ERGOTELES—PULYDAMAS BK. VI. ELIS

It has been conjectured that the statue known as "the Westmacott Athlete" in the British Museum is a copy of Polyclitus’s statue of Cyniscus. "The Westmacott Athlete" depicts a young man of vigorous, athletic build, standing and apparently in the act of placing the victor’s wreath on his head; however, the right arm is broken off, and the left arm hangs by his side. The style of the statue is thoroughly Polyclitian, and the footprints align closely with those on the Olympic pedestal. The original must have been a famous work, as numerous other replicas and imitations have survived, including two notable statues in Rome: one in the Barracco Collection and the other in the garden of the Palazzo del Quirinale. See A. Philios, in Ephemeris Archaeologike (Archaeological Journal), 1890, p. 207 sqq. (following pages), with plates 10 and 11; Collignon, Histoire de la Sculpture Grecque (History of Greek Sculpture), I, p. 499, with fig. 255; and especially A. Furtwängler, Meisterwerke d. griech. Plastik (Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture), pp. 452-471.

4. 11. Ergoteles — won two victories — at Olympia, etc. Pindar composed his twelfth Olympic ode in honor of this Ergoteles. In that ode (v. 16 sqq.), the poet alludes to the political turmoil that drove Ergoteles from his native Cnosus, and to the two Pythian and two Isthmian victories he won. However, since he makes no mention of a second Olympic victory, it follows that the ode was written in honor of the first of the two, which occurred in the 77th Olympiad (472 B.C.), as we learn from the Scholia (commentaries) on Pindar (p. 261, ed. Boeckh). The Pythian victories of Ergoteles occurred in the twenty-fifth and twenty-ninth Pythiads (Schol. on Pindar, l.c. - in the place cited), both of which preceded the 77th Olympiad. See Boeckh, Explic. Pindar (Explanation of Pindar), p. 205 sqq. Conversely, as Pindar makes no reference to the Nemean victories of Ergoteles, it follows that these were won after the composition of the ode, and therefore after the 77th Olympiad (472 B.C.).

5. 1. Pulydamas. Compare vii. 27. 6; Philostratus, De arte gymnastica (On the Art of Gymnastics), 22. The victory of Pulydamas, or Polydamas as he is also known, was won in the 93rd Olympiad (408 B.C.), as we learn from Eusebius (Chronic. vol. I, p. 203, ed. Schöne), who adds that Pulydamas traveled to Persia, slew lions in the presence of Ochus (i.e., Darius II, King of Persia), and fought bare-handed against armed men. Tzetzes refers to the exploits of Pulydamas in slaying lions and outrunning a chariot (quoted in Dindorf’s Teubner edition of Diodorus, vol. 2, p. 149). The account that Suidas (under the entry "Polydamas") gives of this athlete is copied almost verbatim from this passage of Pausanias. Lucian tells us that the statue of Pulydamas at Olympia was believed to cure fever (Deorum concilium [Council of the Gods], 12).

5. 3. In the second year of the hundred and second Olympiad. That is, 371 B.C. However, Diodorus (xv. 75) places the sack of Scotusa in 367 B.C. The massacre is also mentioned by Plutarch (Pelopidas, 29).

5. 4. The highlands of Thrace are the home of lions. Herodotus, after recounting how the camels in the army of Xerxes were attacked by lions in Thrace, notes that lions were common in the region between the river Nestus in Thrace and the river Achelous in Acarnania, but that they were not found in any other part of Europe (vii. 125 sqq.). Aristotle, a native of this region, twice states that lions were found in Europe only between the rivers Nessus and Achelous.