Description of Greece

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.

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,

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.

An inscription too is written on the pedestal:—

1. To Zeus these images were dedicated by the Achaeans,
2. Descendants of Pelops the godlike scion of Tantalus.

1. This is one of the many works of clever Onatas,
2. The Aeginetan, whose sire was Micon.

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.

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.

On the offering of the Thasians at Olympia there is an elegiac couplet:—

1. Onatas, son of Micon, fashioned me,
2. He who has his dwelling in Aegina.