Often the home-coming of a victor at one of the national games was the occasion for a public celebration. Sometimes the whole city turned out to meet the hero.[333] The victory was recorded on pillars, and poets composed songs in its honor which were sung by choruses of girls and boys. Sometimes a statue was set up in the agora or on the Akropolis. In the cities of Magna Græcia and Sicily such adulation of Olympic victors became at times very extravagant. Thus Exainetos of Akragas, who won the stade-race in Ols. 91 and 92 (= 416-412 B. C.), was brought into the city in a four-horse chariot drawn by his fellow-citizens, and was escorted by 300 men in two-horse chariots drawn by white horses.[334] It is also in the West that we first hear of victors being worshipped as heroes or gods, though the custom soon took root in Greece. It was but natural to account for the great strength of famous athletes by assigning to them divine origin and by worshipping them after death.[335] Philippos of Kroton, who won in an unknown contest about Ol. 65 (= 520 B. C.), had a _heroön_ erected in his honor by the people of Egesta in Sicily on account of his beauty, in which he surpassed all his contemporaries, and he was worshipped after his death as a hero.[336] The famous boxer Euthymos of Lokroi Epizephyrioi, who won in Ols. 74, 76, 77 (= 484, 476, 472 B. C.), was worshipped even before his death and was looked upon as the son of no earthly father, but of the river-god Kaikinos.[337] Fabulous feats were ascribed to him, _e. g._, the expulsion of the Black Spirit from Temessa.[338] During and after his lifetime sacrifices were offered in his honor.[339] The equally famed boxer and pancratiast Theagenes of Thasos, the opponent of Euthymos, who won in Ols. 75 and 76 (= 480 and 476 B. C.), was heroized after his death.[340] The Thasians maintained that his father was Herakles.[341] The boxer Kleomedes of Astypalaia, who won in Ol. 71 (= 496 B. C.), was honored as a hero after death.[342] Having killed Ikkos, his opponent, he became crazed with grief. Pausanias recounts his curious death.[343] The worship of such athletes was supposed to bestow physical strength on their adorers and consequently statues were erected to them in many places and were thought to be able to cure illnesses.[344] The life of a successful athlete was looked upon as especially happy. In Aristophanes’ _Plutus_, Hermes deserts the gods and serves Plutus “the presider over contests,” thinking no service more profitable to the god of wealth than holding contests in music and athletics.[345] Plato thought an Olympic victor’s life was the most blessed of all from a material point of view.[346] In the myth of Er the soul of Atalanta chooses the body of an athlete, on seeing “the great rewards bestowed on an athlete.”[347] The great Rhodian pancratiast Dorieus, who won in Ols. 87, 88, 89 (= 432-424 B. C.), was taken prisoner by Athens during the Peloponnesian war,