Olympic Victor Monuments and Greek Athletic ArtHyde, Walter Woodburn
History
Olympic Victor Monuments and Greek Athletic Art
Hyde, Walter Woodburn
Olympics; Sculpture, Greek; Sports -- Greece
the position of the statues of the other two victors mentioned. The
statue of the Spartan victor Polykles, surnamed _Polychalkos_, stood
in a singular group. He was represented as being greeted on his return
home by his children, one of whom held a small grace-hoop in his
hand, while the other was trying to snatch the victor ribbon from his
father’s hand.[1885] We learn from Diogenes Laertios that the tyrant
Periandros of Corinth vowed to set up a golden statue of himself if he
won the chariot-race.[1886]
The first instance chronologically recorded by Pausanias of a chariot
victor dedicating his statue along with chariot and horses is that
of king Gelo of Syracuse, the group being the work of the Aeginetan
Glaukias.[1887] The first instance of a victor dedicating his statue in
a group with chariot, horses, and charioteer, is that of Kleosthenes
of Epidamnos, the group being the work of the Argive Hagelaïdas.[1888]
Even the names of the horses were inscribed on this monument.[1889] The
owner of the chariot, to be sure, took the prize, but he felt that the
victory was due to the horses and driver, and so he associated them
with himself in the monument. Sometimes the victor acted as his own
charioteer. Thus the Spartan Damonon, already mentioned as the hero of
many chariot victories in and near Sparta, tells in the inscription
appearing on his votive relief that he was his own charioteer.[1890] In
the first _Isthmian Ode_ Pindar congratulates Herodotos of Thebes, who
won the chariot-race (?) in 458 B. C., on not entrusting his chariot
to strangers, but driving it himself.[1891] Thrasyboulos seems to
have driven his father’s car at the victory commemorated by the sixth
_Pythian Ode_, sung in honor of the chariot victory of Xenokrates of
Akragas in 490 B. C. at Delphi. Karrhotos, the charioteer of Arkesilas
of Kyrene already mentioned, was the latter’s brother-in-law.[1892]
Similarly Aigyptos appears to have ridden his own horse at Olympia
instead of entrusting it to a jockey.[1893] Sophokles, in the
_Electra_, has the hero Orestes drive his own chariot at the _Pythia_.
Kyniska, the daughter of king Archidamas of Sparta, was the first
woman to enter the contests at the race-course and the first to win an
Olympic victory with her chariot.[1894] Apart from the small votive
offering, already mentioned as standing in the temple of Zeus, she had
also a victor-group at Olympia, by the sculptor Apellas, consisting
of chariot, horses, charioteer, and herself. The rounded form of the
recovered base,[1895] in connection with the description of Pausanias,
permits us to assume that the statue of the princess stood in front on
the projecting rounded portion of the pedestal. This is the contention
of Loewy, who opposes the theory of Furtwaengler[1896] that the statue
stood away from the rest of the group, since Pausanias makes no mention
of such an arrangement. In any case, the charioteer in the group can
not have been separated from the car.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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