Identification of some winners in the keles race in Posidippus’ epigrams

Through an examination of epigrams concerning the race for single horses in the Hippikà section of the Milan Papyrus Vogliano VIII 309, the author develops the hypothesis that these epinician epigrams did not celebrate contemporary victories (such as those for the Ptolemies), but instead, historical winners of the past. It seems that in doing so Posidippus recycled facts from the history of Greek sport that already belonged to a shared knowledge, like the multiple victories of the Spartan Euagoras, or those of the Corinthian Pheidolas and his sons. Combined victories (equestrian and athletic) of popular figures such as Hippostratus from Croton and Eubatas from Cyrenae were also poetically reshaped. It is possible that these epigrams stood on the bases of horses’ statues, with some in a Thessalian stud.