The original bronze portrait was found at Olympia in the nineteenth century. It was probably severed from a complete figure depicting the celebrated boxer Satyrus by the Athenian sculptor Silanios. The head is almost godlike with its curly hair and thick beard, patiently worked in the bronze after its casting. The band around the hair surely supported an olive crown proclaiming him a victor. The flattened nose and cauliflower ears just as certainly proclaimed him a boxer. The statue had been made in approximately 340 B.C. and was doubtless placed on the site of the Olympic games to honor the athlete.

The winner of a contest at the Panhellenic festival games held every four years at Olympia received no monetary prize. His reward was ceremonious crowning of his brow with a simple wreath of wild olive leaves. However, the honors which he received did not end with that ceremony. He was made a celebrated hero; his portrait statue was often erected in his home town and possibly at Olympia. On some occasions he was welcomed home through a special hole knocked from the city walls. With great ceremony he was paraded through the streets. he was extolled in poems and songs performed in public places, made exempt from taxation, given free meals and front row seats for public spectacles. Some cities even rewarded him with a handsome sum of cash.