Greek Texts & Translations

The offerings of Micythus I found were numerous and not together. Next after Iphitus of Elis, and Echecheiria crowning Iphitus, come the following offerings of Micythus: Amphitrite, Poseidon and Hestia; the artist was Glaucus the Argive. ^note Along the left side of the great temple Micythus dedicated other offerings: the Maid, daughter of Demeter, Aphrodite, Ganymedes and Artemis, the poets Homer and Hesiod, then again deities, Asclepius and Health.

Among the offerings of Micythus is Struggle carrying jumping-weights, the shape of which is as follows. They are half of a circle, not an exact circle but elliptical, and made so that the fingers pass through as they do through the handle of a shield. Such are the fashion of them. By the statue of Struggle are Dionysus, Orpheus the Thracian, and an image of Zeus which I mentioned just now. ^note They are the works of Dionysius of Argos. ^note They say that Micythus set up other offerings also in addition to these, and that they formed part of the treasures taken away by Nero.

The artists are said to have been Dionysius and Glaucus, who were Argives by birth, but the name of their teacher is not recorded. Their date is fixed by that of Micythus, who dedicated the works of art at Olympia. For Herodotus in his history ^note says that this Micythus, when Anaxilas was despot of Rhegium, became his slave and steward of his property afterwards, on the death of Anaxilas, he went away to Tegea.

The inscriptions on the offerings give Choerus as the father of Micythus, and as his fatherland the Greek cities of Rhegium and Messene on the Strait. The inscriptions say that he lived at Tegea, and he dedicated the offerings at Olympia in fulfillment of a vow made for the recovery of a son, who fell ill of a wasting disease.

Near to the greater offerings of Micythus, which were made by the Argive Glaucus, stands an image of Athena with a helmet on her head and clad in an aegis. Nicodamus of Maenalus was the artist, but it was dedicated by the Eleans. Beside the Athena has been set up a Victory. The Mantineans dedicated it, but they do not mention the war in the inscription. Calamis is said to have made it without wings in imitation of the wooden image at Athens called Wingless Victory.

By the smaller offerings of Micythus, that were made by Dionysius, are some of the exploits of Heracles, including what he did to the Nemean lion, the Hydra, the Hound of Hell, and the boar by the river Erymanthus. These were brought to Olympia by the people of Heracleia when they had overrun the land of the Mariandynians, their foreign neighbors. Heracleia is a city built on the Euxine sea, a colony of Megara, though the people of Tanagra in Boeotia joined in the settlement.

The offerings at Olympia are two horses and two charioteers, a charioteer standing by the side of each of the horses. The first horse and man are by Dionysius of Argos, the second are the work of Simon of Aegina. ^note On the side of the first of the horses is an inscription, the first part of which is not metrical. It runs thus:— Phormis dedicated me,
An Arcadian of Maenalus, now of Syracuse.

This is the horse in which is, say the Eleans, the hippomanes (what maddens horses). It is plain to all that the quality of the horse is the result of magic skill. It is much inferior in size and beauty to all the horses standing within the Altis. Moreover, its tail has been cut off which makes the figure uglier still. But male horses, not only in spring but on any day, are at heat towards it.