CHAP. 48. (47.)—THE MAN WHOM THE GODS ORDERED TO BE WORSHIPPED DURING HIS LIFE-TIME; A REMARKABLE FLASH OF LIGHTNING.
While still surviving, and in full possession of his senses,
by the command of the same oracle, and with the sanction of
Jupiter, the supreme Father of the gods, Euthymus,[1] the
pugilist, who had always, with one exception, been victorious
in the Olympic games, was deified. He was a native of Locri,
in Italy. I find that Callimachus,[2] considering it a more
wonderful circumstance than any he had ever known, that the
two statues which had been erected to him, one at Locri, and
the other at Olympia, were struck by lightning on the same
day, ordered sacrifices to be offered up to him, which was
accordingly done, both during his life-time, and after his
death. Nothing, indeed, has appeared to me so remarkable,
as this mark of approval given by the gods.
1. We have some account of Euthymus in Pausanias, B. vi., and in
Æian, Var. Hist. B. viii. c. 18.—B.
2. It has been conjectured by Poinsiret, that the word "Callimachus"
does not refer to the well-known poet of that name, nor to any other individual, but that it was the title of the president of the Olympic games.
The opinion is not without plausibility, but is scarcely sanctioned by sufficient authority.—B.