Delphi Complete Works of Pausanias

by Pausanias

  [5.25.7] On the same wall as the offerings of the Agrigentines are two nude statues of Heracles as a boy. One represents him shooting the lion at Nemea. This Heracles and the lion with him were dedicated by Hippotion of Tarentum, the artist being Nicodamus of Maenalus. The other image was dedicated by Anaxippus of Mende, and was transferred to this place by the Eleans. Previously it stood at the end of the road that leads from Elis to Olympia, called the Sacred Road.

  [5.25.8] There are also offerings dedicated by the whole Achaean race in common; they represent those who, when Hector challenged any Greek to meet him in single combat, dared to cast lots to choose the champion. They stand, armed with spears and shields, near the great temple. Right opposite, on a second pedestal, is a figure of Nestor, who has thrown the lot of each into the helmet. The number of those casting lots to meet Hector is now only eight, for the ninth, the statue of Odysseus, they say that Nero carried to Rome,

  [5.25.9] but Agamemnon’s statue is the only one of the eight to have his name inscribed upon it; the writing is from right to left. The figure with the cock emblazoned on the shield is Idomeneus the descendant of Minos. The story goes that Idomeneus was descended from the Sun, the father of Pasiphae, and that the cock is sacred to the Sun and proclaims when he is about to rise.

  [5.25.10] An inscription too is written on the pedestal:–

  To Zeus these images were dedicated by the Achaeans,

  Descendants of Pelops the godlike scion of Tantalus.

  Such is the inscription on the pedestal, but the name of the artist is written on the shield of Idomeneus:–

  This is one of the many works of clever Onatas,

  The Aeginetan, whose sire was Micon.

  [5.25.11] Not far from the offering of the Achaeans there is also a Heracles fighting with the Amazon, a woman on horseback, for her girdle. It was dedicated by Evagoras, a Zanclaean by descent, and made by Aristocles of Cydonia. Aristocles should be included amongst the most ancient sculptors, and though his date is uncertain, he was clearly born before Zancle took its present name of Messene.

  [5.25.12] The Thasians, who are Phoenicians by descent, and sailed from Tyre, and from Phoenicia generally, together with Thasus, the son of Agenor, in search of Europa, dedicated at Olympia a Heracles, the pedestal as well as the image being of bronze. The height of the image is ten cubits, and he holds a club in his right hand and a bow in his left. They told me in Thasos that they used to worship the same Heracles as the Tyrians, but that afterwards, when they were included among the Greeks, they adopted the worship of Heracles the son of Amphitryon.

  [5.25.13] On the offering of the Thasians at Olympia there is an elegiac couplet:–

  Onatas, son of Micon, fashioned me,

  He who has his dwelling in Aegina.

  This Onatas, though belonging to the Aeginetan school of sculpture, I shall place after none of the successors of Daedalus or of the Attic school.

  [5.26.1] XXVI. The Dorian Messenian who received Naupactus from the Athenians dedicated at Olympia the image of Victory upon the pillar. It is the work of Paeonius of Mende, and was made from the proceeds of enemy spoils, I think from the war with the Arcarnanians and Oeniadae. The Messenians themselves declare that their offering came from their exploit with the Athenians in the island of Sphacteria, and that the name of their enemy was omitted through dread of the Lacedaemonians; for, they say, they are not in the least afraid of Oeniadae and the Acarnanians.

  [5.26.2] The offerings of Micythus I found were numerous and not together. Next after Iphitus of Elis, and Echecheiria crowning Iphitus, come the following offerings of Micythus: Amphitrite, Poseidon and Hestia; the artist was Glaucus the Argive. Along the left side of the great temple Micythus dedicated other offerings: the Maid, daughter of Demeter, Aphrodite, Ganymedes and Artemis, the poets Homer and Hesiod, then again deities, Asclepius and Health.

  [5.26.3] Among the offerings of Micythus is Struggle carrying jumping-weights, the shape of which is as follows. They are half of a circle, not an exact circle but elliptical, and made so that the fingers pass through as they do through the handle of a shield. Such are the fashion of them. By the statue of Struggle are Dionysus, Orpheus the Thracian, and an image of Zeus which I mentioned just now. They are the works of Dionysius of Argos. They say that Micythus set up other offerings also in addition to these, and that they formed part of the treasures taken away by Nero.

  [5.26.4] The artists are said to have been Dionysius and Glaucus, who were Argives by birth, but the name of their teacher is not recorded. Their date is fixed by that of Micythus, who dedicated the works of art at Olympia. For Herodotus in his history says that this Micythus, when Anaxilas was despot of Rhegium, became his slave and steward of his property afterwards, on the death of Anaxilas, he went away to Tegea.

  [5.26.5] The inscriptions on the offerings give Choerus as the father of Micythus, and as his fatherland the Greek cities of Rhegium and Messene on the Strait. The inscriptions say that he lived at Tegea, and he dedicated the offerings at Olympia in fulfillment of a vow made for the recovery of a son, who fell ill of a wasting disease.

  [5.26.6] Near to the greater offerings of Micythus, which were made by the Argive Glaucus, stands an image of Athena with a helmet on her head and clad in an aegis. Nicodamus of Maenalus was the artist, but it was dedicated by the Eleans. Beside the Athena has been set up a Victory. The Mantineans dedicated it, but they do not mention the war in the inscription. Calamis is said to have made it without wings in imitation of the wooden image at Athens called Wingless Victory.

  [5.26.7] By the smaller offerings of Micythus, that were made by Dionysius, are some of the exploits of Heracles, including what he did to the Nemean lion, the Hydra, the Hound of Hell, and the boar by the river Erymanthus. These were brought to Olympia by the people of Heracleia when they had overrun the land of the Mariandynians, their foreign neighbors. Heracleia is a city built on the Euxine sea, a colony of Megara, though the people of Tanagra in Boeotia joined in the settlement.

  [5.27.1] XXVII. Opposite the offerings I have enumerated are others in a row; they face towards the south, and are very near to that part of the precinct which is sacred to Pelops. Among them are those dedicated by the Maenalian Phormis. He crossed to Sicily from Maenalus to serve Gelon the son of Deinomenes. Distinguishing himself in the campaigns of Gelon and afterwards of his brother Hieron, he reached such a pitch of prosperity that he dedicated not only these offerings at Olympia, but also others dedicated to Apollo at Delphi.

  [5.27.2] The offerings at Olympia are two horses and two charioteers, a charioteer standing by the side of each of the horses. The first horse and man are by Dionysius of Argos, the second are the work of Simon of Aegina. On the side of the first of the horses is an inscription, the first part of which is not metrical. It runs thus:–

  Phormis dedicated me, an Arcadian of Maenalus, now of Syracuse.

  [5.27.3] This is the horse in which is, say the Eleans, the hippomanes (what maddens horses). It is plain to all that the quality of the horse is the result of magic skill. It is much inferior in size and beauty to all the horses standing within the Altis. Moreover, its tail has been cut off which makes the figure uglier still. But male horses, not only in spring but on any day, are at heat towards it.

  [5.27.4] In fact they rush into the Altis, breaking their tethers or escaping from their grooms, and they leap upon it much more madly than upon a living brood mare, even the most beautiful of them. Their hoofs slip off, but nevertheless they keep on neighing more and more, and leap with a yet more violent passion, until they are driven away by whips and sheer force. In no other way can they be separated from the bronze horse.

  [5.27.5] There is another marvel I know of, having seen it in Lydia; it is different from the horse of Phormis, but like it not innocent of the magic art. The Lydians surnamed Persian have sanctuaries in the city named Hierocaesareia and at Hypaepa. In each sanctuary is a chamber, and in the chamber are ashes upon an altar. But the color of these
ashes is not the usual color of ashes.

  [5.27.6] Entering the chamber a magician piles dry wood upon the altar; he first places a tiara upon his head and then sings to some god or other an invocation in a foreign tongue unintelligible to Greeks, reciting the invocation from a book. So it is without fire that the wood must catch, and bright flames dart from it.

  [5.27.7] So much for this subject. Among these offerings is Phormis himself opposed to an enemy, and next are figures of him fighting a second and again a third. On them it is written that the soldier fighting is Phormis of Maenalus, and that he who dedicated the offerings was Lycortas of Syracuse. Clearly this Lycortas dedicated them out of friendship for Phormis. These offerings of Lycortas are also called by the Greeks offerings of Phormis.

  [5.27.8] The Hermes carrying the ram under his arm, with a helmet on his head, and clad in tunic and cloak, is not one of the offerings of Phormis, but has been given to the god by the Arcadians of Pheneus. The inscription says that the artist was Onatas of Aegina helped by Calliteles, who I think was a pupil or son of Onatas. Not far from the offering of the Pheneatians is another image, Hermes with a herald’s wand. An inscription on it says that Glaucias, a Rhegian by descent, dedicated it, and Gallon of Elis made it.

  [5.27.9] Of the bronze oxen one was dedicated by the Corcyraeans and the other by the Eretrians. Philesius of Eretria was the artist. Why the Corcyraeans dedicated the ox at Olympia and another at Delphi will be explained in my account of Phocis. bout the offering at Olympia I heard the following story.

  [5.27.10] Sitting under this ox a little boy was playing with his head bent towards the ground. Suddenly lifting his head he broke it against the bronze, and died a few days later from the wound. So the Eleans were purposing to remove the ox from out the Altis as being guilty of bloodshed. But the god at Delphi gave an oracle that they were to let the offering stay where it was, after performing upon it the purificatory rites that are customary among the Greeks for unintentional shedding of blood.

  [5.27.11] Under the plane trees in the Altis, just about in the center of the enclosure, there is a bronze trophy, with an inscription upon the shield of the trophy, to the effect that the Eleans raised it as a sign that they had beaten the Lacedaemonians. It was in this battle that the warrior lost his life who was found lying in his armour when the roof of the Heraeum was being repaired in my time.

  [5.27.12] The offering of the Mendeans in Thrace came very near to beguiling me into the belief that it was a representation of a competitor in the pentathlum. It stands by the side of Anauchidas of Elis, and it holds ancient jumping-weights. An elegiac couplet is written on its thigh:–

  To Zeus, king of the gods, as first-fruits was I placed here

  By the Mendeans, who reduced Sipte by might of hand.

  Sipte seems to be a Thracian fortress and city. The Mendeans themselves are of Greek descent, coming from Ionia, and they live inland at some distance from the sea that is by the city of Aenus.

  BOOK VI.

  STATUES OF OLYMPIC VICTORS

  [6.1.1] I. After my description of the votive offerings I must now go on to mention the statues of racehorses and those of men, whether athletes or ordinary folk. Not all the Olympic victors have had their statues erected; some, in fact, who have distinguished themselves, either at the games or by other exploits, have had no statue.

  [6.1.2] These I am forced to omit by the nature of my work, which is not a list of athletes who have won Olympic victories, but an account of statues and of votive offerings generally. I shall not even record all those whose statues have been set up, as I know how many have before now won the crown of wild olive not by strength but by the chance of the lot. Those only will be mentioned who themselves gained some distinction, or whose statues happened to be better made than others.

  [6.1.3] On the right of the temple of Hera is the statue of a wrestler, Symmachus the son of Aeschylus. He was an Elean by birth. Beside him is Neolaidas, son of Proxenus, from Pheneus in Arcadia, who won a victory in the boys’ boxing-match. Next comes Archedamus, son of Xenius, another Elean by birth, who like Symmachus overthrew wrestlers in the contest for boys. The statues of the athletes mentioned above were made by Alypus of Sicyon, pupil of Naucydes of Argos.

  [6.1.4] The inscription on Cleogenes the son of Silenus declares that he was a native, and that he won a prize with a riding-horse from his own private stable. Hard by Cleogenes are set up Deinolochus, son of Pyrrhus, and Troilus, son of Alcinous. These also were both Eleans by birth, though their victories were not the same. Troilus, at the time that he was umpire, succeeded in winning victories in the chariot-races, one for a chariot drawn by a full-grown pair and another for a chariot drawn by foals. The date of his victories was the hundred and second Festival.

  [6.1.5] After this the Eleans passed a law that in future no umpire was to compete in the chariot-races. The statue of Troilus was made by Lysippus. The mother of Deinolochus had a dream, in which she thought that the son she clasped in her bosom had a crown on his head. For this reason Deinolochus was trained to compete in the games and outran the boys. The artist was Cleon of Sicyon.

  [6.1.6] As for Cynisca, daughter of Archidamus, her ancestry and Olympic victories, I have given an account thereof in my history of the Lacedaemonian kings. By the side of the statue of Troilus at Olympia has been made a basement of stone, whereon are a chariot and horses, a charioteer, and a statue of Cynisca herself, made by Apelles; there are also inscriptions relating to Cynisca.

  [6.1.7] Next to her also have been erected statues of Lacedaemonians. They gained victories in chariot-races. Anaxander was the first of his family to be proclaimed victor with a chariot, but the inscription on him declares that previously his paternal grandfather received the crown for the pentathlum. Anaxander is represented in an attitude of prayer to the god, while Polycles, who gained the surname of Polychalcus, likewise won a victory with a four-horse chariot, and his statue holds a ribbon in the right hand.

  [6.1.8] Beside him are two children; one holds a wheel and the other is asking for the ribbon. Polycles, as the inscription on him says, also won the chariot-race at Pytho, the Isthmus and Nemea.

  [6.2.1] II. The statue of a pancratiast was made by Lysippus. The athlete was the first to win the pancratium not only from Stratus itself but from the whole of Acarnania, and his name was Xenarces the son of Philandrides. Now after the Persian invasion the Lacedaemonians became keener breeders of horses than any other Greeks. For beside those I have already mentioned, the following horse-breeders from Sparta have their statues set up after that of the Acarnanian athlete Xenarces, Lycinus, Arcesilaus, and Lichas his son.

  [6.2.2] Xenarces succeeded in winning other victories, at Delphi, at Argos and at Corinth. Lycinus brought foals to Olympia, and when one of them was disqualified, entered his foals for the race for full-grown horses, winning with them. He also dedicated two statues at Olympia, works of Myron the Athenian. As for Arcesilaus and his son Lichas, the father won two Olympic victories; his son, because in his time the Lacedaemonians were excluded from the games, entered his chariot in the name of the Theban people, and with his own hands bound the victorious charioteer with a ribbon. For this offence he was scourged by the umpires,

  [6.2.3] and on account of this Lichas the Lacedaemonians invaded Elis in the reign of King Agis, when a battle took place within the Altis. When the war was over Lichas set up the statue in this place, but the Elean records of Olympic victors give as the name of the victor, not Lichas, but the Theban people.

  [6.2.4] Near Lichas stands an Elean diviner, Thrasybulus, son of Aeneas of the Iamid family, who divined for the Mantineans in their struggle against the Lacedaemonians under Agis, son of Eudamidas, their king. I shall have more to say about this in my account of the Arcadians. On the statue of Thrasybulus is a spotted lizard crawling towards his right shoulder, and by his side lies a dog, obviously a sacrificial victim, cut open and with his liver exposed.

  [6.2.5] Divination by kids, lambs or calves has,
we all know, been established among men from ancient times, and the Cyprians have even discovered how to practise the art by means of pigs; but no peoples are wont to make any use of dogs in divining. So Thrasybulus apparently established a method of divination peculiar to himself, by means of the entrails of dogs. The diviners called Iamidae are descended from Iamus, who, Pindar says in an ode, was a son of Apollo and received the gift of divination from him.

  [6.2.6] By the statue of Thrasybulus stands Timosthenes of Elis, winner of the foot-race for boys, and Antipater of Miletus, son of Cleinopater, conqueror of the boy boxers. Men of Syracuse, who were bringing a sacrifice from Dionysius to Olympia, tried to bribe the father of Antipater to have his son proclaimed as a Syracusan. But Antipater, thinking naught of the tyrant’s gifts, proclaimed himself a Milesian and wrote upon his statue that he was of Milesian descent and the first Ionian to dedicate his statue at Olympia.

  [6.2.7] The artist who made this statue was Polycleitus, while that of Timosthenes was made by Eutychides of Sicyon, a pupil of Lysippus. This Eutychides made for the Syrians on the Orontes an image of Fortune, which is highly valued by the natives.

  [6.2.8] In the Altis by the side of Timosthenes are statues of Timon and of his son Aesypus, who is represented as a child seated on a horse. In fact the boy won the horse-race, while Timon was proclaimed victor in the chariot-race. The statues of Timon and of his son were made by Daedalus of Sicyon, who also made for the Eleans the trophy in the Altis commemorating the victory over the Spartans.

  [6.2.9] The inscription on the Samian boxer says that his trainer Mycon dedicated the statue and that the Samians are best among the Ionians for athletes and at naval warfare; this is what the inscription says, but it tells us nothing at all about the boxer himself.

  [6.2.10] Beside this is the Messenian Damiscus, who won an Olympic victory at the age of twelve. I was exceedingly surprised to learn that while the Messenians were in exile from the Peloponnesus, their luck at the Olympic games failed. For with the exception of Leontiscus and Symmachus, who came from Messene on the Strait, we know of no Messenian, either from Sicily or from Naupactus, who won a victory at Olympia. Even these two are said by the Sicilians to have been not Messenians but of old Zanclean blood.