Description of Greece

​It follows for my account concerning the dedications to make, after this, already mention of competing horses and of men, both athletes and private individuals alike. Not of all who have conquered at Olympia are there statues standing, but even some who showed brilliant achievements in the contest, or others for other deeds, yet did not obtain images.

​These my account has commanded me to leave aside, because it is not a catalogue of all athletes who have gained Olympic victories, but a description of other dedications and especially of images. Nor of those whose statues stand shall I go through all, knowing how many have already carried off the wild-olive crown by the unexpected turn of the lot and not by strength. But of those who either themselves had something to contribute to glory or whose statues happened to be more finely made than others, of these I too shall make mention.

​On the right of the temple of Hera is the image of a wrestler, an Elean by race, Symmachus the son of Aeschylus. Beside him is Neolaidas the son of Proxenus, from Pheneus of the Arcadians, who won a victory in boys’ boxing. Next is Archedamus the son of Xenias, who also threw boy wrestlers, and was himself an Elean by race. The statues of these men just mentioned were made by Alypus of Sicyon, a pupil of Naucydes the Argive.

​As for Cleogenes the son of Silenus, the inscription upon him says that he was one of the natives, and that he won with a riding-horse from his own herd. Near Cleogenes lie both Deinolochus the son of Pyrrhus and Troilus the son of Alcinus. These too are of Elean race, but their victories did not happen in the same way. For to Troilus it befell to be a Hellanodikes and at the same time to carry off victories with horses, with a full-grown pair and with a chariot of foals—he won in the hundred and second Olympiad, ​and from this there also arose a law for the Eleans that for the future no one of the Hellanodikai should enter horses—and Lysippus made his statue. But the mother of Deinolochus saw a vision in a dream that she held her child in her lap crowned, and for this reason Deinolochus was trained for the contest and outran the boys in the race. His statue is by Cleon of Sicyon.

​As for Cynisca, the daughter of Archidamus, both her pedigree and her Olympic victories I have already set forth earlier in the accounts concerning the kings of the Lacedaemonians. At Olympia, beside the statue of Troilus, there has been made a stone base, and a chariot of horses, a charioteer, and an image of Cynisca herself, the work of Apellas, and there are also inscriptions written concerning Cynisca.

​There are also Lacedaemonians dedicated next to Cynisca, who gained victories with horses. Anaxandrus was first proclaimed victor with a chariot, and the inscription upon him says that the father of Anaxandrus’ father had been crowned even earlier in the pentathlon. He indeed seems to be praying to the god; and Polycles, who received the surname Polychalcos, also won with a four-horse chariot, and his statue has a ribbon in his right hand.

​Beside him are two small boys, one holding the wheel, the other asking for the ribbon. Polycles won with horses, as the inscription upon him says, both at Pytho and at the Isthmus, and at Nemea.