Pausanias Analysis

At Olympia, certain contests were abandoned, as they ceased to please the Eleans who oversaw them. For example, the boys' pentathlon, introduced at the thirty-eighth Olympiad, was no longer acceptable to the Eleans after Eutelidas, a Spartan, took the olive wreath in the event, so they no longer permitted boys to compete in the pentathlon. Likewise, regarding the chariot race for mules (apene) and the race for mares (kalpe), the former established in the seventieth Olympiad and the mare race in the one immediately following, a proclamation was made at the eighty-fourth Olympiad that henceforth there would be neither kalpe nor apene race. The first victor of the mule-chariot race was Thersios, a Thessalian; in the mare-race, Pataikos, an Achaean from Dyme, was victorious.

The horse used was a mare, and at the very end of the race the riders would leap down from their horses, continuing the race on foot, still holding the bridles—just as even in my own time competitors known as "anabatai" ("riders") still do. However, the "kalpe" race differs from the riders’ race both in terms of the turning points and because the horses used in the kalpe are stallions rather than mares. The mule-cart race, on the other hand, was neither ancient as an invention nor did it possess dignity; furthermore, from ancient times the Eleans considered the animal itself to have been a curse originating in their land. Indeed, this mule-cart was similar to the chariot race, but it employed pairs of mules instead of horses.

The current arrangement of the contests in our time—where sacrifices to the god occur after the pentathlon and horse-race, but before the remaining competitions—was established in the seventy-seventh Olympiad. Before this, contests for men and horses alike were held on the very same day. As a result, the athletes competing in the pankration at that time were forced to continue their matches into the night, having been summoned too late. The horses, and even more so the pentathlon competition, were the cause of this delay. Callias of Athens won the pankration that Olympiad, but thereafter neither pentathlon nor horse-racing was again permitted to interfere with the pankration.

As regards the officials who preside over the games, they do not follow today the same rules that were originally established and observed at the beginning. Iphitos alone founded the contest, and after Iphitos those descended from Oxylos directed it similarly. But in the fiftieth Olympiad, the responsibility for holding the Olympic games was entrusted to two men who were selected by lot from all the Eleans, and from that time onwards the number of the presiding officials remained mostly fixed at two.

In the ninety-fifth Olympiad they appointed nine judges; three of these were put in charge of the horse-race, an equal number were appointed overseers of the pentathlon, and the remaining three supervised the rest of the contests. In the second Olympiad after this, a tenth judge was added. In the hundred and third Olympiad, when the Eleans had twelve tribes, one judge was chosen from each tribe, making twelve in all.

Having been pressed in war by the Arcadians, they lost a portion of their territory, together with all the districts that were located within the severed region. Thus, in the hundred and fourth Olympiad, they were reduced to eight tribes, and the number of Hellanodikai appointed was equal to the tribes. In the hundred and eighth Olympiad, however, they again returned to the number of ten men, and from then on this number has endured down to our own time.