Flavius Philostratus, De Gymnastica 17: Pherenike/ Callipateira breaking the Olympic ban

Flavius Philostratus, De Gymnastica 17: Pherenike/ Callipateira breaking the Olympic ban

2nd/3rd century CE

Treatise on Greek athletic history and practice

Literary source

The same anecdote is also transmitted, though with several minor and major differences, by Pseudo-Aeschines, Epistulae 4.5; Claudius Aelianus, Varia Historia 10.1; Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 5.6.7-8 and 6.7.2; Scholion on Pindar, Olympia 7.1; Plinius Maior, Naturalis Historia 7.133; Valerius Maximus, Facta et Dicta Memorabilia 8.15.12 ext. 4.

At the Pythia and the Isthmia and wherever else in the world games are held, the trainer is dressed in a tunic as he coaches the athlete, and no one could undress him against his will, but at Olympia he supervises (him) naked. Some think that the Eleans test whether the trainer, in the summer season, can endure and bear the heat. But the Eleans provide the following reason: Pherenice of Rhodes was the daughter of Diagoras the boxer and she had such a strong disposition that at first she was taken for a man. Indeed, she was dressed in a tunic while she trained her son Peisirodus in Olympia. He too was a boxer, skillful at his art and in no way inferior to his ancestor. When they found out the ruse, the Eleans hesitated to condemn Pherenice to death, thinking of Diagoras and Diagoras’ children – for Pherenice’s family were all Olympic victors –, but a law was made that the trainer has to strip naked and that he must not be untested by them.

translation by Alexander Meeus for the Cynisca project

Πυθοῖ μὲν οὖν καὶ Ἰσθμοῖ καὶ ὅπου ποτὲ τῆς γῆς ἐτέθησαν ἀγῶνες, τρίβωνα ὁ γυμναστὴς ἀμπεχόμενος ἀλείφει τὸν ἀθλητὴν καὶ οὐδεὶς ἀποδύσει ἄκοντα, ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ δὲ γυμνὸς ἐφέστηκεν, ὡς μὲν δόξα ἐνίων, διελέγχοντες Ἠλεῖοι τὸν γυμναστὴν ὥρᾳ ἔτους, εἰ καρτερεῖν οἶδε καὶ θέρεσθαι, ὡς δὲ Ἠλεῖοί φασι, Φερενίκη ἡ Ῥοδία ἐγένετο Διαγόρου θυγάτηρ τοῦ πύκτου, καὶ τὸ ἦθος ἡ Φερενίκη οὕτω τι ἔῤῥωτο, ὡς Ἠλείοις τὰ πρῶτα ἀνὴρ δόξαι. περιῄει γοῦν ὑπὸ τρίβωνι ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ καὶ Πεισίροδον τὸν ἑαυτῆς υἱὸν ἐγύμναζε. πύκτης δὲ ἄρα κἀκεῖνος ἦν, εὔχειρ τὴν τέχνην καὶ μείων οὐδὲν τοῦ πάππου. ἐπεὶ δὲ ξυνῆκαν τῆς ἀπάτης, ἀποκτεῖναι μὲν τὴν Φερενίκην ὤκνησαν ἐνθυμηθέντες τὸν Διαγόραν καὶ τοὺς Διαγόρου παῖδας — ὁ γὰρ Φερενίκης οἶκος Ὀλυμπιονῖκαι πάντες — νόμος δὲ ἐγράφη τὸν γυμναστὴν ἀποδύεσθαι καὶ μηδὲ τοῦτον ἀνέλεγκτον αὐτοῖς εἶναι.

Carl Ludwig Kayser (ed.), Flavii Philostrati Opera, vol. 2, Leipzig 1871.