Phormion of Halikarnassos - 392 BC and Eupalos of Thessaly - 388 BC are difficult to find much history on for the same reason Tissandros of Sicilian Naxos - 572, 568, 564, & 560 BC , Kleomedes of Astypalaia - 492 BC and Diognetos of Crete - 488 BC are difficult to find history on. They're all hated, or at least were at one point, and that's really limited the modern researcher at all levels. Tissandros, sometimes Tissander, was loved in his day but his people fell victim to a genocide that nearly wiped their entire existence, including Ti's, from the record books. Kleomedes and Diognetos both killed their opponents at Olympia. They were hated on the sport but later became Greek heroes, nearly gods. Then we get Phormion and Eupalos. Not very well received in their time and to this day not very well thought of. One was a cheater and the other threw the fight. All these stories should be familiar to the common boxing fan. The characters are a bit different, but what Tissandros did wrong was be the wrong race and we still see plenty of that today in boxing. Kleo and Dio both took it a bit too far. Both of them were filled with regret after and if you know who Emile and Benny are you have to feel for them. Especially Kleo, can't wash off that evil, he killed over fiddy kids. He didn't mean to, but he did it. It's understandable why he's not well loved and it's understandable why folks may see him as a tragic hero. Like a Jesus sort of thing but very different. I don't hardly remember the exact from ol JC but something like " Don't be bothered if folks hate you, they hated me first." Except Kleo is more to the effect of - I know what it's like to really **** up and people hate you because they should hate you. Kleo knows what it means to be evil without intent on being evil. I imagine those who paid homage to him had done something wrong without meaning to and had a hard time getting over the consequences. Phormion and Eupalos are usually seen as less than heroic. The Greeks honor Ti with statues, Naxos had so many the genocide and attempt to erase all evidence of his people failed to force him from modern eyes. Kleo and Dio were both named heroes directly from the Oracle at Delphi and had sacrificed made in their names. Eupalos and Phormion had the honor of paying for their own public humiliation as their legacy and sum of their history. I can't tell you much about the year Phormion actually won and that's because outside of acknowledging he won that year the Greeks don't want to honor him with history. Eupalos is even worse, I can't even hardly tell you if he could box a lick. You can follow his parentage, but we already know he's rich and that's all that leads to. So again, they record what they felt they had to and nothing else. I don't think Pausanias is the exclusive coverage for this one, but I do think his is the best and most reliable. I've seen some others around the internet but their lack of sources makes me wonder how reliable they are were as Pausanias is already accepted by scholars as reliable or at least as reliable as it gets in this field. Pausanias: As you go to the stadium along the road from the Metroum*, there is on the left at the bottom of Mount Cronus a platform of stone, right by the very mountain, with steps through it. By the platform have been set up bronze images** of Zeus These have been made from the fines inflicted on athletes who have wantonly broken the rules of the contests, and they are called Zanes ( Figures of Zeus) by the natives. The first, six in number, were set up in the ninety-eighth Olympiad. For Eupolus of Thessaly bribed the boxers who entered the competition, Agenor the Acadian and Prytanis of Cyzicus, and with them also Phormion of Halikarnassos who had won at the preceding Festival. This is said to have been the first time that an athlete violated the rules of the games, and the first to be fined by the Eleans were Eupolus and those who accepted bribes from Eupolus. Two of these images are the work of Cleon of Sicyon; who made the next four I do not know. Except the third and the fourth these images have elegiac inscriptions on them. The first of the inscriptions is intended to make plain that an Olympic victory is to be won, not by money, but by swiftness of foot and strength of body. The inscription on the second image declares that the image stands to the glory of the deity, through the piety of the Eleans, and to be a terror to law-breaking athletes The purporse of the inscription on the fifth image is praise of the Eleans, especially for them fining the boxers , that of the sixth and last is that the images are a warning to all the Greeks not to give bribes to obtain an Olympic victory *Temple of the Great Mother of the Gods ** He means statues, they called statues images. Also, I should point out this if after the Diagoras dynasty had made boxing that much more appealing and massive to the people. Diagoras was like a god himself and by this time boxing had quite a lot more than just myths and legends going for it. It had seen its first dynasty and like any dynasty period it is popular and very highly respected. I forget exactly Apollo's name when he's Boxer Apollo, or the God of Boxing, but it'd be around this time that form of Apollo and it's cults would be doing very well. So when Eupalos did his bribing and fixing it isn't as if the atmosphere was similar to the later Roman or bar room atmosphere of the early English and America days. This was very much against God. A very popular god too. I'll probably edit this if I chance across Apollo's boxing name again. Remember being young and taught cheaters never win? Well...Phormion could have probably been a two timer like good and holy Euthymos rather being only remembered as the champion who threw his second run for money. However, Eupalos, who knows, maybe that was the only way his name would have lasted this long? Cheeky *******, maybe sometimes they do win Anyway, thanks for reading buds. I tried to make something interesting with little to work with, but I am no author at all. The Pausanias quote is from Descriptions. Heavyweight Champions from Ancient to Present
