Iphitus

On Hercules’ return to Thebes he gave his wife Megara to his friend and charioteer Iolaus, son of Iphicles, and by beating Eurytus of Oechalia and his sons in a shooting match won a claim to the hand of his daughter Iole, whose family, however, except her brother Iphitus, withheld their consent to the union.

Iphitus persuaded Hercules to search for Eurytus’ lost oxen, but was killed by him at Tiryns in a frenzy.

These festivals, we are informed, originated with Pelops, were brought to perfection by Hercules and Atreus, and restored by Iphitus when they had fallen into neglect.

They were revived by Iphitus, king of Elis, who obtained for them the solemn sanction of the Delphic oracle.

The Olympiads were reckoned only from the year 776, B. C., although the games had been revived by Iphitus more than a century earlier.