Greek athlete, the most renowned wrestler in antiquity whose name is still proverbial for extraordinary strength.
In six Olympic Games and in six Pythian Games (both events held quadrennially) he won the wrestling championship. In these and other Greek national games he won 32 wrestling competitions.
He is said to have carried an ox on his shoulders through the stadium at Olympia.
A greatly honoured native of Croton-modern Crotone, Calabria (an Achaean Greek colony in southern Italy), he led the Crotoniate army to victory over the Sybarites (Greeks from Sybaris also in southern Italy) c 510 BC.
According to the traditional account of his death, he tried to tear apart with his hands a tree that had been split with a wedge; the wedge fell out and the tree closed on one hand, holding him captive until he was devoured by wolves.
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