Dandes of Argos

Dandes of Argos (Ancient Greek: Δάνδης Ἀργεῖος, transcr. Dandḗs Argeíos, "Dandes [the] Argive") was an ancient Greek athlete listed by Eusebius of Caesarea as a victor in the stadion race of the 77th Olympiad (472 BC). He won two races, but the first was probably in the boys' category, maybe in the 75th Olympiad eight years earlier. He also won once at the Pythian Games and three times at the Nemean Games, according to some sources.; elsewhere, his victories were celebrated by Simonides of Ceos in a poem, which claims that he won fifteen times at Nemea – the discrepancy could again be due to victories in boys' races not recorded elsewhere.

The poem, an epitaph preserved in the Greek Anthology, reads:

Ἀργεῖος Δάνδης σταδιοδρόμος ἐνθάδε κεῖται,
νίκαις ἱππόβοτον πατρίδ᾿ ἐπευκλεΐσας, Ὀλυμπίᾳ δίς,
ἐν δὲ Πυθῶνι τρία, δύω δ᾿ ἐν Ἰσθμῷ, πεντεκαίδεκ᾿ ἐν Νεμέᾳ
τὰς δ᾿ ἄλλας νίκας οὐκ εὐμαρές ἐστ᾿ ἀριθμῆσαι

Here lies Dandes of Argos, the stadion racer, who gained honour
by his victories for his fatherland, rich in pasture for horses. Twice did he conquer at Olympia,
thrice at Delphi, twice at the Isthmus, and fifteen times at Nemea,
and it is not easy to count his other victories.

Dandes is notable not only as an athlete, but for the frame of reference his various victories provide to such events as the death of tyrant Theron of Acragas (also an Olympic competitor and victor) and the beginning of the war between Theron's son Thrasydaeus and Hiero I of Syracuse (chariot victor in the 78th Olympiad), events recorded by Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Diodorus Siculus with Dandes's victory as a starting point.

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