ἐν δὲ Ἤλιδι τὰ ἄξια μνήμης γυμνάσιόν ἐστιν ἀρχαῖον· καὶ ὅσα ἐς τοὺς ἀθλητὰς πρὶν ἢ ἐς Ὀλυμπίαν ἀφικνεῖσθαι νομίζουσιν, ἐν τούτῳ σφίσι τῷ γυμνασίῳ δρᾶν καθέστηκε. πλάτανοι μὲν ὑψηλαὶ διὰ τῶν δρόμων πεφύκασιν ἐντὸς τοίχου· ὁ σύμπας δὲ οὗτος περίβολος καλεῖται Ξυστός, ὅτι Ἡρακλεῖ τῷ Ἀμφιτρύωνος ἐς ἄσκησιν ἐγίνετο, ὅσαι τῶν ἀκανθῶν ἐφύοντο ἐνταῦθα ἐπὶ ἑκάστῃ ἡμέρᾳ σφᾶς ἀναξύειν.
χωρὶς μὲν δὴ ἐς ἅμιλλαν τῶν δρομέων ἐστὶν ἀποκεκριμένος δρόμος, ὀνομάζεται δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν ἐπιχωρίων ἱερός, χωρὶς δὲ ἔνθα ἐπὶ μελέτῃ δρομεῖς καὶ οἱ πένταθλοι θέουσιν. ἔστι δὲ ἐν τῷ γυμνασίῳ καλούμενον Πλέθριον· ἐν δὲ αὐτῷ συμβάλλουσιν οἱ Ἑλλανοδίκαι τοὺς καθʼ ἡλικίαν ἢ καὶ αὐτῷ διαφέροντας τῷ ἐπιτηδεύματι· συμβάλλουσι δὲ ἐπὶ πάλῃ.
εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ θεῶν ἐν τῷ γυμνασίῳ βωμοί, Ἡρακλέους τοῦ Ἰδαίου, Παραστάτου δὲ ἐπίκλησιν, καὶ Ἔρωτος καὶ ὃν Ἠλεῖοι καὶ Ἀθηναῖοι κατὰ ταὐτὰ Ἠλείοις Ἀντέρωτα ὀνομάζουσι, Δήμητρός τε καὶ τῆς παιδός. Ἀχιλλεῖ δὲ οὐ βωμός, κενὸν δέ ἐστιν αὐτῷ μνῆμα ἐκ μαντείας· τῆς πανηγύρεως δὲ ἀρχομένης ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ῥητῇ περὶ ἀποκλίνοντα ἐς δυσμὰς τοῦ ἡλίου τὸν δρόμον αἱ γυναῖκες αἱ Ἠλεῖαι ἄλλα τε τοῦ Ἀχιλλέως δρῶσιν ἐς τιμὴν καὶ κόπτεσθαι νομίζουσιν αὐτόν.
ἔστι δὲ καὶ ἄλλος ἐλάσσων γυμνασίου περίβολος, ὃς ἔχεται μὲν τοῦ μείζονος, τετράγωνον δὲ ὀνομάζουσιν ἐπὶ τῷ σχήματι· καὶ παλαῖστραι τοῖς ἀθλοῦσιν ἐνταῦθα ποιοῦνται, καὶ συμβάλλουσιν αὐτόθι τοὺς ἀθλητὰς οὐ παλαίσοντας ἔτι, ἐπὶ δὲ ἱμάντων τῶν μαλακωτέρων ταῖς πληγαῖς. ἀνάκειται δὲ καὶ τῶν ἀγαλμάτων τὸ ἕτερον, ἃ ἐπὶ ζημίᾳ Σωσάνδρου τε τοῦ Σμυρναίου καὶ Ἠλείου Πολύκτορος τῷ Διὶ ἐποιήθη.
ἔστι δὲ καὶ τρίτος γυμνασίου περίβολος, ὄνομα μὲν Μαλθὼ τῆς μαλακότητος τοῦ ἐδάφους ἕνεκα, τοῖς δὲ ἐφήβοις ἀνεῖται τῆς πανηγύρεως τὸν χρόνον πάντα. ἔστι δὲ ἐν γωνίᾳ τῆς Μαλθοῦς πρόσωπον Ἡρακλέους ἄχρι ἐς τοὺς ὤμους, καὶ ἐν τῶν παλαιστρῶν μιᾷ τύπος Ἔρωτα ἔχων ἐπειργασμένον καὶ τὸν καλούμενον Ἀντέρωτα· ἔχει δὲ ὁ μὲν φοίνικος ὁ Ἔρως κλάδον, ὁ δὲ ἀφελέσθαι πειρᾶται τὸν φοίνικα ὁ Ἀντέρως.
τῆς ἐσόδου δὲ ἑκατέρωθεν τῆς ἐς τὴν Μαλθὼ παιδὸς ἕστηκεν εἰκὼν πύκτου· καὶ αὐτὸν ἔφασκεν ὁ νομοφύλαξ Ἠλείων γένος μὲν Ἀλεξανδρέα εἶναι τῆς ὑπὲρ Φάρου τῆς νήσου, Σαραπίωνα δὲ ὄνομα, ἀφικόμενον δὲ ἐς Ἦλιν σπανίζουσι σίτου σφίσι τροφὰς δοῦναι. τούτῳ μὲν αὐτόθι ἀντὶ τούτου γεγόνασιν αἱ τιμαί· χρόνος δὲ στεφάνου τε τοῦ ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ καὶ εὐεργεσίας αὐτῷ τῆς ἐς Ἠλείους Ὀλυμπιὰς ἑβδόμη πρὸς ταῖς δέκα τε καὶ διακοσίαις.
ἐν τούτῳ τῷ γυμνασίῳ καὶ βουλευτήριόν ἐστιν Ἠλείοις, καὶ ἐπιδείξεις ἐνταῦθα λόγων τε αὐτοσχεδίων καὶ συγγραμμάτων ποιοῦνται παντοίων· καλεῖται δὲ Λαλίχμιον τοῦ ἀναθέντος ἐπώνυμον. περὶ δὲ αὐτὸ ἀσπίδες ἀνάκεινται, θέας ἕνεκα καὶ οὐκ ἐς ἔργον πολέμου πεποιημέναι.
ἐκ δὲ τοῦ γυμνασίου πρὸς τὰ λουτρὰ ἐρχομένῳ διʼ ἀγυιᾶς τε ἡ ὁδὸς Σιωπῆς καὶ παρὰ τὸ ἱερὸν τῆς Φιλομείρακός ἐστιν Ἀρτέμιδος. τῇ μὲν δὴ θεῷ γέγονεν ἡ ἐπίκλησις ἅτε τοῦ γυμνασίου γείτονι· τῇ ἀγυιᾷ δὲ Σιωπῇ ὄνομα ἐπὶ λόγῳ τοιῷδε τεθῆναι λέγουσιν. ἄνδρες τοῦ Ὀξύλου στρατεύματος ἐπὶ κατασκοπῇ τῶν ἐν Ἤλιδι ἀποπεμφθέντες καὶ ἀλλήλοις διακελευσάμενοι κατὰ τὴν ὁδόν, ἐπειδὰν πλησίον γίνωνται τοῦ τείχους, φθέγγεσθαι μὲν μηδὲν ἔτι αὐτοί, ἐπακροᾶσθαι δὲ εἴ τι παρὰ τῶν ἐντὸς πυθέσθαι δυνήσονται, οὗτοι λανθάνουσι παρελθόντες ἐς τὴν πόλιν κατὰ τὴν ἀγυιὰν ταύτην καὶ ἐπακούσαντες ὁπόσα ἐβούλοντο ἐπανίασιν αὖθις ἐς τοὺς Αἰτωλούς· καὶ ἡ ἀγυιὰ τὸ ὄνομα εἴληφεν ἀπὸ τῶν κατασκόπων τῆς σιωπῆς.
Amongst the notable things in the city of Elis is an old gymnasium. In this gymnasium the athletes go through all the customary training before they repair to Olympia. Tall plane-trees grow between the running paths inside a wall. The whole enclosure is called Xystus (‘scraped’), because Hercules, the son of Amphitryo, exercised himself by scraping up (anaxuein) every day the thistles that grew there. The running-path for the races is separate from that in which the runners and pentathletes run for practice. The former is named by the natives the Sacred Running-path.
In the gymnasium there is a place called Plethrium. In it the umpires match the competitors in wrestling according to age and proficiency. In the gymnasium are also altars to the following gods: Idaean Hercules, surnamed Assistant; Love, and he whom the Eleans and also the Athenians call Love Returned; Demeter and her daughter. Achilles has not an altar, but a cenotaph erected in accordance with an oracle. On a set day, at the beginning of the festival, when the sun is declining in the west, the women of Elis perform various rites in honour of Achilles ; in particular it is their wont to bewail him. 3. There is another enclosed gymnasium, but of smaller size: it adjoins the larger, and is named the Square on account of its shape. Here the athletes practise wrestling, and here, when the wrestling is over, they are matched in boxing with the softer gloves. Here, too, stands one of the two images which were made for Zeus out of the fine levied on Sosander the Smyrnaean and Polyctor the Elean. 4. There is a third enclosed gymnasium which is named Maltho because of the softness (malakotes) of the ground. It is given up to the lads the whole time of the festival. In a corner of the Maltho there is a bust of Hercules down to the shoulders, and in one of the wrestling-schools there is a relief representing Love and Love Returned. Love holds a palm-branch, and Love Returned is trying to wrest it from him. At either side of the entrance into the Maltho there is the statue of a boy boxer. The Elean Guardian of the Laws said that this boy was from Alexandria, the city which faces the island of Pharos, that his name was Sarapion, and that having come to Elis in a time of famine he bestowed food on the people ; therefore he received these honours here. The date of his victory at Olympia and of the benefit he conferred on the Eleans was the two hundred and seventeenth Olympiad.
In this gymnasium is also the Council House of the Eleans. Here are held exhibitions of extemporaneous eloquence and recitations of written works of every sort. The building is called Lalichmium, after the man who dedicated it. Round about it are hung up shields made for show, not for use in war. 6. The way from the gymnasium to the baths lies through Silence Street and past the sanctuary of Artemis Philomirax (‘friend of youths’). The goddess got this surname from her proximity to the gymnasium, and Silence Street is said to have received its name for the following reason. Some men of the army of Oxylus were sent to spy out what was going on in Elis; and on their way they exhorted each other, when they should be come near the wall, not to utter a sound, but to listen if perchance they could learn something from the talk of the people in the town. Thus they made their way unobserved into the city by this street, and after hearing all that they wished they returned again to the Aetolians, and the street got its name from the silence of the spies.
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