Cimon the Elder, Peisistratus and the tethrippon Olympic Victory of 532 BCE

Abstract

Herodotus' narrative of the life of Cimon the Elder (6.103.1-4) pays particular attention to Cimon's Olympic tethrippon victories and especially his arrangement with Peisistratus over the 532 BCE victory. It is the purpose of this paper to examine Cimon's athletic career as well as his deal with Peisistratus in the context of sport practices, ideologies and intra-elite conflict during the sixth century BCE. An analysis of known instances of civic affiliation changes of Olympic athletes throws light on the logistics of the arrangement between Cimon and Peisistratus. Moreover, the commoditization of an Olympic victory implicit in the Cimon-Peisistratus arrangement is symptomatic of a perception of sport victories as individual achievements and privileged possessions of elite athletes. After a review of the relevant evidence, I argue that this perception was shared by other socially prominent sixth-century Athenian athletes as well, especially members of the Alcmeonid and the Philaid clans, who often exploited sport victories and their commemorations for elite power struggles. This perception became increasingly at odds with a shift, detectible more clearly starting in the last quarter of the sixth century BCE, towards modes of elite victory commemoration that highlighted divinely endowed talent, personal accomplishments and familial traditions but also emphasized strongly the rewards that accrued to the city by the generosity and the athletic skills of the aristocratic victor.