A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

(Ἴκκος).

1. Of Tarentum, a distinguished athlete and teacher of gymnastics. Pausanias (6.10.2) calls him the best gymnast of his age, that is, of the period about Ol. 77, or B. C. 470; and Plato also mentions him with great praise (de Leg. viii. p. 840, Protag. p. 316, with the Schol.; comp. Lucian, Quomodo Hist. sit conscrib. 35; Aelian, Ael. VH 11.3). He looked upon temperance as the fruit of gymnastic exercises, and was himself a model of temperance. Iamblichus (Vit. Pythag. 36) calls him a Pythagorean, and, according to Themistius (Orat. xxiii. p. 350, ed. Dindorf), Plato reckoned him among the sophists.