A shrine in Turkey turns into the tomb of ancient Greek wrestler, Diagoras.
A 2.300-year-old tomb in Turkey, once revered as a holy
Islamic site turns out to have been the tomb of ancient Greek wrestler Diagoras.
Local people in the Marmara district thought the unusual
hilltop pyramid tomb was the burial of a holy figure of Islam and they treated
it as such, performing sacred rites on the site.
However, archaeologists uncovered strong evidence that the
pyramid structure served as the burial site of the famous Greek wrestler
Diagoras of Rhodes, justifying doubts about the tomb’s history.
Archaeologists discovered a Greek inscription on the tomb
identifying that Diagoras was buried there, featuring a quote of the athlete
from beyond the grave:
“I shall be vigilant at the very top so as to ensure that no
coward can come and destroy the tomb.”
According to the reports, there is also mention of Diagoras’
wife Aristomache. and archaeologists suppose that there was once a sculpture of
the couple at the site, that had been stolen by looters.
Diagoras was one of the most popular figures in antiquity,
during the 5th century BC, and his successes in wrestling were so
well known that the athlete was greeted with applause wherever he went.
A descendant of ancient royals from Rhodes and Messinia the
wrestler was the top athlete of his day having won twice at the Olympic Games,
twice ant the Nemean Games and at least once at the Pythian Games.
The immense strength of Diagoras was heralded by Pindarus and Pausanias.
No comments:
Post a Comment