Book 7
17.6
Its more ancient name was Paleia, but the Ionians changed this to its modern name while they still occupied the city; I am uncertain whether they named it after Dyme, a native woman, or after Dymas, the son of Aegimius. But nobody is likely to be led into a fallacy by the inscription on the statue of Oebotas at Olympia. Oebotas was a man of Dyme, who won the foot-race at the sixth Festival756 B.C. and was honored, because of a Delphic oracle, with a statue erected in the eightieth Olympiad460-457 B.C.. On it is an inscription which says:—
17.7
This Oebotas, an Achaean, the son of Oenias, by winning the foot-race,Added to the renown of his fatherland Paleia.This inscription should mislead nobody, although it calls the city Paleia and not Dyme. For it is the custom of Greek poets to use ancient names instead of more modern ones, just as they surname Amphiaraus and Adrastus Phoronids, and Theseus an Erechthid.
17.8
A little before the city of Dyme there is, on the right of the road, the grave of Sostratus. He was a native youth, loved they say by Heracles, who outliving Sostratus made him his tomb and gave him some hair from his head as a primal offering. Even today there is a slab on the top of the mound, with a figure of Heracles in relief. I was told that the natives also sacrifice to Sostratus as to a hero.
