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


6.17.1 These are the most remarkable sights that meet a man who goes over the Altis according to the instructions I have given. But if you will go to the right from the Leonidaion to the great altar, you will come across the following notable objects. There is Demokrates of Tenedos, who won the men’s wrestling match, and Kriannios of Elis, who won a victory in the race in armor. The statue of Demokrates was made by Dionysikles of Miletus, that of Kriannios by Lysos of Macedonia.

6.17.2 The statues of Herodotus of Klazomenai and of Philinos, son of Hegepolis, of Kos, were dedicated by their respective cities. The people of Klazomenai dedicated a statue of Herodotus because he was the first person from Klazomenai to be proclaimed victor at Olympia, his victory being in the boys’ foot race. The people of Kos dedicated a statue of Philinos because of his great renown, for he won at Olympia five victories in running, at Pythō four victories, at Nemeā four, and at the Isthmus eleven.

6.17.3 The statue of Ptolemy, the son of Ptolemy Lagos, was dedicated by Aristolaos, a Macedonian. There is also dedicated a statue of a victorious boy boxer, Butas of Miletus, son of Polyneikes; a statue too of Kallikrates of Magnesia on the Lethaios, who received two garlands for victories in the race in armor. The statue of Kallikrates is the work of Lysippos.

6.17.4 Enation won a victory in the boys’ foot race, Alexibios in the pentathlon. The native place of Alexibios was Heraia in Arcadia, and Acestor made his statue. The inscription on the statue of Enation does not state his native place, though it does state that he was of Arcadian descent. Two Kolophonians, Hermesianax, son of Agoneus, and Eikasios, son of Lykinos and the daughter of Hermesianax, both won the boys’ wrestling match. The statue of Hermesianax was dedicated by the commonwealth of Kolophon.

6.17.5 Near these are Eleians who beat the boys at boxing, Khoirilos, the work of Sthennis of Olynthus, and Theotīmos, the work of Daitondas of Sikyon. Theotīmos was a son of Moschion, who took part in the expedition of Alexander, the son of Philip, against Dareios and the Persians [Persai]. There are two more from Elis, Arkhidamos, who was victorious with a four horse chariot, and Eperastos, the son of Theogonos, victor in the race in armor.

6.17.6 That he was the soothsayer of the lineage of the Klutidai, Eperastos declares at the end of the inscription:

6.17.7 Mingled with the less illustrious offerings we may see the statues of Alexinikos of Elis, the work of Kantharos of Sikyon, who won a victory in the boys’ wrestling match, and of Gorgias of Leontinoi. This statue was dedicated at Olympia by Eumolpos, as he himself says, the grandson of Deikrates who married the sister of Gorgias.

6.17.8 This Gorgias* was a son of Kharmantides and is said to have been the first to revive the study of rhetoric, which had been altogether neglected, in fact almost forgotten by mankind. They say that Gorgias won great renown for his eloquence at the Olympic assembly, and also when he accompanied Tisias on an embassy to Athens. Yet Tisias improved the art of rhetoric; in particular, he wrote the most persuasive speech of his time to support the claim of a Syracusan woman to a property.

6.17.9 However, Gorgias surpassed his fame in Athens; indeed Jason, the tyrant of Thessaly, placed him before Polykrates, who was a shining light of the Athenian school. Gorgias, they say, lived to be one hundred and five years old. Leontinoi was once laid waste by the Syracusans, but in my time was again inhabited.

1 floruit 427 BCE.