Boxing, like wrestling, was one of the oldest sports in Greece, as it has been everywhere else. The fist is the simplest and most natural of all weapons.[1658] Boxing was popular already in Homer, matches being described both in the Iliad and the Odyssey.[1659] Homer speaks of it as πυγμαχίη ἀλεγεινή,[1660] and this “painful” character is also mentioned by Xenophanes.[1661] However, boxing was far older than epic poetry. We have already seen that it was the only form of real athletics in Aegean Crete. One of the oldest representations of a boxing match is seen on the fragments of a bronze shield discovered there in the grotto of Zeus on Mount Ida. Here on a single concentric ring are seen two warriors, armed like Assyrians with corslets, shields, and helmets, fighting with doubled fists.[1662] The high antiquity of boxing in Greece is also shown by myths.[1663] At Olympia Apollo is said to have beaten Ares,[1664] and Polydeukes won a victory there.[1665] Apollo appears as the god of boxing in the Iliad,[1666] and the Delphians sacrificed to Apollo Πύκτης.[1667] Herakles, Polydeukes, Tydeus, and Theseus were all famed boxers; the latter was said to have invented the art.[1668] The historical boxing match was introduced at Olympia in Ol. 23 (= 688 B. C.), and Onomastos of Smyrna, the first victor, instituted the rules of the contest.[1669] The boys’ contest was instituted in Ol. 41 (= 616 B. C.).[1670] It was by far the most popular contest there. Of the 192 monuments erected to 187 victors mentioned by Pausanias, 56, or nearly one-third, were erected to men and boy boxers for 63 victories.