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


6.16.1 The victories of Kapros were not achieved without great toils and strong effort. There are also at Olympia statues to Anauchidas and Pherenikos, Eleians by lineage who won garlands for wrestling among the boys. Pleistainos, the son of the Eurydamos who commanded the Aetolians against the Gauls, had his statue dedicated by the Thespians.

6.16.2 The statue of Antigonos the father of Demetrios and the statue of Seleukos were dedicated by Tydeus the Eleian. The fame of Seleukos became great among all men especially because of the capture of Demetrios. Timon won victories for the pentathlon at all the Greek Games except the Isthmian, at which he, like other Eleians, abstained from competing. The inscription on his statue adds that he joined the Aetolians in their expedition against the Thessalians and became leader of the garrison at Naupaktos because of his friendship with the Aetolians.

6.16.3 Not far from the statue of Timon stands Hellas, and by Hellas stands Elis; Hellas is garlanding with one hand Antigonos, the guardian of Philip, the son of Demetrios, with the other, Philip himself; Elis is garlanding Demetrios, who marched against Seleukos, and Ptolemy, the son of Lagos.

6.16.4 Aristeides of Elis won at Olympia (so the inscription on his statue declares) a victory in the race run in armor, at Pythō a victory in the double race, and at Nemeā, in the race for boys in the horse course. The length of the horse-course is twice that of the double course; the event had been omitted from the Nemean and Isthmian Games but was restored to the Argives for their winter Nemean Games by ‘King’ [basileus] Hadrian.

6.16.5 Quite close to the statue of Aristeides stands Menalkes of Elis, proclaimed victor at Olympia in the pentathlon, along with Philonides son of Zotes, who was a native of Chersonesus in Crete, and a courier of Alexander the son of Philip. After him comes Brimias of Elis, victor in the men’s boxing match, Leonidas from Naxos in the Aegean, a statue dedicated by the Arcadians of Psophis, a statue of Asamon, victor in the men’s boxing match, and a statue of Nikandros, who won two victories at Olympia in the double course and six victories in foot-races of various kinds at the Nemean Games.* Asamon and Nikandros were Eleians, the statue of the latter was made by Daippos, that of Asamon by the Messenian Pyrilampes.

6.16.6 Eualkidas of Elis won victories in the boys’ boxing match, Seleadas the Lacedaemonian in the men’s wrestling-match. Here too is dedicated a small chariot of the Laconian Polypeithes, and on the same slab Kalliteles, the father of Polypeithes, a wrestler. Polypeithes was victorious with his four-horse chariot, Kalliteles in wrestling.

6.16.7 There are private Eleians, Lampos the son of Arniskos and [...] of Aristarkhos; these the Psophidians dedicated, either because they were their public friends or because they had shown them some good will. Between them stands Lysippos of Elis, who beat his competitors in the boys’ wrestling match; his statue was made by Andreas of Argos.

6.16.8 Demosthenes the Lacedaemonian won an Olympic victory in the men’s foot-race, and he dedicated in the Altis a slab by the side of his statue. The inscription declares that the distance from Olympia to another slab at Lacedaemon is six hundred and sixty furlongs. Theodoros gained a victory in the pentathlon; Pyttalos the son of Lampis won the boys’ boxing match, and Neolaidas received a garland for the foot race and the race in armor; all were, I may tell you, Eleians. About Pyttaloss, it is further related that, when a dispute about boundaries occurred between the Arcadians and the Eleians, he delivered judgment on the matter. His statue is the work of Sthennis the Olynthian.

6.16.9 Next is Ptolemy, mounted on a horse, and by his side is an Eleian athlete, Paeanios, the son of Damatrios, who won at Olympia a victory in wrestling besides two Pythian victories. There is also Klearetos of Elis, who received a garland in the pentathlon, and a chariot of an Athenian, Glaukon, the son of Eteokles. This Glaukon was proclaimed victor in a chariot-race for full-grown horses.

1 With the reading of Schubart, “at the Nemean and Isthmian games.”