(Gr. Antiq.) An athletic contest involving both boxing and wrestling.
2.
(Bot.) A genus of Old World amaryllideous bulbous plants, having a funnel-shaped perianth with six narrow spreading lobes. The American species are now placed in the related genus Hymenocallis.
... forbid their young men to contend in the pancratium, or with the caestus, in which games the defeated party has to acknowledge himself beaten. The winner of a race is he who first reaches the goal; he outstrips the others in swiftness, but not in courage. The wrestler ... — L. Annaeus Seneca On Benefits • Seneca
...
