in the modern gymnasium as ‘knees up,’ and is apparently the same as that described by Seneca (Ep. xv.) as the ‘fuller’s jump,’ from its resemblance to the action of a fuller jumping up and down on the clothes in his tub.” E. N. Gardiner, Greek Athletic Sports and Festivals, p. 298 
 
I want to know, therefore, what good it can be to
do all this, because to me at least the thing looks
more like insanity than anything else, and nobody can
easily convince me that men who act in that way are
not out of their minds.