Ergoteles of Himera
Ergoteles or Ergotelis, was a native of Knossos and Olympic runner in the Ancient Olympic Games.
Civil disorder had compelled him to leave Crete. He came to Sicily and was naturalized as a citizen of Himera. He won the Olympic dolichos of 472 BC and 464 BC, as well as winning twice in both Pythian and Isthmian games.
A four-line inscribed epigram of c. 450 BC found in Olympia commemorates the six Ergotelian victories. The base of an inscribed statue at Olympia, which was seen and exploited by the geographer Pausanias, was rediscovered in 1953. Pindar honoured Ergoteles with the following Epinikion hymn:
The Ergotelis multi-sport club established in 1929 in Heraklion, Crete, was named after Ergoteles, in commemoration of the first Olympic champion native to the modern Heraklion prefecture.
