Olympic victor of boxing in 688, 684, 680, & 676 BC from the modern Izmir, Turkey. Yes, the first boxing champion was Asian. Pausanius: “At the twenty-third Festival they restored the prizes for boxing, and the winner was Onomastos of Smyrna, which was already a part of Ionia.” Philostratus: “Onomastos conquered as best boxer and thus linked the name of Smyrna with a glorious deed. For at one stroke Smyrna surpassed all cities of Ionia and Lydia, all on the Hellespont and in Phrygia, and all nations which inhabit Asia, and won first the Olympian crown of victory.”These cities are modern Turkish Anatolia. When Onomastos won the first Olympia boxing championship in 688 BC the addition of boxing to Olympia as a sport of respectability proved the Champion as reputation within a frightening, exciting, world of athletic violence. The same day Onomastos became a boxing Olympiad Champion, as spectators wildly applauded, he was presented a palm branch as symbolism and reward for his victory. Red ribbons were wrapped around his head and hands. There was no doubt boxing would survive as an Olympia event, but perhaps could be civilized with an official assortment of rules. In 684 BC, Onomastos successfully defended his Olympia boxing championship under rules written by himself. Philostratus: “Onomastos wrote rules for boxing, which the Eleans observed on account of the expert knowledge of the boxer; and the Arcadians were not offended that they were bound by contest rules which had their origin in effeminate Ionia.” Elia and Arcadia remain part of modern Greece. It would be as stunning in 684 BC as 2017 for modern Greece to concede a Turk as an expert at sports or anything. The neighboring regions change, but the attitude remains. Onomastos must have been very impressive to get his haters to co-sign his rules system. During 680 BC, Onomastos became the first official 3-time Olympia champion in any sport. The Olympia added chariot racing as an event that year as well. This is significant because Olympia now contained the identical sporting events as Homer’s, Iliad. Onomastos brought tremendous fame to the former Smyrna region itself. It is unknown exactly the years Homer lived, but the proximity of Smyrna was near Ionia. Both Onomastos and Homer are from the modern Izmir, Anatolia, Turkey. According to Homer and Theokritus, boxers engaged in **** talk thousands of years ago. For someone such as Onomastos such behavior would have been to gain a psychological advantage. The reputation and size of Onomastos might have frightened or concerned an opponent before a boxing bout began. It is natural to boxing and not necessarily bad sportsmanship for Onomastos to have an intimidation advantage as reward for his championship reign. No one knows what Onomastos actually looked like, but one can assume descriptions of the ideal boxer from the era he reigned over would reflect him. Philostratus: “The boxer should have long hands, and a strong forearm and upper arm, powerful shoulders and a long neck. As for the wrists, the thick are heavier for striking; the less thick, mobile and adroit in thrusting. Well-built hips should also support him, for the forward thrust of the hands throws the body off balance, if it does not rest on firm hips.” In 676 BC Onomastos successfully defended his boxing dominance with a 4th Olympia victory. Vergil communicated the words of an aging boxing champion: “No cowardice has banished love of honor or thought of renown. But my blood is chilled and dulled by sluggish age and my strength of body is numb and lifeless.” Vergil implies an older Onomastos-type champion who comprehends the hubris and braggart quality of his younger self which dominated boxing in the 680’s BC era. Onomastos probably lost a boxing bout sometime in his career, but no defeat is recorded. It is not unreasonable to assume the most difficult Olympia victory for Onomastos was the last, but it is impossible to know. the reputation of Onomastos, according to historian Christopher Shelton, would have been greater than Jack Broughton, Jem Belcher, Tom Hyer, John L. Sullivan, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Sonny Liston, George Foreman, Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis or Vitali or Wladimir Klitschko at their peak. Onomastos stepped through life and death and myth with transcendental language of world respect: the champ! At the peak of his boxing career, Onomastos was the most famous and respected pugilist of modern Europe, Asia, and Northern Africa. It would be similar to Muhammad Ali’s legacy if no one knew the name of any other boxer. Onomastos created fame for a small region previously thought of as weak and inconsequential. Onomastos statue inscription read, from Pausanius: “My fatherland is Smyrna and my name is Onomastos; I am the son of Pheidileos, and I won four Olympia victories for boxing.” Two of the seven wonders of the Ancient World were in modern Turkey and now lay in ruins, which would likewise be the fate for any such Onomastos statue from 3k years ago. Back to [url]Heavyweight Champions from Ancient to Present[/url] As always thanks for having a peek. If you're interested in more information on Onomastos I'd recommend Chistopher Shelton and Norman Gardiner. Next is Daippos.
[url]Boxing in the time of Christ, by Shelton. [/url] This is mostly just cuts from that book but I did use Norman and his Athletics in the Ancient World as sort of a check system. If you have a hard time finding Ono in a book try spelling it differently. I don't know if there is an official correct spelling and I use the Foundation for the Hellenic World for names when I'm aware of the spelling they went with. Most of my posts are basically excerpts from Chris's books with a little addition from other authors and a sprinkle of my own thoughts or wordplay. It's fair to say I'm a CJS fanboy. He's one of the only historians I know of who takes on commonly referenced poorly researched history in every book he writes. He's a bit of a wordy dick who likes to relate to now and lead the reader to his conclusions, but his historical fact is primo stuff and his artistic freedoms don't bug me.
I think the only rational conclusion from the above post is that Onomastos of Smyrna KO Prime Mike Tyson of Catskill in 3
I would have loved to see these ancient guys fight. Physical conditioning and combat was a big deal in the ancient world, and it would have been fascinating to see whether they had good technique or not. I'm thinking that some of these guys may have surprised us.
A round by round for a fight is, to my knowledge, impossible, but Vergil wrote a poem about a boxing match. It's not meant to be a report of an actual fight though it's more like an ancient version of a Rocky movie. Homer wrote about a fight as well. Before I do a thread on Daippos ( not much on him anyway ) I'll cover the Homer and Vergil work along with the myth about how the Olympics formed and the myth about how Apollo invented boxing. I'll recycle the Philostratus quote there too to cover appearance. May was well cover rules and equipment while I'm at it. It's no round by round but it might help you picture the kind of physics that took place, strategies, and general atmosphere at least. That said, for me the most interesting aspect is thinking about boxers who see boxing as a form of worship like how Christians view singing hymns.
They filigreed the fight frame by frame onto a silver foil flip book, whereby you could flip the pages very fast and see what happened. Unfortunately, as with all silver-based film, it tarnished with age and it is lost forever. But the oral histories remain. The famous historian Bertus Saccharidus was ringside and chiselled a few words on the matter. Alas. Those tablets are lost too.
This is a fantastic, ATG post, sir, and I am ecstatically humbled to have been the Pippen to your Jordan.
