A People’s History of Classics – Class and Greco-Roman Antiquity in Britain and Ireland 1689 to 1939 (2020)

(pp355) Every bit as savage as bare-knuckle boxing was the ancient sport of Devon Wrestling, One of the last champions was Abraham Cann, who was nicknamed the Devon Hercules. In this painting by Henry Caunter (c. 1846), Cann is evoked as the last great exponent of the dying art of wrestling according to the brutal Devon rules. (Figure 17.4) These allowed shin-kicking in shoes soaked in bull’s blood and then baked to achieve maximum hardness. The bouts, arranged at taverns, were notoriously rowdy and attracted cross-class audiences including both gentlemen who provided the prize money and labouring men.

Cann was the son of a central Devon farmer and malt-producer, who taught all his five sons how to wrestle and shin-kick, Devon-style.”’ The portrait of Cann, by including the Farnese Hercules in the picture, standing on a base which depicts a classical wrestling match, implicitly equates the ancient local custom with the sporting feats of ancient Greco-Roman heroes. Since it was rescued from the Baths of Caracalla in 1546, the Farnese Hercules has been one of the most widely recognised of all ancient statues.” It got its name from its (pp356)  collector, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, but reproductions soon started to appear in the gardens, courtyards and dining rooms of the rich all over Europe, and the image was familiar to a cross-class audience through its use in advertisements for products ranging from bread to soap powder.” But there is also a specific reference to Cann’s greatest victory when he won the title ‘Champion of the West of England’ in 1826. He defeated an enormous Cornish publican named James Polkinghorne by executing a full-body ‘throw’ to the astonishment of all onlookers. This invited a comparison with Hercules’ victory over the previously invincible giant wrestler Antaeus, who was rejuvenated by his mother Earth every time he hit the floor.” So Hercules held him off the ground for as long as it took for his energy to dissipate completely.