Pheidon

Pheidon () was an Argive ruler, usually dated to the first half of the 7th century BCE (perhaps reigning ). While his dating is a matter of dispute and much of the information about him is fragmentary, he is almost always described as a powerful and expansionist ruler. He consolidated Argive control over the surrounding region of the Argolid. If the 7th-century dating is correct, then he defeated Sparta at the Battle of Hysiae in 669/8. He is also remembered for forcibly taking control of the presidency over the Olympic games (usually dated to 668 BCE) and creating or standardizing weights and measures which were then used throughout the Peloponnese and called Pheidonian after him. He may have intervened in the affairs of other Greek city-states on other occasions, and one late author claims that he died while involved in civil conflict in Corinth. He was remembered as a tyrant (Aristotle cites him as an example of a king who became a tyrant), perhaps for his demonstration of power at the Olympic festival.

== Dating == The first half of the 7th century BCE (perhaps 680–660) is regarded as the most likely date for Pheidon's reign. This dating is based on Herodotus's report that Pheidon intervened at the Olympic festival, expelling the Elean presiding officers and presiding over the competition himself. Herodotus does not provide a date for this event, but assertions by the later authors Eusebius and Pausanias have been used to argue that in 668 BCE control of the Olympic festival (traditionally the privilege of the Eleans) was taken over by the Pisatans. The most widespread view among historians is that Pheidon helped the Pisatans take over the Olympic festival in 668, which means he lived in the first half of the 7th century BCE. However, G. L. Huxley proposes an 8th-century date for Pheidon, while Thomas Kelly argues in favor of a 6th-century dating. Additionally, the 7th-century dating appears to be contradicted by another report by Herodotus that a son of Pheidon was among the suitors of Agariste, daughter of the Sicyonian tyrant Cleisthenes, who lived in the 6th century. It may be, however, that this is a confusion rooted in the folkloric nature of the report. (Reginald Walter Macan first proposed that the story of the wooing of Agariste was adapted from the Indian fable of the "Dancing Peacock.") Alternatively, it may be the case that Herodotus confused two different figures named Pheidon.