Peter Jones

Will Colston’s statue wreak its revenge?

[Getty Images] 
issue 15 January 2022

The statue of the Bristol merchant Edward Colston is apparently guilty of a hate crime. Let us hope that the four charged with pulling him down are indeed, for their sake, ‘on the right side of history’, as they claim, since statues have a habit of getting their own back on those who dishonour them. The statue of Theagenes (5th C bc) provides an instructive example.

A Greek from the island of Thasos, Theagenes was one of the greats of the games’ circuit (so one should hope: his father was a priest of Heracles). As a boxer and all-in fighter (pankratiast), he won twice at the Olympics (boxing 480 bc, pankration 476 bc), and 22 times at the three other major games (Pythian, Isthmian and Nemean). In lesser competitions — on which Plutarch commented ‘one would judge most of them trash’ — we are told he racked up 1,400 victories, including (incredibly) one in long-distance running.

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