History

Archaeological and historical research has proven definitively and irrevocably that Pammachon was a distinctive historical Hellenic combat sport of the "Byzantine" (Eastern Roman) Empire, with prominent Greek athletes, and as such is a documented historical cultural tradition of Greece during the early Christian era.[1],[2]  Continuing this history, the International Pammachon Federation will both disseminate traditional Hellenic martial arts as found throughout history and promote and organize the unique ruleset of the Pammachon sport contest in the modern era.

While Pammachon is documented as a popular sport in the eastern Mediterranean from the 4th to the 6th centuries A.D., its presence may date back more than 3500 years. We have evidence of a system of organized dueling, combining hand-to-hand combat with the use of a dagger, in the Minoan era in Greece. Petsophas is the archaeological site of a Minoan peak sanctuary in eastern Crete. It overlooks the Minoan town of Palaeokastro and was excavated by John Myres in 1903. He discovered a large number of clay figurines dating from 1900 to 1500 B.C.

There are many figures of boxers and quite a few of these "boxers" wear daggers (therefore we know they were not simply boxing). One of these statues is a terracotta figurine of a male warrior wearing a codpiece, with a dagger in his belt and his hands in fists at his chest.  The choice of a dagger worn in the belt instead of spears or axes or swords is noteworthy, as is the choice of displaying the hands in fists, clearly showing preparation for individual combat. This statue portrays a bloody duel at worst, a contest of skill most likely, a combat sport at best, as Pammachon has evolved to become today.

The oldest reference to Pammachon as a distinct combat sport in Hellenic antiquity is papyrus letter SB 3.6222, eloquently translated by Ms.Sofie Remijsen of Leuven University in her article “Pammachon, A New Sport” (The Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 47 (2010) 185-204)). In this letter, a man called Dios writes to his sister to tell her how he competed, and won, in athletic Pammachon games held before the Roman Emperor in Alexandria in March 302 C.E. Dios writes: "I was at first paired up to do pankration and had bad luck, as I do not know how to do pankration. So I challenged the five (other athletes) to do pammachon." SB 3.6222 is the earliest attestation of pammachon as a separate sport, distinct from pankration. This interpretation is confirmed by ILS 5164, an honorary inscription from AD 375-378 for the athlete Philoumenos, who had obtained victories in four different events: pammachon, wrestling, pankration, and boxing. Also in the fourth century, Eusebius compared a martyr to a victor in the sacred games, victorious in the Pammachon.

The athletes competing in pammachon were not called pammachoi, but pammacharii with the Latin ending -arius typical of professions in the Roman empire; as such, most were professional athletes. Pammacharii figure in six texts from the fourth and fifth centuries. The anonymous author of the “Expositio totius mundi” mentioned them in his description of the entertainment sector in Syria. In a story of the “Apophthegmata”, an officer helped a group of pammacharii on their way to Constantinople to get a boat from the governor. In another story, an old hermit compares a Christian fighting evil with a pammacharius fighting two adversaries (at the time this was allowed by the rules). Saint Jerome mentions pammacharii as a type of athlete, besides runners and those who throw the discus. Firmicus Maternus and Pseudo-Teuchros describe positions of the stars that represent stances taken by pammacharii during their contest. The lexicon of Hesychius, mentioning pammachon in the lemma about Cypriotic wrestling, brings the total number of sources on this sport to ten. All these references are historically dated to the early Christian era.

Thus, Pammachon was widespread throughout the eastern Mediterranean in the Roman Empire from the 1st through the 6th centuries A.D. and may have eclipsed Pankration in the 4th century. Pankration, what we call today Mixed Martial Arts, is probably Greece’s most famous combat sport. And it is important to distinguish pammachon from pankration, though the words have been poetically used as synonyms. Pankration derives from “pan” (all) and “kratos”. The word Kratos is used in modern Greek to denote a nation and has multiple implications. It means power, yes. But it also means dominance, control, the ability to reduce something else to submission. Pankration translates best as “submission fighting”, that is to say, the intention of the sport being not to kill, but to subdue the opponent and control him. Pammachon, on the other hand, derives from “pan” (all) and “machi” (battle), thereby defining something that was created for use in war. The root “mach-” is also found in the Greek word for “blade”, machaira.  One could say that pankration is very much a part of pammachon but not the opposite, that pammachon incorporates many considerations and elements not found in pankration.

IPF President Kostas Dervenis has spent decades studying the history of pammachon; a sample list of his publications on the martial art and combat sport can be found here: list. Under Mr. Dervenis’ guidance and license, a series of pilot projects were carried out in Greece and the United States between 2014-2024 in order to reconstruct the sport and validate the current rules of Pammachon: link

The International Pammachon Federation intends to revive this historical martial art and to promote it as a modern combat sport throughout the world. The prevailing rules of the sport, under which the athletes of the Federation will compete until further evaluation by the Technical Committee of the Federation may be found here.

[1] For evidence of Pammachon in antiquity: “Pammachon, A New Sport”; Remijsen, Sofie; Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 47 (2010), pp 185-204
[2]The historical researcher and reviver of Pammachon, Kostas Dervenis, has published, in print and in electronic form, multiple publications and analyses on the material and history of Pammachon from 2001 until today.