Then the mighty son of Zeus having gathered together all his host at Pisa, and all the booty, measured a sacred grove for his sovereign Father; and having fenced round the Altis he marked the bounds thereof in a clear space, and the plain encompassing it he ordained for rest and feasting, and paid honour to the river Alpheos together with the twelve greatest gods.  And he named it by the name of the Hill of Kronos; for theretofore it was without name, when Oinomaos was king, and it was sprinkled with much snow[6].

And at this first-born rite the Fates stood hard at hand, and he who alone proveth sure truth, even Time.  He travelling onward hath told us the clear tale of how the founder set apart the choicest of the spoil for an offering from the war, and sacrificed, and how he ordained the fifth-year feast with the victories of that first Olympiad.

Who then won to their lot the new-appointed crown by hands or feet or chariot, setting before them the prize of glory in the games, and winning it by their act?  In the foot-race down the straight course of the stadion was Likymnios’ son Oionos first, from Nidea had he led his host:  in the wrestling was Tegea glorified by Echemos:  Doryklos won the prize of boxing, a dweller in the city of Tiryns, and with the four-horse chariot, Samos of Mantinea, Halirrhothios’ son:  with the javelin Phrastor hit the mark:  in distance Enikeus beyond all others hurled the stone with a circling sweep, and all the warrior company thundered a great applause.

Then on the evening the lovely shining of the fair-faced moon beamed forth, and all the precinct sounded with songs of festal glee, after the manner which is to this day for triumph.

So following the first beginning of old time, we likewise in a song named of proud victory will celebrate the thunder and the flaming bolt of loud-pealing Zeus, the fiery lightning that goeth with all victory[7].

And soft tones to the music of the flute shall meet and mingle with my verse, which beside famous Dirke hath come to light after long time.

But even as a son by his lawful wife is welcome to a father who hath now travelled to the other side of youth, and maketh his soul warm with love—­for wealth that must fall to a strange owner from without is most hateful to a dying man—­so also, Agesidamos, when a man who hath done honourable deeds goeth unsung to the house of Hades, this man hath spent vain breath, and won but brief gladness for his toil.

On thee the pleasant lyre and the sweet pipe shed their grace, and the Pierian daughters of Zeus foster thy wide-spread fame.

I with them, setting myself thereunto fervently, have embraced the Lokrians’ famous race, and have sprinkled my honey upon a city of goodly men:  and I have told the praises of Archestratos’ comely son, whom I beheld victorious by the might of his hand beside the altar at Olympia, and saw on that day how fair he was of form, how gifted with that spring-tide bloom, which erst with favour of the Cyprian queen warded from Ganymede unrelenting death.