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
3. From near the date of the battle of Aigospotamoi, down to about the
birth of Alexander the Great, _i. e._, from Ol. 94 to Ol. 106 (= 404
to 356 B. C.), thirty-six statues filled in the intervals left among
these older statues; fifteen stood near the Heraion; five between it
and the _Bull_, seven around the _Bull_, five around the _Victory_, one
near the _Chariots_, and three along the South Altis wall. Euthymenes
and Kritodamos (78, 80) had their monuments near that of their older
countryman (79), whose statue was made by Myron; the Ephesians,
Pyrilampes and Athenaios (35, 36), had their statues beside that of
their benefactor Lysandros (35 a).
4. After Alexander’s time, in consequence of the recent building of
the Philippeion, Leonidaion, and Theekoleon to the west of the Altis,
the western side of the temple of Zeus (and, to a lesser extent, the
northern) became important, and henceforth statues surrounded the
temple on all sides. Of the thirty-three statues of this epoch, nine
stood to the west of the temple, four to the north, and seven to the
south, while the rest stood either to the east, or, perhaps, near the
Heraion. We shall see also that many later statues, known to us from
inscriptions only, stood outside the Altis, to the west and northwest.
STATUES NOT MENTIONED BY PAUSANIAS, BUT KNOWN FROM RECOVERED BASES.
Having established these data, it is not difficult, from the positions
of the many inscribed fragmentary bases found at Olympia and referred
to victor statues not mentioned by Pausanias, from the approximate
dates of the victories as gained from the age of the inscriptions, and
by again employing the system of groups already mentioned, to state
quite definitely where many of these other statues stood. Pausanias,
who mentions 187 victors with 192 monuments in his two ἔφοδοι,
expressly states that he enumerates only those “who had some title
to fame or whose statues were better made.”[2364] The reasons for
his selection and the fact that he mentions the statue of no athlete
certainly later than the middle of the second century B. C. (although
we know from inscriptions that statues were set up far into the third
century A. D., at least)[2365] have been subjects of much discussion,
but hardly concern us here.[2366] The three latest statues of victors
mentioned by Pausanias, whose dates are fixed, may be given: those of
Kleitomachos, who won παγκράτιον and πύξ in Ols. 141 and 142 (= 216
and 212 B. C.);[2367] of Kapros, victor in παγκράτιον and πάλη in
Ol. 142 (= 212 B. C.);[2368] and of Akestorides, victor πώλων ἅρματι
sometime between Ols. 142 and 144 (= 212 and 204 B. C.).[2369] Still
later statues of victors named by Pausanias, whose dates can not be
exactly determined, are those of Sodamas, who won παίδων στάδιον some
time between Ols. 142 and 145 (= 212 and 200 B. C.);[2370] of Amyntas,
victor in παίδων παγκράτιον in Ol. (?) 146 (= 196 B. C.);[2371]
of Timon, victor in πένταθλον in Ols. 146 or 147 (= 196 or 192 B.
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