Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER IV.

And next to Lysander is the effigy of an Ephesian boxer, whose name was Athenæus, and who beat all the boys that contended with him, and next him is the Sicyonian pancratiast Sostratus, whose surname was Acrochersites, because he laid hold of his adversary’s fingers and tried to break them, and would not let go till he saw that he was going to give in. And he had 12 victories at Nemea and Isthmus both together, and in the Pythian games two, at Olympia three. The 104th Olympiad, in which this Sostratus was victor for the first time, the people of Elis do not record, because the games in that Olympiad were not instituted by them but by the Pisæans and Arcadians. And next to Sostratus is the wrestler Leontiscus, a Sicilian from Messene by the Strait. And he is said to have been crowned by the Amphictyonians, and twice by the people of Elis, and his wrestling is said to have been somewhat similar to that of Sostratus of Sicyon in the pancratium, for he was not an adept at wrestling his antagonists down, but he used to beat them by trying to break their fingers. And his statue was by Pythagoras of Rhegium, an excellent sculptor if ever there was one. And he learnt his art they say from Clearchus who was also a native of Rhegium, and a pupil of Euchirus. This Euchirus was a Corinthian, and pupil of Syadra and Charta, who were both Spartans.

And the boy with a fillet on his head must not be omitted by me, on Phidias’ account and his fame as a statuary, for otherwise we don’t know who it is a statue of. And there is a statue of Satyrus of Elis, the son of Lysianax, of the family of the Iamidæ, who five times won the prize for boxing at Nemea, and twice at Olympia, and twice at the Pythian games. This statue is by the Athenian Silanion. And another Athenian statuary Polycles, the pupil of the Athenian Stadieus, has made a statue of the Ephesian pancratiast, Amyntas the son of Hellanicus.

And Chilon the Achæan of Patræ had two victories at Olympia in wrestling among men, and one at Delphi, and 4 at Isthmus, and 3 at Nemea. And he had a public funeral from the Achæans, as he was killed in war. The inscription at Olympia bears me out.

“I won the prize from men in wrestling twice in the Pythian and Olympian games, three times at Nemea, four times at the Isthmus near the sea, I Chilon of Patræ the son of Chilon, whom the Achæans gave a public funeral to for his valour as he was killed in war.”

Such is what the inscription records. And if one conjectures from the age of Lysippus, who made the effigy, one must infer that the war in which Chilon fell was either at Chæronea when he fought in company with all the Achæans, or that he alone boldly volunteered to fight at Lamia in Thessaly against Antipater and the Macedonians.

And next to that of Chilon are two statues: one of Molpion, who the inscription states was crowned by the people of Elis, and the other, which has no inscription, is they say Aristotle of Stagira in Thrace, and it was erected to him by some pupil or soldier, as he was greatly honoured by Antipater and earlier still by Alexander. And Sodamas from Assus in the Troas, near Mount Ida, was the first Æolian that won the prize for boys in the course at Olympia. And next to Sodamas is a statue of Archidamus, the son of Agesilaus, king of the Lacedæmonians. Before the reign of this Archidamus I cannot find that the Lacedæmonians erected a statue of anyone beyond their own borders. But they sent I think a statue of Archidamus to Olympia, not only on other accounts but also because of his death, for he died fighting against the barbarians, and was the only one of the Spartan kings that lacked sepulture. I have narrated the particulars at full length in my account of Sparta. And Euanthes of Cyzicus had prizes for boxing, one at Olympia as a man, and at Nemea and the Isthmian games as a boy. And next to Euanthes is a horse-trainer and a chariot, and a girl mounting the chariot. The man’s name is Lampus, and his native town was the most recent of the Macedonian towns, and got its name from its founder Philip the son of Amyntas. And the effigy of Cyniscus, the boy boxer from Mantinea, was by Polycletus. And Ergoteles the son of Philanor, who carried off two victories at Olympia in the long course, and as many at the Pythian Isthmian and Nemean games, was not originally a native of Himera, as the inscription states, but is said to have been a Cretan from Gnossus: and being banished from thence in some faction he went to Himera, and obtained citizenship there, and had other honours. This is the probable explanation of his being proclaimed in the games as a native of Himera.