Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

On the road to Olympia from Scillus, before crossing the Alpheus, is a mountain lofty and precipitous which is called Typæum. From this mountain it is the custom to hurl all women of Elis who are detected as competitors in the Olympian contests, or who merely cross the Alpheus on forbidden days. Not that any one ever yet was so detected except Callipatira, whose name according to some traditions was Pherenice. She after the death of her husband dressed herself up like an athlete, and brought her son as a combatant to Olympia. And Pisirodus her son having been victorious, Callipatira in leaping over the fence which parted the athletes from the spectators, exposed her person, and though her sex was detected they let her go without punishment out of respect to her father and brothers and son, who had all been victors at Olympia, but they passed a law that henceforth all athletes should come to the contests naked.

CHAPTER VII.

And when you have got to Olympia immediately you see the river Alpheus, a full and very pleasant river, and no less than seven notable rivers are tributaries to it. For through Megalopolis the Helisson flows into it, and the Brentheates from the district of Megalopolis, and the Gortynius near Gortyna where is a temple of Æsculapius, and from Melæneæ between the districts of Megalopolis and Heræa the Buphagus, and the Ladon from the district of the Clitorians, and the river Erymanthus from the mountain of the same name. All these flow into the Alpheus from Arcadia, and the Cladeus from Elis also contributes its stream. And the source of the Alpheus is in Arcadia and not in Elis. And there are several traditions about the Alpheus, as that he was a hunter and enamoured of Arethusa, and that she hunted with him. And as Arethusa was unwilling to marry him, she crossed over they say to an island near Syracuse, called Ortygia, and there became a spring: just as Alpheus in consequence of his love was changed into a river. This is the tradition about the Alpheus and the Ortygia. As to the river going under the sea and coming up in another place, there is no reason why I should discredit that, as I know that the god at Delphi admitted it, seeing that when he sent Archias the Corinthian to establish a colony at Syracuse, these were some of the words he used, “Ortygia lies in the cloudy sea above Trinacria, where the mouth of the Alpheus mixes and flows with the springs of the broad Arethusa.” From this circumstance of their union, and not any love passages, I imagine the traditions about the two rivers originated. And all the Greeks or Egyptians, that have penetrated into Ethiopia beyond Syene, and as far as the Ethiopian city of Meroe, say that the Nile enters into a marsh, and flows through it as if it were earth, and eventually through lower Ethiopia into Egypt to Pharos, where it has its outlet at the sea. And in the land of the Hebrews I know that the river Jordan flows through the lake of Tiberias, and into what is called the Dead Sea, by which it is absorbed. The Dead Sea has properties unlike any other water: living bodies can float in it without swimming, whereas dead bodies go to the bottom. And it has no fish, for from their evident danger they take refuge in water more congenial to them. And there is a river in Ionia similar to the Alpheus, its source is in the mountain Mycale, and it flows under the sea, and comes up again at Branchidæ at the harbour called Panormus. All this is correctly stated.

In regard to the Olympian Games those who are in possession of the most ancient archives of the people of Elis say that Cronos was the first king of Heaven, and that he had a temple built to him at Olympia by the mortals who then lived, who were called the golden age: and that, when Zeus was born, Rhea entrusted the charge of the boy to the Idæan Dactyli, who were otherwise called the Curetes: who afterwards came to Elis from Ida in Crete, and their names were Hercules, and Epimedes, and Pæonæus, and Iasius, and Idas. And Hercules the eldest of them challenged his brothers in play to run a race together, and they would crown the victor with a branch of the wild olive: and there was such abundance of wild olive trees that they strewed under them the leaves while they were still green as beds to sleep on. And they say that the wild olive was introduced to the Greeks by Hercules from the country of the Hyperboreans, who dwelt north of the wind Boreas. Olen the Lycian first mentioned in a hymn to Achæia, that she came to Delos from these Hyperboreans, and when Melanopus of Cumæ composed an ode to Opis and Hecaerges, he mentioned that they too came from the Hyperboreans to Delos before Achæia. And Aristæus of Proconnesus, who has also mentioned the Hyperboreans, may perhaps have heard more of them from the Issedones, to whom in his poems he says they went. At any rate to Idæan Hercules belongs the glory that he first instituted and gave their name to the Olympian contests. He appointed them to be held every fifth year because he and his brothers were five in number. And some say that it was there that Zeus contended with Cronos about the sovereignty of Heaven, others say he appointed these games after his success over Cronos. Other gods are said to have been victorious, as Apollo who outran Hermes, who challenged him to the contest, and outboxed Ares. And this is the reason they say why the Pythian flute-playing was introduced in the leaping contest at the pentathlum, because the flute was sacred to Apollo, and Apollo was on several occasions the victor at Olympia.

CHAPTER VIII.

And after this they say Clymenus the son of Cardys, (in the 50th year after Deucalion’s flood), a descendant of Idæan Hercules, came from Crete and established games at Olympia, and erected an altar to his ancestor Hercules and to the other Curetes, giving Hercules the title of Assistant. But Endymion the son of Aethlius deposed Clymenus from the kingdom, and gave it to his sons as a prize for the best runner of them at Olympia. And a generation after Endymion, Pelops made the contest to Olympian Zeus more famous than any of his predecessors. And when the sons of Pelops were scattered from Elis all over the Peloponnese, Amythaon the son of Cretheus, uncle of Endymion on the father’s side, (for they say Aethlius was the son of Æolus surnamed Zeus), appointed games at Olympia, and after him Pelias and Neleus in common. So also did Augeas and Hercules, the son of Amphitryon, after the capture of Elis. And all that he crowned as victors were Iolaus, who had borrowed the mares of Hercules for the race. It was an old custom to be a competitor with borrowed horses. Homer at least in the funeral games in honour of Patroclus has represented Menelaus as yoking together Agamemnon’s horse Æthe with one of his own.[68] Iolaus was also Hercules’ charioteer. He was the victor in the chariot race, and Iasius an Arcadian in the riding race, and Castor was successful in running, Pollux in boxing. It is also recorded of Hercules that he was victorious in wrestling and in the pancratium.

And after the reign of Oxylus, who also established games, the Olympian games were suspended till Iphitus. And when he renewed the games as I have before stated, there was a general forgetfulness about the ancient games, but in a short while they got remembered again, and whenever they remembered any little feature of the games, they added it to the programme. And this proves my statement. From the time that the Olympian games were revived continuously, prizes were first instituted for running, and Corœbus of Elis was the victor. His statue is at Olympia, and his grave is on the borders of Elis. And in the 14th Olympiad afterwards the double course was introduced: when Hypenus a native of Pisa won the wild olive crown, and Acanthus was second. And in the 18th Olympiad they remembered the pentathlum and the wrestling, in the former Lampis was victor, in the latter Eurybatus, both Lacedæmonians. And in the 23rd Olympiad they ordained prizes for boxing, and Onomastus was victor from Smyrna (which was at that day reckoned as Ionia). And in the 25th Olympiad they had a race of full-grown horses, and the Theban Pagondas was proclaimed victor in this race. And in the eighth Olympiad later they introduced the pancratium and the riding race. The horse of Crannonian Crauxidas got in first, and the competitors for the pancratium were beaten by the Syracusan Lygdamis, who has his sepulchre at the stonequarries of Syracuse. And I don’t know whether Lygdamis was really as big as the Theban Hercules, but that is the tradition at Syracuse. And the contest of the boys was not a revival of ancient usage, but the people of Elis instituted it because the idea pleased them. So prizes were instituted for running and wrestling among boys in the 307th Olympiad, and Hipposthenes the Lacedæmonian won the wrestling prize, and Polynices from Elis the running prize. And in the 41st Olympiad afterwards they invited boxing boys, and the one who won the prize from all the competitors was Philetas from Sybaris. And the race in heavy armour was tried in the 65th Olympiad, as an exercise for war I think: and of those who ran with their shields Damaretus of Heræum was the victor. And the race of two full-grown horses called a pair was established in the 93rd Olympiad, and Evagoras of Elis was the victor. And in the 99th Olympiad they had a fancy to contend with chariots drawn by colts, and the Lacedæmonian Sybariades had the prize for this contest. And they afterwards established races of a pair of colts and for riding a colt, and the victor in the former was Belistiche, a woman who lived in Macedonia near the sea, and in the latter Tlepolemus the Lycian in the 131st Olympiad, Belistiche’s victory was in the 3rd Olympiad before. And in the 145th Olympiad prizes were instituted for a pancratium-contest for boys, and Phædimus an Æolian from the Troad was victor.

CHAPTER IX.

And some of the contests at Olympia were put an end to, the people of Elis having resolved to discontinue them. For the pentathlum for boys was established in the 38th Olympiad, but when the Lacedæmonian Eutelidas had won the crown of wild olive, the people of Elis did not care that their lads should train for the pentathlum. So it dropped. And the chariot race and the trotting race, the former established in the 70th Olympiad and the latter in the 71st Olympiad, were both stopped by proclamation in the 84th Olympiad. When they were first instituted Thersius the Thessalian won the prize in the former, and Patæcus an Achæan from Dyme in the latter. In the trotting race the riders used to jump off towards the end of the course and run with the horses still holding the reins, as what are called professional riders do to this day, only the latter employ stallions and have their own colours. But the chariot race is not an ancient invention nor a graceful exhibition, and the people of Elis (who have always disliked the horse) yoke two mules together instead of horses.

The order of the games in our day is to sacrifice victims to the god, and then to contend in the pentathlum and horse-race, according to the programme established in the 77th Olympiad, for before this horses and men contended on the same day. And at that period the pancratiasts did not appear till night for they could not compete sooner, so much time being taken up by the horse-races and pentathlum. And the Athenian Callias was the victor of the pancratiasts. But for the future they took care that neither the pentathlum nor horse-races should stand in the way of the pancratium. And as regards the umpires of the games, the original rules and those in vogue in our day are quite different, for Iphitus was the only umpire, and after Iphitus the posterity of Oxylus, but in the 50th Olympiad two men picked by lot out of all Elis were entrusted with the stewardship of the contests, and this practice of two umpires continued for a very long time. But in the 25th Olympiad afterwards 9 general Umpires were appointed: three for the horse-race, three to watch the pentathlum, and three to preside over the remaining games. And in the 2nd Olympiad after this a tenth Umpire was appointed. And in the 103rd Olympiad, as the people of Elis had 12 tribes, a general Umpire was appointed by each. And when they were hard pressed by the Arcadians in war, they lost a portion of their territory and all the villages in this portion, and so they were only 8 tribes in number in the 104th Olympiad, and had only 8 general Umpires accordingly. And in the 108th Olympiad they returned to the number of 10 general Umpires, and that has continued the number to our day.