Description of Greece

​Beside the altar of Zeus Laoitas and Poseidon Laoitas, and past these, stands a Zeus on a bronze pedestal, a gift of the Corinthian people and a work of Musus, whoever this Musus may be. To one going from the Council House to the great temple, there is on the left a statue of Zeus, crowned as it were with flowers, and in his right hand a thunderbolt has been fashioned. This is the work of Ascarus of Thebes, who was taught by Canachus of Sicyon; and the inscription upon it says that it is a tithe from the war between the Phocians and the Thessalians.

​But if these entered into some war with the Phocians, and the dedication is from the Phocians, it would not be the so-called Sacred War, but the one they fought even earlier, before the Medes and the King crossed over into Greece. Not far from this is a Zeus, which the Psophidians dedicated for success in war, as the verse written upon it declares.

​To the right of the great temple is a Zeus facing the rising sun, twelve feet in height, said to be a dedication of the Lacedaemonians when they entered into war for the second time against the revolted Messenians; and there is also an elegy upon it: “Accept, O Lord, son of Cronus, Olympian Zeus, this beautiful statue with a gracious heart towards the Lacedaemonians.”

​Of the Romans, we know of no one, whether a private person or of the senate, who dedicated an offering in a Greek sanctuary before Mummius, but Mummius dedicated from the spoils of Achaea a bronze Zeus at Olympia; this stands to the left of the Lacedaemonian dedication, beside the first pillar of the temple on this side. The largest of the bronze statues of Zeus in the Altis was dedicated by the Eleans themselves after the war against the Arcadians, and its height is twenty-seven feet.

​Beside the Pelopium is a pillar of no great height and on it a small statue of Zeus, stretching out one of his hands. Opposite this are other dedications in a row, and likewise statues of Zeus and Ganymede; and it has been composed by Homer how Ganymede was carried off by the gods to pour wine for Zeus, and how horses were given to Tros as a gift in exchange for him. This was dedicated by Gnathis the Thessalian, and made by Aristocles, a pupil and son of Cleoitas.

​There is also another Zeus, not yet having a beard, and it lies among the dedications of Micythus. The facts concerning Micythus, what kind of birth he had, and for what reason he dedicated so many offerings at Olympia, my next account will show. Proceeding a little in a straight line from the aforesaid statue, there is a statue of Zeus, itself also without a beard, a dedication of the Elaeans, who are the first to dwell in Aeolis as one goes down to the sea from the plain of Caicus.