Pausanias

“ Thrown into disorder at the sight, the Arcadians turned and fled, and were attacked by the Eleans, who won a very famous victory, and so call the god Sosipolis. On the spot where after the battle the snake seemed to them to go into the ground they made the sanctuary. With him the Eleans resolved to worship Eileithyia also, because this goddess to help them brought her son forth unto men. ”

“ The statue of Diagoras was made by the Megarian Callicles, the son of the Theocosmus who made the image of Zeus at Megara. The sons too of the daughters of Diagoras practised boxing and won Olympic victories: in the men's class Eucles, son of Callianax and Callipateira, daughter of Diagoras; in the boys' class Peisirodus, whose mother dressed herself as a man and a trainer, and took her son herself to the Olympic games. ”

“ The following is the reason why the Eleans worship Hades; they are the only men we know of so to do. It is said that, when Heracles was leading an expedition against Pylus in Elis, Athena was one of his allies. Now among those who came to fight on the side of the Pylians was Hades, because of his enmity toward Heracles and being held in honor at Pylus. ”

“ So the Thasians dropped the statue to the bottom of the sea, adopting the principle of Draco, who, when he framed for the Athenians laws to deal with homicide, inflicted banishment even on lifeless things, should one of them fall and kill a man. ”

“ But the ghost of the stoned man never ceased killing without distinction the people of Temesa, attacking both old and young, until, when the inhabitants had resolved to flee from Italy for good, the Pythian priestess forbad them to leave Temesa, and ordered them to propitiate the Hero, setting him a sanctuary apart and building a temple, and to give him every year as wife the fairest maiden in Temesa. ”

“ A native of Lepreus, Antiochus won once at Olympia the pancratium for men, and the pentathlum twice at the Isthmian games and twice at the Nemean. For the Lepreans are not afraid of the Isthmian games as the Eleans themselves are. For example, Hysmon of Elis, whose statue stands near that of Antiochus, competed successfully in the pentathlum both at Olympia and at Nemea, but clearly kept away, just like other Eleans, from the Isthmian games. ”

“ Not far from the sanctuary is a small building containing a bronze chest, in which are kept the bones of Pelops. Of the wall and of the rest of the building there were no remains, but vines were planted over all the district where Pisa stood.
6.22.2 The founder of the city, they say, was Pisus, the son of Perieres, the son of Aeolus. The people of Pisa brought of themselves disaster on their own heads by their hostility to the Eleans, and by their keenness to preside over the Olympic games instead of them. ”

“ BOOK 6 Olympia: Private Offerings 6.1.1 After my description of the votive offerings I must now go on to mention the statues of racehorses and those of men, whether athletes or ordinary folk. Not all the Olympic victors have had their statues erected; some, in fact, who have distinguished themselves, either at the games or by other exploits, have had no statue. ”

“ About six stades distant from Letrini is a lake that never dries up, being just about three stades across.
The City of Elis 6.23.1 One of the noteworthy things in Elis is an old gymnasium. In this gymnasium the athletes are wont to go through the training through which they must pass before going to Olympia. High plane-trees grow between the tracks inside a wall. The whole of this enclosure is called Xystus, because an exercise of Heracles, the son of Amphitryon, was to scrape up (anaxuein) each day all the thistles that grew there. ”

“ Others say that Chamynus was a man of Pisa who opposed Pantaleon, the son of Omphalion and despot at Pisa, when he plotted to revolt from Elis; Pantaleon, they say, put him to death, and from his property was built the sanctuary to Demeter.
6.21.2 In place of the old images of Kore and of Demeter new ones of Pentelic marble were dedicated by Herodes the Athenian. In the gymnasium at Olympia it is customary for pentathletes and runners to practise, and in the open has been made a basement of stone. Originally there stood on the basement a trophy to commemorate a victory over the Arcadians. ”

“ The statue of Theagenes is in the Altis, being the work of Glaucias of Aegina.
6.12.1 Hard by is a bronze chariot with a man mounted upon it; race-horses, one on each side, stand beside the chariot, and on the horses are seated boys. They are memorials of Olympic victories won by Hiero the son of Deinomenes, who was tyrant of Syracuse after his brother Gelo. But the offerings were not sent by Hiero; it was Hiero's son Deinomenes who gave them to the god, Onatas the Aeginetan who made the chariot, and Calamis who made the horses on either side and the boys on them. ”

“ Those who bathe in the spring are cured of all sorts of aches and pains. They say that the nymphs are named after Ion, the son of Gargettus, who migrated to this place from Athens.
6.22.8 If you wish to go to Elis through the plain, you will travel one hundred and twenty stades to Letrini, and one hundred and eighty from Letrini to Elis. Originally Letrini was a town, and Letreus the son of Pelops was its founder; but in my time were left a few buildings, with an image of Artemis Alpheiaea in a temple. ”

“ He went among a herd of cattle and seized the biggest and fiercest bull by one of its hind feet, holding fast the hoof in spite of the bull's leaps and struggles, until at last it put forth all its strength and escaped, leaving the hoof in the grasp of Polydamas. ”

“ The inscription on the heavens says that his son helped him to make it. The Hesperides (they were removed by the Eleans) were even in my time in the Heraeum; the treasury was made for the Epidamnians by Pyrrhus and his sons Lacrates and Hermon.
6.19.9 The Sybarites too built a treasury adjoining that of the Byzantines. Those who have studied the history of Italy and of the Italian cities say that Lupiae, situated between Brundusium and Hydrus, has changed its name, and was Sybaris in ancient times. The harbor is artificial, being a work of the emperor Hadrian. ”

“ Of all men he most obviously showed his friendship with Sparta, for he actually fought against the Athenians with his own ships, until he was taken prisoner by Attic men-of-war and brought alive to Athens. ”

“ In it the Hellanodikai match the competitors according to age and skill; it is for wrestling that they match them.
6.23.3 There are also in the gymnasium altars of the gods, of Idaean Heracles, surnamed Parastates (Standing By) , of Eros, of the deity called by Eleans and Athenians alike Anteros (love returned) , of Demeter and of her daughter. Achilles has no altar, only a cenotaph raised to him because of an oracle. On an appointed day at the beginning of the festival, when the course of the sun is sinking towards the west, the Elean women do honor to Achilles, especially by bewailing him. ”

“ Pleistaenus, the son of the Eurydamus who commanded the Aetolians against the Gauls, had his statue dedicated by the Thespians.
6.16.2 The statue of Antigonus the father of Demetrius and the statue of Seleucus were dedicated by Tydeus the Elean. The fame of Seleucus became great among all men especially because of the capture of Demetrius. Timon won victories for the pentathlum at all the Greek games except the Isthmian, at which he, like other Eleans, abstained from competing. ”

“ After the death of Agathocles, a former tyrant, tyranny again sprung up at Syracuse in the person of this Hiero, who came to power in the second year of the hundred and twenty-sixth Olympiad, at which festival Idaeus of Cyrene won the foot-race.
6.12.3 This Hiero made an alliance with Pyrrhus the son of Aeacides, sealing it by the marriage of Gelo his son and Nereis the daughter of Pyrrhus. When the Romans went to war with Carthage for the possession of Sicily, the Carthaginians held more than half the island, and Hiero sided with them at the beginning of the war. ”

“ It was accordingly natural for him to be proclaimed at the games as a native of Himera.
6.5.1 The statue on the high pedestal is the work of Lysippus, and it represents the mightiest (μέγιστος) of all men except those called heroes and any other mortal race that may have existed before the heroes. But this man, Polydamas the son of Nicias, is the mightiest of our own era.
6.5.2 Scotussa, the native city of Polydamas, has now no inhabitants, for Alexander the tyrant of Pherae seized it in time of truce. ”

“ The statue of Hermesianax was dedicated by the commonwealth of Colophon.
6.17.5 Near these are Eleans who beat the boys at boxing, Choerilus the work of Sthennis of Olynthus, and Theotimus the work of Daitondas of Sicyon. Theotimus was a son of Moschion, who took part in the expedition of Alexander the son of Philip against Dareius and the Persians. There are two more from Elis, Archidamus who was victorious with a four-horse chariot and Eperastus the son of Theogonus, victor in the race in armour. ”

“ I think that the Megarians won this victory when Phorbas, who held a life office, was archon at Athens [ca. 950 BCE?] . At this time Athenian offices were not yet annual, nor had the Eleans begun to record the Olympiads.
6.19.14 The Argives are said to have helped the Megarians in the engagement with the Corinthians. The treasury at Olympia was made by the Megarians years after the battle, but it is to be supposed that they had the offerings from of old, seeing that they were made by the Lacedemonian Dontas, a pupil of Dipoenus and Scyllis. ”

“ The Eleans convinced me that they are right. For the Alpheius does flow through this district, and the passage cannot refer to another Pylus. For the land of the Pylians over against the island Sphacteria simply cannot in the nature of things be crossed by the Alpheius, and, moreover, we know of no city in Arcadia named Pylus.
6.22.7 Distant from Olympia about fifty stades is Heracleia, a village of the Eleans, and beside it is a river Cytherus. A spring flows into the river, and there is a sanctuary of nymphs near the spring. ”

“ Pyrrhus, the son of Aeacides, who was king on the Thesprotian mainland and performed many remarkable deeds, as I have related in my account of the Athenians, had his statue dedicated by Thrasybulus of Elis. Beside Pyrrhus is a little man holding flutes, carved in relief upon a slab. This man won Pythian victories next after Sacadas of Argos. ”

“ At the Olympiad following this, Theagenes was the winner in the pancratium.
6.11.5 He also won three victories at Pytho. These were for boxing, while nine prizes at Nemea and ten at the Isthmus were won in some cases for the pancratium and in others for boxing. At Phthia in Thessaly he gave up training for boxing and the pancratium. He devoted himself to winning fame among the Greeks for his running also, and beat those who entered for the long race. His ambition was, I think, to rival Achilles by winning a prize for running in the fatherland of the swiftest of those who are called heroes. ”

“ They gained victories in chariot-races. Anaxander was the first of his family to be proclaimed victor with a chariot, but the inscription on him declares that previously his paternal grandfather received the crown for the pentathlum. Anaxander is represented in an attitude of prayer to the god, while Polycles, who gained the surname of Polychalcus, likewise won a victory with a four-horse chariot, and his statue holds a ribbon in the right hand. ”

“ On the statue of Thrasybulus is a spotted lizard crawling towards his right shoulder, and by his side lies a dog, obviously a sacrificial victim, cut open and with his liver exposed.
6.2.5 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. ”

“ He is also said to have won the chariot-race at that Olympiad which, according to the account of the Eleans, was not genuine because the Arcadians presided at it.
6.8.4 The statue of Timanthes of Cleonae, who won the crown in the pancratium for men, was made by Myron of Athens, but Naucydes made that of Baucis of Troezen, who overthrew the men wrestlers. Timanthes, they say, met his end through the following cause. On retiring from athletics he continued to test his strength by drawing a great bow every day. ”

“ These statues stand near the pillar of Oenomaus, and are made of wood, Rexibius of figwood and the Aeginetan of cypress, and his statue is less decayed than the other.
Olympia: Treasury Terrace 6.19.1 There is in the Altis to the north of the Heraeum a terrace of conglomerate, and behind it stretches Mount Cronios. On this terrace are the treasuries, just as at Delphi certain of the Greeks have made treasuries for Apollo. There is at Olympia a treasury called the treasury of the Sicyonians, dedicated by Myron, who was tyrant of Sicyon. ”