Archaic Elis and Egypt: on the Problem of Contacts
Evdokimov Pavel A.
The article deals with the ancient tradition about the Elean delegation sent to an Egyptian pharaoh (Psammetic II or Amasis) in order to find the best way to organize the Olympic games. The evidences of Herodotus (II. 160) and Dio-dorus Siculus (I. 95. 2) should be compared with some allusions in Plutarch and Philostratus, with Pausanias’ evidence concerning Elean envoys to the Siwa oracle and with prosopographical and onomastic data. Elean Amasis, mentioned by Theophrastus (apud Athen. Deipn. XIII. 21 (Kaibel)), might have taken his personal name from the Egyptian king as a result of some real contacts, which occured during the 4th century BC. The habit to use the names of foreign dynasts was rather typical of Greek aristocracy, who wanted to demonstrate in such a way xenic (or quasi-xenic) relations. The historical circumstance of those supposed contacts was the struggle between Elis and Pisatis for control over the Olympic sanctuary and the administration of the Games. The Elean address to Egypt, his kings, oracles and wise men might have been originally an attempt to get support from some independent authority, but we can find only some transformed traces of this historical fact presented by anecdotes in the works of Herodotus and Diodorus. The origin of these anecdotes might have been anti-Elean, but their critical spirit concerning the administration of the Olympic games corresponds to the clause from a 4th century BC Olympic inscription, which warns against the partiality of the Elean judges. If we take all these facts into account, the history of Elean envoys itself looks more real than its fictional anecdotic entourage. The dating of the embassy in Diodorus’ version (i.e. to the time of Amasis) seems to be more precise.