Kyniska

Kyniska ( ancient Greek Κυνίσκα ) was a settlement around 442 BC. Born a Spartan king's daughter in BC, she is considered the earliest female Olympic champion .

Kyniska was the daughter of the Spartan king Archidamos II and sister of Agis II and Agesilaos II. She was a lover of horse racing and won 396 and 392 BC. With a four-team foal. Although women were not allowed to take part in the games directly, they could bypass this requirement because they owned the horses that were competing. In contrast to the other sports, it was not the riders but the owners of the animals that were honored in the case of hip agons . In this way she became a two-time Olympic champion.

In honor of the gods she donated a bronze figure group created by Apelleas , which was set up in the Temple of Zeus at Olympia and whose base with an inscription was found in.

The inscription reads:

Σπάρτας μὲν βασιλῆες ἐμοὶ

πατέρες καὶ ἀδελφοί, ἅρματι δ 'ὠκυπόδων ἵππων

νικῶσα Κυνίσκα εἰκόνα τάνδ 'ἔστασεμόναν

δ 'ἐμέ φαμι γυναικῶν Ἑλλάδος ἐκ πάσας τόνδε λαβε̑ν στέφανον.

Sparta's kings were fathers and brothers to me,

but to carriage I won with storming horses,

Kyniska, I'll put this picture here, and it has the wreath of the women

From all of Hellas before me none yet, I praise, feel.

swell

• Pausanias 3, 8, 1; 6, 1, 6.
• Plutarch , Agesilaus 20.
• Xenophon , Agesilaos 9, 6.

literature

• Konrad Wickert : Kyniska. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 3, Stuttgart 1969, column 400.

Individual evidence

1. ^ The inscriptions of Olympia. 1896, pp 278-279 , no. 160 .
2. ↑ Ludwig Drees: Olympia. Gods, artists and athletes . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1967, p. 47. The text also passed down in the Anthologia Palatina 13, 16.