ἐφεξῆς τούτων ἀναθήματά ἐστιν Ἠλείων, Φίλιππος ὁ Ἀμύντου καὶ Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Φιλίππου καὶ Σέλευκός τε καὶ Ἀντίγονος· τοῖς μὲν δὴ ἐφʼ ἵππων, Ἀντιγόνῳ δὲ ἀνὴρ πεζός ἐστιν ἡ εἰκών.
τῶν δὲ βασιλέων τῶν εἰρημένων ἕστηκεν οὐ πόρρω Θεαγένης ὁ Τιμοσθένους Θάσιος· Θάσιοι δὲ οὐ Τιμοσθένους παῖδα εἶναι Θεαγένην φασίν, ἀλλὰ ἱερᾶσθαι μὲν Ἡρακλεῖ τὸν Τιμοσθένην Θασίῳ, τοῦ Θεαγένους δὲ τῇ μητρὶ Ἡρακλέους συγγενέσθαι φάσμα ἐοικὸς Τιμοσθένει. ἔνατόν τε δὴ ἔτος εἶναι τῷ παιδὶ καὶ αὐτὸν ἀπὸ τῶν διδασκάλων φασὶν ἐς τὴν οἰκίαν ἐρχόμενον ἄγαλμα ὅτου δὴ θεῶν ἀνακείμενον ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ χαλκοῦν—χαίρειν γὰρ τῷ ἀγάλματι αὐτόν—, ἀνασπάσαι τε δὴ τὸ ἄγαλμα καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν ἕτερον τῶν ὤμων ἀναθέμενον ἐνεγκεῖν παρʼ αὑτόν.
ἐχόντων δὲ ὀργὴν ἐς αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τῷ πεποιημένῳ τῶν πολιτῶν, ἀνήρ τις αὐτῶν δόκιμος καὶ ἡλικίᾳ προήκων ἀποκτεῖναι μὲν σφᾶς τὸν παῖδα οὐκ ἐᾷ, ἐκεῖνον δὲ ἐκέλευσεν ἐκ τῆς οἰκίας αὖθις κομίσαι τὸ ἄγαλμα ἐς τὴν ἀγοράν· ὡς δὲ ἤνεγκε, μέγα αὐτίκα ἦν κλέος τοῦ παιδὸς ἐπὶ ἰσχύι, καὶ τὸ ἔργον ἀνὰ πᾶσαν ἐβεβόητο τὴν Ἑλλάδα.
ὅσα μὲν δὴ ἔργων τῶν Θεαγένους ἐς τὸν ἀγῶνα ἥκει τὸν Ὀλυμπικόν, προεδήλωσεν ὁ λόγος ἤδη μοι τὰ δοκιμώτατα ἐξ αὐτῶν, Εὔθυμόν τε ὡς κατεμαχέσατο τὸν πύκτην καὶ ὡς ὑπὸ Ἠλείων ἐπεβλήθη τῷ Θεαγένει ζημία. τότε μὲν δὴ τοῦ παγκρατίου τὴν νίκην ἀνὴρ ἐκ Μαντινείας Δρομεὺς ὄνομα πρῶτος ὧν ἴσμεν ἀκονιτὶ λέγεται λαβεῖν· τὴν δὲ Ὀλυμπιάδα τὴν ἐπὶ ταύτῃ παγκρατιάζων ὁ Θεαγένης ἐκράτει.
γεγόνασι δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ Πυθοῖ νῖκαι τρεῖς, αὗται μὲν ἐπὶ πυγμῇ, Νεμείων δὲ ἐννέα καὶ Ἰσθμίων δέκα παγκρατίου τε ἀναμὶξ καὶ πυγμῆς. ἐν Φθίᾳ δὲ τῇ Θεσσαλῶν πυγμῆς μὲν ἢ παγκρατίου παρῆκε τὴν σπουδήν, ἐφρόντιζε δὲ ὅπως καὶ ἐπὶ δρόμῳ ἐμφανὴς ἐν Ἕλλησιν εἴη, καὶ τοὺς ἐσελθόντας ἐς τὸν δόλιχον ἐκράτησεν· ἦν δέ οἱ πρὸς Ἀχιλλέα ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν τὸ φιλοτίμημα, ἐν πατρίδι τοῦ ὠκίστου τῶν καλουμένων ἡρώων ἀνελέσθαι δρόμου νίκην. τοὺς δὲ σύμπαντας στεφάνους τετρακοσίους τε ἔσχε καὶ χιλίους.
ὡς δὲ ἀπῆλθεν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων, ἀνὴρ τῶν τις ἀπηχθημένων ζῶντι αὐτῷ παρεγίνετο ἀνὰ πᾶσαν νύκτα ἐπὶ τοῦ Θεαγένους τὴν εἰκόνα καὶ ἐμαστίγου τὸν χαλκὸν ἅτε αὐτῷ Θεαγένει λυμαινόμενος· καὶ τὸν μὲν ὁ ἀνδριὰς ἐμπεσὼν ὕβρεως παύει, τοῦ ἀνθρώπου δὲ τοῦ ἀποθανόντος οἱ παῖδες τῇ εἰκόνι ἐπεξῄεσαν φόνου. καὶ οἱ Θάσιοι καταποντοῦσι τὴν εἰκόνα ἐπακολουθήσαντες γνώμῃ τῇ Δράκοντος, ὃς Ἀθηναίοις θεσμοὺς γράψας φονικοὺς ὑπερώρισε καὶ τὰ ἄψυχα, εἴγε ἐμπεσόν τι ἐξ αὐτῶν ἀποκτείνειεν ἄνθρωπον.
ἀνὰ χρόνον δέ, ὡς τοῖς Θασίοις οὐδένα ἀπεδίδου καρπὸν ἡ γῆ, θεωροὺς ἀποστέλλουσιν ἐς Δελφούς, καὶ αὐτοῖς ἔχρησεν ὁ θεὸς καταδέχεσθαι τοὺς δεδιωγμένους. καὶ οἱ μὲν ἐπὶ τῷ λόγῳ τούτῳ καταδεχθέντες οὐδὲν τῆς ἀκαρπίας παρείχοντο ἴαμα· δεύτερα οὖν ἐπὶ τὴν Πυθίαν ἔρχονται, λέγοντες ὡς καὶ ποιήσασιν αὐτοῖς τὰ χρησθέντα διαμένοι τὸ ἐκ τῶν θεῶν μήνιμα.
ἐνταῦθα ἀπεκρίνατό σφισιν ἡ Πυθία· Θεαγένην δʼ ἄμνηστον ἀφήκατε τὸν μέγαν ὑμέων. / ἀπορούντων δὲ αὐτῶν ὁποίᾳ μηχανῇ τοῦ Θεαγένους τὴν εἰκόνα ἀνασώσωνται, φασὶν ἁλιέας ἀναχθέντας ἐς τὸ πέλαγος ἐπὶ ἰχθύων θήραν περισχεῖν τῷ δικτύῳ τὴν εἰκόνα καὶ ἀνενεγκεῖν αὖθις ἐς τὴν γῆν· Θάσιοι δὲ ἀναθέντες, ἔνθα καὶ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἔκειτο, νομίζουσιν ἅτε θεῷ θύειν.
πολλαχοῦ δὲ καὶ ἑτέρωθι ἔν τε Ἕλλησιν οἶδα καὶ παρὰ βαρβάροις ἀγάλματα ἱδρυμένα Θεαγένους καὶ νοσήματά τε αὐτὸν ἰώμενον καὶ ἔχοντα παρὰ τῶν ἐπιχωρίων τιμάς. ὁ δὲ ἀνδριὰς τοῦ Θεαγένους ἐστὶν ἐν τῇ Ἄλτει, τέχνη τοῦ Αἰγινήτου Γλαυκίου.
Next to these are votive offerings of the Eleans, consisting of statues of Philip, son of Amyntas, Alexander, son of Philip, Seleucus, and Antigonus. Antigonus is represented on foot, the rest on horseback.
Not far from the statues of these kings stands a statue of Theagenes, a Thasian, son of Timosthenes. But the Thasians say that Theagenes was not a son of Timosthenes, but that Timosthenes was priest to the Thasian Hercules, and that the mother of Theagenes was visited by a phantom of Hercules in the likeness of Timosthenes. They say that when Theagenes was a boy of nine years of age, as he was coming home from school, he wrenched up the bronze image of some god or other which stood in the market-place, and for which he had a fancy, and putting it on his shoulders, carried it home. The citizens were enraged at him for what he had done, but one of them, an old and respected man, would not let them kill the boy, but ordered him to carry the image back from his house to the market-place. He did so, and straightway great was the boy’s reputation for strength, and the deed was noised abroad throughout all Greece. I have already narrated the most famous of Theagenes’ exploits in the Olympic games, how he defeated Euthymus the boxer, and how he was fined by the Eleans. On that occasion the victory in the pancratium is said to have been gained for the first time on record without a contest by Dromeus, a Mantinean; but in the next Olympiad Theagenes was victorious in the pancratium. He also won three victories at Pytho in boxing, and nine victories at the Nemean, and ten at the Isthmian games, of which nineteen victories some were in the pancratium, some in boxing. But at Phthia, in Thessaly, he abandoned the practice of boxing and the pancratium, and set himself to win a reputation for running also, and he vanquished all comers in the long race. His ambition was, it appears to me, to emulate Achilles by winning a race in the native country of the fleetest of the heroes. The total number of crowns that he won was one thousand four hundred. When he departed this world, one of the men who had been at enmity with him in his life came every night to the statue of Theagenes, and whipped the bronze figure as if he were maltreating Theagenes himself. The statue checked his insolence by falling on him ; but the sons of the deceased prosecuted the statue for murder. The Thasians sunk the statue in the sea, herein following the view taken by Draco, who, in the laws touching homicide which he drew up for the Athenians, enacted that even lifeless things should be banished if they fell on anybody and killed him. But in course of time, their land yielding them no fruits, the Thasians sent envoys to Delphi, and the god told them to bring back the exiles. The exiles were accordingly brought back, but their restoration brought no cessation of the dearth. So they went to the Pythian priestess a second time, saying that though they had done as she bade them, the wrath of the gods still abode upon them. Then the Pythian priestess answered them :— But you have forgotten your great Theagenes. While they were at a loss to know how they should recover the statue of Theagenes, it is said that some fishermen who had gone a-fishing on the sea caught the statue in their net and brought it back to land. So the Thasians set it up in its old place, and they are wont to sacrifice to him as a god.
I know of many other places in Greece and in foreign lands where images of Theagenes are set up, and where he heals diseases, and is honoured by the natives. His statue is in the Altis: it is a work of Glaucias of Aegina.
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