The view of Olympian history taken above differs considerably from the
orthodox view taken from Pausanias and Strabo, and based on “the ancient
writings of the Eleans.” This priestly fiction may be summarized as
follows. The games originally established by Oxylus were refounded by
Iphitus and Lycurgus, and were under the management of the Eleans. In
Ol. 8 the Pisatans called in Pheidon, king of Argos, and with his help
dispossessed the Eleans, but lost their control in the next Olympiad. In
Ol. 28 Elis, being at war with Dyme, allowed the Pisatans to celebrate
the games. In Ol. 34 Pantaleon, king of Pisa, celebrated the games at
the head of an army. According to one account the Pisatans had control
of the festival for twenty-two successive Olympiads, from the 30th to
the 51st. Finally, somewhere between Ols. 48 and 52, the Eleans defeated
the rebellious Pisatans, destroyed Pisa, laid waste Triphylia, and
henceforth held undisputed control of Olympia with the exception of Ol.
104, which was celebrated by the Arcadians and Pisatans. In consequence
this Olympiad, together with the 8th and 34th, were expunged from the
register and reckoned as Anolympiads. Till Ol. 50 there was only one
Hellanodicas, a descendant of Oxylus; at this date a second was
appointed, and both were chosen by lot from the whole number of the
Eleans.
This story is obviously a pious fraud invented by the priests of Elis to
justify their usurpation by asserting a prior claim, a claim
contradicted by all the evidence, and expressly denied by Xenophon.[52]
For the same reason the part played by Cleosthenes in the truce of
Iphitus is omitted by Pausanias, though fortunately preserved in another
account. It is only possible to point out briefly some of the
inconsistencies and absurdities in the priestly story. Elis is
represented throughout as in control of Olympia, which is situated
outside its boundaries in Pisatis, an independent state with a king of
its own, and this independent state is represented as continually trying
to usurp what is its own. The story of the Anolympiads is discredited by
the fact that in the Olympic register, a document of at least equal
value, these Olympiads were reckoned and the names of the victors were
given. The part played by Pheidon is involved in all the obscurity that
surrounds that most tantalizing character, but that the great tyrant,
whenever he lived, did try to increase his prestige by seizing control
of the Olympia, is rendered probable by the connexion of similar tyrants
with Olympia and the other festivals. The story of the addition of the
second Hellanodicas in Ol. 50, at the very time when Pisa is said to
have been destroyed, is a manifest absurdity. The two Hellanodicai
represent a dual monarchy, and a dual monarchy represents a union of
races. Assuming, what is now generally admitted, the pre-Dorian origin
of the festival, the original Hellanodicas must have been a Pisatan, the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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