Papyrus Oxyrhynchus III 466 (P. Oxy. III,466) is a fragmentary 2nd century
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
papyrus
Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...
manuscript containing instructions for
wrestling
Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...
, including the description of various grips and holds, constituting the earliest
historical European martial arts
Historical European martial arts (HEMA) are martial arts of European origin, particularly using arts formerly practised, but having since died out or evolved into very different forms.
While there is limited surviving documentation of the martia ...
manual
Manual may refer to:
Instructions
* User guide
* Owner's manual
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* Online help
Other uses
* Manual (music), a keyboard, as for an organ
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along with P.Oxy LXXIX 5204 (instructions for pankration). The papyrus was given to
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
by the
Egypt Exploration Society
The Egypt Exploration Society (EES) is a British non-profit organization. The society was founded in 1882 by Amelia Edwards and Reginald Stuart Poole in order to examine and excavate in the areas of Egypt and Sudan. The intent was to study and ana ...
in 1907.
The text is in three columns with 13, 15 and 10 lines, respectively.
Each instruction is followed by ''plexon'' (πλέξον) "tangle", translated by Miller (2004) as "mix it up!" (in the sense of "execute!"). Poliakoff (1987) translates "you fight it out".
See also
*
Oxyrhynchus Papyri
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a group of manuscripts discovered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by papyrologists Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt at an ancient rubbish dump near Oxyrhynchus in Egypt (, mo ...
*
Greek wrestling
Greek wrestling ( grc-gre, πάλη, pálē), also known as Ancient Greek wrestling and Palé, was the most popular organized sport in Ancient Greece. A point was scored when one player touched the ground with his back, hip or shoulder, or conced ...
References
*
B. P. Grenfell &
A. S. Hunt,
''Oxyrhynchus Papyri'' III, 401(1903), pp. 137–139.
APIS record: columbia.apis.p356* Stephen G. Miller, ''Arete: Greek Sports from Ancient Sources'' University of California Press (2004), , p. 3
*Michael B. Poliakoff, ''Combat Sports in the Ancient World: Competition, Violence, and Culture'' Sports and History Series, Yale University Press (1987), p. 51f.
2nd-century manuscripts
466
Wrestling
Historical European martial arts
Martial arts manuals
{{OxyrhynchusGR-stub