Note 41 — Chapter III · THE RISE OF THE ATHLETIC FESTIVAL

It is perhaps no accident that in our imperfect records of the Olympic games the earliest victor outside the Peloponnese is Onomastus of Smyrna, who in Ol. 23 won the boxing, an event said to have been then introduced for the first time. He is said to have drawn up rules for boxing which were adopted at Olympia. Again, no family was more distinguished in the history of Greek athletics than the Diagoridae of Rhodes, whose victories in boxing and the pankration were immortalized by Pindar. The prominence of boxing in the East reminds us of Minoan times, and perhaps the tradition may have survived from these days.