---
title: "Olympic Oration · Ολυμπιακός"
author: "Lysias"
translator: "W. R. M. Lamb"
languages: [grc, en]
shelf: "Classical Greek"
section: 1 of 1
url: https://scriptura.si/works/lysias-olympic-oration/1/
cite: "Lysias, tr. W. R. M. Lamb, Olympic Oration · Ολυμπιακός, section 1. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/lysias-olympic-oration/1/"
---

# Olympic Oration · Ολυμπιακός

*Lysias, tr. W. R. M. Lamb*

At the Olympic Games Lysias calls on the Greeks to unite against the tyrant of Syracuse and the Persian king.

> Greek: ed. W.R.M. Lamb, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-greekLit, tlg0540.tlg033, CC BY-SA 4.0).

> English: W. R. M. Lamb, from the Perseus Digital Library (tlg0540.tlg033.perseus-eng2). Notes are not included.

> Rows follow the references the two texts share (chapters and sections), cut where both reach the end of a sentence.

## 1. Sections 1–9

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/lysias-olympic-oration/1/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/lysias-olympic-oration/1/#p-N

[¶0] 1. Among many noble feats, gentlemen, for which it is right to remember Heracles, we ought to recall the fact that he was the first, in his affection for the Greeks, to convene this contest. For previously the cities regarded each other as strangers.

> Greek: 1. ἄλλων τε πολλῶν καὶ καλῶν ἔργων ἕνεκα, ὦ ἄνδρες, ἄξιον Ἡρακλέους μεμνῆσθαι, καὶ ὅτι τόνδε τὸν ἀγῶνα πρῶτος συνήγειρε διʼ εὔνοιαν τῆς Ἑλλάδος. ἐν μὲν γὰρ τῷ τέως χρόνῳ ἀλλοτρίως αἱ πόλεις πρὸς ἀλλήλας διέκειντο·

[¶1] 2. But he, when he had crushed despotism and arrested outrage, founded a contest of bodily strength, a challenge of wealth, and a display of intelligence in the fairest part of Greece, that we might meet together for all these enjoyments alike of our eyes and of our ears, because he judged that our assembly here would be a beginning of mutual amity amongst the Greeks.

> Greek: 2. ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἐκεῖνος τοὺς τυράννους ἔπαυσε καὶ τοὺς ὑβρίζοντας ἐκώλυσεν, ἀγῶνα μὲν σωμάτων ἐποίησε, φιλοτιμίαν ⟨δὲ⟩ πλούτου, γνώμης δʼ ἐπίδειξιν ἐν τῷ καλλίστῳ τῆς Ἑλλάδος, ἵνα τούτων ἁπάντων ἕνεκα εἰς τὸ αὐτὸ συνέλθωμεν, τὰ μὲν ὀψόμενοι, τὰ δʼ ἀκουσόμενοι· ἡγήσατο γὰρ τὸν ἐνθάδε σύλλογον ἀρχὴν γενήσεσθαι τοῖς Ἕλλησι τῆς πρὸς ἀλλήλους φιλίας.

[¶2] 3. The project of it, then, was his; and so I have not come here to talk trivialities or to wrangle over words: I take that to be the business of utterly futile professors in straits for a livelihood; but I think it behoves a man of principle and civic worth to be giving his counsel on the weightiest questions, when I see Greece in this shameful plight, with many parts of her held subject by the foreigner, and many of her cities ravaged by despots.

> Greek: 3. ἐκεῖνος μὲν οὖν ταῦθʼ ὑφηγήσατο, ἐγὼ δὲ ἥκω οὐ μικρολογησόμενος οὐδὲ περὶ τῶν ὀνομάτων μαχούμενος. ἡγοῦμαι γὰρ ταῦτα ἔργα μὲν εἶναι σοφιστῶν λίαν ἀχρήστων καὶ σφόδρα βίου δεομένων, ἀνδρὸς δὲ ἀγαθοῦ καὶ πολίτου πολλοῦ ἀξίου περὶ τῶν μεγίστων συμβουλεύειν, ὁρῶν οὕτως αἰσχρῶς διακειμένην τὴν Ἑλλάδα, καὶ πολλὰ μὲν αὐτῆς ὄντα ὑπὸ τῷ βαρβάρῳ, πολλὰς δὲ πόλεις ὑπὸ τυράννων ἀναστάτους γεγενημένας. καὶ ταῦτα εἰ μὲν διʼ ἀσθένειαν ἐπάσχομεν, στέργειν ἂν ἦν ἀνάγκη τὴν τύχην·

[¶3] 4. Now if these afflictions were due to weakness, it would be necessary to acquiesce in our fate: but since they are due to faction and mutual rivalry, surely we ought to desist from the one and arrest the other, knowing that, if rivalry befits the prosperous, the most prudent views befit people in a position like ours.

> Greek: 4. ἐπειδὴ δὲ διὰ στάσιν καὶ τὴν πρὸς ἀλλήλους φιλονικίαν, πῶς οὐκ ἄξιον τῶν μὲν παύσασθαι τὰ δὲ κωλῦσαι, εἰδότας ὅτι φιλονικεῖν μέν ἐστιν εὖ πραττόντων, γνῶναι δὲ τὰ βέλτιστα τῶν οἵων ἡμῶν;

[¶4] 5. For we see both the gravity of our dangers and their imminence on every side: you are aware that empire is for those who command the sea, that the King has control of the money, that the Greeks are in thrall to those who are able to spend it, that our master possesses many ships, and that the despot of Sicily has many also.

> Greek: 5. ὁρῶμεν γὰρ τοὺς κινδύνους καὶ μεγάλους καὶ πανταχόθεν περιεστηκότας· ἐπίστασθε δὲ ὅτι ἡ μὲν ἀρχὴ τῶν κρατούντων τῆς θαλάττης, τῶν δὲ χρημάτων βασιλεὺς ταμίας, τὰ δὲ τῶν Ἑλλήνων σώματα τῶν δαπανᾶσθαι δυναμένων, ναῦς δὲ πολλὰς ⟨μὲν⟩ αὐτὸς κέκτηται, πολλὰς δʼ ὁ τύραννος τῆς Σικελίας.

[¶5] 6. We ought therefore to relinquish our mutual warfare, and with a single purpose in our hearts to secure our salvation; to feel shame for past events and fear for those that lie in the future, and to compete with our ancestors, by whom the foreigner, in grasping at the land of others, was deprived of his own, and who expelled the despots and established freedom for all in common.

> Greek: 6. ὥστε ἄξιον τὸν μὲν πρὸς ἀλλήλους πόλεμον καταθέσθαι, τῇ δʼ αὐτῇ γνώμῃ χρωμένους τῆς σωτηρίας ἀντέχεσθαι, καὶ περὶ μὲν τῶν παρεληλυθότων αἰσχύνεσθαι, περὶ δὲ τῶν μελλόντων ἔσεσθαι δεδιέναι, καὶ πρὸς τοὺς προγόνους, οἳ τοὺς μὲν βαρβάρους ἐποίησαν τῆς ἀλλοτρίας ἐπιθυμοῦντας τῆς σφετέρας αὐτῶν στερεῖσθαι, τοὺς δὲ τυράννους ἐξελάσαντες κοινὴν ἅπασι τὴν ἐλευθερίαν κατέστησαν.

[¶6] 7. But I wonder at the Lacedaemonians most of all: what can be their policy in tolerating the devastation of Greece, when they are leaders of the Greeks by the just claims alike of their inborn valor and their martial science, and when they alone have their dwelling-places unravaged though unwalled and, strangers to faction and defeat, observe always the same rules of life? Wherefore it may be expected that the liberty they possess will never die, and that having achieved the salvation of Greece in her past dangers they are providing against those that are to come.

> Greek: 7. θαυμάζω δὲ Λακεδαιμονίους πάντων μάλιστα, τίνι ποτὲ γνώμῃ χρώμενοι καομένην τὴν Ἑλλάδα περιορῶσιν, ἡγεμόνες ὄντες τῶν Ἑλλήνων οὐκ ἀδίκως, καὶ διὰ τὴν ἔμφυτον ἀρετὴν καὶ διὰ τὴν πρὸς τὸν πόλεμον ἐπιστήμην, μόνοι δὲ οἰκοῦντες ἀπόρθητοι καὶ ἀτείχιστοι καὶ ἀστασίαστοι καὶ ἀήττητοι καὶ τρόποις ἀεὶ τοῖς αὐτοῖς χρώμενοι· ὧν ἕνεκα ἐλπὶς ἀθάνατον τὴν ἐλευθερίαν αὐτοὺς κεκτῆσθαι, καὶ ἐν τοῖς παρεληλυθόσι κινδύνοις σωτῆρας γενομένους τῆς Ἑλλάδος περὶ τῶν μελλόντων προορᾶσθαι.

[¶7] 8. Now the future will bring no better opportunity than the present. We ought to view the disasters of those who have been crushed, not as the concern of others, but as our own: let us not wait for the forces of both our foes to advance upon ourselves, but while there is yet time let us arrest their outrage.

> Greek: 8. οὐ τοίνυν ὁ ἐπιὼν καιρὸς τοῦ παρόντος βελτίων· οὐ γὰρ ἀλλοτρίας δεῖ τὰς τῶν ἀπολωλότων συμφορὰς νομίζειν ἀλλʼ οἰκείας, οὐδʼ ἀναμεῖναι, ἕως ἂν ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς ἡμᾶς αἱ δυνάμεις ἀμφοτέρων ἔλθωσιν, ἀλλʼ ἕως ἔτι ἔξεστι, τὴν τούτων τούτων ὕβριν κωλῦσαι.

[¶8] 9. For who would not be mortified to see how they have grown strong through our mutual warfare? Those incidents, no less awful than disgraceful, have empowered our dire oppressors to do what they have done, and have hindered the Greeks from taking vengeance for their wrongs. …

> Greek: 9. τίς γὰρ οὐκ ἂν ⟨ἀγανακτήσει⟩εν ὁρῶν ἐν τῷ πρὸς ἀλλήλους πολέμῳ μεγάλους αὐτοὺς γεγενημένους; ὧν οὐ μόνον αἰσχρῶν ὄντων ἀλλὰ καὶ δεινῶν, τοῖς μὲν μεγάλα ἡμαρτηκόσιν ἐξουσία γεγένηται τῶν πεπραγμένων, τοῖς δὲ Ἕλλησιν οὐδεμία αὐτῶν τιμωρία …