Note 288 — Chapter IX · THE OLYMPIC FESTIVAL
Reading edition
Pindar, Ol. v. 6 ὑπὸ βουθυσίαις ἀέθλων τε πεμπταμέροις ἁμίλλαις. The reading and interpretation are much disputed. The scholiasts certainly interpreted πεμπταμέροις “as lasting five days,” and even if the reading πεμπταμέροις is correct, the occurrence of the form πεμπτάς for πεμπάσ, and the analogy of forms like ὀγδώκοντα, ἑβδομήκοντα make this meaning at least possible, while there is considerable evidence against the rendering “fifth-day contests.” Mie, Quaestiones Agonisticae, p. 29.