Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

And near Lichas is the seer of Elis, Thrasybulus, the son of Æneas of the family of the Iamidæ, who practised divination for the Mantineans against the Lacedæmonians under Agis the son of King Eudamidas, I shall enter into the circumstances more fully in my account about the Arcadians. And on the effigy of Thrasybulus there is a spotted lizard creeping on his right shoulder, and a dog lies near him cut in half as a victim and shewing its liver. Divination by kids and lambs and calves is clearly an old practice among mankind, the Cyprians seem also to have added divination by swine. But no nations are accustomed to practise divination by dogs. Therefore it was apparently a peculiarity of Thrasybulus to introduce this kind of divination. And the seers called the Iamidæ were descendants of Iamus, who, as Pindar tells us in one of his Odes, was the son of Apollo, and learnt his divination from him.

And close to the effigy of Thrasybulus is one of Timosthenes, a native of Elis, who won the prize for boys in the course, and one of the Milesian Antipater, the son of Clinopater, who beat all the boys in boxing. And some Syracusans, who offered sacrifices at Olympia on behalf of Dionysius, bribed the father of Antipater to let his son be declared a Syracusan. But Antipater, despising the tyrant’s bribe, declared himself a Milesian, and inscribed on his effigy that he was a Milesian, and the first Ionian that had had his effigy at Olympia. It was by Polycletus, and Timosthenes’ was by Eutychides of Sicyon, a pupil of Lysippus. This Eutychides made a statue of Fortune for the Syrians by the Orontes, which is greatly honoured by the people of that district.

And in Altis near the effigy of Timosthenes are statues of Timon and his son Æsypus, the lad on horseback. For he won the prize on his racer, while Timon was proclaimed victor in the chariot race. These statues were made by Dædalus of Sicyon, who also erected a trophy for the people of Elis, after their victory over the Laconians at Altis. And the inscription over the Samian boxer states that Myco was his trainer, and that the Samians are the best of the Ionians both as athletes and naval heroes, but gives no information about the particular boxer.

And next is the statue of the Messenian Damiscus, who was victor at Olympia when he was only 12. It is a very remarkable coincidence, that, when the Messenians were exiles from the Peloponnese, their luck at Olympia also failed. For except Leontiscus and Symmachus, who were Sicilian Messenians from the Strait, no Messenian either from Sicily or Naupactus was victor at Olympia, and the Sicilians say they were not Messenians but old inhabitants of Zancle. However when the Messenians returned to the Peloponnese, their luck also at Olympia returned. For in the year after the restoration to Messene, when the people of Elis celebrated the Olympian games, this Damiscus won the prize from all the boys in the course, and afterwards won victories both at Nemea and at the Isthmus in the pentathlum.

CHAPTER III.

Next to Damiscus is the statue of a man whose name is not recorded, the votive offering of Ptolemy the son of Lagus. Ptolemy calls himself a Macedonian in the inscription, though he was king of Egypt. There is an inscription also over Chæreas of Sicyon a boy-boxer, stating that his father was Chæremon, and that though young he was victor. The inscription also states that the statue was by Asterion, the son of Æschylus. And next to Chæreas there are statues of the Messenian boy Sophius, and of Stomius a man of Elis, Sophius outran all the boys, and Stomius won one victory in the pentathlum at Olympia, and three at Nemea. And the inscription on Stomius records further that as leader of the cavalry of the people of Elis he won a victory, and killed the commander of the enemy, who had challenged him to single combat. And the people of Elis say that he came from Sicyon and was ruler of the Sicyonians, and that they themselves went on an expedition against Sicyon in friendship to the Thebans together with a force from Bœotia. It would appear therefore that an expedition against Sicyon must have set out from Elis and Thebes after the reverse of the Lacedæmonians at Leuctra.

Next is the statue of the boxer Labax, the son of Euphron, who was a native of Lepreus in Elis, and also one of the wrestlers from Elis, Aristodemus the son of Thrasis, who had two victories in the Pythian games. And the effigy of Aristodemus is by Dædalus the Sicyonian, who was the pupil and son of Patrocles. And the statue of Hippos of Elis, who beat all the boys in boxing, was by Democritus of Sicyon, who learnt his art from the Athenian Critias through 4 intermediate teachers. For Critias was the tutor of the Corcyræan Ptolichus, and Amphion was the pupil of Ptolichus, and Piso of Calauria was the pupil of Amphion, and Democritus was the pupil of Piso. And Cratinus from Ægira in Achaia was the most handsome of all his contemporaries, and the greatest wrestler. And as none of the boys could stand before him in wrestling he was appointed by the people of Elis as teacher of the boys. And his statue was by the Sicyonian Cantharus, whose father was Alexis, and teacher Eutychides.

And the effigy of Eupolemus of Elis was by the Sicyonian Dædalus, and the inscription informs us about him that he was victor at Olympia over men in the course, he also won two crowns at the Pythian games in the pentathlum, and one crown at the Nemean games. It is further recorded about Eupolemus that of the three umpires in the race two adjudged the prize to him, and the third to the Ambraciote Leo, and that Leo at the Council of Olympia subsequently got indemnity from both the umpires who had adjudged the prize to Eupolemus.

And the statue of Œbotas was set up by the Achæans in the 80th Olympiad in accordance with the oracle at Delphi. He had been victor in the course in the sixth Olympiad. How then could he have fought with the Greeks at Platæa? For it was not till the 75th Olympiad that Mardonius and the Medes met with the reverse at Platæa. I am bound to record the traditions of the Greeks, but I need not believe all of them. All else that happened to Œbotas shall be told in my account of Achaia.

And the statue of Antiochus was made by Nicodemus. Antiochus was a native of Lepreus, and won the prize at Olympia for the pentathlum for men once, and twice in the Pythian games, twice also at Nemea. For the Isthmians were not frightened by the people of Lepreus as they were by the people of Elis, for Hysmon of Elis, whose statue is next to Antiochus, being an athlete, and having won the prize for the pentathlum once at Olympia and once at Nemea, was plainly prevented, like all other people of Elis, from trying his fortune at the Isthmian games. It is also recorded of Hysmon that when he was a boy he had a discharge, and that was why he trained for the pentathlum, that he might become stronger in constitution, and free from disease. And this training was destined to get for him many notable victories. His statue is by Cleon, and he has in his hands some old-fashioned dumb bells. And next to Hysmon is the statue of a wrestling boy from Heræa in Arcadia, Nicostratus the son of Xenoclidas. It is by Pantias, who by six intermediate links was a pupil of Aristocles the Sicyonian.