Claudius Aelianus, Varia Historia 10.1: Pherenike/ Callipateira breaking the Olympic ban

Claudius Aelianus, Varia Historia 10.1: Pherenike/ Callipateira breaking the Olympic ban

2nd/3rd century CE

Anecdote collection

Literary source

The same anecdote is also transmitted, though with several minor and major differences, by Pseudo-Aeschines, Epistulae 4.5; Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 5.6.7-8 and 6.7.2; Scholion on Pindar, Olympia 7.1; Flavius Philostratus, De Gymnastica 17; Plinius Maior, Naturalis Historia 7.133; Valerius Maximus, Facta et Dicta Memorabilia 8.15.12 ext. 4.

Pherenice brought her son to compete at the Olympic Games. When the Hellanodicae prevented her from being a spectator at the contest, she appeared before the assembly and pleaded that her father and three brothers were Olympic victors and that she brought her son to compete. In winning over the people she conquered the law barring women from the spectacle and watched the Olympic Games.

translation by Alexander Meeus for the Cynisca project

Φερενίκη τὸν υἱὸν ἦγεν ἐς Ὀλύμπια ἀθλεῖν. κωλυόντων δὲ αὐτὴν τῶν Ἑλλανοδικῶν τὸν ἀγῶνα θεάσασθαι, παρελθοῦσα ἐδικαιολογήσατο πατέρα μὲν Ὀλυμπιονίκην ἔχειν καὶ τρεῖς ἀδελφοὺς καὶ αὐτὴ παῖδα Ὀλυμπίων ἀγωνιστήν: καὶ ἐξενίκησε τὸν δῆμον καὶ τὸν εἴργοντα νόμον τῆς θέας τὰς γυναῖκας, καὶ ἐθεάσατο Ὀλύμπια.

Rudolf Hercher (ed.), Claudii Aeliani de natura animalium libri xvii, varia historia, epistolae, fragmenta, vol. 2, Leipzig 1866.