Aristocleidas was the son of Aristophanes, and won the victory in the
Pankration in the adult division of the
Nemean Games, but it is not known in what
Olympiad. Classical scholar
Georg Ludolf Dissen conjectures that this was before the
Battle of Salamis, that is, before 480 BCE. The third
Nemean Ode of
Pindar was written in Aristocleidas's honor, and in which Pindar claims Aristocleidas had attained the highest glory mortals can achieve. In Pindar's ode, he was cited for winning the
Pankration thrice: as a boy at
Megara, as a young man at
Epidaurus; and, at
Nemea during his advanced years. In 475, during the third Nemean, Aristocleides won the pancratiast competition. Dutch classical scholar
Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer has suggested that the ode indicates that Aristocleidas won his victory without using the services of a professional trainer, which would have been fairly unusual at the time. Other scholars, such as Nigel James Nicholson, disagree with this interpretation and go so far as to say the ode may even be metaphorical, not representing a contemporaneous athletic victory, but a political one. This would be similar to the eleventh
Nemean Ode, in which Pindar celebrates the election of Aristagoras to the local
prytaneion (a governing body) while also referencing his athletic triumphs as a young man. ==Others with this name==