Description of Greece

After the statue of the man who the Eleans say had not his name recorded with the others because he was proclaimed winner of the trotting-race, stand Xenocles of Maenalus, who overthrew the boys at wrestling, and Alcetus, son of Alcinous, victor in the boys' boxing-match, who also was an Arcadian from Cleitor. Cleon made the statue of Alcetus; that of Xenocles is by Polycleitus.

Aristeus of Argos himself won a victory in the long-race, while his father Cheimon won the wrestling-match. They stand near to each other, the statue of Aristeus being by Pantias of Chios, the pupil of his father Sostratus. Besides the statue of Cheimon at Olympia there is another in the temple of Peace at Rome, brought there from Argos. Both are in my opinion among the most glorious works of Naucydes. It is also told how Cheimon overthrew at wrestling Taurosthenes of Aegina, how Taurosthenes at the next Festival overthrew all who entered for the wrestling-match, and how a wraith like Taurosthenes appeared on that day in Aegina and announced the victory.

The statue of Philles of Elis, who won the boys' wrestling-match, was made by the Spartan Cratinus.As regards the chariot of Gelon, I did not come to the same opinion about it as my predecessors, who hold that the chariot is an offering of the Gelon who became tyrant in Sicily. Now there is an inscription on the chariot that it was dedicated by Gelon of Gela, son of Deinomenes, and the date of the victory of this Gelon is the seventy-third Festival[*](488 B.C.).

But the Gelon who was tyrant of Sicily took possession of Syracuse when Hybrilides was archon at Athens, in the second year of the seventy-second Olympiad[*](491 B.C.), when Tisicrates of Croton won the foot-race. Plainly, therefore, he would have announced himself as of Syracuse, not Gela. The fact is that this Gelon must be a private person, of the same name as the tyrant, whose father had the same name as the tyrant's father. It was Glaucias of Aegina who made both the chariot and the portrait-statue of Gelon.

At the Festival previous to this it is said that Cleomedes of Astypalaea killed Iccus of Epidaurus during a boxing-match. On being convicted by the umpires of foul play and being deprived of the prize he became mad through grief and returned to Astypalaea. Attacking a school there of about sixty children he pulled down the pillar which held up the roof.

This fell upon the children, and Cleomedes, pelted with stones by the citizens, took refuge in the sanctuary of Athena. He entered a chest standing in the sanctuary and drew down the lid. The Astypalaeans toiled in vain in their attempts to open the chest. At last, however, they broke open the boards of the chest, but found no Cleomedes, either alive or dead. So they sent envoys to Delphi to ask what had happened to Cleomedes.

The response given by the Pythian priestess was, they say, as follows:—

1. Last of heroes is Cleomedes of Astypalaea;
2. Honor him with sacrifices as being no longer a mortal.

By the side of the chariot of Gelon is dedicated a statue of Philon, the work of the Aeginetan Glaucias. About this Philon Simonides the son of Leoprepes composed a very neat elegiac couplet:

1. My fatherland is Corcyra, and my name is Philon; I am
2. The son of Glaucus, and I won two Olympic victories for boxing.

Next to those that I have enumerated stands Glaucus of Carystus. Legend has it that he was by birth from Anthedon in Boeotia, being descended from Glaucus the sea-deity. This Carystian was a son of Demylus, and they say that to begin with he worked as a farmer. The ploughshare one day fell out of the plough, and he fitted it into its place, using his hand as a hammer;

Demylus happened to be a spectator of his son's performance, and thereupon brought him to Olympia to box. There Glaucus, inexperienced in boxing, was wounded by his antagonists, and when he was boxing with the last of them he was thought to be fainting from the number of his wounds. Then they say that his father called out to him, “Son, the plough touch.” So he dealt his opponent a more violent blow which forthwith brought him the victory.

He is said to have won other crowns besides, two at Pytho, eight at the Nemean and eight at the Isthmian games. The statue of Glaucus was set up by his son, while Glaucias of Aegina made it. The statue represents a figure sparring, as Glaucus was the best exponent of the art of all his contemporaries. When he died the Carystians, they say, buried him in the island still called the island of Glaucus.

Damaretus of Heraea, his son and his grandson, each won two victories at Olympia. Those of Damaretus were gained at the sixty-fifth Festival[*](520 B.C.) (at which the race in full armour was instituted) and also at the one succeeding. His statue shows him, not only carrying the shield that modern competitors have, but also wearing a helmet on his head and greaves on his legs. In course of time the helmet and greaves were taken from the armour of competitors by both the Eleans and the Greeks generally. Theopompus, son of Damaretus, won his victories in the pentathlum, and his son Theopompus the second, named after his father, won his in the wrestling-match.

Who made the statue of Theopompus the wrestler we do not know, but those of his father and grandfather are said by the inscription to be by Eutelidas and Chrysothemis, who were Argives. It does not, however, declare the name of their teacher, but runs as follows:—

1. Eutelidas and Chrysothemis made these works,
2. Argives, who learnt their art from those who lived before.

After Iccus stands Pantarces the Elean, beloved of Pheidias, who beat the boys at wrestling. Next to Pantarces is the chariot of Cleosthenes, a man of Epidamnus. This is the work of Ageladas, and it stands behind the Zeus dedicated by the Greeks from the spoil of the battle of Plataea. Cleosthenes' victory occurred at the sixty-sixth Festival, and together with the statues of his horses he dedicated a statue of himself and one of his charioteer.

There are inscribed the names of the horses, Phoenix and Corax, and on either side are the horses by the yoke, on the right Cnacias, on the left Samus. This inscription in elegiac verse is on the chariot :—

1. Cleosthenes, son of Pontis, a native of Epidamnus, dedicated me
2. After winning with his horses a victory in the glorious games of Zeus.

This Cleosthenes was the first of those who bred horses in Greece to dedicate his statue at Olympia. For the offering of Evagoras the Laconian consists of the chariot without a figure of Evagoras himself; the offerings of Miltiades the Athenian, which he dedicated at Olympia, I will describe in another part of my story.[*](See Paus. 6.19.6) The Epidamnians occupy the same territory to-day as they did at first, but the modern city is not the ancient one, being at a short distance from it. The modern city is called Dyrrhachium from its founder.