Manliness of ancient men?

[carl]

There are hieroglyphics, wall paintings, and mosaics of men fighting bears, tigers and lions with their bare hands. Is this true? I mean, i understand men back in ancient times were considerably atheletic and strong , but to be strong enough to beat wild animals hundreds of lbs more than them with sharp claws and teeth? Is this possible?
@Matthew
I think you misunderstand. I do not mean neaderthal men, i meant men during the establishment of civilizations. I didnt mention anything about sabertooth cats....

[Matthew Hopkins]

I think you will find they didn't actually wrestle sabre-tooths, bears and mammoths with their bare hands. Otherwise we wouldn't be here.

Early man's inherent and developing intelligence enabled tim to out-think his animal prey. By developing weapons such as spears, sling-shots, and later, the bow, enabled ancient man to disable the game at a safe distance, then merely following the trail of blood until the wounded animal dropped from exhaustion, injury and blood loss. It was then relatively easy to finish off.

Other methods were to drive large game, such as mammoths, over cliffs,using an encirlcing movement and brands of fire which panicked the creatures. Or alternatively towards pre-dug pits, where the prey would be unable to move ane totally defenceless, thus easy to kill off.

The size or ferocity of the animal was little use against a large number of intelligent men using fire and effective weaponry..

[Tony Meintanis]

"Manliness" is a gender trait, and gender is culturally defined. What was considered manly to a given population of people back then could have been wildly different than what the Westernized world sees as manly today.

That said, there are people today who are capable of fighting off a wild beast with their bare hands or minimal weapons, and you hear about this occasionally in the news. Humans then were just as likely to be able to fight off a ferocious animal attack as they are today, possibly even moreso.

You also have to consider that people back then had the same propensities for embellishment and good story telling, artistic vision, and just straight lying.

[Tom Lilly]

All ancient men were pushovers for bears, tigers, lions, and the like. But they had a better brain. A 'tool maker and user of tools' type of brain. This brain won the day, but it took its sweet time.

[Claire K]

you're not being specific enough...

but in general I would say they would represent ideals. Roman mosaics and greek pottery often depicted mythological characters doing the things you describe. It probably served as an ideal to aspire to and to promote the ideals of masculinity.

By the way, men weren't necessarily stronger than us today! The Greeks celebrated athleticism as an ideal - it doesn't mean that all young men in the ancient Greek city states were perfectly fit and strong. A good deal of people in the ancient world didn't have as varied and rich a diet as us, nor did they have the healthcare we do!