Greek Texts & Translations

Divination by kids, lambs or calves has, we all know, been established among men from ancient times, and the Cyprians have even discovered how to practise the art by means of pigs; but no peoples are wont to make any use of dogs in divining. So Thrasybulus apparently established a method of divination peculiar to himself, by means of the entrails of dogs. The diviners called Iamidae are descended from Iamus, who, Pindar says in an ode, ^note was a son of Apollo and received the gift of divination from him.

By the statue of Thrasybulus stands Timosthenes of Elis, winner of the foot-race for boys, and Antipater of Miletus, son of Cleinopater, conqueror of the boy boxers. Men of Syracuse, who were bringing a sacrifice from Dionysius to Olympia, tried to bribe the father of Antipater to have his son proclaimed as a Syracusan. But Antipater, thinking naught of the tyrant's gifts, proclaimed himself a Milesian and wrote upon his statue that he was of Milesian descent and the first Ionian to dedicate his statue at Olympia.

The artist who made this statue was Polycleitus, while that of Timosthenes was made by Eutychides of Sicyon, a pupil of Lysippus. This Eutychides made for the Syrians on the Orontes an image of Fortune, which is highly valued by the natives.

In the Altis by the side of Timosthenes are statues of Timon and of his son Aesypus, who is represented as a child seated on a horse. In fact the boy won the horse-race, while Timon was proclaimed victor in the chariot-race. The statues of Timon and of his son were made by Daedalus of Sicyon, who also made for the Eleans the trophy in the Altis commemorating the victory over the Spartans.

The inscription on the Samian boxer says that his trainer Mycon dedicated the statue and that the Samians are best among the Ionians for athletes and at naval warfare; this is what the inscription says, but it tells us nothing at all about the boxer himself.

Beside this is the Messenian Damiscus, who won an Olympic victory at the age of twelve. I was exceedingly surprised to learn that while the Messenians were in exile from the Peloponnesus, their luck at the Olympic games failed. For with the exception of Leontiscus and Symmachus, who came from Messene on the Strait, we know of no Messenian, either from Sicily or from Naupactus, who won a victory at Olympia. Even these two are said by the Sicilians to have been not Messenians but of old Zanclean blood.

However, when the Messenians came back to the Peloponnesus their luck in the Olympic games came with them. For at the festival celebrated by the Eleans in the year after the settlement of Messene, the foot-race for boys was won by this Damiscus, who afterwards won in the pentathlum both at Nemea and at the Isthmus.

After Chaereas are statues of a Messenian boy Sophius and of Stomius, a man of Elis. Sophius outran his boy competitors, and Stomius won a victory in the pentathlum at Olympia and three at the Nemean games. The inscription on his statue adds that, when commander of the Elean cavalry, he set up trophies and killed in single combat the general of the enemy, who had challenged him.

The Eleans say that the dead general was a native of Sicyon in command of Sicyonian troops, and that they themselves with the force from Boeotia attacked Sicyon out of friendship to the Thebans. So the attack of the Eleans and Thebans against Sicyon apparently took place after the Lacedaemonian disaster at Leuctra.

Next stands the statue of a boxer from Lepreus in Elis, whose name was Labax son of Euphron, and also that of Aristodemus, son of Thrasis, a boxer from Elis itself, who also won two victories at Pytho. The statue of Aristodemus is the work of Daedalus of Sicyon, the pupil and son of Patrocles.