Pindar: Olympian Odes, c. 470 BCE
No. 9
Fit speech may I find for my journey in the Muses' car; and let me therewith have
daring and powers of ample scope. To back the prowess of a friend I came, when
Lampromachos won his Isthmian crown, when on the same day both he and his brother
overcame. And afterwards at the gates of Corinth two triumphs again befell Epharmostos and
more in the valleys of Nemea. At Argos he triumphed over men, as over boys at Athens. And
I might tell how at Marathon he stole from among the beardless and confronted the
full-grown for the prize of silver vessels, how without a fall he threw his men with swift
and coming shock, and how loud the shouting pealed when round the ring he ran, in the
beauty of his youth and fair form and fresh from fairest deeds.
No. 10
Ample is the glory stored for Olympian winners; thereof my shepherd tongue is fain to
keep some part in fold. But only by the help of Zeus is wisdom kept ever blooming in the
soul. Son of Archestratos, Agesidamos, know certainly that for your boxing I will lay a
glory of sweet strains upon your crown of golden olive and will have in remembrance the
race of the Locrians in the west.
No. 11
Who then won to their lot the new-appointed crown by hands or feet or chariot, setting
before them the prize of glory in the games, and winning it by their act? In the foot-race
down the straight course of the stadion was Likymnios' son Oionos first, from Nodea had he
led his host: in the wrestling was Tegea glorified by Echemos: Doryklos won the prize of
boxing, a dweller in the city of Tiryns, and with the four-horse chariot, Samos of
Mantinea, Halirrhotios' son: with the javelin Phrastor hit the mark: in distance Enikeus
beyond all others hurled the stone with a circling sweep, and all the warrior company
thundered a great applause. Then on the evening the lovely shining of the fair-faced moon
beamed forth, and all the precinct sounded with songs of festal glee, after the manner
which is to this day for triumph.
No. 13
Also two parsley-wreaths shadowed his head before the people at the games of Isthmus,
nor does Nemea tell a different tale. And of his father Thessalos' lightning feet
is recorded by the streams of Alpheos, and at Pytho he has renown for the single
and for the double stadion gained both in a single day, and in the same month at
rocky Pan-Athenaios a day of swiftness crowned his hair for three illustrious
deeds, and the Hellotia seven times, and at the games of Poseidon between
seas longer hymns followed his father Ptoiodoros with Terpsias and Eritimos. And how often
you were first at Delphi or in the Pastures of the Lion, though with full
many do I match your crowd of honors, yet can I no more surely tell than the tale of
pebbles on the sea-shore.
Thucydides: The History of the Peloponnesian War, c. 404
BCE
The Lacedaemonians were the first who in their athletic exercises stripped
naked and rubbed themselves over with oil. But this was not the ancient custom; athletes
formerly, even when they were contending at Olympia, wore loin-cloths, a practice which
lasted until quite lately, and still prevails among Barbarians, especially those of Asia,
where the combatants at boxing and wrestling matches wear loin-cloths.
It was at this time, after the purification, that the Athenians first celebrated the
quinquennial festival of the Delian games. There had been, however, even in very
early times, a great assembly of the Ionians and the neighboring islanders held at Delos;
for they used to come to the feast with their wives and children, as the Ionians now do to
the Ephesian festivals, and gymnastic and musical contests were held, and the different
cities took up bands of dancers.
Xenophon: Hellenica, c. 370 BCE
If one should win a victory thanks to the swiftness of his feet or when
competing in the pentathlon there in the sanctuary of Zeus by the streams of Pisa at
Olympia, or if one should gain the prize in wrestling or painful boxing, or in that
fearful contest people call all-in-fighting, to his fellow citizens he would be thought
more glorious to look on than ever, and he would gain from his polis the right to
meals at public expense and a gift which would be his personal treasure. And if his
victory were won with horses, he would also gain all these things, even though he is not
as worthy as I. For our wisdom is better than the strength of men or horses. For even if
there were a good boxer among the citizens or one skilled in the pentathlon or wrestling,
or, indeed, even if there were a great sprinter, which holds the front rank among the
athletic achievements of men, the polis would still not be better governed because
of this. A polis would gain little joy if someone should win in competition by the
banks of the Pisa, for that victory would not fill its storehouses.
Strabo: Geographia, c. 20 CE
There was anciently a contest held at Delphi, of players on the cithara, who executed a
paean in honor of the god. It was instituted by the Delphians. But after the Crisaean war
the amphictyons, in the time of Eurylochus, established contests for horses and gymnastic
sports, in which the victor was crowned. These were called Pythian games, in
addition to the musical contests.
Pausanias: Description of Greece, c. 175
CE
From the time the Olympian games were revived continuously, prizes were first
instituted for running, and Coroebus of Elis was the victor....And in the 14th Olympiad
afterwards the double course was introduced, when Hypenus, a native of Pisa, won the wild
olive crown, and Acanthus the second. And in the 18th Olympiad they introduced the
pentathlon and wrestling....And in the 23rd Olympiad they ordained prizes for boxing...And
in the 25th Olympiad they had a race of full-grown horses....And in the 28th Olympiad they
introduced the pancratium and the riding race. The horse of Crannonian Crauxidas got in
first, and the competitors for the pancratium were beaten by the Syracusan Lygdamus, who
has his sepulcher at the stone quarries of Syracuse....And the contest of the boys was not
a revival of ancient usage, but the people of Elis instituted it because the idea pleased
them. So prizes were instituted for running and wrestling among boys in the 37th Olympiad.
And in the 41st Olympiad afterwards they invited boxing boys....And the race in heavy
armor was tried in the 65th Olympiad as an exercise for war, I think....The order of the
games in our day is to sacrifice victims to the god and then to contend in the pentathlon
and horse-race, according to the program established in the 77th Olympiad, for before this
horses and men contended on the same day. And at that period the pancrataists did not
appear till night, for they could not compete sooner, so much time being taken up by the
horse-races and pentathlon....A crown of wild olive was given to the victor at Olympia,
and laurel at Delphi. And at the Isthmian Games pine leaves, at the Nemean Games parsley,
as we know from the cases of Palaemon and Archemorus. But most games have a crown of palm
as the prize, and everywhere the palm is put into the right hand of the victor.
As you go from Scillus along the road to Olympia, before you cross the Alpheius, there
is a mountain with high, precipitous cliffs. It is called Mount Typaeum. It is a law of
Elis to cast down it any women who are caught present at the Olympic games, or even on the
other side of the Alpheius, on the days prohibited to women. However, they say that no
woman has been caught, except Callipateira only....She, being a widow, disguised herself
exactly like a gymnastic trainer, and brought her son to compete at Olympia. Peisirodus,
for so her son was called, was victorious, and Callipateira, as she was jumping over the
enclosure in which they keep the trainers shut up, bared her person. So her sex was
discovered, but they let her go unpunished out of respect for her father, her brothers and
her son, all of whom had been victorious at Olympia. But a law was passed that for the
future trainers should strip before entering the arena.
Every fourth year there is woven for Hera a robe by the Sixteen Women [at Elis], and
the same also hold games called Heraea. The games consist of foot-races for
maidens. These are not all of the same age. The first to run are the youngest; after them
come the next in age, and the last to run are the oldest of the maidens. They run in the
following way: their hair hangs down, a tunic reaches to a little above the knee, and they
bare the right shoulder as far as the breast. These too have the Olympic stadium reserved
for their games, but the course of the stadium is shortened for them by about one-sixth of
its length. To the winning maidens they give crowns of olive and a portion of the cow
sacrificed to Hera. They may also dedicate statues with their names inscribed upon them.
The games of the maidens too are traced back to ancient times; they say that, out of
gratitude to Hera for her marriage with Pelops, Hippodameia assembled the Sixteen Women,
and with them inaugurated the Heraea. The Sixteen Women also arrange two choral
dances, one called that of Physcoa and the other that of Hippodameia.
Milo of Croton won six victories for wrestling at Olympia, one of them among the boys;
at the Pythian he won six among the men and one among the boys. He came to Olympia to
wrestle for the seventh time, but did not succeed in mastering Timasitheus, a
fellow-citizen who was also a young man, and who refused, moreover, to come to close
quarters with him. It is further stated that Milo carried his own statue into the Altis.
His feats with the pomegranate and the quoit are also remembered by tradition. He would
grasp a pomegranate so firmly that nobody could wrest it from him by force, and yet he did
not damage it by pressure. He would stand upon a greased quoit, and make fools of those
who charged him and tried to push him from the quoit. He used to perform also the
following exhibition feats. He would tie a cord round his forehead as though it were a
ribbon or a crown. Holding his breath and filling with blood the veins on his head, he
would break the cord by the strength of these veins. It is said that he would let down by
his side his right arm from the shoulder to the elbow, and stretch out straight the arm
below the elbow, turning the thumb upwards, while the other fingers lay in a row. In this
position, then, the little finger was lowest, but nobody could bend it back by pressure.
