Fatal chest injury with lung evisceration during athletic games in ancient Greece.
The "Olympic idealism" that dominates modern athletic culture is a myth. The true aims of the athletes in ancient Greece were rewards and life-long appointments to various positions in the military or the city administration. Competitions in the athletic games included, among others, wrestling, boxing, and pangration (a combination of wrestling and boxing). Occasionally, these games resulted in severe trauma or death. Two cases of extreme violence resulting in fatal chest trauma are presented and commented on from both surgical and social points of view.
Menenakos
Evangelos
E
First Department of Propedeutic Surgery, University of Athens, 114 V. Sofias Avenue, 11527 Athens, Greece.
Alexakis
Nicholas
N
Leandros
Emmanuel
E
Laskaratos
Gerasimos
G
Nikiteas
Nikolaos
N
Bramis
John
J
Fingerhut
Abe
A
D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000266:history*; D000076145:Greece, Ancient; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D055370:Lung Injury; D008297:Male; D013898:Thoracic Injuries / Q000266:history*