Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 6.4.10 and 6.12.6: female victory statues of charioteers

Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 6.4.10 and 6.12.6: female victory statues of charioteers

mid 2nd century CE

travel writing

Literary source

The presence of the maidens has sometimes been taken as evidence of female charioteers, but perhaps they are depictions of the goddess Nike, as Pausanias himself suggests in the second instance.

6.4.10: I have spoken at greater length on this matter in my account of Sparta. Euanthes of Cyzicus won prizes for boxing, one among the men at Olympia, and also among the boys at the Nemean and at the Isthmian games. By the side of Euanthes is the statue of a horse-breeder and his chariot; mounted on the chariot is a young maid. The man's name is Lampus, and his native city was the last to be founded in Macedonia, named after its founder Philip, son of Amyntas.

6.12.6: Timon, an Elean, the son of Aesypus, entered a four-horse chariot for the Olympic races ... this is of bronze, and on it is mounted a maiden, who, in my opinion, is Victory.

William H. S. Jones, Pausanias, Description of Greece, vol. 3, Books 6-8.21 (= Loeb Classical Library; 272), London 1933.

6.4.10: ταῦτα μὲν δὴ καὶ ἐν τοῖς Σπαρτιατικοῖς λόγοις ἐς πλέον ἡμῖν δεδήλωται: Εὐάνθει δὲ Κυζικηνῷ γεγόνασι πυγμῆς νῖκαι, μία μὲν ἐν ἀνδράσιν Ὀλυμπική, Νεμείων δὲ ἐν παισὶ καὶ Ἰσθμίων. πεποίηται δὲ παρὰ τὸν Εὐάνθην ἀνήρ τε ἱπποτρόφος καὶ τὸ ἅρμα, ἀναβεβηκυῖα δὲ ἐπὶ τὸ ἅρμα παῖς παρθένος: ὄνομα μὲν Λάμπος τῷ ἀνδρί, πατρὶς δὲ ἦν αὐτῷ νεωτάτη τῶν ἐν Μακεδονίᾳ πόλεων, καλουμένη δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ οἰκιστοῦ Φιλίππου τοῦ Ἀμύντου.

6.12.6: Τίμωνι δὲ τῷ Αἰσύπου καθέντι ἐς Ὀλυμπίαν ἵππους ἀνδρὶ Ἠλείῳ ἐστι τοῦτο χαλκοῦν, ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν ἀναβέβηκε παρθένος, ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν Νίκη.

Frederick Spiro (ed.), Pausaniae Graeciae Descriptio, vol. 2, Leipzig 1903.