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What were the rules of pankration in the ancient Olympic Games?

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A woman in a white pleated dress lights the Olympic torch from a large flame in a gold cauldron, with a crowd seated in the background at Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. — Olympic Games An actress playing the role of an Athenian high priestess lights the Olympic flame in Athens, October 31, 2017. The torch was later carried to Pyeongchang, South Korea, for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Introduced at the XXXIII Olympiad in 648 BCE, pankration was a brutal, no-holds-barred combat sport that combined elements of boxing and wrestling.123

The rules of the event were minimal, reflecting its nature as a form of near-total combat:

Permitted Techniques: Competitors were allowed to use a wide range of tactics, including hitting, kicking, twisting limbs, strangling, and struggling on the ground. Striking a downed opponent was also permitted.12
Prohibited Actions: The only recognized fouls were biting and gouging (thrusting a finger or thumb into an opponent’s eye).12
Winning the Match: A contest concluded only when one of the fighters acknowledged defeat—typically by signaling submission—or was rendered unconscious.123

Matches were notoriously savage, and in some instances, competitors died during the event.12