But, to use a parallel given by Isokrates, a pupil is not yet a complete orator, when he knows how to create pathos, irony, and so forth, and has been taught the parts of a speech: he has still to learn when and where and in what order to employ these several artifices. So with wrestling. A boy who knows his “figures” is not yet a wrestler: he has got to learn when is the right moment to employ each of them in an actual contest with a real antagonist. “When the paidotribes has taught his pupils the ‘figures’ invented for bodily training and practised them and made them perfect in these, he makes the boys go through their exercises again and accustoms them to physical toil, and compels them to string together one by one the figures which they have learnt, that they may have a firmer grasp of them and get a clearer comprehension of the right occasions for using them: for it is impossible to comprehend these in an exact science.”[389] The boys have to judge for themselves, in the heat of the contest, which figure it will be expedient to use: the trainer cannot fix that beforehand. But they will best be able to judge, if by long practice they have discovered which figures suit them best and which prove fatal to a particular type of opponent. _Boxing_ was similarly taught by a series of “figures.” The boys used the light gloves, consisting of strings wound round the hands, not the heavy, metal-weighted gloves which professional athletes wore. The _pankration_[390] was a mixture of boxing and wrestling: the boys usually wore similar gloves for this but left the fingers unfastened, only the wrists and knuckles being protected: sometimes they fought with bare hands. For both these exercises it was usual to wear dogskin caps, in order to protect the ears from injury. The pankration seems to have been regarded as an unsatisfactory game for boys: so it was excluded from both Olympian and Pythian games till a comparatively late date. For one thing, it was dangerous, and the exercise was very severe. But in the palaistra, carefully regulated by the paidotribes and stopped when the fighting became dangerous, no doubt it was harmless enough. Alkibiades, however, once succeeded in biting an opponent who was pressing him hard, being ready to do anything rather than be beaten. “You bite like a girl, Alkibiades!” exclaimed the indignant boy. “No, like a lion,” answered Alkibiades.[400] [Illustration: PLATE VII. _Photo by Mr. R. Coupland._ STADION AT DELPHI FROM THE FORTIFICATIONS OF PHILOMELOS. Length about 220 yards. _Photo by Mr. R. Coupland._ STADION AT DELPHI FROM THE FORTIFICATIONS OF PHILOMELOS. A nearer view.]