Φερίας δὲ Αἰγινήτης—οὗτος γὰρ δὴ παρὰ τὸν Ἀθηναῖον Ἀριστοφῶντα ἀνάκειται—ὀγδόῃ μὲν πρὸς ταῖς ἑβδομήκοντα Ὀλυμπιάδι κομιδῇ τε ἔδοξεν εἶναι νέος καὶ οὐκ ἐπιτήδειός πω νομισθεὶς παλαίειν ἀπηλάθη τοῦ ἀγῶνος, τῇ δὲ ἑξῆς—κατεδέχθη γὰρ τηνικαῦτα ἐς τοὺς παῖδας—ἐνίκα παλαίων. τῷ δὲ Φερίᾳ τούτῳ διάφορον καὶ οὐδαμῶς ἐοικυῖαν ἔσχεν ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ τύχην Νικασύλος Ῥόδιος.
ὄγδοον γὰρ ἐπὶ τοῖς δέκα ἔτεσι γεγονὼς μὴ παλαῖσαι μὲν ἐν παισὶν ὑπὸ Ἠλείων ἀπηλάθη, ἀνηγορεύθη δὲ ἐν ἀνδράσιν, ὥσπερ γε καὶ ἐνίκησεν· ἀνηγορεύθη δὲ καὶ ὕστερον Νεμέᾳ τε καὶ Ἰσθμῷ. γεγονότα δὲ εἰκοσαετῆ τὸ χρεὼν ἐπιλαμβάνει, πρὶν ἢ ἐς τὴν Ῥόδον αὐτὸν οἴκαδε ἀναστρέψαι. τὸ δὲ ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ τοῦ Ῥοδίου παλαιστοῦ τόλμημα Ἀρτεμίδωρος γένος Τραλλιανὸς ὑπερεβάλετο κατὰ ἐμὴν δόξαν. Ἀρτεμιδώρῳ γὰρ ἁμαρτεῖν μὲν Ὀλυμπίων συνέβη παγκρατιάζοντι ἐν παισίν, αἰτία δέ οἱ ἐγένετο τῆς διαμαρτίας τὸ ἄγαν νέον·
ὡς δὲ ἀφίκετο ἀγῶνος καιρὸς ὃν Σμυρναῖοι Ἰώνων ἄγουσιν, ἐς τοσοῦτο ἄρα αὐτῷ τὰ τῆς ῥώμης ἐπηύξητο ὡς κρατῆσαι παγκρατιάζοντα ἐπὶ ἡμέρας τῆς αὐτῆς τούς τε ἐξ Ὀλυμπίας ἀνταγωνιστὰς καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖς παισὶν οὓς ἀγενείους καλοῦσι καὶ τρίτα δὴ ὅ τι ἄριστον ἦν τῶν ἀνδρῶν. γενέσθαι δέ οἱ τὴν ἅμιλλαν πρὸς ἀγενείους τε καὶ ἄνδρας τὴν μὲν ἐκ γυμναστοῦ παρακλήσεώς φασι, τὴν δὲ ἐξ ἀνδρὸς παγκρατιαστοῦ λοιδορίας. ἀνείλετο δὲ ἐν ἀνδράσιν ὁ Ἀρτεμίδωρος Ὀλυμπικὴν νίκην δευτέρᾳ καὶ δεκάτῃ πρὸς διακοσίαις Ὀλυμπιάδι.
Νικασύλου δὲ τῆς εἰκόνος ἵππος τε οὐ μέγας ἔχεται χαλκοῦς, ὃν Κρόκων Ἐρετριεὺς ἀνέθηκεν ἀνελόμενος κέλητι ἵππῳ στέφανον, καὶ πλησίον τοῦ ἵππου Τελέστας ἐστὶ Μεσσήνιος κρατήσας πυγμῇ παῖδας· Σιλανίωνος δὲ ἔργον ἐστὶν ὁ Τελέστας.
Μίλωνα δὲ τὸν Διοτίμου πεποίηκε μὲν Δαμέας ἐκ Κρότωνος καὶ οὗτος· ἐγένοντο δὲ τῷ Μίλωνι ἓξ μὲν ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ πάλης νῖκαι, μία δὲ ἐν παισὶν ἐξ αὐτῶν, Πυθοῖ δὲ ἔν τε ἀνδράσιν ἓξ καὶ μία ἐνταῦθα ἐν παισίν. ἀφίκετο δὲ καὶ ἕβδομον παλαίσων ἐς Ὀλυμπίαν· ἀλλὰ γὰρ οὐκ ἐγένετο οἷός τε καταπαλαῖσαι Τιμασίθεον πολίτην τε ὄντα αὐτῷ καὶ ἡλικίᾳ νέον, πρὸς δὲ καὶ σύνεγγυς οὐκ ἐθέλοντα ἵστασθαι.
λέγεται δὲ καὶ ὡς ἐσκομίσειεν αὐτὸς αὑτοῦ τὸν ἀνδριάντα ἐς τὴν Ἄλτιν ὁ Μίλων, λέγεται δὲ ἐς αὐτὸν καὶ τὸ ἐπὶ τῇ ῥοιᾷ καὶ τὸ ἐπὶ τῷ δίσκῳ· ῥοιὰν μὲν δὴ οὕτω κατεῖχεν ὡς μήτε ἄλλῳ παρεῖναι βιαζομένῳ μήτε αὐτὸς λυμήνασθαι πιέζων, ἱστάμενος δὲ ἐπὶ ἀληλιμμένῳ τῷ δίσκῳ γέλωτα ἐποιεῖτο τοὺς ἐμπίπτοντάς τε καὶ ὠθοῦντας ἀπὸ τοῦ δίσκου. παρείχετο δὲ καὶ ἄλλα τοιάδε ἐς ἐπίδειξιν.
περιέδει τῷ μετώπῳ χορδὴν κατὰ ταὐτὰ δὴ καὶ εἰ ταινίαν περιθεῖτο ἢ στέφανον· κατέχων δὲ ἐντὸς χειλῶν τὸ ἆσθμα καὶ ἐμπιπλὰς αἵματος τὰς ἐν τῇ κεφαλῇ φλέβας, διερρήγνυεν ὑπὸ ἰσχύος τῶν φλεβῶν τὴν χορδήν. λέγεται δὲ καὶ ὡς τῆς δεξιᾶς χειρὸς τὸ μὲν ἐς τὸν ἀγκῶνα ἐκ τοῦ ὤμου παρʼ αὐτὴν καθίει τὴν πλευράν, τὸ δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀγκῶνος ἔτεινεν ἐς εὐθύ, τῶν δακτύλων τὸν μὲν αὐτῶν ἀναστρέφων τὸν ἀντίχειρα ἐς τὸ ἄνω, τῶν λοιπῶν δὲ ἀλλήλοις ἐπικειμένων κατὰ στοῖχον· τὸν ἐλάχιστον οὖν τῶν δακτύλων κάτω γινόμενον οὐκ ἀπεκίνησεν ἄν τις βιαζόμενος.
ἀποθανεῖν δὲ ὑπὸ θηρίων φασὶν αὐτόν· ἐπιτυχεῖν γὰρ αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ Κροτωνιάτιδι αὐαινομένῳ ξύλῳ, σφῆνες δὲ ἐγκείμενοι διίστασαν τὸ ξύλον· ὁ δὲ ὑπὸ φρονήματος ὁ Μίλων καθίησι τὰς χεῖρας ἐς τὸ ξύλον, ὀλισθάνουσί τε δὴ οἱ σφῆνες καὶ ἐχόμενος ὁ Μίλων ὑπὸ τοῦ ξύλου λύκοις ἐγίνετο εὕρημα. μάλιστα δέ πως τὸ θηρίον τοῦτο ἐν τῇ Κροτωνιάτιδι πολύ τε νέμεται καὶ ἄφθονον.
Μίλωνι μὲν δὴ τοιόνδε τέλος ἐπηκολούθησε· Πύρρον δὲ τὸν Αἰακίδου βασιλεύσαντα ἐν τῇ Θεσπρωτίδι ἠπείρῳ καὶ ἔργα πολλὰ ἐργασάμενον καὶ ἄξια μνήμης, ἃ ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τῷ ἐς Ἀθηναίους ἐδήλωσα, τοῦτον ἐς τὴν Ἄλτιν ἀνέθηκε Θρασύβουλος Ἠλεῖος. παρὰ δὲ τὸν Πύρρον ἀνὴρ μικρὸς αὐλοὺς ἔχων ἐστὶν ἐκτετυπωμένος ἐπὶ στήλῃ. τούτῳ Πυθικαὶ νῖκαι γεγόνασι τῷ ἀνδρὶ δευτέρῳ μετὰ Σακάδαν τὸν Ἀργεῖον·
Σακάδας μὲν γὰρ τὸν ἀγῶνα τὸν τεθέντα ὑπὸ Ἀμφικτυόνων οὐκ ὄντα πω στεφανίτην καὶ ἐπʼ ἐκείνῳ στεφανίτας δύο ἐνίκησε, Πυθόκριτος δὲ ὁ Σικυώνιος τὰς ἐφεξῆς τούτων πυθιάδας ἕξ, μόνος δὴ οὗτος αὐλητής· δῆλα δὲ ὅτι καὶ ἐν τῷ ἀγῶνι τῷ Ὀλυμπίασιν ἐπηύλησεν ἑξάκις τῷ πεντάθλῳ. Πυθοκρίτῳ μὲν γέγονεν ἀντὶ τούτων ἡ ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ στήλη καὶ ἐπίγραμμα ἐπʼ αὐτῇ, Πυθοκρίτου / τοῦ Καλλινίκου μνᾶμα ταὐλητᾶ τάδε· / ἀνέθεσαν δὲ καὶ τὸ κοινὸν τὸ Αἰτωλῶν Κύλωνα, ὃς
ἀπὸ τῆς Ἀριστοτίμου τυραννίδος ἠλευθέρωσεν Ἠλείους. Γόργον δὲ τὸν Εὐκλήτου Μεσσήνιον ἀνελόμενον πεντάθλου νίκην καὶ Δαμάρετον καὶ τοῦτον Μεσσήνιον κρατήσαντα πυγμῇ παῖδας, τὸν μὲν αὐτῶν Βοιώτιος Θήρων, Δαμαρέτου δὲ τὴν εἰκόνα Ἀθηναῖος Σιλανίων ἐποίησεν. Ἀναυχίδας δὲ ὁ Φίλυος Ἠλεῖος πάλης ἔσχεν ἐν παισὶ στέφανον καὶ ἐν ἀνδράσιν ὕστερον· τούτῳ μὲν δὴ τὴν εἰκόνα ὅστις ὁ εἰργασμένος ἐστὶν οὐκ ἴσμεν, Ἄνοχος δὲ ὁ Ἀδαμάτα Ταραντῖνος, σταδίου λαβὼν καὶ διαύλου νίκην, ἐστὶν Ἀγελάδα τέχνη τοῦ Ἀργείου.
παῖδα δὲ ἐφʼ ἵππου καθήμενον καὶ ἑστηκότα ἄνδρα παρὰ τὸν ἵππον φησὶ τὸ ἐπίγραμμα εἶναι Ξενόμβροτον ἐκ Κῶ τῆς Μεροπίδος, ἐπὶ ἵππου νίκῃ κεκηρυγμένον, Ξενόδικον δὲ ἐπὶ πυγμῇ παίδων ἀναγορευθέντα· τὸν μὲν Παντίας αὐτῶν, Ξενόμβροτον δὲ Φιλότιμος Αἰγινήτης ἐποίησε. Πύθου δὲ τοῦ Ἀνδρομάχου, γένος ἀνδρὸς ἐξ Ἀβδήρων, ἐποίησε μὲν Λύσιππος, ἀνέθεσαν δὲ οἱ στρατιῶται δύο εἰκόνας· εἶναι δὲ ἡγεμών τις ξένων ἢ καὶ ἄλλως τὰ πολεμικὰ ἀγαθὸς ὁ Πύθης ἔοικε.
κεῖνται δὲ καὶ ἐν παισὶν εἰληφότες δρόμου νίκας Μενεπτόλεμος ἐξ Ἀπολλωνίας τῆς ἐν τῷ Ἰονίῳ κόλπῳ καὶ Κορκυραῖος Φίλων, ἐπὶ δὲ αὐτοῖς Ἱερώνυμος Ἄνδριος, ὃς τὸν Ἠλεῖον Τισαμενὸν πενταθλοῦντα ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ κατεπάλαισε τὸν Ἕλλησιν ὕστερον τούτων ἐναντία Μαρδονίου καὶ Μήδων Πλαταιᾶσι μαντευσάμενον. οὗτός τε δὴ ὁ Ἱερώνυμος ἀνάκειται καὶ παρʼ αὐτὸν παλαιστὴς παῖς, Ἄνδριος καὶ οὗτος, Προκλῆς ὁ Λυκαστίδα· τοῖς πλάσταις δὲ οἳ τοὺς ἀνδριάντας ἐποίησαν, τῷ μὲν Στόμιός ἐστιν ὄνομα, τῷ δὲ τὸν Προκλέα εἰργασμένῳ Σῶμις. Αἰσχίνῃ δὲ Ἠλείῳ νῖκαί τε δύο ἐγένοντο πεντάθλου καὶ ἴσαι ταῖς νίκαις αἱ εἰκόνες.
Pherias of Aegina, whose statue stands beside that of the Athenian Aristophon, was thought in the seventy-eighth Olympiad to be too young, and being judged not yet fit to wrestle, was excluded from the games. But in the next Olympiad, being admitted among the boys, he was victorious in wrestling. The fortune of Nicasylus, a Rhodian, at Olympia was very different from that of Pherias ; for, being excluded from the boys’ wrestling-match because he was eighteen years old, he gained a victory among the men; and he was afterwards victorious at Nemea and the Isthmus. But he died at the age of twenty, before returning home to Rhodes. The feat of the Rhodian wrestler at Olympia was surpassed, in my opinion, by Artemidorus of Tralles. Artemidorus failed, it is true, in the boys’ pancratium at Olympia, the cause of his failure being his extreme youth. But when the time came for the games which the Ionians of Smyrna celebrate, his strength had grown so much, that on one and the same day he vanquished in the pancratium his former boy antagonists from Olympia, and besides them, the youths called beardless, and, thirdly, the best of the men. He competed amongst the beardless youths in consequence of the encouragement of his trainer, and amongst the men in consequence of a taunt which one of the men had levelled at him. He gained an Olympic victory amongst the men in the two hundred and twelfth Olympiad. Next to the statue of Nicasylus is a small bronze horse, dedicated by Crocon, an Eretrian, when he gained a crown in the horse-race ; and near the horse is a statue of Telestas, a Messenian, who was victorious in the boys’ boxing-match. The statue of Telestas is a work of Silanion.
The statue of Milo, son of Diotimus, is by Dameas, also a native of Crotona. Milo gained six victories in wrestling at Olympia, one of them being in the boys’ match; and at Pytho he gained six victories among the men, and one there also among the boys. He came to Olympia to wrestle for the seventh time, but he could not beat Timasitheus, a fellow-townsman, who had the advantage of youth, and who besides would not grapple with him. It is said that Milo carried his own statue into the Altis. His feats with the pomegranate and the quoit are also narrated. He would hold a pomegranate so fast that no one could wrest it from his hand, yet so daintily that he did not crush it; again he used to stand on a greased quoit, and jeer at those who charged at him and tried to push him off it. Other exhibitions of his were these. He would tie a cord round his brow like a fillet or a crown; then, holding in his breath and filling the veins in his head with blood, he would, by the strength of his veins, burst the cord in two. It is said, too, that he would let down at his side his upper right arm from the shoulder to the elbow, and stretch out straight the lower arm from the elbow, so that the thumb was uppermost and the other fingers in a row; in this position, then, the little finger was lowest, and no one could stir it by any exertion of strength.
They say that he was killed by wild beasts ; for in the land of Crotona, falling in with a withered tree into which wedges were driven to keep the trunk open, Milo in his pride thrust his hands into the trunk ; but the wedges slipped, and Milo, being held fast by the tree, fell a prey to wolves ; for these brutes prowl in great packs in the territory of Crotona. Such was the end of Milo.
The statue of Pyrrhus, son of Aeacides, king of Thesprotis in Epirus, whose many memorable deeds I have chronicled in my account of Athens, was dedicated in the Altis by Thrasybulus, an Elean. Beside the statue of Pyrrhus there is a small man with flutes wrought in relief on a slab. The man thus represented is said to have won victories at the Pythian games next after Sacadas the Argive; for Sacadas was victorious in the games celebrated by the Amphictyons before crowns were yet given as prizes, and afterwards he gained two victories for which he received crowns.
But Pythocritus of Sicyon was victorious in the next six celebrations of the Pythian games, being the only flute-player who attained this distinction. It is manifest that he also fluted at the pentathlum in the Olympic games. For these reasons the monument at Olympia was erected to him with this inscription :— This is the monument of Pythocritus the flute-player, son of Callinicus. The Aetolian confederacy dedicated a statue of Cylon, who freed the Eleans from the tyranny of Aristotimus. The statue of Gorgus, a Messenian, son of Eucletus, victor in the pentathlum, was made by Theron, a Boeotian; and the statue of Damaretus, another Messenian, victor in the boys’ boxing-match, was made by Silanion, an Athenian. Anauchidas, an Elean, son of Philys, gained a crown in the boys’ wrestling-match, and afterwards in the men’s: who made his statue I do not know. The statue of Anochus, a Tarentine, son of Adamatas, who won victories in the short and the double foot-race, is by Ageladas the Argive. As to the statue of a boy seated on a horse, and a man standing beside the horse, the inscription states that the one is Xenombrotus, of Meropian Cos, a victor in the horse-race, and the other Xenodicus, victor in the boys’ boxing-match. The statue of the latter is by Pantias, that of Xenombrotus is by Philotimus of Aegina. The two statues of Pythes, son of Andromachus, a man of Abdera, are by Lysippus: they were dedicated by his soldiers. Pythes seems to have been a captain of free-lances, or a good soldier in some capacity. There are also statues of victors in the boys’ race, to wit, Meneptolemus of Apollonia on the Ionian Gulf, and Philo of Corcyra. After them is a statue of Hieronymus of Andros who defeated the Elean Tisamenus in the pentathlum at Olympia. It was this Tisamenus who afterwards acted as soothsayer to the Greeks against Mardonius and the Medes at Plataea. Beside the statue of Hieronymus is the statue of a boy wrestler, also of Andros, Procles the son of Lycastidas. The sculptor who made the statue of Hieronymus was named Stomius ; the one who made the statue of Procles was called Somis. Aeschines, an Elean, gained two victories in the pentathlum, and he has as many statues as victories.
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