There are three stories concerning the practice of Eleans [whose home-town of Elis officiated the Olympic agon] not competing at the Isthmian agon, officiated by the Korinthians. The tale most believed by Pausanias was that the murder of the sons of Aktor [Siamese twins who were an unbeatable chariot racing team—think about it!] by Herakles resulted in their mother, Moline, imposing a curse on any Elean who dared to compete in the Isthmian agon; the stated reason being that the Korinthians refused to bar the Argives from the agon for not giving up Herakles to the Eleans.

The least likely tale of the Elean boycott of the Isthmian agon supposedly stemmed from an offering of a golden image made by Kypselus, tyrant of Korinth, at Olympia. According to this story, Kypselus died before having his name engraved on the offering, and the Eleans refused the requests of his successors that his name be engraved on the golden image that he had dedicated to Zeus. This tale was contradicted by Korinthian participation at Olympia, and the gift of the Chest of Kypselus [see Figure 36 in The Gods of Boxing].

The tale that this author finds to ring most true is the following...

The boy athletes Lampus and Philanthus of Elis, sons of the leading Elean Prolaus, and his wife Lysippe, journeyed to Korinth to compete in the Isthmian agon. Both boys entered for the pankration, and one of them intended to wrestle as well. At some point between their swearing-in and the call to wrestle, they were strangled and choked to death by their opponents. [This indicates a period of segregating the athletes in a holding area or preparatory facility between the registration or oath-taking and the actual contest, echoed by the “house” aspect of the reality show The Ultimate Fighter.] This event caused Lyssipe to declare a curse on any Elean who would participate in the agon overseen by the officials who had permitted the murder of her sons.

Since the panHellenic agons themselves were in fact truces, and had their origins in the celebration of conquests, the forging of alliance, and the making of peace, such a curse by a mother of Elis resulting from the failure of Korinth to bring the murderers of her sons to justice would be reasonable. It is the author's opinion that an ancient tribal curse had been long-standing at the time of the murder of the sons of Lyssipe, and that she invoked the ancient tradition of Moline in honor of her wronged sons.

Timon of Elis, war hero of the Hellenistic Age, refused to compete at the Isthmus after sweeping the other three panHellenic agons. For this the Eleans honored him with the following inscription on the base of his statue in the Altis:

"Sisyphus' land [Korinth] he did not visit for the quarrel over the murder of the Molionids."

This author was unable to determine if Timon lived before or after Lysippe. The original Molinid Curse would date to before 648 B.C., associated as it was with the career of Herakles.