CHAPTER XVII.
What I have just mentioned are the most notable things as you approach Altis, but, if you go on the right from the monument of Leonidas to the great altar, you will behold the following memorable objects. There are statues of Democrates of Tenedos and Criannius of Elis, the latter victor in the contest in heavy armour, the former in wrestling among men. The statue of Democrates is by the Milesian Dionysicles, that of Criannius by the Macedonian Lysus. And the Clazomenian Herodotus, and the Coan Philinus, the son of Hegepolis, have statues erected to them by their native cities, to Herodotus because he was the first Clazomenian pronounced victor (his victory was among boys in the course), and to Philinus because of his renown, for he had five victories in running at Olympia, and four in the Pythian games, four in the Nemean, and eleven in the Isthmian. And the statue of Ptolemy, the son of Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, was the offering of Aristolaus a Macedonian. There is also a statue of a boxer who was victorious over boys, Butas the Milesian, the son of Polynices, and Callicrates from Magnesia near the river Lethæus, who won two victories in the race in heavy armour. His statue is by Lysippus. And there are statues of Emaution and Alexibius, the former victor in the course for boys, the latter in the pentathlum. Heræa in Arcadia was the native place of Alexibius and his statue is by Acestor, where Emaution came from the inscription does not state, it only declares he was an Arcadian. And the Colophonians Hermesianax the son of Agoneus, and Icasius the son of Lycinus by the daughter of Hermesianax, beat all the boys in wrestling, and Hermesianax had his statue erected by the Colophonian community.
Next to these are natives of Elis that beat all the boys in boxing, Chœrilus by the Olynthian Sthennis, and Theotimus by the Sicyonian Dætondas. Theotimus was the son of Moschion, who joined Alexander the son of Philip in his expedition against Darius and the Persians. And next are two from Elis again, Archidamus who conquered in the four-horse-race, and Eperastus (the son of Theogonus) who was victor in the race in heavy armour. And Eperastus states that he was a seer, and descended from the family of the Clytidæ, at the close of the inscription on his statue.
“I boast to be a seer of the family of the holy-mouthed Clytidæ, of the blood of the godlike descendants of Melampus.”
Mantius was the father of Œcles, and the son of Melampus the son of Amythaon. And Clytius was the son of Alcmæon, the son of Amphiaraus the son of Œcles. And Alcmæon was father of Clytius by the daughter of Phegeus, and he changed his residence to Elis, objecting to live with his mother’s brothers, because he knew that they had contrived the murder of Alcmæon.
And there are some statues interspersed among some not very remarkable votive offerings, as Alexinicus of Elis (by the Sicyonian Cantharus), who won a wrestling prize among the boys, and Gorgias of Leontini, whose statue was placed at Olympia by Eumolpus, great-grandson of Deicrates who had married Gorgias’ sister. So Eumolpus himself tells us. This Gorgias was the son of Carmantides, and is said to have been the first to have practised Rhetoric, which had been altogether neglected and nearly come into desuetude among men. And they say Gorgias was famous for his eloquence at the public festival at Olympia, and went with Tisias on an embassy to the Athenians. Tisias too contributed something to oratory, and most plausibly did he plead in the case of a Syracusan woman touching some money, but Gorgias had still greater fame among the Athenians, and Jason the tyrant in Thessaly put him above Polycrates, who had the highest renown in the schools at Athens. And they say Gorgias lived 105 years. And the town of Leontini, which was dispeopled by the Syracusans, was in my day colonized again.