A Pausanias Reader in Progress

An ongoing retranslation of the Greek text of Pausanias, with ongoing annotations, primarily by Gregory Nagy from 2014 to 2022, and continued since 2022 by Nagy together with an intergenerational team. Based on an original translation by W. H. S. Jones, 1918 (Scroll 2 with H. A. Ormerod), containing some of the footnotes added by Jones. Editors: Keith DeStone, Elizabeth Gipson, Charles Pletcher Editor Emerita: Angelia Hanhardt Web Producer: Noel Spencer Consultant for images: Jill Curry Robbins To cite this work, use the following persistent identifier: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.prim-src:A_Pausanias_Reader_in_Progress.2018-.

urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.aprip-en


6.15.1 Arkhippos of Mitylene overcame his competitors in the men’s boxing match, and his fellow-townsmen hold that he added to his fame by winning the garland when he was not more than twenty years old, at Olympia, at Pythō, at Nemeā, and at the Isthmus. The statue of the boy runner Xenon, son of Kalliteles from Lepreus in Triphylia, was made by Pyrilampes the Messenan; who made the statue of Kleinomakhos of Elis, I do not know, but Kleinomakhos was proclaimed victor in the pentathlon.

6.15.2 The inscription on the statue of Pantarkes of Elis states that it was dedicated by Achaeans, because he made peace between them and the Eleians and procured the release of those who had been made prisoners by both sides during the war. This Pantarkes also won a victory with a race-horse, and there is a memorial of his victory also at Olympia. The statue of Olidas, of Elis, was dedicated by the Aetolian nation, and Kharinos of Elis is represented in a statue dedicated for a victory in the double race and in the race in armor. By his side is Ageles of Chios, victorious in the boys’ boxing match, the artist being Theomnestos of Sardes.

6.15.3 The statue of Kleitomakhos of Thebes was dedicated by his father Hermokrates, and his famous deeds are these. At the Isthmus, he won the men’s wrestling match, and on the same day, he overcame all competitors in the boxing match and in the pankration. His victories at Pythō were all in the pankration, three in number. At Olympia, this Kleitomakhos was the first after Theagenes of Thasos to be proclaimed victor in both boxing and the pankration.

6.15.4 He won his victory in the pankration at the hundred and forty-first Olympic Festival.* The next Festival saw this Kleitomakhos a competitor in the pankration and in boxing, while Kapros of Elis was minded both to wrestle and to compete in the pankration on the same day.

6.15.5 After Kapros had won in the wrestling match, Kleitomakhos put it to the umpires that it would be fair if they were to bring in the pankration before he received wounds in the boxing. His request seemed reasonable, and so the pankration was brought in. Although Kleitomakhos was defeated by Kapros, he tackled the boxers with sturdy spirit and unwearied vigor.

6.15.6 The Ionians of Erythraidedicated a statue of Epitherses, son of Metrodoros, who won two boxing prizes at Olympia, two at Pythō, and also victories at Nemeā and the Isthmus; the Syracusans dedicated two statues of Hieron at the public charge, while a third is the gift of Hieron’s sons. I pointed out in a recent chapter* how this Hieron had the same name as the son of Deinomenes, and, like him, was despot of Syracuse.

6.15.7 The Paleans, who form one of the four divisions of the Cephallenians, dedicated a statue of Timoptolis, an Eleian, the son of Lampis. These Paleans were of old called Dulichians. There is also a statue set up of Arkhidamos, the son of Agesilaos, and of some man or other representing a hunter. There is a statue of Demetrios, who made an expedition against Seleukos and was taken prisoner in the battle, and one of Antigonos, the son of Demetrios; they are offerings, you may be sure, of the Byzantines.

6.15.8 At the thirty-eighth Festival,* Eutelidas the Spartan won two victories among the boys, one for wrestling and one for the pentathlon, this being the first and last occasion when boys were allowed to enter for the pentathlon. The statue of Eutelidas is old, and the letters on the pedestal are worn dim with age.

6.15.9 After Eutelidas is another statue of Areus the Lacedaemonian king, and beside it is a statue of Gorgos the Eleian. Gorgos is the only man down to my time who has won four victories at Olympia for the pentathlon, beside a victory in the double race and a victory in the race in armor.

6.15.10 The man with the boys standing beside him they say is Ptolemy, son of Lagos.* Beside him are two statues of the Eleian Kapros, the son of Pythagoras, who received on the same day a garland for wrestling and a garland for the pankration. This Kapros was the first man to win the two victories. His victim overcome in the pankration I have already mentioned;* in wrestling, the man he overcame was the Eleian Paeanios, who at the previous Festival had won a victory for wrestling, while at the Pythian Games, he won a garland in the boys’ boxing match, and again in the men’s wrestling match and in the men’s boxing match on one and the same day.

1 216 BCE.

2 Pausanias 6.12.2.

3 628 BCE.

4 reigned 323–285 BCE.

5 Pausanias 6.15.5.