the imitation is of brave bodies and souls, the action is direct and muscu-
lar, giving for the most part a straight movement of the limbs of the body”
(Laws 7.815A). While the Pyrrhic was in essence a performance that also
served as a preparation for armed combat, the Anapale, practiced at the
gymnopaedia(literally, naked boy; a sports festival) in Sparta, was a dance
performed by naked young boys “moving gracefully to the music of flute
and lyre, [which] displayed posture, and movements used in wrestling and
boxing” (Lawler 1964, 108).
Whether on the battlefield, the game field, or in the dancing place in
mimetically transformed versions, both armed and unarmed martial tech-
niques were a highly visible and important part of classical Greek culture
and social life. Each specific display or cultural performance context em-
bodied a shared “display ethos” founded on commonly held assumptions
regarding important attributes of the heroic warriors who practiced such
techniques and who were prepared to die in battle. Elias discusses how
both game-contests and fighting in classical Greece “centered on the os-
tentatious display of the warrior virtues which gained for a man the high-
est praise and honor among other members of his own group and for his
group. It was glorious to vanquish enemies or opponents but it was hardly
less glorious to be vanquished” (Lawler 1964, 100).418 Performing Arts
An opera singer in full costume waves two swords during a Beijing Opera performance of The Monkey Kingat the
Dzung He Theater in Beijing, 1981. (Dean Conger/Corbis)