Pausanias Analysis

Passage 5.9.1

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Passage 5.9.1: Abandoned Olympic events: boys' pentathlon, mule-chariot and mare races.

Historical Non-skeptical

Greek Text

κατελύθη δὲ ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ καὶ ἀγωνίσματα, μεταδόξαν μηκέτι ἄγειν αὐτὰ Ἠλείοις. πένταθλόν τε γὰρ παίδων ἐπὶ τῆς ὀγδόης Ὀλυμπιάδος καὶ τριακοστῆς ἐτέθη, καὶ ἐπʼ αὐτῷ τὸν κότινον Εὐτελίδα Λακεδαιμονίου λαβόντος οὐκέτι ἀρεστὰ Ἠλείοις ἦν πεντάθλους ἐσέρχεσθαι παῖδας. τῆς δὲ ἀπήνης καὶ κάλπης τὸν δρόμον, τὸν μὲν Ὀλυμπιάδι νομισθέντα ἑβδομηκοστῇ, τὸν δὲ τῆς κάλπης τῇ ἐφεξῆς ταύτῃ, κήρυγμα ὑπὲρ ἀμφοτέρων ἐποιήσαντο ἐπὶ τῆς τετάρτης Ὀλυμπιάδος καὶ ὀγδοηκοστῆς μήτε κάλπης τοῦ λοιποῦ μήτε ἀπήνης ἔσεσθαι δρόμον. ὅτε δὲ ἐτέθη πρῶτον, Θερσίου μὲν ἀπήνη Θεσσαλοῦ, Παταίκου δὲ Ἀχαιοῦ τῶν ἐκ Δύμης ἐνίκησεν ἡ κάλπη.

English Translation

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.

Proper Nouns

Eleians (Ἠλεῖοι) people
Eutelidas (Εὐτελίδας) person Q1378789
Thersios (Θέρσιος) person
Thessalos (Θεσσαλός) person
Lacedaemonian (Λακεδαιμόνιος) person
Pataikos (Παταῖκος) person
Achaean (Ἀχαιός) person
Dyme (Δύμη) place Q1231662
Olympia (Ὀλυμπία) place Q38888 Pleiades
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