He prepared himself physically before competing according to ethical-religious Pythagorean concepts by abstaining from sexual intercourse and a frugal diet specially prepared.
[3] Pausanias calls him the best gymnast of his age,[4] and Plato also mentions him with great praise.
[6][failed verification] According to Themistius,[7] Plato reckoned him among the sophists.
Specifically, in Plato's dialogue Protagoras, the sophist Protagoras lists Iccus alongside Homer, Hesiod, Simonides, Orpheus, Musaeus, Herodicus, Agathocles tutor of Damon, and Pythoclides [fr] as fellow sophists (that is, improvers of youth) who chose to present themselves as poets, athletes, or musicians for fear of public disapproval.
[8] This biography of a philosopher from ancient Greece is a stub.