It would be hard to overstate the importance of an Olympian victory to the people of ancient Greece. It made instant celebrities of the winners. They could even feed at public expense for the rest of their lives. Cylon, an Athenian nobleman or eupatrid, was one such winner whose victory in 640 B.C. also won him the daughter of Theagenes, the tyrant of Megara, for his wife. A tyrant, at the time, meant something different from our modern concept of tyrant as a cruel and oppressive despot.

Read Full Article: Cylon