Arrhichion

Who is Arrhichion?

Arrhichion of Phigalia was a champion pankratiast in the ancient Olympic Games. He died while successfully defending his championship in the pankration at the 54th Olympiad. Arrhichion has been described as "the most famous of all pankratiasts".

Arrhichion was the winner of the pankration, a martial art blending boxing and wrestling, at the 56th and 55th Olympiads. His fatal fight was described by the geographer Pausanias and by Philostratus the Younger. According to Pausanias:

For when he was contending for the wild olive with the last remaining competitor, whoever he was, the latter got a grip first, and held Arrhachion, hugging him with his legs, and at the same time he squeezed his neck with his hands. Arrhachion dislocated his opponent's toe, but expired owing to suffocation; but he who suffocated Arrhachion was forced to give in at the same time because of the pain in his toe. The Eleans crowned and proclaimed victor the corpse of Arrhachion.

Philostratus' account is longer. In his Imagines, an imaginary tour of an art gallery, Philostratus describes a painting of Arrhichion's death. In the translation of Arthur Fairbanks: