Pausanias, Description of Greece, ed. W. H. S. Jones, ed. H. A. Ormerod, ed. Gregory Nagy, 5.10

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[1] There are many things to be seen and to be heard in the Greek world [= among the Hellēnes] that are worthy of wonder [ thauma]; but the greatest share [of all these wondrous things]—from the standpoint of a [generic] god’s way-of-thinking [ phrontis]—goes to the rituals [ drōmena] at Eleusis and to the competition [ agōn] at Olympia. The sacred grove of Zeus has been called from of old Altis, a corruption of the word “ alsos,” which means a grove. Pindar too calls the place Altis in an ode composed for an Olympic victor.

[2] The temple and the statue [ agalma] were made for Zeus from spoils, when Pisa was crushed in war by the Eleians, and along with Pisa, those of the subject population who were fellow conspirators. The statue [ agalma] itself was made by Pheidias, as is testified by an inscription written under the feet of Zeus: Pheidias, son of Kharmides, an Athenian, made me. The temple is in the Doric style, and the outside has columns all around it. It is built of native stone.

[3] Its height up to the pediment is sixty-eight feet, its width is ninety-five, its length two hundred and thirty. The architect was Libon, a native. The tiles are not of baked earth, but of Pentelic marble cut into the shape of tiles. The invention is said to be that of Byzes of Naxos, who they say made the images in Naxos, on which is the inscription: To the offspring of Leto was I dedicated by Euergos, a Naxian, son of Byzes, who first made tiles of stone. This Byzes lived about the time of Alyattes the Lydian, when Astyages, the son of Kyaxares, reigned over the Medes.

[4] At Olympia, a gilded caldron stands on each end of the roof, and a Nike, also gilded, is set in about the middle of the pediment. Under the image of Nike has been dedicated a golden shield with Medusa the Gorgon in relief. The inscription on the shield declares who dedicated it and the reason why they did so. It runs thus:

The temple has a golden shield; from Tanagra
The Lacedaemonians and their allies dedicated it,
A gift taken from the Argives, Athenians, and Ionians,
The tithe offered for victory in war.

This battle I also mentioned in my write-up [ sun-graphē] of Attica. Then I described the tombs that are in Athens.

[5] On the outside of the frieze that runs round the temple at Olympia, above the columns, are gilded shields twenty-one in number, an offering made by the Roman general Mummius when he had conquered the Achaeans in war, captured Corinth, and driven out its Dorian inhabitants.

[6] To come to the pediments: in the front [= east] pediment there is the yet-to-happen chariot race between Pelops and Oinomaos, and preparation for the running [of the race] is being made by both. A sculpture [ agalma] of Zeus has been made [ pe-poiēmenon] at the middle of the pediment; on the right of Zeus is Oinomaos with a helmet on his head, and, next to him, is Sterope his wife, who was one of the daughters of Atlas. Myrtilos is there also, the charioteer of Oinomaos, and he is sitting in front of the horses, which are four in number. Behind him are two men. They have no names, but they too must be under orders from Oinomaos to attend to the horses.

[7] At the very edge is situated Kladeos, the river which, in other ways also, gets the most honors [ tīmai]—after the Alpheios—from the people of Elis. On the left of Zeus are Pelops, then Hippodameia, then the charioteer [ hēniokhos] of Pelops, then the horses, and then two men, who are apparently grooms of Pelops. Then the pediment narrows again, and in this part of it is made [ pe-poiētai] the Alpheios. The name of the man who was-the-chariot-driver [ hēniokheîn] for Pelops is, according to the narrative [ logos] of the people of Troizen, Sphairos, but the guide [ ex-hēgētēs] at Olympia was saying that he was Killas.

[8] The sculptures in the front [= east] pediment are by Paionios, who came from Mende in Thrace; those in the back [= west] pediment are by Alkamenes, a contemporary of Pheidias, ranking next after him for skill [ sophiā] in the making [ poiēsis] of statues [ agalmata]. What he [= Alkamenes] had on the pediment is the fight [ makhē] between the Lapithai and the Centaurs at the wedding of Peirithoös. In the center of the pediment is Peirithoös. Next to him on one side is Eurytion [the Centaur], who has seized [ harpazein] the wife of Peirithoös, and then there is Kaineus [= one of the Lapithai], who is coming up to help Peirithoös, and, on the other side is Theseus defending himself against the Centaurs with an axe [ pelekus]. One Centaur has just seized [ harpazein] a girl [ parthenos], another a boy [ pais] in-the-prime-of-youth [ hōraios]. Alkamenes, I think, made [ poieîn] these things this way because he had learned from the verses [ epē] of Homer that Peirithoös was a son of Zeus, and because he knew that Theseus was the fourth [inclusive] generation removed from Pelops.

[9] Most of the labors [ erga] of Hēraklēs are represented at Olympia. Above the doors of the temple is carved the hunting of the Arcadian boar, his exploit against Diomedes the Thracian and that against Geryones at Erytheia; he is also about to receive the burden of Atlas, and he cleanses the land from dung for the Eleians. Above the doors of the rear chamber, he is taking the waistband from the Amazon; and there are the stories of the deer, of the bull at Knossos, of the Stymphalian birds, of the hydra, and of the Argive lion.

[10] As you enter the bronze doors you see on the right, before the column, Iphitos being garlanded by a woman, Ekhekheiria [‘Truce’], as the elegiac couplet on the statue says. Within the temple stand columns, and inside also are porticoes above, with an approach through them to the statue [ agalma]. There has also been constructed a winding ascent to the roof.

Description of Greece. Pausanias. ed. W. H. S. Jones, ed. H. A. Ormerod, ed. Gregory Nagy. . .

Current edition Experimental

English (Jones and Ormerod; retranslated Gregory Nagy, CHS, 2018) (OCR draft) (English) (CHS Pausanias Reader retranslation by Gregory Nagy, based on Jones and Ormerod, with marked Greek terms, notes, quotations, and bibliographic attributions preserved.)

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)

Ἑλλάδος Περιηγήσεως Perseus (Pausanias. Pausaniae Graeciae descriptio, Volumes 1-3. Spiro, Friedrich, editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1903.) — 5.10 focus

[1] πολλὰ μὲν δὴ καὶ ἄλλα ἴδοι τις ἂν ἐν Ἕλλησι, τὰ 0 δὲ καὶ ἀκούσαι θαύματος ἄξια· μάλιστα δὲ τοῖς Ἐλευσῖνι δρωμένοις καὶ ἀγῶνι τῷ ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ μέτεστιν ἐκ θεοῦ φροντίδος.
τὸ δὲ ἄλσος τὸ ἱερὸν τοῦ Διὸς παραποιήσαντες τὸ ὄνομα Ἄλτιν ἐκ παλαιοῦ καλοῦσι· καὶ δὴ καὶ Πινδάρῳ ποιήσαντι ἐς ἄνδρα Ὀλυμπιονίκην ᾆσμα Ἄλτις ἐπωνόμασται τὸ χωρίον.

[2] ἐποιήθη δὲ ὁ ναὸς καὶ τὸ ἄγαλμα τῷ Διὶ ἀπὸ λαφύρων, ἡνίκα Πίσαν οἱ Ἠλεῖοι καὶ ὅσον τῶν περιοίκων ἄλλο συναπέστη Πισαίοις πολέμῳ καθεῖλον. Φειδίαν δὲ τὸν ἐργασάμενον τὸ ἄγαλμα εἶναι καὶ ἐπίγραμμά ἐστιν ἐς μαρτυρίαν ὑπὸ τοῦ Διὸς γεγραμμένον τοῖς ποσί·

Φειδίας Χαρμίδου υἱὸς Ἀθηναῖός μʼ ἐποίησε.

τοῦ ναοῦ δὲ Δώριος μέν ἐστιν ἡ ἐργασία, τὰ δὲ ἐκτὸς περίστυλός ἐστι·

[3] πεποίηται δὲ ἐπιχωρίου πώρου. ὕψος μὲν δὴ αὐτοῦ τὸ ἐς τὸν ἀετὸν ἀνῆκον, εἰσίν οἱ ὀκτὼ πόδες καὶ ἑξήκοντα, εὖρος δὲ πέντε καὶ ἐνενήκοντα, τὰ δὲ ἐς μῆκος τριάκοντά τε καὶ διακόσιοι· τέκτων δὲ ἐγένετο αὐτοῦ Λίβων ἐπιχώριος. κέραμος δὲ οὐ γῆς ὀπτῆς ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ κεράμου τρόπον λίθος ὁ Πεντελῆσιν εἰργασμένος· τὸ δὲ εὕρημα ἀνδρὸς Ναξίου λέγουσιν εἶναι Βύζου, οὗ φασιν ἐν Νάξῳ τὰ ἀγάλματα ἐφʼ ὧν ἐπίγραμμα εἶναι

Νάξιος Εὔεργός με γένει Λητοῦς πόρε, Βύζεω

παῖς, ὃς πρώτιστος τεῦξε λίθου κέραμον.

ἡλικίαν δὲ ὁ Βύζης οὗτος κατὰ Ἀλυάττην ἦν τὸν Λυδὸν καὶ Ἀστυάγην τὸν Κυαξάρου βασιλεύοντα ἐν Μήδοις.

[4] ἐν δὲ Ὀλυμπίᾳ λέβης ἐπίχρυσος ἐπὶ ἑκάστῳ 0 τοῦ ὀρόφου τῷ πέρατι ἐπίκειται καὶ Νίκη κατὰ μέσον μάλιστα ἕστηκε τὸν ἀετόν, ἐπίχρυσος καὶ αὕτη. ὑπὸ δὲ τῆς Νίκης τὸ ἄγαλμα ἀσπὶς ἀνάκειται χρυσῆ, Μέδουσαν τὴν Γοργόνα ἔχουσα ἐπειργασμένην. τὸ ἐπίγραμμα δὲ τὸ ἐπὶ τῇ ἀσπίδι τούς τε ἀναθέντας δηλοῖ καὶ καθʼ ἥντινα αἰτίαν ἀνέθεσαν· λέγει γὰρ δὴ οὕτω·

ναὸς μὲν φιάλαν χρυσέαν ἔχει, ἐκ δὲ Τανάγρας

τοὶ Λακεδαιμόνιοι συμμαχία τʼ ἀν έθεν

δῶρον ἀπʼ Ἀργείων καὶ Ἀθαναίων καὶ Ἰώνων,

τὰν δεκάταν νίκας εἵνεκα τῶ πολέμω.

ταύτης τῆς μάχης μνήμην καὶ ἐν τῇ Ἀτθίδι ἐποιησάμην συγγραφῇ, τὰ Ἀθήνῃσιν ἐπεξιὼν μνήματα.

[5] τοῦ δὲ ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ ναοῦ τῆς ὑπὲρ τῶν κιόνων περιθεούσης ζώνης κατὰ τὸ ἐκτὸς ἀσπίδες εἰσὶν ἐπίχρυσοι μία καὶ εἴκοσιν ἀριθμόν, ἀνάθημα στρατηγοῦ Ῥωμαίων Μομμίου κρατήσαντος Ἀχαιῶν πολέμῳ καὶ Κόρινθόν τε ἑλόντος καὶ Κορινθίους τοὺς Δωριέας ποιήσαντος ἀναστάτους.

[6] τὰ δὲ ἐν τοῖς ἀετοῖς, ἔστιν ἔμπροσθεν Πέλοπος ἡ πρὸς Οἰνόμαον τῶν ἵππων ἅμιλλα ἔτι μέλλουσα καὶ τὸ ἔργον τοῦ δρόμου παρὰ ἀμφοτέρων ἐν παρασκευῇ. Διὸς δὲ ἀγάλματος κατὰ μέσον πεποιημένου μάλιστα τὸν ἀετόν, ἔστιν Οἰνόμαος ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ Διὸς ἐπικείμενος κράνος τῇ κεφαλῇ, παρὰ δὲ αὐτὸν γυνὴ Στερόπη, θυγατέρων καὶ αὕτη τῶν Ἄτλαντος· Μυρτίλος δέ, ὃς ἤλαυνε τῷ Οἰνομάῳ τὸ ἅρμα, κάθηται πρὸ τῶν ἵππων, οἱ δέ εἰσιν ἀριθμὸν οἱ ἵπποι τέσσαρες. μετὰ δὲ αὐτόν εἰσιν ἄνδρες δύο· ὀνόματα μέν σφισιν οὐκ 0 ἔστι, θεραπεύειν δὲ ἄρα τοὺς ἵππους καὶ τούτοις προσετέτακτο ὑπὸ τοῦ Οἰνομάου.

[7] πρὸς αὐτῷ δὲ κατάκειται τῷ πέρατι Κλάδεος· ἔχει δὲ καὶ ἐς τὰ ἄλλα παρʼ Ἠλείων τιμὰς ποταμῶν μάλιστα μετά γε Ἀλφειόν. τὰ δὲ ἐς ἀριστερὰ ἀπὸ τοῦ Διὸς ὁ Πέλοψ καὶ Ἱπποδάμεια καὶ ὅ τε ἡνίοχός ἐστι τοῦ Πέλοπος καὶ ἵπποι δύο τε ἄνδρες, ἱπποκόμοι δὴ καὶ οὗτοι τῷ Πέλοπι. καὶ αὖθις ὁ ἀετὸς κάτεισιν ἐς στενόν, καὶ κατὰ τοῦτο Ἀλφειὸς ἐπʼ αὐτοῦ πεποίηται. τῷ δὲ ἀνδρὶ ὃς ἡνιοχεῖ τῷ Πέλοπι λόγῳ μὲν τῷ Τροιζηνίων ἐστὶν ὄνομα Σφαῖρος, ὁ δὲ ἐξηγητὴς ἔφασκεν ὁ ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ Κίλλαν εἶναι.

[8] τὰ μὲν δὴ ἔμπροσθεν ἐν τοῖς ἀετοῖς ἐστι Παιωνίου, γένος ἐκ Μένδης τῆς Θρᾳκίας, τὰ δὲ ὄπισθεν αὐτῶν Ἀλκαμένους, ἀνδρὸς ἡλικίαν τε κατὰ Φειδίαν καὶ δευτερεῖα ἐνεγκαμένου σοφίας ἐς ποίησιν ἀγαλμάτων. τὰ δὲ ἐν τοῖς ἀετοῖς ἐστιν αὐτῷ Λαπιθῶν ἐν τῷ Πειρίθου γάμῳ πρὸς Κενταύρους ἡ μάχη. κατὰ μὲν δὴ τοῦ ἀετοῦ τὸ μέσον Πειρίθους ἐστίν· παρὰ δὲ αὐτὸν τῇ μὲν Εὐρυτίων ἡρπακὼς τὴν γυναῖκά ἐστι τοῦ Πειρίθου καὶ ἀμύνων Καινεὺς τῷ Πειρίθῳ, τῇ δὲ Θησεὺς ἀμυνόμενος πελέκει τοὺς Κενταύρους· Κένταυρος δὲ ὁ μὲν παρθένον, ὁ δὲ παῖδα ἡρπακώς ἐστιν ὡραῖον. ἐποίησε δὲ ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν ταῦτα ὁ Ἀλκαμένης, Πειρίθουν τε εἶναι Διὸς ἐν ἔπεσι τοῖς Ὁμήρου δεδιδαγμένος καὶ Θησέα ἐπιστάμενος ὡς εἴη τέταρτος ἀπὸ Πέλοπος.

[9]
ἔστι δὲ ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ καὶ Ἡρακλέους τὰ πολλὰ τῶν ἔργων. ὑπὲρ μὲν τοῦ ναοῦ πεποίηται τῶν θυρῶν ἡ 0 ἐξ Ἀρκαδίας ἄγρα τοῦ ὑὸς καὶ τὰ πρὸς Διομήδην τὸν Θρᾷκα καὶ ἐν Ἐρυθείᾳ πρὸς Γηρυόνην, καὶ Ἄτλαντός τε τὸ φόρημα ἐκδέχεσθαι μέλλων καὶ τῆς κόπρου καθαίρων τὴν γῆν ἐστιν Ἠλείοις· ὑπὲρ δὲ τοῦ ὀπισθοδόμου τῶν θυρῶν ὁ τοῦ ζωστῆρος τὴν Ἀμαζόνα ἐστὶν ἀφαιρούμενος καὶ τὰ ἐς τὴν ἔλαφον καὶ τὸν ἐν Κνωσσῷ ταῦρον καὶ ὄρνιθας τὰς ἐπὶ Στυμφήλῳ καὶ ἐς ὕδραν τε καὶ τὸν ἐν τῇ γῇ τῇ Ἀργείᾳ λέοντα.

[10] τὰς θύρας δὲ ἐσιόντι τὰς χαλκᾶς, ἔστιν ἐν δεξιᾷ πρὸ τοῦ κίονος Ἴφιτος ὑπὸ γυναικὸς στεφανούμενος Ἐκεχειρίας, ὡς τὸ ἐλεγεῖον τὸ ἐπʼ αὐτοῖς φησιν. ἑστήκασι δὲ καὶ ἐντὸς τοῦ ναοῦ κίονες, καὶ στοαί τε ἔνδον ὑπερῷοι καὶ πρόσοδος διʼ αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τὸ ἄγαλμά ἐστι. πεποίηται δὲ καὶ ἄνοδος ἐπὶ τὸν ὄροφον σκολιά.

Translations (1)

Description of Greece Perseus (Pausanias. Pausanias Description of Greece, Volumes 1-4. Jones, W.H.S. (William Henry Samuel), translator; Ormerod, Henry Arderne, translator. London, New York: W. Heinemann, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1918-1935.) — 5.10 focus

[1]
Many are the sights to be seen in Greece , and many are the wonders to be heard; but on nothing does Heaven bestow more care than on the Eleusinian rites and the Olympic games.
The sacred grove of Zeus has been called from of old Altis, a corruption of the word “alsos,” which means a grove. Pindar¹ too calls the place Altis in an ode composed for an Olympic victor.

[2] The temple and the image were made for Zeus from spoils, when Pisa was crushed in war by the Eleans², and with Pisa such of the subject peoples as conspired together with her. The image itself was wrought by Pheidias, as is testified by an inscription written under the feet of Zeus:

Pheidias, son of Charmides, an Athenian, made me.

The temple is in the Doric style, and the outside has columns all around it. It is built of native stone.

[3] Its height up to the pediment is sixty-eight feet, its breadth is ninety-five, its length two hundred and thirty. The architect was Libon, a native. The tiles are not of baked earth, but of Pentelic marble cut into the shape of tiles. The invention is said to be that of Byzes of Naxos , who they say made the images in Naxos on which is the inscription:—

To the offspring of Leto was I dedicated by Euergus,

A Naxian, son of Byzes, who first made tiles of stone.

This Byzes lived about the time of Alyattes the Lydian³, when Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, reigned over the Medes.

[4] At Olympia a gilt caldron stands on each end of the roof, and a Victory, also gilt, is set in about the middle of the pediment. Under the image of Victory has been dedicated a golden shield, with Medusa the Gorgon in relief. The inscription on the shield declares who dedicated it and the reason why they did so. It runs thus:—

The temple has a golden shield; from Tanagra

The Lacedaemonians and their allies dedicated it,

A gift taken from the Argives, Athenians and Ionians,

The tithe offered for victory in war.

This battle I also mentioned in my history of Attica ,⁴ Then I described the tombs that are at Athens .

[5] On the outside of the frieze that runs round the temple at Olympia , above the columns, are gilt shields one and twenty in number, an offering made by the Roman general Mummius when he had conquered the Achaeans in war, captured Corinth , and driven out its Dorian inhabitants.

[6] To come to the pediments: in the front pediment there is, not yet begun, the chariot-race between Pelops and Oenomaus, and preparation for the actual race is being made by both. An image of Zeus has been carved in about the middle of the pediment; on the right of Zeus is Oenomaus with a helmet on his head, and by him Sterope his wife, who was one of the daughters of Atlas. Myrtilus too, the charioteer of Oenomaus, sits in front of the horses, which are four in number. After him are two men. They have no names, but they too must be under orders from Oenomaus to attend to the horses.

[7] At the very edge lies Cladeus, the river which, in other ways also, the Eleans honor most after the Alpheius. On the left from Zeus are Pelops, Hippodameia, the charioteer of Pelops, horses, and two men, who are apparently grooms of Pelops. Then the pediment narrows again, and in this part of it is represented the Alpheius. The name of the charioteer of Pelops is, according to the account of the Troezenians, Sphaerus, but the guide at Olympia called him Cillas.

[8] The sculptures in the front pediment are by Paeonius, who came from Mende in Thrace ⁵; those in the back pediment are by Alcamenes,⁶ a contemporary of Pheidias, ranking next after him for skill as a sculptor. What he carved on the pediment is the fight between the Lapithae and the Centaurs at the marriage of Peirithous. In the center of the pediment is Peirithous.⁷ On one side of him is Eurytion, who has seized the wife of Peirithous, with Caeneus bringing help to Peirithous, and on the other side is Theseus defending himself against the Centaurs with an axe. One Centaur has seized a maid, another a boy in the prime of youth. Alcamenes, I think, carved this scene, because he had learned from Homer's⁸ poem that Peirithous was a son of Zeus, and because he knew that Theseus was a great grandson of Pelops.

[9]
Most of the labours of Heracles are represented at Olympia . Above the doors of the temple is carved the hunting of the Arcadian boar, his exploit against Diomedes the Thracian, and that against Geryones at Erytheia; he is also about to receive the burden of Atlas, and he cleanses the land from dung for the Eleans. Above the doors of the rear chamber he is taking the girdle from the Amazon ; and there are the affairs of the deer, of the bull at Cnossus , of the Stymphalian birds, of the hydra, and of the Argive lion.

[10] As you enter the bronze doors you see on the right, before the pillar, Iphitus being crowned by a woman, Ececheiria (Truce), as the elegiac couplet on the statue says. Within the temple stand pillars, and inside also are porticoes above, with an approach through them to the image. There has also been constructed a winding ascent to the roof.

New Alexandria Commentaries

Gregory Nagy, Editors: Angelia Hanhardt and Keith DeStone, Web producer: Noel Spencer, Consultant for images: Jill Curry Robbins, \[\[Noel gives this a separate URN\]\]

Pausanias Description of Greece 5.10

ed. W. H. S. Jones, ed. H. A. Ormerod, ed. Gregory Nagy

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