CHAPTER XXV.
Such are the statues of Zeus inside Altis, all of which I have enumerated. For the statue near the great temple offered by a Corinthian, is not an offering of the old Corinthians but of those who rebuilt the city in Cæsar’s time, and is Alexander the son of Philip to imitate Zeus. I shall also enumerate all the other statues which are not representations of Zeus. And the effigies not erected in honour of the deity, but in honour of men, I shall describe in my account of the athletes.
The Messenians at the Sicilian Strait, who used to send to Rhegium, according to old custom, a chorus of 35 boys and a choir-master and a piper to the national feast, had on one occasion a terrible disaster, none of those that were sent were saved, but the vessel that had the boys on board perished boys and all in the depths of the sea. For the sea at this strait is a most stormy one: for winds lash it to fury, and two seas meet, the Sicilian and the Tyrrhenian: and even when the winds are calm, there is a tremendous swell in the Strait from the strong ebb and flow. And so many sea-monsters are there, that the air is tainted with their scent, so that the shipwrecked mariner has no chance of getting safe to shore. And if Odysseus had chanced to be wrecked here, one can never believe that he could have swum off safe to Italy. But a kind Providence in every conjuncture brings about some alleviation. And the Messenians sorrowing at the loss of the boys, besides other things to honour their memory, placed at Olympia brazen effigies of them and their choir-master and piper. The old inscription shewed that these effigies were votive offerings of the Messenians at the Sicilian Strait: and subsequently Hippias, who was called by the Greeks the Wise, wrote some elegiac lines on them. The effigies were by Callon of Elis.
And there is near the Promontory Pachynus, that faces towards Libya and the South, the town of Motye, peopled by Libyans and Phœnicians. And the people of Agrigentum were at war with the people of Motye, and out of the spoil and booty they took from them erected as votive offerings at Olympia some boys in brass, extending their right hands like people praying to the deity. They are on the wall at Altis. I conjectured they were by Calamis, and tradition states the same. The races that inhabit Sicily are the Sicani and the Siceli and the Phrygians, some of whom crossed over from Italy, and others came from the river Scamander and the Troad. And the Phœnicians and Libyans sailed to the island with a joint fleet, as a colony of the Carthaginians. Such are the barbarous races in Sicily. And of Greeks the Dorians and Ionians dwell in it, and a few Phocians and Athenians.
And on the same wall are votive offerings from Agrigentum, two statues of boyish Hercules naked. The Hercules shooting at the Nemean lion is the votive offering of the Tarentine Hippotion, and the design of the Mænalian Nicodamus. The other is the votive offering of the Mendæan Anaxippus, and was brought here by the people of Elis: it used to be at the end of the road leading from Elis to Olympia, called the Sacred Road. There are also statues, from the Achæan race in common, of those who, when Hector challenged a single Greek to single combat, drew lots who it should be. They are near the great temple armed with spears and shields. And right opposite on another basement is Nestor throwing the lots into his helmet. And the number of those that drew lots for the single combat with Hector are 8, for the 9th, which was Odysseus, they say Nero carried to Rome, and of the 8 Agamemnon only has his name inscribed, and it is written from right to left. And the one with the device of a cock on the shield is Idomeneus, the descendant of Minos and Pasiphae the daughter of the Sun. And the cock they say is sacred to the Sun and heralds his approach. The inscription on the basement is,
“To Zeus the Achæans, descendants of the divine Pelops the son of Tantalus, erected these votive offerings.”
And the name of the artificer is inscribed on the shield of Idomeneus,
“This and many besides are the work of the skilful Onatas, the son of Micon of Ægina.”
And not far from the votive offering of the Achæans is Hercules fighting with an Amazon on horseback for her belt. This is the votive offering of Evagoras of Zancle, and the design of Aristocles of Cydonia. Aristocles may be reckoned amongst the very ancient sculptors, for though one cannot state his period exactly, it is manifest that he lived before the change from the old name Zancle to its present one of Messene.
The Thasians also (who were Phœnicians originally, and sailed from Tyre and other parts of Phœnice to Europe with Thasus the son of Agenor), made a votive offering of Hercules at Olympia, the base as well as the statue of brass. The height of the statue is 10 cubits, in the right hand he holds his club, and in the left his bow. And I heard in Thasos that they worshipped the same Hercules as the Tyrians worship, but afterwards, when they became naturalized as Greeks, they worshipped Hercules the son of Amphitryon. And the votive offering of the Thasians at Olympia has the following elegiac couplet attached to it,