Page:Athletics and Manly Sport (1890).djvu/42

Rh In those golden days, Amycus, son of Neptune, was king of the Bebryccs, and he was a famous boxer with the cestus; indeed, he called himself "the champion of the world" He kept a standing challenge to all comers. When the Argonauts were going to Colchis for the golden fleece, they touched at the port of Amycus, and were received most kindly by the king, who was evidently "spoiling for a fight." He told his guests after dinner that he could "knock out" any boxer in Greece or elsewhere; that he could, as modern challengers express it, "send them to sleep."

Among the Argonauts was Pollux, who had lately been winning the first prizes at the Pythian games. He accepted the challenge, not knowing that it was the custom of Amycus to kill his man with a foul blow. The fight came off, and it was a resolute controversy. Amycus tried all his skill and strength to deliver his wicked blow, but now he had met a mighty man. At last Amycus tried to get in his deadly stroke by a trick, and this roused the wrath of Pollux, who straightway killed the unfair fighter, and bound his body to a tree. The form of cestus on the preceding page is from an antique bronze representing the battle.