Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume I.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

However this inscription and the records in Elis of the victors at Olympia do not tally, for in the 68th Olympiad only do those records record any victory of the sons of Phidolas. Let anyone inquire into this further who likes. And there are statues of Agathinus the son of Thrasybulus, and Telemachus who was victorious with his horses, the former was an offering of the Achæans of Pellene. The Athenian people also set up a statue to Aristophon the son of Lycinus who beat all the men in the pancratium at Olympia.

CHAPTER XIV.

And Pherias the Æginetan, whose statue is next the Athenian Aristophon, was not allowed in the 78th Olympiad to enter the contest because he appeared very young, and was not thought fit to compete in the wrestling, but the following year he was allowed to wrestle among the boys and won the prize. A different fortune to this of Pherias was that of Nicasylus the Rhodian at Olympia. For being 18 he was not allowed to contend with the boys by the people of Elis, but was entered as a man and won the prize. He was proclaimed victor also at the Nemean and Isthmian games. But he died in his 20th year, before he could return home to Rhodes. But the feat of this Rhodian wrestler at Olympia was outdone in my opinion by Artemidorus of Tralles. He was unsuccessful at Olympia in his endeavour to win the pancratium among the boys, but the reason of his failure was his excessive youth. For when the season came for the contest which the Ionians have at Smyrna his strength had become so great that he beat on the same day all his antagonists from Olympia in the pancratium, and all the boys that they call unbearded, and thirdly all the best of the men. And they say that he was cheered on by the trainer in the contest with the boys, but that in the contest with the men he was reviled by the pancratiast. And Artemidorus won at Olympia the victory among men in the 212th Olympiad. And near the statue of Nicasylus is a small brazen horse, the votive offering of Crocon of Eretria when he won the victory with a race-horse, and near this horse is an effigy of Telestas the Messenian, who beat all the boys in boxing, by Silanion.

And the statue of Milo the son of Diotimus is by Dameas, both natives of Croton. This Milo had six prizes for wrestling at Olympia, one of them among boys, and at Pythia six among men and one among boys. And he came to Olympia to wrestle for the 7th time. But he could not beat in wrestling Timasitheus, a citizen and quite young, as Timasitheus would not contend with him at close quarters in the arena at all. And Milo is said to have carried his own statue to Altis. There are also traditions about Milo in reference to a pomegranate and a quoit. He held a pomegranate so fast that nobody could get it from him, and yet he did not hurt it. And on one occasion standing on an oiled quoit he excited laughter among those who jostled him and tried to push him off it. And several other things he did in display. He tied a cord round his forehead as if it were a fillet or a crown, and holding his breath and filling the veins of his head with blood he would snap the cord by the strength of his veins. It is recorded also that he would place against his side his right arm from the elbow to the shoulder, and stretch out the hand, and turn his thumb up while the fingers remained together, and no one could with any exertion move the little finger from its place. And they say he was killed by wild beasts. For he chanced in the country near Croton on a withered tree, in which some wedges were driven to separate the wood, and he took it into his head to keep the wood apart with his hands. And the wedges slipt out and he was imprisoned in the tree, and became a prey to the wolves, which prowl about in great numbers in that neighbourhood. Such was the end of Milo.

And Pyrrhus the son of Æacides having been king in Thesprotia in Epirus, and having done many remarkable deeds, which I have described in my account of Attica, Thrasybulus of Elis erected his statue in Altis. And next to Pyrrhus is the statue of a little man with pipes in his hand on a pillar. This man had a prize for his piping, the first time such prizes were bestowed since the Argive Sacadas. Sacadas first conquered in the games established by the Amphictyonians (when no prize was given), and after that he won two prizes. And Pythocritus of Sicyon won in six of the Pythian contests successively, being the only piper. It is plain also at the contest at Olympia that he was piper six times in the pentathlum. For all this he had a pillar at Olympia with the inscription on it,

“This is the memorial of Pythocritus, (the son of Callinicus), the piper.”

The Ætolians also erected a public statue to Cylon, who freed the people of Elis from the tyranny of Aristotimus. And Gorgus the Messenian, the son of Eucletus, who won the victory in the pentathlum has a statue by the Bœotian Theron, and Damaretus, also a Messenian, who beat all the boys in boxing has a statue by the Athenian Silanion. And Anauchidas of Elis, the son of Philys, won a wrestling prize among the boys and afterwards among the men. Who his statue is by we do not know. And the statue of Anochus the Tarentine, the son of Adamatas, who won the victory both in the stadium and in the double course, is by Ageladas the Argive. And the boy seated on a horse and the man standing by the horse are as the inscription says Xenombrotus of Cos in Meropis, who was proclaimed victor in the horse-race, and Xenodicus who was proclaimed victor in the boxing matches for boys, the latter is by Pantias, and the former by Philotimus of Ægina. And the two statues of Pythes, the son of Andromachus, an Abderite, were made by Lysippus, but his soldiers had them made. Pythes seems to have been a leader of mercenaries, or in some other way to have shewn himself a good soldier.

Here are also statues of those who won prizes in the course for boys, as Meneptolemus from Apollonia on the Ionian gulf, and Philo from Corcyra, and Hieronymus from Andros, who beat Tisamenus of Elis in the pentathlum at Olympia, that Tisamenus who was afterwards a prophet for the Greeks against Mardonius and the Medes at Platæa. And next to the statue of Hieronymus is the statue of a boy-wrestler also from Andros, Procles the son of Lycastidas. Stomius made the statue of Hieronymus, and Somis that of Procles. And Æschines of Elis had two victories in the pentathlum, and has two statues.

CHAPTER XV.

And Archippus of Mitylene, who beat all comers at boxing, had according to the Mitylenæans this further fame, that he was crowned at the Olympian Pythian Nemean and Isthmian games when he was only 20. And the statue of Xenon, the son of Calliteles, of Lepreus in Triphylia, who beat all the boys in the stadium, was made by the Messenian Pyrilampes; we do not know who made the statue of Clinomachus of Elis, who was proclaimed victor in the pentathlum. And the inscription of the Achæans on Pantarches’ statue states that he was a native of Elis; he made peace between the Achæans and people of Elis, and all the prisoners who were captured on both sides were let go mainly through him. He won his victory on a race-horse, and there is a record of his victory at Olympia. And the statue of Olidas of Elis was set up by the Ætolians. And Charinus of Elis has a statue for the double course and for a victory in heavy armour, and near him is Ageles the Chian, who beat all the boys in boxing, by Theomnestus of Sardis.