Pausanias Analysis

Passage 5.9.4

← 5.9.3 5.9.5 →

Passage 5.9.4: Officials presiding over the Olympic Games — shifted to two Eleans chosen by lot.

Mythic Non-skeptical

Greek Text

τὰ δὲ ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀγωνοθετοῦσιν οὐ κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ ἃ καθεστηκότα ἦν ἐξ ἀρχῆς καὶ ἐφʼ ἡμῶν ἐς αὐτοὺς νομίζουσιν, ἀλλὰ Ἴφιτος μὲν τὸν ἀγῶνα ἔθηκεν αὐτὸς μόνος, καὶ μετὰ Ἴφιτον ἐτίθεσαν ὡσαύτως οἱ ἀπὸ Ὀξύλου· πεντηκοστῇ δὲ Ὀλυμπιάδι ἀνδράσι δύο ἐξ ἁπάντων λαχοῦσιν Ἠλείων ἐπετράπη ποιῆσαι τὰ Ὀλύμπια, καὶ ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἀπὸ ἐκείνου διέμεινε τῶν ἀγωνοθετῶν ὁ ἀριθμὸς τῶν δύο.

English Translation

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.

Proper Nouns

Olympiad (Ὀλυμπιάς) other
Iphitos (Ἴφιτος) person
Oxylus (Ὄξυλος) person
Eleians (Ἠλεῖοι) place Q6536845
Olympia (Ὀλύμπια) place Q38888 Pleiades
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