Cock-fights

The ancestor of modern roosters and hens is considered to be the Indian wild chicken , the domestication of which occurred in the IV — III millennia BC. e. At first, chicken ownership was considered a royal privilege, and they were used exclusively for cockfights.

Cockfights were held in ancient times in the countries of the east: India , China , Persia and others.

War cocks came to Babylon in about 700 BC. e. along with the Persian soldiers who returned from a campaign in India .

In Greece, cockfights became popular during the time of Themistocles , who returned from the Persian campaign and built a special amphitheater for fighting. Claudius Elian spoke about the appearance of cockfights in Athens: speaking at the head of his army towards the Persian king Xerxes , who invaded the borders of Hellas in 480 BC, on the eve of the battle he drew attention to two pugnacious roosters who fought among themselves. Themistocles decided to seize the opportunity to encourage his warriors and instill in them faith in victory, and delivered an encouraging speech. Having defeated the Persians at the battle of Salamis , Themistocles returned to his homeland and instituted annual celebrations, accompanied by cockfights, in gratitude to the gods for the happy omen that brought good luck in the battle. (Claudius Elian "Colorful Stories", II. 28) ^[1] .

It is reported that young Athenians had to be present at cockfights in the theater of Dionysus , in order to learn how to fight to the last with the example of roosters. The rest of the time, the Athenians staged bird fights in the market square ^[2] .

The same Elian talked about the Athenian Polyarch, who arranged for his especially beloved roosters ^{[3] a} solemn funeral with a funeral procession and put them stone tombstones with epitaphs ^[3] .

In the mandatory combat program of the troops of Ancient Greece, regular monitoring of cockfights was introduced to instill in their warriors even more stamina and courage. ^{[4] The} rooster as a symbol of competition and victory was depicted on the shields of warriors, as well as on large vessels that were presented to the victors during the festivities. Plutarch says that Artaxerxes II ordered that the warrior who killed Cyrus the Younger at the Battle of Kunax henceforth wear a golden image of a rooster on his spear. ^[5]

There were people who were specially engaged in training fighting birds and organizing their fights. To increase the fervor of the birds, they were recommended to feed them with garlic and onions ^[2] .

Later cockfights spread to Asia and Sicily . The Romans despised cockfights, however, Columella's work on agriculture states that among them were amateurs who lost fortunes on this. The historian Polybius compares Rome and Carthage with thoroughbred fighting cocks: “ More than once such birds, having lost the ability to control wings from exhaustion, find support in their own courage and continue to strike each other until finally they rush at each other, quickly mate, and then one of them falls dead. Similarly, the Romans and Carthaginians, weary of the efforts of continuous struggle, were completely exhausted, and the taxes and expenses that depressed them for a long time undermined their strength . " ("General History" I, 58) ^[6] .

Aurelius Augustine , who lived in Carthage in the 4th century, describes the scene of the cockfight in the essay “On Order”: “ feathers plucked from the neck served as a sign of the vanquished, something ugly came through his voice and movements, but by the way, I don’t know how, with by the laws of nature, a consonant and therefore beautiful ” ^[7] and onwards:“ did we see anything uglier than a defeated rooster? ” And yet, from this ugliness, the beauty of the battle became even more perfect ” ^[7] .

From Rome, this type of entertainment was brought to Belgium , England , Scotland , Wales , Holland , Germany , Italy , Spain , Luxembourg , as well as in their colony . The spread of cockfights caused desperate resistance of the church , which, however, could not stop him. It is believed that cockfights in the British Isles may have occurred without Roman influence. So, when Julius Caesar in 54 BC e. arrived on the island, he, describing the customs of the Britons , noted that “hens and geese are kept for fun” ( lat . animi voluptatisque , lit. “pleasure and enjoyment” ^[8] ).

Cockfights remained the favorite pastime of the English royal family and the nobility until the 19th century . The first arena in Britain for their holding was built by King Henry VIII .

In the colonies of North America, cockfights appear quite early, but are almost immediately prohibited in some states. In the UK, this sport was banned in 1849 , and in Cuba - only with the advent of Fidel Castro in 1959 , but were legalized in 1980 . During his stay in Cuba, E. Hemingway became a big fan of cockfights, who even said: “ They say that cockfights are cruel. But what the hell is a fighting cock still to do? " ^[9] .

Most likely, cockfights gained immense popularity due to the fact that their organization requires much less space and money than, for example, for bullfighting .

France made an exception for regions where these classes are part of traditional culture. For cockfights, several places in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region were recognized as such: the cities of Rembokur , La Blistad and several villages in the vicinity of Lille .

In Russia, cockfights gained popularity thanks to major general A.G. Orlov (brought in England thoroughbred fighting cocks) and A.M. Vsevolozhsky . In Moscow there was a society of cockerel hunters engaged in the conduct of battles. Description of cockfights in the Moscow tavern “Dovecote” can be found in the book of V. A. Gilyarovsky “ Moscow and Muscovites ” ^[10] . Since the 1860s , police began to chase cockfights.

They became popular in the countries of Southeast Asia, Indonesia, China, and the Philippines. Even Pigafetta , a companion of Magellan , describing the island of Palawan , noted that “everyone here has roosters, sometimes they make them fight with each other and at the same time put a certain amount” ^[11] .

Usually for cockfights, a round platform with a size of borders of about 6 meters in diameter is used. The barrier at the edges of the site does not allow the roosters to leave the territory of the ring.

There are three forms of conducting cockfights:

• Competition or match . The battle is in predetermined pairs. The winner is determined by the number of victories.
• Battle royale . All birds are simultaneously released onto the battlefield. The winner is the last surviving or able to continue the fight cock.
• Welsh battle . The battle is fought in eight pairs. Then, in pairs, the battle is between the winners of the first and second round. And finally, in the fourth round, two roosters bleed, having won in their pairs in the previous round. Before the fight, birds should not see each other.

Bets on cockfights ^[12] are accepted both before the competition and directly during the battle. Roosters usually enter the arena at the age of one to two years. At the age of six months, the crest is cut off to the chickens, since its damage during the battle leads to a large loss of blood. For training rooster use special running simulators.

Before the start of the competition, artificial cocktail spurs are put on artificial ones made of metal or bone about 4 centimeters long. However, there are longer spurs, reaching 6.5 centimeters.

Modern rules allow you to recall from the arena a rooster that has received serious injuries. Also, time limited rounds are sometimes applied.

If the rooster refuses to fight with his opponent, then in this case he will be counted defeat.

In all cockfights, the judge’s word is law. This also applies to bets.

As a rule, a cock fights once in a lifetime, because even if it wins, it usually dies after one week from wounds .

• The desire to win forced the owners of cocks to go on various frauds. For example, a rooster was rubbed on the neck with bacon or oil, and pepper was sprinkled on top. The competing rooster could not grab the opponent’s neck immediately, but if it grasped, pepper would fall into its beak, and the competing rooster would begin to sneeze ^[4] .
• The Balinese cockfight is considered a sacrifice ritual, therefore it is held at every temple festival or religious ceremony. The most ancient mentions of cockfights in Bali date back to the first half of the 10th century. They also conduct fights without religious goals, for the sake of betting ^[2] .

• Cincinnati Kid ( 1965 ) - dir. Norman Juison
• Fighting Cock ( 1974 ) - dir. Monte Hellman
• The Rum Diary ( 2011 ) - dir. Bruce robinson
• Seinfeld (television series 1989 - 1998 ) - season 8 episode 11.

• Cock throwing
• Goose fights
• Dog fighting

1. ↑ Claudius Elian. Colorful stories. Book II. (Russian) . ancientrome.ru. Date of treatment March 12, 2017.
2. ↑ ^{1 2 3} Russo, Maxim . Fight like a Red Rooster. World history of the most unusual fights and sweepstakes (Russian) , Life.ru. Date of treatment March 12, 2017.
3. ↑ ^{1 2} We are talking about roosters used for cockfights. Claudius Elian. Colorful stories. Book VIII. (Russian) . ancientrome.ru. Date of treatment March 12, 2017.
4. ↑ ^{1 2} V. Ponomarev - Fighting animals: The secret weapon of all times and peoples - page 31 (Russian) . profilib.com. Date of treatment March 12, 2017.
5. ↑ Plutarch. Comparative biographies. Artaxerxes. (Russian) . ancientrome.ru. Date of treatment March 12, 2017.
6. ↑ POLYBIUS UNIVERSAL HISTORY p.0040 (neopr.) . greekroman.ru. Date of treatment March 12, 2017.
7. ↑ ^{1 2} About the order to read, download - Blessed Aurelius Augustine (Neopr.) . azbyka.ru. Date of treatment March 12, 2017.
8. ↑ Guy Julius Caesar. Gallic war. Book V. (Russian) . ancientrome.ru. Date of treatment March 12, 2017.
9. ↑ Mary Dearborn. Ernest Hemingway. Reverse side of the holiday. The first full biography . - Litres, 2017-12-24. - 989 p. - ISBN 9785040956982 .
10. ↑ Gilyarovsky V.A. Moscow and Muscovites. Restaurants (unspecified) . www.booksite.ru. Date of treatment March 12, 2017.
11. ↑ ANTONIO PIGAFETTA-> JOURNEY OF MAGELLAN-> PART 1 (neopr.) . www.vostlit.info. Date of treatment March 12, 2017.
12. ↑ Betting on cockfights (neopr.) . bkr.bet. Date of treatment November 11, 2017.

• Bezobrazov S.V. Battles, cock and goose // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Clifford Geertz. Deep play: notes on cockfights among the Balinese // Girts K. Interpretation of cultures. M., 2004, p. 478-522.
• Plutarch . Comparative biographies in two volumes. Translation by S.P. Markish. M .: publishing house " Science ", 1994. The second edition, corrected and supplemented. T. II.
• Polybius . General story . Per. with Greek. and comments Mishchenko. Volume I. St. Petersburg: “Science”, “Juventa”, 1994. - (Historical Library).
• Antonio Pigafetta. Journey of Magellan. M. Thought. 2000
• Alian. Colorful stories . / Per. S.V. Polyakova. Repl. ed. V.V. Struve. (Series "Literary Monuments"). M.-L.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences. 1963 . 188 p. 30,000 copies; reprint M .: Ladomir-Nauka. 1995.
• Notes by Julius Caesar and his successors on the Gallic War, on the Civil War, on the Alexandria War, on the African War / Transl. M. M. Pokrovsky. (Series “Literary Monuments”) M.-L., Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences. 1948.560 p.