Description of Greece

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.

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,[*](circa 430 B.C.) 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,[*](425 B.C.) 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.

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.[*](circa 460 B.C.) 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.

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.[*](Paus. 5.24.6) They are the works of Dionysius of Argos.[*](circa 460 B.C.) 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.