Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER III.

Next to Damiscus is the statue of a man whose name is not recorded, the votive offering of Ptolemy the son of Lagus. Ptolemy calls himself a Macedonian in the inscription, though he was king of Egypt. There is an inscription also over Chæreas of Sicyon a boy-boxer, stating that his father was Chæremon, and that though young he was victor. The inscription also states that the statue was by Asterion, the son of Æschylus. And next to Chæreas there are statues of the Messenian boy Sophius, and of Stomius a man of Elis, Sophius outran all the boys, and Stomius won one victory in the pentathlum at Olympia, and three at Nemea. And the inscription on Stomius records further that as leader of the cavalry of the people of Elis he won a victory, and killed the commander of the enemy, who had challenged him to single combat. And the people of Elis say that he came from Sicyon and was ruler of the Sicyonians, and that they themselves went on an expedition against Sicyon in friendship to the Thebans together with a force from Bœotia. It would appear therefore that an expedition against Sicyon must have set out from Elis and Thebes after the reverse of the Lacedæmonians at Leuctra.

Next is the statue of the boxer Labax, the son of Euphron, who was a native of Lepreus in Elis, and also one of the wrestlers from Elis, Aristodemus the son of Thrasis, who had two victories in the Pythian games. And the effigy of Aristodemus is by Dædalus the Sicyonian, who was the pupil and son of Patrocles. And the statue of Hippos of Elis, who beat all the boys in boxing, was by Democritus of Sicyon, who learnt his art from the Athenian Critias through 4 intermediate teachers. For Critias was the tutor of the Corcyræan Ptolichus, and Amphion was the pupil of Ptolichus, and Piso of Calauria was the pupil of Amphion, and Democritus was the pupil of Piso. And Cratinus from Ægira in Achaia was the most handsome of all his contemporaries, and the greatest wrestler. And as none of the boys could stand before him in wrestling he was appointed by the people of Elis as teacher of the boys. And his statue was by the Sicyonian Cantharus, whose father was Alexis, and teacher Eutychides.

And the effigy of Eupolemus of Elis was by the Sicyonian Dædalus, and the inscription informs us about him that he was victor at Olympia over men in the course, he also won two crowns at the Pythian games in the pentathlum, and one crown at the Nemean games. It is further recorded about Eupolemus that of the three umpires in the race two adjudged the prize to him, and the third to the Ambraciote Leo, and that Leo at the Council of Olympia subsequently got indemnity from both the umpires who had adjudged the prize to Eupolemus.

And the statue of Œbotas was set up by the Achæans in the 80th Olympiad in accordance with the oracle at Delphi. He had been victor in the course in the sixth Olympiad. How then could he have fought with the Greeks at Platæa? For it was not till the 75th Olympiad that Mardonius and the Medes met with the reverse at Platæa. I am bound to record the traditions of the Greeks, but I need not believe all of them. All else that happened to Œbotas shall be told in my account of Achaia.

And the statue of Antiochus was made by Nicodemus. Antiochus was a native of Lepreus, and won the prize at Olympia for the pentathlum for men once, and twice in the Pythian games, twice also at Nemea. For the Isthmians were not frightened by the people of Lepreus as they were by the people of Elis, for Hysmon of Elis, whose statue is next to Antiochus, being an athlete, and having won the prize for the pentathlum once at Olympia and once at Nemea, was plainly prevented, like all other people of Elis, from trying his fortune at the Isthmian games. It is also recorded of Hysmon that when he was a boy he had a discharge, and that was why he trained for the pentathlum, that he might become stronger in constitution, and free from disease. And this training was destined to get for him many notable victories. His statue is by Cleon, and he has in his hands some old-fashioned dumb bells. And next to Hysmon is the statue of a wrestling boy from Heræa in Arcadia, Nicostratus the son of Xenoclidas. It is by Pantias, who by six intermediate links was a pupil of Aristocles the Sicyonian.

And Dicon the son of Callibrotus won five races in the Pythian games, and three in the Isthmian, and four at Nemea, and at Olympia one for boys, two for men. And he has as many statues as he won victories at Olympia. He was a native of Caulonia, and so proclaimed as a boy, though afterwards for money he proclaimed himself a Syracusan. Now Caulonia is a colony of Achæans in Italy, its founder was Typhon of Ægium. And when Pyrrhus the son of Æacus and the Tarentines were at war with the Romans, and several cities in Italy were destroyed, some by the Romans, some by the people of Epirus, Caulonia was laid waste, after being captured by the Campanians, who were the chief allies of the Romans.

Next to Dicon is a statue of Xenophon, the son of Menephylus, the pancratiast from Ægium in Achaia, also one of Pyrilampes the Ephesian, who obtained the victory in the long course. Xenophon’s statue is by Olympus, Pyrilampes’ by a sculptor of the same name, not a Sicyonian, but from Messene near Ithome.

The Samians also erected a statue at Olympia to the Spartan Lysander the son of Aristocritus. And the first of the inscriptions is,

“In the conspicuous precincts of almighty Zeus I stand, the votive offering of all the Samians.”

This informs us who erected the statue. And the second inscription is a panegyric on Lysander,

“Immortal fame, Lysander, on your country and Aristocritus did you confer by your splendid merit.”

Manifest is it therefore that the Samians and other Ionians, according to the Ionian proverb, whitewashed two walls.[76] For when Alcibiades had a strong Athenian fleet in the neighbourhood of Ionia, most of the Ionians paid their court to him, and there is a brazen bust of Alcibiades in the temple of Hera among the Samians. But when the Athenian fleet was taken at Ægos-potamoi, then the Samians erected this statue of Lysander at Olympia, and the Ephesians placed in the temple of Artemis statues of Lysander himself, and Eteonicus, and Pharax, and other Spartans of no great renown in Greece. And when fortune veered round again, and Conon won the sea-fight off Cnidus and Mount Dorium, then the Ionians changed sides again, and you may see a brazen statue of Conon and Timotheus at Samos in the temple of Hera, and likewise at Ephesus in the temple of Artemis. This has been the case in all ages, for all men, like these Ionians, pay court to the strongest.