Greek boxing[1671] is conveniently divided into two periods by the kind of glove used in the matches. From Homer down to the end of the fifth century B. C., soft gloves (ἱμάντες, ἱμάντες λεπτοί or μειλίχαι) were used; from then to late Roman days the heavy gloves (σφαῖραι or ἱμάντες ὀξεῖς) were the fashion. The weighted Roman cestus was not used in the Greek contest. Before discussing representations of boxers in art, we shall devote a few words to these two kinds of boxing-gloves, which frequently give us the date of a given monument.[1672] The Cretans are thought to have worn boxing-gloves, as they seem to be visible on the so-called _Boxer Vase_ from Hagia Triada (Fig. 1). Here, on the top and lower two rows, a leather gauntlet appears to cover the arm to beyond the elbow, being padded over the fist and confined at the wrist by a strap. Mosso derives the later Greek glove, which appears on athlete statues, from this primitive thong.[1673] In any case the antiquity of the glove in Greece is attested by its origin being ascribed to the myth of Amykos, king of the Bebrykes.[1674] Gloves were already known to Homer, who speaks of “well-cut thongs of ox-hide.”[1675] They are not mentioned in any detail before the time of Pausanias and Philostratos, so that we are mostly dependent for our knowledge of them on the monuments. The simplest form consisted of long, thin ox-hide thongs, which were wound round the hands, the soft gloves (ἱμάντες μαλακώτεροι or μειλίχαι) of later writers.[1676] They were used, not to deaden the blow, but to increase its force. Vase-paintings show that the thongs were about 10 or 12 feet long before being wound.[1677] On the exterior of a r.-f. kylix from Vulci by Douris, in the British Museum, showing chiefly boxing scenes, we see two youths standing before a _paidotribes_ preparing to put on the thongs (Fig. 54).[1678] One of them is holding the unwound thong in his outstretched hands. A similar figure appears on the r.-f. vase in Philadelphia already discussed (Fig. 50b), which represents a palæstra scene.[1679] This scene has been wrongly interpreted as an illustration of the game of σκαπέρδη described by Pollux[1680] as a sort of tug-of-war, the unwound thong being explained as the rope used in this game,[1681] and the hurling-sticks stuck in the ground at either end as goals instead of akontia. A wound thong is seen hanging on the wall to the left. Philostratos describes how the boxing thongs were put on,[1682] and vase-paintings illustrate the method.[1683] The best example of the thongs on statuary is afforded by the bronze arm found in the sea off Antikythera (Cerigotto) (Fig. 52), which Svoronos[1684] believes to be a remnant of the statue of the Nemean victor Kreugas of Epidamnos, which stood in the temple of Apollo Lykios in Argos.[1685] Pausanias says that Kreugas was crowned notwithstanding that he was killed by his adversary Damoxenos, and his description of the soft glove corresponds so closely with the one on the recovered arm that it seems as if it had been written in the presence of the statue: “In those days boxers did not yet wear the sharp thong (ἱμὰς ὀξύς) on each wrist, but boxed with the soft straps (μειλίχαις), which they fastened under the hollow of the hand in order that the fingers might be left bare; these soft straps were thin thongs (ἱμάντες λεπτοί) of raw cowhide, plaited together in an ancient fashion.”[1686] The strap allowed the ends of the fingers to project, and was held together by a cord wound around the forearm, just as Philostratos says. These μειλίχαι were used at the great games through the fifth century B. C., and were continued in the palæstra in the fourth. Early in the latter century the σφαῖραι mentioned by Plato[1687] and other writers appeared. We see them on Panathenaic vases of that century and on Etruscan cistæ of the following one.[1688] About the same time the regular ἱμάντες ὀξεῖς came in,[1689] but the old μειλίχαι or something similar were still used in the exercises of the palæstra.[1690]