Pausanias Analysis

The statue of the pankratiast was made by Lysippos. This man was Xenarkes, son of Philandrides, who was the first from among the Acarnanians altogether and from the city of Stratos itself to win the pankration victory. Now the Lacedaemonians, after the invasion of the Mede, became the most ambitious of all Greeks in breeding horses. For besides those whom I have already enumerated, these additional Spartans renowned as breeders of horses are listed after the statue of the Acarnanian athlete: Xenarkes, Lykinos, Arkesilaos, and Lichas, the son of Arkesilaos.

Indeed, Xenarkes happened to win victories at Delphi, Argos, and also at Corinth. Lykinos brought young horses to Olympia, and when one of them was not approved, he placed the colts among the full-grown horses in their contest, and through them he won; and he dedicated two statues at Olympia, works by Myron the Athenian. Now Arkesilaos and his son Lichas together won two Olympic victories. At a time when Spartans were barred from competition, Lichas entered a chariot under the name of the Theban people, and when his charioteer won, he himself tied the victory ribbon around him. For this reason, the judges flogged him, and because of this Lichas, during that Olympiad, the law against him was...

In the reign of King Agis, the Lacedaemonians launched a campaign against the Eleans, and a battle took place within the Altis itself. When hostilities ceased, he set up this statue here, but the Eleans inscribed neither Lichas's name nor the name of Sparta among the Olympic victors; instead, they recorded the city of the Thebans as having won the victory.

Near the statue of Lichas stands Thrasybulus, the Eleian seer, the son of Aeneas and one of the Iamidae. This man prophesied for the Mantineans against the Lacedaemonians and King Agis, son of Eudamidas. I shall speak more fully about these matters in my account of Arcadia. On the statue of Thrasybulus, there is a gecko crawling upon his right shoulder, and beside him lies a dog, offered as a sacrificial victim, cut in half and displaying its liver.

Divination by examining young goats, lambs, and calves has long been established and well known among men, while the Cyprians have even discovered ways to practice divination by pigs. However, nobody at all considers dogs useful for divination. Thus it appears that Thrasybulus established some personal method of divination through inspecting the entrails of dogs. The so-called Iamidae became diviners descended from Iamus, whom Pindar in one of his poems claims to have been a son of Apollo, having received from him the gift of prophecy.

Next to the statue of Thrasybulus stands Timosthenes of Elis, who won a victory in the boys' footrace, and Antipater of Miletus, who trained boys, sons of Cleinopatrus, in boxing. Some Syracusans, who were bringing an offering from Dionysius to Olympia, persuaded Antipater's father with money to declare that his son was from Syracuse. Antipater, however, counting as nothing the gifts of the tyrant, publicly proclaimed himself to be Milesian, and inscribed upon his statue that he was Milesian by descent, and that he was the first of the Ionians to dedicate a statue at Olympia.

Now the statue of this man was the work of Polycleitus, while that of Timosthenes was made by Eutychides of Sicyon, a pupil of Lysippus. This Eutychides also created for the Syrians dwelling on the Orontes a statue of Tyche, which is held in very high honor by the local people.

In the Altis, next to the statue of Timosthenes, stand Timon and his son Aesypus. Aesypus is portrayed as a child seated upon a horse. Indeed, the child's victory was in a horse-race, while Timon himself was proclaimed victor in the chariot-race. These statues of Timon and his son were made by Daedalus of Sicyon, who also created the trophy erected in the Altis in honor of the Eleans' victory over the Lacedaemonians.

The inscription on the statue of the Samian boxer tells that Mykon, the trainer, set it up, and that the Samians are the best of the Ionians, both in contests of athletics and in naval battles. Such is the content of the epigram, but about the boxer himself it makes no reference at all.

Next to him is Damiscus, a Messenian, who won his Olympic victory at the age of only twelve. I considered this achievement especially remarkable, among others, since after their exile from the Peloponnese fortune ceased to favor the Messenians in the Olympic competitions. For aside from Leontiscus and Symmachus, Messenians from the Sicilian Strait area, no other Messenian, either from Sicily or from Naupactus, is known to have achieved a victory at Olympia. And even these two, according to the Sicilians, were ancient Zancleans in origin rather than Messenians.

The fortune of the Olympic contests also accompanied the Messenians upon their return into the Peloponnese. For, in the year following the founding of Messene, when the Eleans were celebrating the Olympian games, this very Damiskos won the footrace for boys; and afterward, when he competed as a pentathlete, he gained victories at both Nemea and Isthmia.