We shall next consider the famous statue of the runner Ladas by Myron, which is unfortunately known to us only from literary evidence, but which attained in antiquity an even greater fame than his nameless Diskobolos, since it portrayed even more tension than that wonderful work. Its fame was partly due to the picturesque story how the victory cost the runner his life, for he died of strain while on his way home to Sparta; it was also due in no less degree to the striking way in which the victor was depicted.[1439]
Two fourth-century epigrams tell us of the statue. The first of these runs:
Λάδας τὸ στάδιον εἴθ’ ἥλατο, εἴτε διέπτη,
οὐδὲ φράσαι δυνατόν· δαιμόνιον τὸ τάχος.
[ὁ ψόφος ἦν ὕσπληγγος ἐν οὔασι, καὶ στεφανοῦτο
Λάδας καὶ κάμνων δάκτυλον οὐ προέβη.][1440]
The second epigram, naming Myron as the sculptor, runs:
Οἷος ἔης φεύγων τὸν ὑπήνεμον, ἔμπνοε Λάδα,
Θῦμον, ἐπ’ ἀκροτάτῳ πνεύματι θεὶς ὄνυχα,
τοῖον ἐχάλκευσέν σε Μύρων, ἐπὶ παντὶ χαράξας