Dares vs Entellus
The Biggest Fight in Combat Sports Mythic History
Aeneid, Book V
The Trojan exiles were pushed by the usual storm on the shores of western Sicily and landed in Drepana near Mount Eryx. Here in Drepana the old Anchises, the father of pius Aeneas, died the year before. The exiles were welcomed for a second time by Acestes, the king of Sicanians. Acestes, son of the river-god Crinisus and the Trojan Egesta, took part in the last battles of Trojan war, and saved several Trojans bringing them to his kingdom in Sicily.
Aeneas has organized the funeral games for the anniversary of his father’s death. The boat race and the foot race were the first two games and were won by the Trojan Cloanto and Euryalus respectively.
The third game is the boxing match. Aeneas speaks to the Trojans and the Sicanians:
‘Now is the time’, he declares, ‘when all men with a stout [heart and courage
Ought to come forth, arms raised, and their own palms [wreathed — but in leather!’
(vv. 364–365)
Aeneas shows the prizes: a bullock with a crown of golden leaves between the horns for the winner, a sword and a helmet for the loser. The Trojan Dares immediately goes in the circular ring. He is famous for being an excellent wrestler and boxer, is the only one among the Trojans able to compete with Paris; not the showy archer of Homer, but the talented athlete and warrior of the successive epic poems like the Troica of a certain Nero. During the funeral games for Hector Dares defeated (and killed) Butes, the gigantic king of the Bebryces and descendant of the king — boxer Amycus, in a boxing match.
Dares throws air punches. Nobody wants to get in the ring with him, nobody wants to wear the cesti, the ancient battle gloves made with leather strips and often filled with iron plates, which cover the hands and sometimes even the forearms. Dares walks towards Aeneas, grabs the bullock’s lefts horn and says:
‘Son of the goddess, if nobody dares put his trust in his [knuckles,
When does the standstill stop? How long are you planning [to keep me
Waiting? Command them to bring out the gifts!’
(vv. 383–385)
The true violent face of Hellenic agonism
‘The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle, the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well’
These words are ascribed to Pierre de Coubertin, the father of modern Olympic Games, these must connect the new Olympics with the Panhellenic Games, indeed with the Hellenic agonism (competitiveness), and its beautiful, well-proportioned and admired athletes; so different from the Romans with their bloodthirsty gladiators and their frenzied charioteers.
Incorrect! When the Hellenic competed for the victory, they are worse than Romans! Only the victory counts: statues and odes for the winners, the mockery of their fellow citizens for the defeated! Everything is worth in the games, from the worst cheats to bribery of the judges; it is enough not to be discovered because then there are disqualifications and whipping in front of everyone.
In previous races Cloanto overtook his Sicanian adversary, because he had invoked the sea gods who have raised a wave for the overtaking. Euryalus won, because his loved Nisus tripped the adversary. Earlier in the funeral games in honor of Patroclus Ulysses won, because Athena had made Ajax the Lesser slip on the excrements; Antilochus almost killed Menelaus (and himself) to overtake him in the chairot race. If the epic poems are not enough for us, we can read Pausanias.
Dares provokes the Trojans and the Sicanians, proving that even in the myth could not miss a little of healthy trash-talking. Meanwhile, Acestes reprimands a man sitting next to him:
‘Does it mean nothing, Entellus, that you were the bravest [of heroes
Once? Are you so passive now that you’ll let someone else,
[uncontested,
Haul off a wonderful prize? Where’s our god and your [much-vaunted trainer,
Eryx, in this? Has it all gone to waste? Where’s your great [reputation,
All over Sicily, gone, and those trophies that hung from [your rafters?’
(vv. 388–393)
The old man answers:
‘Fear hasn’t pummelled my love of the glory,
Or my pride, into quitting. My blood runs cold because old [age
Slows me, because my whole body is stiff as an icicle, [strengthless.
If, though, I had what I once did have, and what this cheap [imposter
Trusts in and brags about, youth, if I had that now, I’d have
[stepped up
Not for the lure of the prize, I should add, or to get me that [handsome
Bullock. I don’t waste a thought on the purse.’
(vv. 394–400)
The old Entellus has seemed to refuse the call of his king, but in very short time, in less than a hexameter, gets up and throws something in the center of ring. An intense thud and the rising dust; the Trojans, the Sicanians and the same Dares retreat scared. Entellus has thrown huge cesti soiled with blood and brain’s phlegm, shaped with seven layers of leather and adorned with lead and iron. Only Aeneas dares to lift them.
‘What would reactions have been if you’d seen those gloves [and equipment
Hercules wore when he boxed, and the grim match fought [on this very
Beach? Now, these were the gloves once worn by your own [brother Eryx.
Look, you can still see the stains from the blood and the [brains that were spattered.
These he was wearing the day he faced Hercules. These [were my usual
Gear when more vigorous blood gave me strength, before [my greatest rival,
Old age, with time on his side, spattered both of my [temples with whiteness.
But if the Trojan Dares baulks at confronting these [weapons,
And if Aeneas the Righteous approves — and our sponsor, [Acestes —
Let’s fight on equal terms. So for you I’ll renounce Eryx’ [gauntlets,
Don’t be afraid! And remove your Trojan gloves for the [contest.’
(vv. 410–420)
As soon as Entellus finishes to talk, drops the cape showing his mighty nude body, and enters the circular ring. (It’s just like my chinese cartoons)
Eryx: a king who became a mountain
It is necessary to add some small details in order to understand Acestes and Entellus’ words. Eryx isn’t only the name of a mountain, but is also the name of an old mythical king of Sicily. This Eryx was the son of Argonaut Bute and of Venus, ergo the half-brother of Aeneas. It was not long ago, approximately a generation before the Trojan war, when Hercules arrived in Sicily with the cattle of Geryon and was challenged by Eryx in a boxing match or in a wrestling match. If Heracles won, the land of Eryx was to belong to him but if he were beaten, Eryx was to take the sacred cattle. Obviously the good guys defeat and kill the evil (and big) guys, so Heracles defeated and killed Eryx, but announced to Eryx’s people that his descendant would come to reign over them; moreover he named the mountain to his beaten opponent and established a cult dedicated to him.
The match
Aeneas consigns the cesti to two contenders, clothes them to guarantee the match compliant with the rules (not many).
Virgil describes the match in less than twenty-five hexameters: punches that reverberate on the nude chests, punches that make jaws creak. Dares is young and agile, Entellus is old but tough. Virgil compares the charge of Dares to a desperate assault on a stronghold. Entellus replies with a single destructive hammer punch directed to the face. But the punch is slow and Dares quickly avoids it; even Entellus falls down for the impetus like a pine uprooted in the mountains of Arcadia.
Entellus has fallen! King Acestes runs into the ring and raises his coetaneous subject while Dares moves backwards: striking the opponent on the ground is prohibited in ancient boxing. The old boxer rises and a throws punches as though he is possessed by the divine fury. This time Virgil does not compare the charge of Entullus to an assault, but compares to a hailstorm. Dares’ body is bombarded with strong and fast punches, like big hailstones. Aeneas realizes that Dares will not just be defeated, but he will be killed; so Aeneas decides to put between the two contenders, and persuades Dares to surrender with these “mite” words:
‘What utter madness has taken your mind, now you find [your ambitions
Unfulfilled? Don’t you sense your opponent’s strength or [the changing
Favour of heaven? Give way to the god!’
(vv. 463–465)
The match is over. The beaten Dares leaves sustained by his companions while he spits blood and teeth, while the bullock are handed over to the victorious Entellus, who, happy and proud, says to Trojans:
‘Son of the goddess,’ […] ‘other Teucrians too, now discover
Both what muscular power I had when my body was [younger
And what a death was in store, had you not interceded, for [Dares.’
(vv. 474–476)
Entellus approaches the bullock, stares it in the eyes and throws a strong fist breaking its skull and crushing its brain. The poor bovine falls to ground while Entellus shouts:
‘Eryx, I’m now fulfilling my vow by slaying a victim
Nobler than Dares. With this win I lay down my gloves and [my boxing.’
(vv. 481–482)
In the Hellenic-Roman world boxing matches were very bloody. The swollen boxers, who spit blood or worse dead after the match, were not a rare anomaly. Aelian, a writer of 2nd century AD, gave us this anecdote:
‘Eurydamus the Cyrenæan gained the Victory at the Cæstus : His teeth being beaten out by his Antagonist, he swallowed them down, that his adversary might not perceive it.’ (Varia Historia, X, 19)
Conclusion. What happened to our two heroes?
After the bull’s sacrifice to the memory of Eryx Entellus disappears from mythic story, perhaps he only founded the city of Entella [The ancient city near Palermo] The ancient erudites only wondered if Entellus was a Sicilian, or he was a Trojan refuge collected by Acestes after the fall of Troy. The moderns named in his honor an agile gray-faced monkey inhabiting the forests of the Indian subcontinent (Semnopithecus entellus).
Dares? Turnus, king of the Rutuli, killed a Dares in the last book of Aeneid. The ancient erudites and even some moderns identified the Dares boxer with the Dares of Iliad, the old Trojan priest of Vulcan / Hephaestus, cited only in the few lines of fifth book. In the Iliad Dares’ sons, Phegeus and Idaios, faced the Achaean Diomedes: Phegeus was killed by a launched spear into his chest, Idaios was saved by Vulcan, who did not want the despair of his priest. The identification between the two Dares could arise by the same etymological reconstruction (from δέρω) made by an anonymous Greek scoliast of the Iliad and also by Fulgentius, a Latin commentator of the Aeneid. No less than the two Dares are fused together in the figure of Dares Phrygius: the old priest, the young boxer and the author of a war diary about the Trojan War “Daretis Phrygii de excidio Trojae historia”. This work is truly an epic Greek romance date around in the 1st century AD and translated in Latin in 5th century AD, it was ascribed to Cornelius Nepos.
A very small point of clarification: was Acestes the king of Sicinians or Sicels? Virgil used the two words as synonyms, but other ancient authors discerned the two peoples.
Editions used:
- Virgil; Aeneid; Translated by Frederick Ahl and Edited by Elaine Fantham; Oxford World’s Classics; 1941.
- Claudius Aelianus; His Various History; Rendred into English by Thomas Stanley; London; 1665.
