And Artemis—I know not why—has wings on her shoulders, and in her right hand she has a leopard, in her left a lion. And there is Ajax dragging Cassandra from the statue of Athene, and the inscription is,
“Locrian Ajax is dragging Cassandra from Athene.”
And there are the sons of Œdipus, Polynices has fallen on his knees, and Eteocles is pressing him hard. And behind Polynices stands a monster with teeth as sharp as a wild beast’s, and with crooked claws. And the inscription says that it is Doom, and that Polynices was carried off by Fate, and that Eteocles’ end was just. And there too is bearded Dionysus lying down in a cave, clad in a long garment, with a golden bowl in his hand: and there are clusters of vine round him, and apples, and pomegranates.
The topmost side of the chest, for there are five in all, has no inscription, but one can easily conjecture what the representations are. In a cave there is a woman sleeping with a man upon a bed, and we infer that they are Odysseus and Circe from the number of handmaids in front of the cave, and from their tasks. For the women are four in number, and they are engaged just as Homer has represented. And there is a Centaur, not with all his feet horses’ feet, for his forefeet are those of a man. And there are pair-horse chariots and women seated on the chariots: and the horses have gold wings, and a man is giving arms to one of the women. This is conjectured to refer to the death of Patroclus. For it is the Nereids on the chariots, and Thetis who is receiving arms from Hephæstus. For he who is giving the arms is lame, and behind is a servant with smith’s tongs. And the tradition about Chiron the Centaur is that, though he had left this world and been received into heaven, he returned to earth to comfort Achilles. And there are two maidens in a carriage drawn by mules, one is driving and the other has a veil on her head, they are thought to be Nausicaa, the daughter of Alcinous, and her attendant driving to the wash. And the man shooting at the Centaurs and killing some of them is manifestly Hercules, for this was one of his great feats.
Who it was that constructed this chest it is quite impossible to conjecture: the inscriptions on it might have been composed by anybody, but suspicion points to Eumelus the Corinthian, both on other grounds, and because of the Processional Hymn which he composed in reference to Delos.
CHAPTER XX.
There are also here besides the chest several votive offerings, as a bed of no great size adorned with much ivory, and the quoit of Iphitus, and the table on which the crowns for the victors are deposited. The bed was they say a plaything of Hippodamia: and the quoit of Iphitus has written on it the armistice between the people of Elis and the Olympians not straight down it, but all round the quoit: and the table is of ivory and gold, the design of Colotes, who was they say a native of Heraclea. And those who take interest in artificers say that he was a Parian and the pupil of Pasiteles, who was himself the pupil of....[73] There too are statues of Hera, and Zeus, and the Mother of the Gods, and Hermes, and Apollo, and Artemis. And behind is a representation of the games. On one side is Æsculapius and Hygiea, one of the daughters of Æsculapius, and Ares and Contest by him, and on another is Pluto and Dionysus and Proserpine and some Nymphs, one of them with a ball. And Pluto has his key, with which (they say) what is called Hades is locked, and then no one can return from it.
An account which I received from Aristarchus, the Interpreter of Antiquities at Olympia, I must not omit. He said that in his youth, when the people of Elis restored the roof of the temple of Hera, the body of a dead man in heavy armour, who had been badly wounded, was found between the sham roof and the roof on which the tiles lay. This man was a combatant in the battle fought inside Altis between the Lacedæmonians and the people of Elis. For the people of Elis climbed up to the temples of the gods, and all high buildings alike, for the purpose of defence. This man therefore probably got up into that place, in a fainting condition from his wounds, and, on his death, neither the heat of summer nor the chills of winter would be likely to injure his dead body, as he lay stowed away and covered up. And Aristarchus added, that they carried the corpse outside Altis and buried it armour and all.
And the pillar, which the people of Elis call the pillar of Œnomaus, is as you go from the great altar to the temple of Zeus, and there are 4 pillars on the left and a roof over them. These pillars support a wooden one worn out by age, and only held together by iron clamps. This pillar was once according to tradition in the house of Œnomaus: and when the god struck the house with lightning, the fire consumed all the house but this one pillar. And a brazen tablet contains some Elegiac lines referring to this.
“I am the only vestige, stranger, of a famous house, I once was a pillar in Œnomaus’ house, but now near Zeus I am in iron clamps in honour: the destructive fire has not consumed me.”