Wrestling: Did you mean...?

A detail of a wrestling scene, c. 510 BCE from the base of a funerary kouros. (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)

A copper-alloy figurine group showing Hercules wrestling the Libyan giant Antaeus. From Alexandria. 2nd-1st century BCE. (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)

This stone piece is carved with a scene depicting Gilgamesh wrestling two bulls. From the great temple at Tell Agrab, Diyala Valley, Iraq. Early Dynastic period, 2600-2370 BCE. On display at the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, Republic of Iraq.

Atalanta wrestling Peleus. A detail from a c. 530 BCE black-figure Chalcidian hydria from Vulci. The two wrestlers have a boar skin in the background, undoubtedly the prize for the victor and a clear link between this event and the Calydonian...

A sumo wrestling bout where many of the pre-contact rituals derive from Shinto practices.

The background metal is bronze containing traces of a gold and silver, and its surface has been deliberately darkened, perhaps by organic acids. It may be an example of what Pliny calls "Corinthian bronze", which was said to contain gold...

Girth, grit and training can bring victory in Japan's most beloved traditional sport. Sumo wrestling dates back to Shinto ceremonies more than 1,000 years old; its traditions dictate everything from pre-show rituals to the wrestlers' diet...

Atalanta is a figure from Greek mythology famed as a huntress, wrestler, and runner. The heroine was a key participant in the Calydonian boar hunt, striking the first wound in this fearsome beast with her bow. Long-determined to remain a...

Pankration is an ancient martial art which mixes wrestling and boxing. The sport can be traced as far back as the second millennium BCE in the territory of ancient Greece. Its name derives from the ancient Greek words pan (all) and kratos...

The ancient Olympic Games were a sporting event held every four years at the sacred site of Olympia, in the western Peloponnese, in honour of Zeus, the supreme god of the Greek religion. The games, held from 776 BCE to 393 CE, involved participants...