Description of Greece

​It seems that from the beginning the temple in Delphi has already been plotted against by very many people. This Euboean plunderer, and years later the tribe of the Phlegyans, and furthermore Pyrrhus the son of Achilles made attempts upon it, as did a part of the force of Xerxes, and those rulers in Phocis who for the longest time and most of all attacked the property of the god, and the army of the Galatians. And indeed, it was destined not to remain without experience of the disregard of Nero, who was neglectful in all things, and who deprived Apollo of five hundred bronze statues of gods and men mixed together.

​They record that the oldest contest, and the one for which they first offered prizes, was to sing a hymn to the god; and Chrysothemis of Crete sang and won, whose father Carmanor is said to have purified Apollo. After Chrysothemis, they record that Philammon won in song, and after him Thamyris, the son of Philammon. But they say that Orpheus, because of his solemnity regarding initiations and his general pride, and Musaeus, because of his imitation of Orpheus in everything, did not wish to be examined in a musical contest.

​They say also that Eleuther carried off a Pythian victory because of his loud and sweet voice, although he sang a song that was not his own. It is also said that Hesiod was excluded from the contest because he had not been taught to play the cithara together with his singing. And Homer came to Delphi to ask about the things he needed, but even if he had been taught to play the cithara, the instruction was destined to be of no use to him because of the misfortune of his eyes.

​In the third year of the forty-eighth Olympiad, in which Glaucias of Croton won, the Amphictyons established prizes for cithara-singing just as from the beginning, and they added a contest of flute-singing and of flutes; and there were proclaimed as winners Cephallen, the son of Melampus, in cithara-singing, and the Arcadian Echembrotus in flute-singing, and Sacadas of Argos on the flutes; and this Sacadas also carried off two other Pythiads successive to this one.

​They also then established prizes for athletes for the first time, the same as those in Olympia except for the four-horse chariot, and they themselves made it a law that there should be a long race and a double race for boys. In the second Pythiad they did not summon contestants to compete for prizes anymore, but from that time on they established the contest as a crown-only game; and they then abolished flute-singing, judging that the listening was not auspicious; for flute-singing was the most gloomy melodies of flutes and elegies sung to the flutes.

​And the offering of Echembrotus also bears witness to me, a bronze tripod dedicated to Heracles in Thebes; and the tripod had the inscription: “Echembrotus the Arcadian dedicated this beautiful gift to Heracles, having won in the contests of the Amphictyons, singing melodies and elegies to the Greeks.” In this way, indeed, the contest of flute-singing was stopped; but they added a horse race, and Cleisthenes, who became tyrant of Sicyon, was proclaimed winner in the chariot race.

​In the eighth Pythiad they added a law for cithara-players who play without singing; and Agelaus of Tegea was crowned. In the twenty-third Pythiad they added the armed race; and in it Timaenetus of Phlius carried off the laurel, five Olympiads before Damaretus of Heraea won at Olympia. In the forty-eighth Pythiad they also established a race for a two-horse chariot; and the two-horse chariot of Execestides the Phocian won. In the fifth Pythiad from this one they yoked colts to a chariot; and the four-horse chariot of Orphondas of Thebes ran past and won.

​They admitted the pancratium for boys, the two-colt chariot, and the single-colt race many years later than the Eleans, the first in the sixty-first Pythiad, and Iolaidas the Theban won; and leaving an interval of one Pythiad from this, they established a race for a single colt, and in the sixty-ninth Pythiad for a two-colt chariot; and for the single colt, Lycormas of Larissa was proclaimed winner, and Ptolemy the Macedonian for the two-colt chariot; for the Macedonians who were called kings in Egypt indeed took pleasure in these, just as indeed they were. And the crown of laurel for victory at the Pythian games is, in my opinion, for no other reason than that the story has taken hold that Apollo fell in love with the daughter of Ladon.