VII.

FOR DIAGORAS OF RHODES,

WINNER IN THE BOXING-MATCH.

* * * * *

Rhodes is said to have been colonised at the time of the Dorian
migrations by Argive Dorians from Epidauros, who were Herakleidai of
of the family of Tlepolemos. They founded a confederacy of three
cities, Kameiros, Lindos, and Ialysos. Ialysos was then ruled by
the dynasty of the Eratidai. Their kingly power had now been extinct
two hundred years, but the family was still pre-eminent in the state.
Of this family was Diagoras, and probably the ode was sung at a
family festival; but it commemorates the glories of the island generally.
The Rhodians caused it to be engraved in letters of gold in the
temple of Athene at Lindos.

There is a noteworthy incident of the Peloponnesian war which should
be remembered in connection with this ode. In the year 406, fifty-eight
years after this victory of Diagoras, during the final and most
embittering agony of Athens, one Dorieus, a son of Diagoras, and himself
a famous athlete, was captured by the Athenians in a sea-fight.
It was then the custom either to release prisoners of war for a ransom
or else to put them to death. The Athenians asked no ransom of
Dorieus, but set him free on the spot.