Theagenes of Thasos

Family: Thasos · Role: boxer and pancratiast · First appears: Book 6 · Chapter 6

At nine, Theagenes of Thasos carried a bronze statue of a god home from the marketplace; after an elder intervened, he returned it. A statue later identified him as the son of Timosthenes, while another account said Hercules, disguised as Timosthenes, had an intrigue with his mother.

At Olympia, he outboxed Euthymus while seeking prizes in both boxing and the pancratium, but, exhausted, could not claim the pancratium crown. The umpires fined him a talent for the god and a talent for the injury to Euthymus. In the 76th Olympiad he paid the fine and, vexed, never again competed as a boxer. He later defeated Dromeus of Mantinea in the pancratium, the Olympiad after Dromeus had won without a contest; at another Olympia, Clitomachus was proclaimed second to Theagenes in both the pancratium and boxing. His statue, made by Glaucias, was said to show a wish to emulate Achilles.

After Theagenes died, his statue fell on an enemy and killed him. The Thasians threw it into the sea under the code of Draco, but in time the Pythian Priestess told them, “Your great Theagenes you have forgotten.” Fishermen recovered the statue in their net, and the Thasians restored it and sacrificed to it as to a god.