5.26.1 The Dorian Messenian who received Naupaktos from the Athenians dedicated at Olympia the image of Nike upon the column. It is the work of Paionios of Mende, and was made from the proceeds of enemy spoils,^* I think from the war with the Arcarnanians and Oiniadai. The Messenians themselves declare that their offering came from their exploit with the Athenians in the island of Sphakteria,^* and that the name of their enemy was omitted through dread of the Lacedaemonians; for, they say, they are not in the least afraid of Oiniadai and the Acarnanians.

5.26.2 The offerings of Mikythos I found were numerous and not together. Next after Iphitos of Elis, and Ekhekheiria garlanding Iphitos, come the following offerings of Mikythos: Amphitrite, Poseidon, and Hestia; the artist was Glaukos the Argive.^* Along the left side of the great temple Mikythos dedicated other offerings: the Maiden, daughter of Demeter, Aphrodite, Ganymedes, and Artemis, the poets Homer and Hesiod, then again deities, Asklepios and Hygieia.

5.26.3 Among the offerings of Mikythos 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. They are the works of Dionysius of Argos.^* They say that Mikythos set up other offerings also in addition to these, and that they formed part of the treasures taken away by Nero.

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

5.26.5 The inscriptions on the offerings give Choerus as the father of Mikythos, and as his fatherland the Greek cities of Rhēgion 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.

5.26.6 Near to the greater offerings of Mikythos, which were made by the Argive Glaukos, stands an image of Athena with a helmet on her head and clad in an aegis. Nikodamos of Mainalos was the artist, but it was dedicated by the Eleians. Beside the Athena has been set up a Nike. The Mantineians dedicated it, but they do not mention the war in the inscription. Kalamis is said to have made it without wings in imitation of the wooden image in Athens called Wingless Nike.

5.26.7 By the smaller offerings of Mikythos, that were made by Dionysius, are some of the exploits of Hēraklēs, including what he did to the Nemean lion, the Hydra, the Hound of Hades, and the boar by the river Erymanthos. These were brought to Olympia by the people of Herakleia when they had overrun the land of the Mariandynians, their barbarian neighbors. Herakleia is a city built on the Euxine Sea, a colony of Megara, though the people of Tanagra in Boeotia joined in the settlement.