Damoxenus and Kruegas

Entryway to the Olympic Club
524 Post Street
Union Square

Domoxenus

Established on May 6, 1860, The Olympic Club enjoys the distinction of being America’s oldest athletic club, which makes it appropriate, that these two statues of Damoxenus and Kreugas stand outside its front door.

Damoxenus and Kreugas were boxers. Domoxenus of Syracuse was excluded from the Nemean Games for killing Kreugas in a pugilistic encounter. The two competitors, after having consumed the entire day in boxing, agreed each to receive from the other a blow without flinching. Kreugas first struck Damoxenus on the head, and then Damoxenus, with his fingers unfairly stretched out, struck Kreugas on the side; and such, observes Pausanias, “was the hardness of his nails and the violence of the blow that his hand pierced the side, seized on the bowels, and, drawing them outward, caused instant death to Kreugas.”

Then, “His pitying countrymen placed the olive crown upon the head of the dying Kreugas; and, struck with horror at the deed, condemned the ferocious conqueror to perpetual exile.”

Kreugas

The sculpture of Domoxenus was given to the Olympic Club in 1913 by Ludwig M. Hoefler. Kruegas was given in  1912. Hoefler bought the sculptures in Rome.  The fabricator was Morelli e Rinaldi.