SOL Search

Name of a fine runner who won an Olympic victory.[1] Aristophanes [writes]: "when, as still a youth, I prosecuted Phayllos the runner for abusive language and got him convicted by two votes".[2] He was a pentathlete, and the subject of an epigram: "Phayllos did a long jump of five and fifty feet; and the discus he threw five short of a hundred."[3] There was also another [Phayllos], [also] an athlete; and a third, the thief. Aristophanes in Acharnians [writes]: "alas, I am wretched in my years; in my youth, when bearing a load of coals I followed Phayllos in the race, this trucebearer would not so easily have escaped my pursuit, nor would have so nimbly slipped off".[4]
See also under "to jump beyond the pit".[5]

*fa/u+llos: o)/noma drome/ws a)ri/stou o)lumpioni/kou. *)aristofa/nhs: o(/te to\n drome/a *fa/u+llon w)\n bou/pais e)/ti ei(=lon diw/kwn loidori/as yh/foin duoi=n. h)=n de\ kai\ o(plitodro/mos periw/numos, o(\n e)ka/loun *)odo/metron. h)=n de\ kai\ pe/ntaqlos, e)f' ou(= kai\ e)pi/gramma: pe/nt' e)pi\ penth/konta po/das ph/dhse *fa/u+llos: di/skeuse d' e(kato\n pe/nt' a)poleipome/nwn. e)ge/neto de\ kai\ e(/teros, a)qlhth/s: kai\ tri/tos, o( lwpodu/ths. *)aristofa/nhs *)axarneu=sin: oi)/moi ta/las, tw=n e)tw=n tw=n e)mw=n: ou)k a)\n e)mh=s ge neo/thtos, o(/t' e)gw\ fe/rwn a)nqra/kwn forti/on, h)kolou/qoun *fau/+llw| tre/xwn, w(=de fau/lws a)\n o( spondofo/ros ou(=tos u(p' e)mou= to/te diwko/menos e)ce/fugen, ou)/d' a)\n e)lafrw=s w(=d' a)pepli/cato. zh/tei kai\ e)n tw=| u(pe\r ta\ e)skamme/na phda=n.

[1] From the scholia to Aristophanes, Acharnians 215 (see further below); but Pausanias 10.9.2 says that Ph. never won at Olympia (web address 1). For conveniently-collected detail on Ph. of Kroton(a), active in the early C5 BCE, see Aristophanes, Wasps, edited with introduction and commentary by Douglas MacDowell (Oxford 1971) 286-7.
[2] Aristophanes, Wasps 1206-7 (web address 2).
[3] In the Greek this couplet is notable for its alliteration with the letter pi. It is cited by Pausanias the Atticist, Timaeus in his Platonic Lexicon, Photius in his Lexicon, and scholiasts on Aristophanes and Plato.
[4] Aristophanes, Acharnians 210-11 (web address 3), with comment from the scholia to 215; cf. alpha 3031.
[5] upsilon 364; cf. upsilon 363.

David Whitehead (cosmetics) on 6 September 2002@12:43:08.
Catharine Roth (added links, set status) on 14 June 2004@23:20:30.
David Whitehead (tweaks and cosmetics) on 13 July 2009@06:25:53.
David Whitehead on 9 August 2011@05:11:00.
Catharine Roth (fixed links) on 9 September 2011@00:55:14.
Catharine Roth (expanded note) on 15 January 2023@23:49:37.

Suda On Line Search