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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.
[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.

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