Plato in
Phaedrus [mentions this]. "Beside the dedication of a wrought work by the Kypselidai was set up a colossus";[1] but it was not by the Kypselidai.[2] They say it was a dedication by Kypselos, as Agaklytos[3] under the 80th Olympiad[4] says as follows: "an ancient temple of Hera, a dedication by the people of Skillous, who belong to the Eleians. And in it there is a golden colossus, a dedication by Kypselos the Corinthian; for they say that Kypselos vowed that if he should become tyrant of the Corinthians he would make all their property sacred[5] up to the tenth year, and that he called in the tithes of their properties and prepared the sculpted colossus." But Didymos[6] says Periandros prepared the colossus with the aim of holding the Corinthians back from luxury and boldness. For indeed,
Theophrastus in his work
On Crises, book 2,[7] says as follows: "Other people expend heavily on more manly things, such as by leading out armies and arousing wars, just as Dionysios the tyrant did. For that man thought he must consume not only the things of other people but also his own, so that no financial resources should be available to conspirators. And the pyramids in Egypt, and the colossus of the Kypselidai, and all things of this kind seem to have this intention in a similar degree." A certain epigram of the colossus is quoted: "I myself am a golden sculpted colossus; may the line of the Kypselidai be doomed."[8] It is quoted by Apellas of
Pontos[9] as follows: "I myself am a Naxian, I am an all-gold colossus; may the line of the Kypselidai be doomed."[10]
*kuyelidw=n a)na/qhma e)n *)olumpi/a|: *pla/twn e)n *fai/drw|. para\ to\ *kuyelidw=n a)na/qhma sfurh/matos e)n *)olumpi/a| e)sta/qh kolosso/s: a)ll' ou) tw=n *kuyelidw=n. *kuye/lou de/ fasi to\ a)na/qhma, w(s *)agakluto\s e)n th=| p# *)olumpia/di fhsi\n ou(/tws: nao\s th=s *(/hras palaio/s, a)na/qhma *skillounti/wn: ou(=toi de/ ei)sin *)hlei/wn. e)/nesti de\ e)n au)tw=| xrusou=s kolosso/s, a)na/qhma *kuye/lou tou= *korinqi/ou: fasi\ ga\r to\n *ku/yelon eu)ca/menon, ei) *korinqi/wn turanneu/seie, ta\s ou)si/as pa/ntwn ei)s de/katon e)/tos a)nierw/sein, ta\s deka/tas tw=n timhma/twn ei)spraca/menon kataskeua/sai to\n sfurh/laton kolosso/n. *di/dumos de\ kataskeua/sai to\n kolosso\n fhsi\ *peri/andron u(pe\r tou= th=s trufh=s kai\ tou= qra/sous e)pisxei=n tou\s *korinqi/ous. kai\ ga\r *qeo/frastos e)n tw=| *peri\ kairw=n b# le/gei ou(/tws: e(/teroi d' ei)s a)ndrwde/stera katadapanw=ntes, oi(=on stratia\s e)ca/gontes kai\ pole/mous e)panairou/menoi, kaqa/per kai\ *dionu/sios o( tu/rannos. e)kei=nos ga\r ou) mo/non w)/|eto dei=n ta\ tw=n a)/llwn katanali/skein, a)lla\ kai\ ta\ au(tou=, pro\s to\ mh\ u(pa/rxein e)fo/dion toi=s e)pibouleu/ousin. e)oi/kasi de\ kai\ ai( purami/des e)n *ai)gu/ptw| kai\ o( tw=n *kuyelidw=n kolosso\s kai\ pa/nta ta\ toiau=ta th\n au)th\n kai\ paraplhsi/an e)/xein dia/noian. fe/retai de/ ti kai\ e)pi/gramma tou= kolossou=: au)to\s e)gw\ xrusou=s sfurh/lato/s ei)mi kolosso/s: e)cw/lhs ei)/h *kuyelidw=n genea/. o(/per *)apella=s o( *pontiko\s ou(/tw profe/retai: ei)mi\ e)gw\ *na/cios, pagxru/seos ei)mi\ kolosso/s: e)cw/lhs ei)/h *kuyelidw=n genea/.
The Kypselids (Kypselidai) comprise Kypselos, tyrant of Corinth in the the 7th century BC (traditionally c.657–627), and his descendants, principally his son Periandros/Periander (ruled c.627–587).
The whole entry is copied with small changes from
Photius kappa1280 Theodoridis; and cf. the other references there.
[1]
Plato,
Phaedrus 236B, with slight changes. Notably, the Suda has
sfurh/matos for
Plato's (and
Photius's)
sfurh/latos (cf.
sigma 1763).
*sfu/rhma, here translated as 'wrought work', occurs elsewhere only in
Hesychius s.v.
sfurh/mata, who defines it as 'iron things, because not cast'. In the Suda this seems to be a simple copyist’s mistake. Also,
Photius and the Suda alike have
e)sta/qh (‘was set up’) in place of
Plato’s
sta/qhti (second person singular aorist passive imperative). The
Plato passage is translated by H.N. Fowler (Loeb/Perseus version) as 'your statue of beaten metal shall stand at
Olympia beside the offering of the Cypselids', but would more accurately be given as an imperative: 'go and get set up as a wrought statue at
Olympia ...'.
[2] Presumably a deduction from the epigram quoted below.
[3] FGrH 411 F1 (his only such "fragment").
[4] The 80th Olympiad is 460–457, long after the age of the Corinthian tyrants.
Photius has been misread here: 'in his book
On Olympia', i.e.
peri not the numeral
p.
[5] cf.
Herodotos 5.92: 'Having thus got the tyranny, he showed himself a harsh ruler -- many of the Corinthians he drove into banishment, many he deprived of their fortunes, and a still greater number of their lives'. (Trans. Rawlinson.)
[6] The Alexandrian scholar of the first century BC; this is p.404 Schmidt.
[7]
Theophrastus fr. 128 Wimmer (609 FHS&G). This appears to be a shorter title of the work also referred to as
Politics Regarding Crises and
Regarding Crises. See 589 no. 4a-6 FHS&G.
[8]
Photius has here, more intelligibly (with Cobet's emendation): 'if I myself am not a golden sculpted colossus, may etc.'
[9] Apellas a.k.a. Apollas (3rd century BC): see FGrH 266 F5, and again at
rho 211. He wrote
Delphika and
On the Cities of the Peloponnese. The present passage is fr. 6 in Müller, FHG (from which TLG takes its text, rather than from Jacoby), where it is assigned to the second work.
[10] Here again, in this second version of the epigram, the Suda mangles
Photius' text, which Theodoridis gives as: 'if I myself am not a (?)solid all-gold colossus, may etc'. The island of
Naxos has no place here; for
naxos as 'solid', see LSJ s.v.
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