{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_10717/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_10717","id":"gutenberg_10717","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10717","summary":null,"tags":["Athletics -- Greece -- Poetry","Category: Classics of Literature","Category: History - Ancient","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Poetry","Games -- Greece -- Poetry","Laudatory poetry, Greek -- Translations into English","Mythology, Greek -- Poetry","Olympic games (Ancient) -- Poetry","Pindar -- Translations into English"],"text":"THE EXTANT\n\nODES OF PINDAR\n\nTRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH\n\nwith\n\nINTRODUCTION AND SHORT NOTES\n\nBY\n\nERNEST MYERS, M.A.\n\n_Sometime Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford_\n\n\n1904\n\n_First edition printed 1874._\n\n_Reprinted (with corrections) 1884, 1888, 1892, 1895, 1899, 1904_\n\n  SON OF THE LIGHTNING, FAIR AND FIERY STAR,\n  STRONG-WINGED IMPERIAL PINDAR, VOICE DIVINE,\n  LET THESE DEEP DRAUGHTS OF THY ENCHANTED WINE\n  LIFT ME WITH THEE IN SOARINGS HIGH AND FAR\n  PROUDER THAN PEGASEAN, OR THE CAR\n  WHEREIN APOLLO RAPT THE HUNTRESS MAID.\n  SO LET ME RANGE MINE HOUR, TOO SOON TO FADE\n  INTO STRANGE PRESENCE OF THE THINGS THAT ARE.\n  YET KNOW THAT EVEN AMID THIS JARRING NOISE\n  OF HATES, LOVES, CREEDS, TOGETHER HEAPED AND HURLED,\n  SOME ECHO FAINT OF GRACE AND GRANDEUR STIRS\n  FROM THY SWEET HELLAS, HOME OF NOBLE JOYS.\n  FIRST FRUIT AND BEST OF ALL OUR WESTERN WORLD;\n  WHATE'ER WE HOLD OF BEAUTY, HALF IS HERS.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nProbably no poet of importance equal or approaching to that of Pindar\nfinds so few and so infrequent readers. The causes are not far to\nseek: in the first and most obvious place comes the great difficulty\nof his language, in the second the frequent obscurity of his thought,\nresulting mainly from his exceeding allusiveness and his abrupt\ntransitions, and in the third place that amount of monotony which must\nof necessity attach to a series of poems provided for a succession of\nsimilar occasions.\n\nIt is as an attempt towards obviating the first of these hindrances\nto the study of Pindar, the difficulty of his language, that this\ntranslation is of course especially intended. To whom and in what\ncases are translations of poets useful? To a perfect scholar in the\noriginal tongue they are superfluous, to one wholly ignorant of it\nthey are apt to be (unless here and there to a Keats) meaningless,\nflat, and puzzling. There remains the third class of those who have a\ncertain amount of knowledge of a language, but not enough to\nenable them to read unassisted its more difficult books without an\nexpenditure of time and trouble which is virtually prohibitive. It\nis to this class that a translation ought, it would seem, chiefly to\naddress itself. An intelligent person of cultivated literary taste,\nand able to read the easier books in an acquired language, will feel\nhimself indebted to a hand which unlocks for him the inner chambers\nof a temple in whose outer courts he had already delighted to wander.\nWithout therefore saying that the merely 'English reader' may never\nderive pleasure and instruction from a translation of a foreign poet,\nfor to this rule our current version of the Hebrew psalmists and\nprophets furnish one marked exception at least--still, it is probably\nto what may be called the half-learned class that the translator must\npreeminently look to find an audience.\n\nThe other causes of Pindar's unpopularity to which reference was made\nabove, the obscurity of his thought and the monotony of his subjects,\nwill in great measure disappear by means of attentive study of the\npoems themselves, and of other sources from which may be gathered an\nunderstanding of the region of thought and feeling in which they move.\nIn proportion to our familiarity not only with Hellenic mythology and\nhistory, but with Hellenic life and habits of thought generally, will\nbe our readiness and facility in seizing the drift and import of what\nPindar says, in divining what has passed through his mind: and in his\ncase perhaps even more than in the case of other poets, this facility\nwill increase indefinitely with our increasing acquaintance with his\nworks and with the light thrown on each part of them by the rest[1].\n\nThe monotony of the odes, though to some extent unquestionably and\nunavoidably real, is to some extent also superficial and in appearance\nonly. The family of the victor, or his country, some incident of his\npast, some possibility of his future life, suggest in each case some\ndifferent legendary matter, some different way of treating it, some\ndifferent application of it, general or particular, or both. Out\nof such resources Pindar is inexhaustible in building up in subtly\nvarying forms the splendid structure of his song.\n\nYet doubtless the drawbacks in reading Pindar, though they may be\nlargely reduced, will always in some degree exist: we shall always\nwish that he was easier to construe, that his allusions to things\nunfamiliar and sometimes undiscoverable to us were less frequent, that\nfamily pride had not made it customary for him to spend so many lines\non an enumeration of prizes won elsewhere and at other times by the\nvictor of the occasion or by his kin. Such drawbacks can only fall\ninto insignificance when eclipsed by consideration of the far more\nthan counterbalancing attractions of the poems, of their unique and\nsurpassing interest, poetical, historical, and moral.\n\n\nOf Pindar as a poet it is hard indeed to speak adequately, and\nalmost as hard to speak briefly, for a discussion of his poetical\ncharacteristics once begun may wander far before even a small part\nhas been said of what might be. To say that to his poetry in supreme\ndegree belong the qualities of force, of vividness, often of\nimpressive weight, of a lofty style, seeming to be the expression of\na like personality, of a mastery of rhythm and metre and imaginative\ndiction, of a profoundly Hellenic spirit modified by an unmistakable\nindividuality, above all of a certain sweep and swiftness as of the\nflight of an eagle's wing--to say all this would be to suggest some of\nthe most obvious features of these triumphal odes; and each of these\nqualities, and many more requiring exacter delineation, might be\nillustrated with numberless instances which even in the faint image\nof a translation would furnish ample testimony[2]. But as this\nintroduction is intended for those who purpose reading Pindar's\npoetry, or at any rate the present translation of it, for themselves,\nI will leave it to them to discover for themselves the qualities which\nhave given Pindar his high place among poets, and will pass on to\nsuggest briefly his claims to interest us by reason of his place in\nthe history of human action and human thought.\n\nWe know very little of Pindar's life. He was born in or about the year\nB.C. 522, at the village of Kynoskephalai near Thebes. He was thus a\ncitizen of Thebes and seems to have always had his home there. But he\ntravelled among other states, many of which have been glorified by his\nart. For his praise of Athens, 'bulwark of Hellas,' the city which at\nArtemision 'laid the foundation of freedom,' the Thebans are said to\nhave fined him; but the generous Athenians paid the fine, made him\ntheir Proxenos, and erected his statue at the public cost. For the\nmagnificent Sicilian princes, Hieron of Syracuse and Theron of\nAkragas, not unlike the Medici in the position they held, Pindar wrote\nfive of the longest of his extant odes, and probably visited them in\nSicily. But he would not quit his home to be an ornament of their\ncourts. When asked why he did not, like Simonides, accept the\ninvitations of these potentates to make his home with them, he\nanswered that he had chosen to live his own life, and not to be the\nproperty of another. He died at the age of 79, that is, probably, in\nthe year 443, twelve years before the Peloponnesian war began. Legend\nsaid that he died in the theatre of Argos, in the arms of Theoxenos,\nthe boy in whose honour he wrote a Skolion of which an immortal\nfragment remains to us. Other myths gathered round his name. It was\nsaid that once when in childhood he had fallen asleep by the way 'a\nbee had settled on his lips and gathered honey,' and again that\n'he saw in a dream that his mouth was filled with honey and the\nhoneycomb;' that Pan himself learnt a poem of his and rejoiced to sing\nit on the mountains; that finally, while he awaited an answer from\nthe oracle of Ammon, whence he had enquired what was best for man,\nPersephone appeared to him in his sleep and said that she only of the\ngods had had no hymn from him, but that he should make her one shortly\nwhen he had come to her; and that he died within ten days of the\nvision.\n\nTwo several conquerors of Thebes, Pausanias of Sparta and Alexander of\nMacedon,\n\n  'bade spare\n  The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower\n  Went to the ground.'\n\nAt Delphi they kept with reverence his iron chair, and the priest of\nApollo cried nightly as he closed the temple, 'Let Pindar the poet go\nin unto the supper of the god.'\n\nThus Pindar was contemporary with an age of Greek history which\njustifies the assertion of his consummate interest for the student of\nHellenic life in its prime. It was impossible that a man of his\ngenius and temperament should have lived through these times without\nrepresenting to us with breadth and intensity the spirit that was in\nthem, and there are several points in Pindar's circumstances which\nmake his relation to his age peculiarly interesting. We may look on\nhim as in some points supplementary to the great Athenian dramatists,\nwhose works are doubtless far the most valuable literary legacy of the\ntime. Perhaps however the surpassing brilliance of Athenian literature\nand history has made us somewhat prone to forget the importance of\nnon-Athenian elements in the complex whole of Hellenic life and\nthought. Athens was the eye of Hellas, nay, she had at Marathon and\nSalamis made good her claim to be called the saving arm, but there\nwere other members not to be forgotten if we would picture to\nourselves the national body in its completeness.\n\nPindar was a Boeotian, of a country not rich in literary or indeed any\nkind of intellectual eminence, yet by no means to be ignored in an\nestimate of the Hellenic race. Politically indeed it only rises into\npre-eminence under Epameinondas; before and afterwards Boeotian\npolicy under the domination of Thebes is seldom either beneficent or\nglorious: it must be remembered, however, that the gallant Plataeans\nalso were Boeotians. The people of Boeotia seem to have had generally\nan easy, rather sensually inclined nature, which accorded with their\nrich country and absence of nautical and commercial enterprise and\nexcitement, but in their best men this disposition remains only in the\nform of a genial simplicity. Pelopidas in political, and Plutarch and\nPausanias in literary history, will be allowed to be instances of\nthis. That the poetry which penetrated Hellenic life was not wanting\nin Boeotia we have proof enough in the existence of the Sacred Band,\nthat goodly fellowship of friends which seems to have united what\nHallam has called the three strongest motives to enthusiastic action\nthat have appeared in history, patriotism, chivalric honour, and\nreligion. Nor is there any nobler figure in history than that of\nEpameinondas.\n\nOne fact indeed there is which must always make the thought of\nPindar's Theban citizenship painful to us, and that is the shameful\npart taken by Thebes in the Persian war, when compulsion of her\nexposed situation, and oligarchical cabal within her walls, drew her\ninto unholy alliance with the barbarian invader. Had it been otherwise\nhow passionately pure would Pindar's joy have uttered itself when the\n'stone of Tantalos' that hung over the head of Hellas was smitten into\ndust in that greatest crisis of the fortunes of humanity. He exults\nnobly as it is, he does all honour to Athens, 'bulwark of Hellas,' but\nthe shame of his own city, his 'mother' Thebes, must have caused him a\npang as bitter as a great soul has ever borne.\n\nFor his very calling of song-writer to all Hellenic states without\ndiscrimination, especially when the songs he had to write were of the\nclass which we still possess, triumphal odes for victories in those\ngreat games which drew to them all men of Hellenic blood at the feet\nof common deities, and which with each recurring festival could even\nhush the clamour of war in an imperious Truce of God--such a calling\nand such associations must have cherished in him the passion for\nPanhellenic brotherhood and unanimity, even had there not been much\nelse both within and without him to join to the same generous end. It\nwas the time when Panhellenic feeling was probably stronger than ever\nbefore or after. Before, the states had been occupied in building\nup their own polities independently; the Hellenic activity had been\ndispersing itself centrifugally among the trans-marine colonies,\nand those of Italy and Sicily seemed at one time to make it doubtful\nwhether the nucleus of civilization were to be there or in the\nmother-country. But by the time of the Persian war the best energies\nof the race had concentrated themselves between the Aegean and Ionian\nseas; and the supreme danger of the war had bound the states together\nagainst the common enemy and taught them to forget smaller differences\nin the great strife between Hellene and barbarian. Yet again when that\nsupreme danger was past the old quarrels arose anew more deadly and\nmore complicated: instead of a Persian there was a Peloponnesian war,\nand the Peloponnesian war in its latter stages came, by virtue of the\npolitical principles involved, to partake much of the character of\na civil war. But the time of Pindar, of Aeschylus, of Sophocles, of\nPheidias, of Polygnotos, was that happy interval when Hellas had\nbeaten off the barbarian from her throat and had not yet murdered\nherself. And Pindar's imagination and generosity were both kindled by\nthe moment; there was no room in his mind for border squabbles, for\ncommercial jealousies, for oligarchic or democratic envy: these things\nwere overridden by a sentiment of nationality wanting indeed in\nmany circumstances which modern nationalities deem essential to the\nexistence of such sentiment, and many of which are really essential to\nits permanence--yet a sentiment which no other nation ever before or\nsince can have possessed in the peculiar lustre which it then wore in\nHellas; for no other nation has ever before or since known what it was\nto stand alone immeasurably advanced at the head of the civilization\nof the world.\n\nPindar was of a noble family, of the house of the Aigeidai, and it is\nprobable that his kinsmen, or some of them, may have taken the side of\noligarchy in the often recurring dissensions at Thebes, but of this\nwe know nothing certain. He himself seems to have taken no part in\npolitics. When he speaks on the subject in his odes it is not with the\nvoice of a partisan. An ochlocracy is hateful to him, but if he shows\nhimself an 'aristocrat' it is in the literal and etymological meaning\nof the word. Doubtless if Pindar had been asked where the best\nservants of the state in public life were most likely to be found he\nwould have answered that it would be among those ancient families in\nwhose veins ran the blood of gods and demigods, who had spent blood\nand money for the city's honour, championing her in war or in the\nmimic strife of the games, who had honourable traditions to be guided\nby and an honourable name to lose or save. These things were seldom\nundervalued by Hellenic feeling: even in Athens, after it was already\nthe headquarters of the democratic principle, the noble and wealthy\nfamilies obtained, not probably without wisdom of their own in loyally\naccepting a democratic position, as fair a place and prospects as\nanywhere in Hellas. But that, when the noble nature, the [Greek:\naretae], which traditions of nobility ought to have secured, was\nlacking, then wealth and birth were still entitled to power, this\nwas a doctrine repugnant utterly to Pindar's mind: nor would his\nindignation slumber when he saw the rich and highborn, however gifted,\nforgetting at any time that their power was a trust for the community\nand using it for their own selfish profit. An 'aristocrat' after\nPindar's mind would assuredly have a far keener eye to his duties\nthan to his rights, would consider indeed that in his larger share of\nduties lay his infinitely most precious right.\n\nBut he 'loved that beauty should go beautifully;' personal excellence\nof some kind was in his eyes essential; but on this he would fain\nshed outward radiance and majesty. His imagination rejoiced in\nsplendour--splendour of stately palace--halls where the columns were\nof marble and the entablature of wrought gold, splendour of temples of\ngods where the sculptor's waxing art had brought the very deities to\ndwell with man, splendour of the white-pillared cities that glittered\nacross the Aegean and Sicilian seas, splendour of the holy Panhellenic\ngames, of whirlwind chariots and the fiery grace of thoroughbreds,\nof the naked shapely limbs of the athlete man and boy. On this\ncharacteristic of Pindar it is needless to dwell, for there are not\nmany odes of those remaining which do not impress it on our minds.\n\nAnd it is more with him than a mere manner in poetical style. The\nsame defect which we feel more or less present in all poets of\nantiquity--least of all perhaps in Virgil and Sophokles, but even in\nthem somewhat--a certain want of widely sympathetic tenderness, this\nis unquestionably present in Pindar. What of this quality may have\nfound expression in his lost poems, especially the Dirges, we can\nscarcely guess, but in his triumphal odes it hardly appears at all,\nunless in the touches of tender gracefulness into which he softens\nwhen speaking of the young. And we find this want in him mainly\nbecause objects of pity, such as especially elicit that quality of\ntenderness, are never or seldom present to Pindar's mind. He sees evil\nonly in the shape of some moral baseness, falsehood, envy, arrogance,\nand the like, to be scathed in passing by the good man's scorn, or\nelse in the shape of a dark mystery of pain, to be endured by those on\nwhom it causelessly falls in a proud though undefiant silence. It was\nnot for him, as for the great tragedians, to 'purge the mind by pity\nand fear,' for those passions had scarcely a place in his own mind or\nin the minds of those of whom he in his high phantasy would fain have\nhad the world consist. And as in this point somewhat, so still more in\nothers, does Pindar remind us, even more than might have been expected\nin a contemporary, of Aeschylus. The latter by virtue of his Athenian\nnurture as well as of his own greater natural gifts reveals to us\na greater number of thoughts, and those more advanced and more\ninteresting than we find in Pindar, but the similarity in moral temper\nand tone is very striking, as also is the way in which we see this\ntemper acting on their beliefs. Both hold strongly, as is the wont\nof powerful minds in an age of stability as opposed to an age of\ntransition, to the traditions and beliefs on which the society around\nthem rests, but both modify these traditions and beliefs according\nto the light which arises in them, and which is as much moral as\nintellectual light. In so doing they are indeed in harmony with the\nbest instincts of the society around them, but they lead and guide\nsuch instincts and give them shape and definiteness. In the Oreste\u00e4n\ntrilogy of Aeschylus we have an ever-memorable assertion of the\nsupreme claims of human morality to human allegiance, of the eternal\ntruth that humanity can know no object of reverence and worship except\nitself idealised, its own virtues victorious over its own vices, and\nexisting in the greatest perfection which it can at any given time\nconceive. Somewhat the same lesson as that of the Oresteia is taught\nlater, with more of sweetness and harmony, but not with more force,\nin the Oedipus Coloneus of Sophokles. And in Pindar we see the same\ntendencies inchoate. Like Aeschylus he does by implication subordinate\nto morality both politics and religion. He ignores or flatly denies\ntales that bring discredit on the gods; he will only bow down to them\nwhen they have the virtues he respects in man. Yet he, like Aeschylus\nand Sophokles, does so bow down, sincerely and without hesitation, and\nthat poets of their temper could do so was well indeed for poetry.\nBy rare and happy fortune they were inspired at once by the rich and\nvaried presences of mythology, 'the fair humanities of old religion,'\nand also by the highest aspirations of an age of moral and\nintellectual advance. We do not of course always, or even often, find\nthe moral principles clearly and consciously expressed or consistently\nsupported, but we cannot but feel that they are present in the shape\nof instincts, and those instincts pervading and architectonic.\n\nAnd if we allow so much of ethical enlightenment to these great\nspokesmen of the Hellenic people, we cannot deny something of like\nhonour to the race among whom they were reared. Let us apportion our\ndebt of gratitude to our forerunners as it is justly due. There would\nseem to be much of fallacy and of the injustice of a shallow judgment\nin the contrast as popularly drawn between 'Hellenism' and 'Hebraism,'\naccording to which the former is spoken of as exclusively proclaiming\nto the world the value of Beauty, the latter the value of\nRighteousness. In this there is surely much injustice done to Hellas.\nBecause she taught the one, she did not therefore leave the other\nuntaught. It may have been for a short time, as her other greatness\nwas for a short time, though its effects are eternal, but for that\nshort time the national life, of Athens at any rate, is at least as\nfull of high moral feeling as that of any other people in the world.\nWill not the names of Solon, of Aristeides, of Kallikratidas, of\nEpameinondas, of Timoleon and many more, remind us that life could be\nto the Hellene something of deeper moral import than a brilliant game,\nor a garden of vivid and sweet sights and sounds where Beauty and\nKnowledge entered, but Goodness was forgotten and shut out? For it\nis not merely that these men, and very many more endowed with ample\nportion of their spirit, were produced and reared among the race; they\nwere honoured and valued in a way that surely postulated the existence\nof high ethical feeling in their countrymen. And even when the days\nof unselfish statesmen and magnanimous cities were over, there were\nphilosophers whose schools were not the less filled because they\nclaimed a high place for righteousness in human life. To Solon and\nAristeides succeeded Socrates and Plato, to Epameinondas and Timoleon\nsucceeded Zeno and Epictetus. That the morality of the Hellenes was\ncomplete on all sides, it would of course be irrational to maintain.\nThey had not, for instance, any more than the Hebrews, or any other\nnation of antiquity, learnt to abhor slavery, though probably it\nexisted in a milder form at Athens than anywhere else in the old or\nnew world: they were more implacable in revenge and laxer in sexual\nindulgence than the Christian ethics would allow in theory, though not\nperhaps much more so than Christendom has shown itself in practice.\nAnd though undoubtedly the greatest single impulse ever given to\nmorality came from Palestine, yet the ground which nurtured the seeds\nof Christianity was as much Hellenic as Hebrew. It would be impossible\nhere to enter on an exhaustive comparison of the ethical capacities of\nthe two races, but before we pronounce hastily for the superiority of\nthe Hebrew there are surely some difficulties to surmount. We may\nwell ask, for example, Would Hellas ever have accepted as her chief\nnational hero such a man as David a man who in his life is conspicuous\nby his crimes not less than by his brilliant gifts, and who dies with\nthe words of blood and perfidy on his lips, charging his son with the\nlast slaughterous satisfaction of his hate which he had sworn before\nhis God to forego? And though the great Hebrew prophets teach often\na far loftier morality than this, they cannot have been nearly so\nrepresentative of the feeling of this nation as were Aeschylus and\nSophocles and Pindar of the feeling of theirs. The Hebrews of the\nprophets' age 'slew the prophets,' and left it to the slayers'\ndescendants to 'build their sepulchres,' and at the same time to\nshow their inherited character still more unmistakeably by once more\nslaying the last prophet and the greatest.[3]\n\nIn truth in the literature, the art, the life generally of Hellas in\nher prime, the moral interest whenever it appears, and that is not\nseldom, claims for itself the grave and preponderant attention which\nit must claim if it is to appear with fit dignity. But it is not\nthrust forward unseasonably or in exaggeration, nor is it placed in a\nfalse opposition to the interests of the aesthetic instincts, which\nafter all shade into the moral more imperceptibly than might be\ngenerally allowed. There must be a moral side to all societies, and\nthe Hellenic society, the choicest that the world has seen, the\ncompletest, that is, at once in sensibilities and in energies, could\nnot but show the excellence of its sensibilities in receiving moral\nimpressions, the excellence of its energies in achieving moral\nconduct.\n\nThis, however, is no place to discuss at length questions in the\nhistory of ethics. Yet it must be remembered that in the ancient world\ndepartments of thought, and the affairs of men generally, were far\nless specialized than in modern times. If the philosophy of Hellas be\nthe most explicit witness to her ethical development, her poetry\nis the most eloquent. And scarcely at any time, scarcely even in\nAristotle, did Hellenic philosophy in any department lose most\nsignificant traces of its poetical ancestry. But enough here if I have\nsucceeded in pointing out that in the great poet with whom we are\nconcerned there is an ethical as well as a poetical and historical\ninterest, supplying one more reason against neglect of his legacy of\nsong.\n\nYet indeed even now there remains a further question which to the\nmind of any one who at present labours in this field of classical\nscholarship must recur persistently if not depressingly, and on which\nit is natural if not necessary to say a few words. If the selection\nof Pindar in particular as a Greek poet with claims to be further\npopularized among Englishmen may be defended, there is still a more\ngeneral count to which all who make endeavours to attract or retain\nattention to Greek literature will in these times be called upon to\nplead by voices which command respect. To such pleas this is not the\nplace to give large room, or to discriminate in detail between the\nreasonable and unreasonable elements in the attacks on a system of\neducation in which a preeminent position is allotted to the literature\nof antiquity. While fully admitting that much time and labour are\nstill wasted in efforts to plant the study of ancient and especially\nof Greek literature in uncongenial soil, while admitting also most\nfully the claims, and the still imperfect recognition of the claims,\nof physical science to a rank among the foremost in modern education,\nI should yet be abundantly willing that this attempt to help in\nfacilitating the study of a Greek author should be looked on as\nimplying adhesion to the protest still sometimes raised, that in\nthe higher parts of a liberal education no study can claim a more\nimportant place than the study of the history and the literature of\nHellas. The interest which belongs to these is far wider and\ndeeper than any mere literary interest. To the human mind the most\ninteresting of phenomena are and ought to be the phenomena of the\nhuman mind, and this granted, can there be any knowledge more\ndesirable than the knowledge of the most vigorous and sensitive and in\nsome ways also the most fruitful action of human minds that the world\nhas known hitherto?\n\nBut again, we are told that the age we seek thus toilsomely to\nillustrate and realize is too remote to justify the attempt, that our\ncivilisation is of too different a type from the Hellenic, and that a\ngulf of three-and-twenty centuries is too much for our sight to strain\nacross. But is not the Hellenic life at least less remote now to\nWestern Europe than it has ever been since the Northern invasions?\nThough the separation in time widens does not the separation in\nthought decrease? Is not one civilisation more like another than it\ncan be to any barbarism? And shall not this same Physical Science\nherself by accustoming us to look on men in large masses at once, and\non the development of humanity as a process of infinite duration, as\na sectional growth included in universal evolution--Science, in whose\neyes a thousand years are as a watch in the night--shall she not\nthereby quicken our sympathies with the most gifted race that has\nappeared in our short human history, and arouse the same feeling\ntoward it as a family may cherish toward the memory of their best and\nchoicest, who has died young?\n\nOnly let us take heed that such regret shall make us not more but\nless unworthy of those noble forerunners. One symptom of the renewed\ninfluence of antiquity on the modern world is doubtless and has been\nfrom time to time since the Revival of Letters a tendency to selfish\nand somewhat sickly theories so-called of life, where sensibility\ndegenerates through self-consciousness into affectation, and\nefforts to appreciate fully the delightfulness of life and art are\noverstrained into a wearisome literary voluptuousness, where duty has\nalready disappeared and the human sympathies on which duty is based\nscarcely linger in a faint aesthetic form, soon to leave the would-be\nexquisiteness to putrefy into the vulgarity of egoism. Such tendencies\nhave less in common with the Hellenic prime than with the court of\nLeo the Tenth, though even that had perhaps an advantage over them as\nbeing in some ways a more real thing. But that the Hellenic prime with\nall its exquisite sensibility was deficient in recognition of a high\nideal of duty can never be believed among those who have studied it\ncandidly and attentively; I have endeavoured above to suggest that in\nthis point, take it all in all, it yields to no age or race. It would\nindeed be a mistaken following of those noble servants of humanity\nto draw from their memories an argument for selfish isolation or for\ndespair of the commonwealth of man. He who has drunk deeply of that\ndivine well and gazed long at the fair vision of what then was, will,\nif his nature be capable of true sympathy with the various elements\nof that wonderful age, turn again without bitterness to the confused\nmodern world, saddened but not paralysed by the comparison, grieving,\nbut with no querulous grief, for the certainty that those days are\ndone.\n\n1874.\n\n\n\nPREFATORY NOTE.\n\nThe few notes appended to this translation are not intended to supply\nthe place of such reference to Dictionaries of Mythology, Antiquities\nand Geography, as is needful to the student of Pindar who is not\nalready somewhat accomplished in knowledge of the customs, history\nand legendary traditions of Hellas. And although it may reasonably be\nsupposed that the chief of these will be already known to most readers\nof Pindar, yet so profusely allusive is this poet that to understand\nhis allusions will very often require knowledge which would not have\nbeen derived from a study of the more commonly read Hellenic writers.\n\nNor have I attempted to trace in detail the connection of the parts\nin each ode which binds them into one harmonious whole with many\nmeanings--a connection so consummately contrived where we can trace it\nthat we may suppose it no less exquisite where we cannot. Study\nand thought will generally suggest explanations, though these will\nsometimes approve themselves differently to different minds. Too often\nwe must acknowledge, as elsewhere in ancient literature, that the key\nis lost beyond all certain hope of recovery.\n\nStill less have I attempted to discuss questions of critical\nscholarship. Sometimes where there are more than one plausible reading\nI have signified which I adopt; once only (Ol. 2. 56.) I have ventured\non an emendation of my own. For the most part I have, as was natural,\nfollowed the text of B\u00f6ckh and Dissen.\n\nIn the spelling of names I remain in that inconsistency which at\npresent attaches to most modern writers who deal with them. Olympus,\nAthens, Corinth, Syracuse, and the like are naturalized among us by\nlong familiarity; it seems at present at least pedantic to change\nthem. In the case of other less familiar names I have concurred with\nthe desire, which seems in the main a reasonable one, that the names\nof Hellenic persons and places should be reproduced, as far as\npossible, without Latin mediation.\n\nOf the Fragments I have translated six of the longest and most\ninteresting. They are 289 in all, but the greater part are not longer\nthan a line or two, and very many even shorter.\n\nThe odes are unequal in poetical merit, and many readers may not\nunreasonably wish to have those pointed out which, in the judgement of\none acquainted with all, are among the best worth reading; though of\ncourse the choice of individual readers will not always be the same.\nTo those therefore who would wish to begin with a selection, the\nfollowing may be recommended as at any rate among those of preeminent\nmerit: Pyth. 4, 9, 1, 10, 3; Ol. 7, 6, 2, 3, 13, 8, 1; Nem. 5, 10;\nIsthm. 2, 7; all the Fragments translated.\n\nIn the arrangement of the odes I have adhered to the traditional\norder. I should much have liked to place them in what must always be\nthe most interesting and rational arrangement of a poet's works,\nthat is, in chronological order. This would have been approximately\npossible, as we know the dates of the greater part of them. But\nconvenience of reference and of comparison with the Greek text seems\nto supply a balance of reasons on the other side. Subjoined however is\na list of the odes in their probable chronological order so far as it\ncan be obtained.\n\n  Pythian    10-------------B.C. 502.\n        \"           6-------------    \"   494.\n        \"         12-------------    \"   494 or 490.\n        \"           7-------------    \"   490.\n        \"           3-------------    \"   486 or 482.\n  Olympian 10 } ----------     \"   484.\n            \"     11 } ----------     \"   484.\n  Isthmian    5\n  Nemean     5\n  Isthmian    7 ------------     \"  480.\n  Isthmian    3\n  Pythian      8--------------   \"  478.\n         \"          9--------------   \"  478.\n         \"        11--------------   \"  478.\n         \"          2--------------   \"  477.\n  Olympian 14--------------   \"  476.\n         \"       }-----------------    \"  476.\n         \"       }-----------------    \"  476.\n  Pythian      1\n  Nemean     1---------------  \"  473.\n  Olympian   1---------------  \" 472.\n         \"         12--------------  \"  472.\n  Nemean      9\n  Isthmian     2\n  Olympian    6--------------  \"  468.\n  Pythian       4 }-------------  \"  466.\n          \"          5 }\n  Olympian    7--------------  \"  464.\n          \"        13--------------  \"  464.\n  Nemean      7\n          \"          3\n          \"          4\n          \"          6\n          \"          8\n  Olympian    9--------------  \"  456.\n  Isthmian     6\n  Olympian    4 }------------   \"  452.\n          \"          5 }\n\nThe Olympic games were held once in four years, in honour of Zeus. The\nprize was a wreath of wild olive.\n\nThe Pythian games were held once in four years, in honour of Apollo.\nThe prize was a wreath of bay.\n\nThe Nemean games were held once in two years, in honour of Zeus. The\nprize was a wreath of wild parsley.\n\nThe Isthmian games were held once in two years, in honour of Poseidon.\nThe prize was a wreath of wild parsley or of pine.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: The importance and interest to a student in Hellenic\nliterature of a collateral study of whatever remains to us of Hellenic\nplastic art--statues, vases, gems, and coins--can hardly be too\nstrongly insisted on.]\n\n[Footnote 2: In Mr. J.A. Symonds' 'Studies of the Greek Poets' there\nis an essay on Pindar which dwells with much appreciative eloquence\nupon the poets literary characteristics.]\n\n[Footnote 3: In thus touching on the obligations of our morality to\nthe Hebrew and to the Hellene respectively, I have insisted more\nexclusively on the weak points of the former than I should have done\nin a fuller discussion of the subject: here I am merely concerned to\nquestion in passing what seems to be a popular one-sided estimate.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\nOLYMPIAN ODES.\n\n\nI.\n\nFOR HIERON OF SYRACUSE,\n\nWINNER IN THE HORSE-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis ode seems to owe its position at the head of Pindar's extant\nworks to Aristophanes the grammarian, who placed it there on account\nof its being specially occupied with the glorification of the Olympic\ngames in comparison with others, and with the story of Pelops, who was\ntheir founder.\n\nHieron won this race B.C. 472, while at the height of his power at\nSyracuse. Probably the ode was sung at Syracuse, perhaps, as has been\nsuggested, at a banquet.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBest is Water of all, and Gold as a flaming fire in the night shineth\neminent amid lordly wealth; but if of prizes in the games thou art\nfain, O my soul, to tell, then, as for no bright star more quickening\nthan the sun must thou search in the void firmament by day, so neither\nshall we find any games greater than the Olympic whereof to utter our\nvoice: for hence cometh the glorious hymn and entereth into the minds\nof the skilled in song, so that they celebrate the son[1] of Kronos,\nwhen to the rich and happy hearth of Hieron they are come; for he\nwieldeth the sceptre of justice in Sicily of many flocks, culling the\nchoice fruits of all kinds of excellence: and with the flower of music\nis he made splendid, even such strains as we sing blithely at the\ntable of a friend.\n\nTake from the peg the Dorian lute, if in any wise the glory of\nPherenikos[2] at Pisa hath swayed thy soul unto glad thoughts, when by\nthe banks of Alpheos he ran, and gave his body ungoaded in the\ncourse, and brought victory to his master, the Syracusans' king, who\ndelighteth in horses.\n\nBright is his fame in Lydian Pelops' colony[3], inhabited of a goodly\nrace, whose founder mighty earth-enfolding Poseidon loved, what time\nfrom the vessel of purifying[4] Klotho took him with the bright ivory\nfurnishment of his shoulder.\n\nVerily many things are wondrous, and haply tales decked out with\ncunning fables beyond the truth make false men's speech concerning\nthem. For Charis[5], who maketh all sweet things for mortal men, by\nlending honour unto such maketh oft the unbelievable thing to be\nbelieved; but the days that follow after are the wisest witnesses.\n\nMeet is it for a man that concerning gods he speak honourably; for the\nreproach is less. Of thee, son of Tantalos, I will speak contrariwise\nto them who have gone before me, and I will tell how when thy father\nhad bidden thee to that most seemly feast at his beloved Sipylos,\nrepaying to the gods their banquet, then did he of the Bright\nTrident[6], his heart vanquished by love, snatch thee and bear thee\nbehind his golden steeds to the house of august Zeus in the highest,\nwhither again on a like errand came Ganymede in the after time.\n\nBut when thou hadst vanished, and the men who sought thee long brought\nthee not to thy mother, some one of the envious neighbours said\nsecretly that over water heated to boiling they had hewn asunder with\na knife thy limbs, and at the tables had shared among them and eaten\nsodden fragments of thy flesh. But to me it is impossible to call one\nof the blessed gods cannibal; I keep aloof; in telling ill tales is\noften little gain.\n\nNow if any man ever had honour of the guardians of Olympus, Tantalos\nwas that man; but his high fortune he could not digest, and by excess\nthereof won him an overwhelming woe, in that the Father hath hung\nabove him a mighty stone that he would fain ward from his head, and\ntherewithal he is fallen from joy.\n\nThis hopeless life of endless misery he endureth with other three[7],\nfor that he stole from the immortals and gave to his fellows at\na feast the nectar and ambrosia, whereby the gods had made him\nincorruptible. But if a man thinketh that in doing aught he shall be\nhidden from God, he erreth.\n\nTherefore also the immortals sent back again his son to be once more\ncounted with the short-lived race of men. And he when toward the bloom\nof his sweet youth the down began to shade his darkening cheek, took\ncounsel with himself speedily to take to him for his wife the noble\nHippodameia from her Pisan father's hand.\n\nAnd he came and stood upon the margin of the hoary sea, alone in the\ndarkness of the night, and called aloud on the deep-voiced Wielder of\nthe Trident; and he appeared unto him nigh at his foot.\n\nThen he said unto him: 'Lo now, O Poseidon, if the kind gifts of the\nCyprian goddess are anywise pleasant in thine eyes, restrain Oinomaos'\nbronze spear, and send me unto Elis upon a chariot exceeding swift,\nand give the victory to my hands. Thirteen lovers already hath\nOinomaos slain, and still delayeth to give his daughter in marriage.\nNow a great peril alloweth not of a coward: and forasmuch as men must\ndie, wherefore should one sit vainly in the dark through a dull and\nnameless age, and without lot in noble deeds? Not so, but I will dare\nthis strife: do thou give the issue I desire.'\n\nThus spake he, nor were his words in vain: for the god made him a\nglorious gift of a golden car and winged untiring steeds: so he\novercame Oinomaos and won the maiden for his bride.\n\nAnd he begat six sons, chieftains, whose thoughts were ever of brave\ndeeds: and now hath he part in honour of blood-offerings in his grave\nbeside Alpheos' stream, and hath a frequented tomb, whereto many\nstrangers resort: and from afar off he beholdeth the glory of the\nOlympian games in the courses called of Pelops, where is striving\nof swift feet and of strong bodies brave to labour; but he that\novercometh hath for the sake of those games a sweet tranquillity\nthroughout his life for evermore.\n\nNow the good that cometh of to-day is ever sovereign unto every man.\nMy part it is to crown Hieron with an equestrian strain in Aeolian\nmood: and sure am I that no host among men that now are shall I ever\nglorify in sounding labyrinths of song more learned in the learning of\nhonour and withal with more might to work thereto. A god hath guard\nover thy hopes, O Hieron, and taketh care for them with a peculiar\ncare: and if he fail thee not, I trust that I shall again proclaim in\nsong a sweeter glory yet, and find thereto in words a ready way, when\nto the fair-shining hill of Kronos I am come. Her strongest-wing\u00ebd\ndart my Muse hath yet in store.\n\nOf many kinds is the greatness of men; but the highest is to be\nachieved by kings. Look not thou for more than this. May it be thine\nto walk loftily all thy life, and mine to be the friend of winners in\nthe games, winning honour for my art among Hellenes everywhere.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: The Olympic games were sacred to Zeus.]\n\n[Footnote 2: The horse that won this race for Hieron.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Peloponnesos.]\n\n[Footnote 4: I. e. immediately on his birth, for among the Fates\nKlotho was peculiarly concerned with the beginning of man's life.\nPindar refuses to accept the legend which made Pelops' ivory shoulder\na substitute for his fleshly one eaten at Tantalos' table by the gods;\nfor thus the gods would have been guilty of an infamous act.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Goddess of Grace or Beauty. Often there are three\nCharites or Graces. Pindar means here that men are prone to believe\nan untrue tale for the sake of the beauty of the form in which it is\npresented, but that such tales will not stand the test of time.]\n\n[Footnote 6: Poseidon.]\n\n[Footnote 7: Sisyphos, Ixion, and Tityos.]\n\n\n\nII.\n\nFOR THERON OF AKRAGAS,\n\nWINNER IN THE CHARIOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  Theron's ancestors the Emmenidai migrated from Rhodes to Sicily and\n  first colonized Gela and then Akragas (the Latin Agrigentum and\n  Italian Girgenti). His chariot won this victory B.C. 476.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nLords of the lute[1], my songs, what god, what hero, or what man, are\nwe to celebrate?[2] Verily of Zeus is Pisa the abode, of Herakles the\nOlympian feast was founded from the chief spoils of war, and Theron's\nname must we proclaim for his victory with the four-horse-car, a\nrighteous and god-fearing host, the stay of Akragas, of famous sires\nthe flower, a saviour of the state.\n\nThey after long toils bravely borne took by a river's side a sacred\ndwelling place, and became the eye of Sicily, and a life of good luck\nclave to them, bringing them wealth and honour to crown their inborn\nworth.\n\nO son of Kronos and of Rhea, lord of Olympus' seat, and of the chief\nof games and of Alpheos' ford, for joy in these my songs guard ever\ngraciously their native fields for their sons that shall come after\nthem.\n\nNow of deeds done whether they be right or wrong not even Time the\nfather of all can make undone the accomplishment, yet with happy\nfortune forgetfulness may come. For by high delights an alien pain is\nquelled and dieth, when the decree of God sendeth happiness to grow\naloft and widely.\n\nAnd this word is true concerning Kadmos' fair-throned daughters, whose\ncalamities were great, yet their sore grief fell before greater\ngood. Amid the Olympians long-haired Semele still liveth, albeit she\nperished in the thunder's roar, and Pallas cherisheth her ever, and\nFather Zeus exceedingly, and her son, the ivy-bearing god. And in the\nsea too they say that to Ino, among the sea-maids of Nereus, life\nincorruptible hath been ordained for evermore.\n\nAy but to mortals the day of death is certain never, neither at what\ntime we shall see in calm the end of one of the Sun's children, the\nDays, with good thitherto unfailing; now this way and now that run\ncurrents bringing joys or toils to men.\n\nThus destiny which from their fathers holdeth the happy fortune of\nthis race[3], together with prosperity heaven-sent bringeth ever at\nsome other time better reverse: from the day when La\u00efos was slain by\nhis destined son[4] who met him on the road and made fulfilment of the\noracle spoken of old at Pytho. Then swift Erinys when she saw it slew\nby each other's hand his war-like sons: yet after that Polyneikes fell\nThersander[5] lived after him and won honour in the Second Strife[6]\nand in the fights of war, a saviour scion to the Adrastid house.\n\nFrom him they have beginning of their race: meet is it that\nAinesidamos receive our hymn of triumph, on the lyre. For at Olympia\nhe himself received a prize and at Pytho, and at the Isthmus to his\nbrother of no less a lot did kindred Graces bring crowns for the\ntwelve rounds of the four-horse chariot-race.\n\nVictory setteth free the essayer from the struggle's griefs, yea and\nthe wealth that a noble nature hath made glorious bringeth power for\nthis and that, putting into the heart of man a deep and eager mood, a\nstar far seen, a light wherein a man shall trust if but[7] the holder\nthereof knoweth the things that shall be, how that of all who die the\nguilty souls pay penalty, for all the sins sinned in this realm\nof Zeus One judgeth under earth, pronouncing sentence by unloved\nconstraint.\n\nBut evenly ever in sunlight night and day an unlaborious life the good\nreceive, neither with violent hand vex they the earth nor the waters\nof the sea, in that new world; but with the honoured of the gods,\nwhosoever had pleasure in keeping of oaths, they possess a tearless\nlife: but the other part suffer pain too dire to look upon.\n\nThen whosoever have been of good courage to the abiding steadfast\nthrice on either side of death and have refrained their souls from\nall iniquity, travel the road of Zeus unto the tower of Kronos: there\nround the islands of the blest the Ocean-breezes blow, and golden\nflowers are glowing, some from the land on trees of splendour, and\nsome the water feedeth, with wreaths whereof they entwine their hands:\nso ordereth Rhadamanthos' just decree, whom at his own right hand hath\never the father Kronos, husband of Rhea, throned above all worlds[8].\n\nPeleus and Kadmos are counted of that company; and the mother of\nAchilles, when her prayer had moved the heart of Zeus, bare thither\nher son, even him who overthrew Hector, Troy's unbending invincible\npillar, even him who gave Kyknos to death and the Ethiop son[9] of the\nMorning.\n\nMany swift arrows have I beneath my bended arm within my quiver,\narrows that have a voice for the wise, but for the multitude they need\ninterpreters. His art is true who of his nature hath knowledge; they\nwho have but learnt, strong in the multitude of words, are but as\ncrows that chatter vain things in strife against the divine bird of\nZeus.\n\nCome bend thy bow on the mark, O my soul--at whom again are we to\nlaunch our shafts of honour from a friendly mind? At Akragas will I\ntake aim, and will proclaim and swear it with a mind of truth, that\nfor a hundred years no city hath brought forth a man of mind more\nprone to well-doing towards friends or of more liberal mood than\nTheron.\n\nYet praise is overtaken of distaste, wherewith is no justice, but from\ncovetous men it cometh, and is fain to babble against and darken the\ngood man's noble deeds.\n\nThe sea-sand none hath numbered; and the joys that Theron hath given\nto others--who shall declare the tale thereof?\n\n\n[Footnote 1: In Hellenic music the accompaniment was deemed\nsubordinate to the words.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Here are three questions and three answers.]\n\n[Footnote 3: The Emmenidai.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Oedipus.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Son of Polyneikes. Theron traced his descent from him.]\n\n[Footnote 6: The War of the Epigonoi against Thebes.]\n\n[Footnote 7: Reading [Greek: ei ge min echon]. The old readings were\n[Greek: ei de min echon] and [Greek: ei de min echei; eu de min echon]\nhas also been suggested; but of these three none seems to me to be at\nall satisfactory. In the reading I suggest the change is very slight,\nand it makes good sense.]\n\n[Footnote 8: For Pindar's ideas as to a future life see especially\nthe fragments of his Dirges which remain to us. He seems to have been\ninfluenced by Pythagoreanism.]\n\n[Footnote 9: Memnon.]\n\n\n\nIII.\n\nFOR THERON OF AKRAGAS,\n\nWINNER IN THE CHARIOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis ode celebrates the same victory as the preceeding one. It was\nsung at the feast of the Theoxenia, given by Theron in the name of\nthe Dioskouroi (Kastor and Polydeukes) to the other gods. Hence the\nepithet _hospitable_ ([Greek: philoxeinois]) applied to the Dioskouroi\nin the first line. The clan of the Emmenidai to which Theron belonged\nwas especially devoted to the worship of the Twins.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTyndareus' hospitable sons and lovely-haired Helen shall I please\nassuredly in doing honour to renown\u00ebd Akragas by a hymn upraised for\nTheron's Olympian crown; for hereunto hath the Muse been present with\nme that I should find out a fair new[1] device, fitting to feet that\nmove in Dorian time the Komos-voices' splendid strain.\n\nFor crowns entwined about his hair demand from me this god-appointed\ndebt, that for Ainesidamos' son I join in seemly sort the lyre of\nvarious tones with the flute's cry and ordering of words.\n\nAnd Pisa bids me speak aloud, for from her come to men songs of\ndivine assignment, when the just judge of games the Aitolian[2] man,\nfulfilling Herakles' behests of old, hath laid upon one's hair above\nhis brows pale-gleaming glory of olive.\n\nThat tree from Ister's shadowy springs did the son of Amphitryon bear\nto be a memorial most glorious of Olympian triumphs, when that by his\nwords he had won the Hyperborean folk, who serve Apollo. In loyal\ntemper he besought for the precinct of Zeus, whereto all men go up,\na plant that should be a shadow of all folk in common, and withal a\ncrown for valorous deeds.\n\nFor already, when the altars had been sanctified to his sire, the\nmidmonth Moon riding her golden car lit full the counter-flame of the\neye of Even, and just judgment of great games did he ordain, and the\nfifth year's feast beside the holy steeps of Alpheos[3].\n\nBut no fair trees were nursed upon that place in Kronian Pelops'\nglens; whereof being naked his garden seemed to him to be given over\nto the keen rays of the sun.\n\nThen was it that his soul stirred to urge him into the land of Ister;\nwhere Leto's horse-loving daughter[4] received him erst when he was\ncome from the ridged hills and winding dells of Arcady, what time his\nfather laid constraint upon him to go at Eurystheus' bidding to fetch\nthe golden-horn\u00ebd hind, which once Ta\u00ffgete vowed to her[5] of Orthion\nand made a sign thereon of consecration. For in that chase he saw also\nthe land that lieth behind the blast of the cold North-wind: there he\nhalted and marvelled at the trees: and sweet desire thereof possessed\nhim that he might plant them at the end of the course which the\nrace-horses should run twelve times round.\n\nSo now to this feast cometh he in good-will in company with the Twins\nDivine, deep-girdled Leto's children. For to them he gave charge when\nhe ascended into Olympus to order the spectacle of the games, both the\nstruggle of man with man, and the driving of the nimble car.\n\nMe anywise my soul stirreth to declare that to the Emmenidai and to\nTheron hath glory come by gift of the Tyndaridai of goodly steeds,\nfor that beyond all mortals they do honour to them with tables of\nhospitality, keeping with pious spirit the rite of blessed gods.\n\nNow if Water be the Best[6], and of possessions Gold be the most\nprecious, so now to the furthest bound doth Theron by his fair deeds\nattain, and from his own home touch the pillars of Herakles. Pathless\nthe things beyond, pathless alike to the unwise and the wise. Here I\nwill search no more; the quest were vain.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: i. e. probably a new combination of lyre and flute to\naccompany the singing.]\n\n[Footnote 2: When the Dorians invaded Peloponnesos one of their\nleaders is said to have been Oxylos, a man of Elean descent but living\nin Aitolia. As a result of the invasion he became king of Elis;\nand the judge at the Olympic games seems to have been considered a\ndescendant of him or of some Aitolian who came with him.]\n\n[Footnote 3: The Olympic games were held in the middle of the month\nHekatombaion, when the moon was full. It is here implied that Herakles\nwished to institute them when the moon was full, as that was a season\nof good luck.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Artemis.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Artemis.]\n\n[Footnote 6: See Ol. i. 1.]\n\n\n\nIV.\n\nFOR PSAUMIS OF KAMARINA,\n\nWINNER IN THE MULE-CHARIOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPsaumis won this race in the year 452; therefore this ode and its\ncompanion, the next following, are the latest work of Pindar possessed\nby us to which we can assign a date.\n\nThe mule-chariot-race was introduced at Olympia B.C. 500 and abolished\nB.C. 444, according to Pausanias.\n\nThis ode seems to have been written immediately on Psaumis' victory,\nto be sung the same night beneath the moon by the company of friends\nwho escorted the winner to return thanks at the altar of Zeus.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHurler of thunderbolts unfaltering, the most high Zeus, for that thy\nchosen hour recurrent hath sent me with a song set to the music of\nthe subtle lute for a witness to the greatest of all games--and\nwhen friends have good hap the good are glad forthwith at the sweet\ntidings--now therefore, O son of Kronos, unto whom \u00c6tna belongeth,\nthe wind-beaten burden that crusheth fierce Typhon's hundred heads,\nreceive thou this band of triumph for an Olympian victory won by the\nGraces' aid, a most enduring light of far-prevailing valorous deeds.\n\nFor the sake of Psaumis' mule-chariot it draweth nigh to\nthee--Psaumis, who, crowned with Pisan olive, hasteth to raise up\nglory for Kamarina. May God be gracious to our prayers for what shall\nbe! For I praise him as a man most zealous in the rearing of horses,\nand delighting in ever-open hospitality, and bent on peace and on the\nwelfare of his city, with guileless soul.\n\nWith no lie will I tinge my tale: trial is the test of men; this\nit was that delivered the son of Klymenos from the Lemnian women's\nslight. He, when he had won the foot-race in bronze armour[1], spake\nthus to Hypsipyle as he went to receive his crown: 'For fleetness such\nam I: hands have I and a heart to match. So also on young men grow\noftentimes grey hairs even before the natural season of man's\nlife[2].'\n\n\n[Footnote 1: See introduction to Pythian ix.]\n\n[Footnote 2: We may suppose that Psaumis probably had grey hair.]\n\n\n\nV.\n\nFOR PSAUMIS OF KAMARINA,\n\nWINNER IN THE MULE-CHARIOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  This ode is for the same victory as the foregoing one, but was to be\n  sung after Psaumis' return home, at Kamarina, and probably at, or in\n  procession to, a temple of either Pallas, Zeus, or the tutelary nymph\n  Kamarina, all of whom are invoked. The city is called 'new-peopled'\n  ([Greek: neoikos]) because it had been destroyed by Gelo, and was only\n  restored B.C. 461, nine years before this victory, the first which had\n  been won by any citizen since its restoration.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOf lofty deeds and crowns Olympian this sweet delight, O daughter[1]\nof Ocean, with glad heart receive, the gift of Psaumis and his\nuntiring car. He to make great thy city, Kamarina, with its fostered\nfolk, hath honoured six twin altars in great feasts of the gods with\nsacrifices of oxen and five-day contests of games, with chariots of\nhorses and of mules and with the steed of single frontlet[2].\n\nTo thee hath the victor consecrated the proud token[3] of his fame,\nand hath glorified by the herald's voice his father Akron and this\nnew-peopled town.\n\nAlso, returning from the gracious dwelling place of Oinomaos and\nPelops, thy sacred grove, O city-guarding Pallas, doth he sing, and\nthe river Oanis, and the lake of his native land, and the sacred\nchannels wherethrough doth Hipparis give water to the people, and\nbuild[4] with speed a lofty forest of stedfast dwellings, bringing\nfrom perplexity to the light this commonwealth of citizens.\n\nNow ever in fair deeds must toil and cost contend toward an\naccomplishment hidden in perilous chance: yet if men have good hap\ntherein, even to their own townsfolk is their wisdom approved.\n\nO guardian Zeus that sittest above the clouds, that inhabitest the\nKronian hill and honourest the broad river of Alpheos and Ida's holy\ncave, suppliant to thee I come, making my cry on Lydian flutes, to\npray thee that thou wilt glorify this city with brave men's renown.\n\nFor thee also, Olympian victor, I pray that, joying in the steeds\nPoseidon[5] gave, thou mayest bear with thee to the end a serene old\nage, and may thy sons, O Psaumis, be at thy side. If a man cherish his\nwealth to sound ends, having a sufficiency of goods and adding thereto\nfair repute, let him not seek to become a god.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Kamarina.]\n\n[Footnote 2: I. e. probably with horses ridden, not driven.]\n\n[Footnote 3: His Olympian crown of wild olive.]\n\n[Footnote 4: This seems to mean that the new city was built with wood\nbrought down the stream of the river Hipparis.]\n\n[Footnote 5: When Poseidon and Athene were contending for the\nprotectorate of Athens, Poseidon brought the first horse up out of the\nearth, Athene the first olive-tree.]\n\n\n\nVI.\n\nFOR AGESIAS OF SYRACUSE,\n\nWINNER IN THE MULE-CHARIOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n  One of the Iamid clan, to which belonged hereditary priestly functions\n  in Arcadia and at Olympia, had come with the first colonists to Syracuse,\n  and from him the present victor Agesias was descended. Thus\n  the ode is chiefly concerned with the story of his ancestor Iamos.\n  Agesias was a citizen of Stymphalos in Arcadia, as well as of Syracuse,\n  where he lived, and the ode was sung by a chorus in Stymphalos,\n  B.C. 468.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nGolden pillars will we set up in the porch of the house of our song,\nas in a stately palace-hall; for it beseemeth that in the fore-front\nof the work the entablature shoot far its splendour.\n\nNow if one be an Olympian conqueror and treasurer to the prophetic\naltar of Zeus at Pisa, and joint founder[1] of glorious Syracuse,\nshall such an one hide him from hymns of praise, if his lot be among\ncitizens who hear without envy the desired sounds of song? For in a\nsandal of such sort let the son of Sostratos know that his fortunate\nfoot is set. Deeds of no risk are honourless whether done among men or\namong hollow ships; but if a noble deed be wrought with labour, many\nmake mention thereof.\n\nFor thee, Agesias, is that praise prepared which justly and openly\nAdrastos spake of old concerning the seer Amphiaraos the son of\nOikleus, when the earth had swallowed him and his shining steeds. For\nafterward, when on seven pyres dead men were burnt, the son[2] of\nTalaos spake on this wise: 'I seek the eye of my host, him who was\nalike a good seer and a good fighter with the spear.'\n\nThis praise also belongeth to the Syracusan who is lord of this\ntriumphal song. I who am no friend of strife or wrongful quarrel will\nbear him this witness even with a solemn oath, and the sweet voice of\nthe Muses shall not say me nay.\n\nO Phintis[3] yoke me now with all speed the strength of thy mules that\non the clear highway we may set our car, that I may go up to the far\nbeginning of this race. For those mules know well to lead the way in\nthis course as in others, who at Olympia have won crowns: it behoveth\nthem that we throw open to them the gates of song, for to Pitane by\nEurotas' stream must I begone betimes to-day.\n\nNow Pitane[4], they say, lay with Poseidon the son of Kronos and\nbare the child Euadne with tresses iris-dark. The fruit of her body\nunwedded she hid by her robe's folds, and in the month of her delivery\nshe sent her handmaids and bade them give the child to the hero son[5]\nof Elatos to rear, who was lord of the men of Arcady who dwelt at\nPhaisane, and had for his lot Alpheos to dwell beside.\n\nThere was the child Euadne nurtured, and by Apollo's side she first\nknew the joys of Aphrodite.\n\nBut she might not always hide from Aipytos the seed of the god within\nher; and he in his heart struggling with bitter strain against a grief\ntoo great for speech betook him to Pytho that he might ask of the\noracle concerning the intolerable woe.\n\nBut she beneath a thicket's shade put from her silver pitcher and her\ngirdle of scarlet web, and she brought forth a boy in whom was the\nspirit of God. By her side the gold-haired god set kindly Eleutho and\nthe Fates, and from her womb in easy travail came forth Iamos to the\nlight. Him in her anguish she left upon the ground, but by the counsel\nof gods two bright-eyed serpents nursed and fed him with the harmless\nvenom[6] of the bee.\n\nBut when the king came back from rocky Delphi in his chariot he asked\nall who were in the house concerning the child whom Euadne had born;\nfor he said that the sire whereof he was begotten was Phoibos, and\nthat he should be a prophet unto the people of the land excelling all\nmortal men, and that his seed should be for ever.\n\nSuch was his tale, but they answered that they had neither seen nor\nheard of him, though he was now born five days. For he was hidden\namong rushes in an impenetrable brake, his tender body all suffused\nwith golden and deep purple gleams of iris flowers; wherefore his\nmother prophesied saying that by this holy name[7] of immortality he\nshould be called throughout all time.\n\nBut when he had come to the ripeness of golden-crowned sweet youth,\nhe went down into the middle of Alpheos and called on wide-ruling\nPoseidon his grandsire, and on the guardian of god-built Delos, the\nbearer of the bow[8], praying that honour might be upon his head for\nthe rearing of a people; and he stood beneath the heavens, and it was\nnight.\n\nThen the infallible Voice of his father answered and said unto him:\nArise, my son, and come hither, following my voice, into a place where\nall men shall meet together.\n\nSo they came to the steep rock of lofty Kronion; there the god gave\nhim a twofold treasure of prophecy, that for the time then being he\nshould hearken to his voice that cannot lie; but when Herakles of\nvalorous counsels, the sacred scion of the Alkeidai, should have come,\nand should have founded a multitudinous feast and the chief ordinance\nof games[9], then again on the summit of the altar of Zeus he bade him\nestablish yet another oracle, that thenceforth the race of Iamidai\nshould be glorious among Hellenes.\n\nGood luck abode with them; for that they know the worth of valour they\nare entered on a glorious road.\n\nThe matter proveth the man, but from the envious calumny ever\nthreateneth them on whom, as they drive foremost in the twelfth[10]\nround of the course, Charis sheddeth blushing beauty to win them fame\nmore fair.\n\nNow if in very truth, Agesias, thy mother's ancestors dwelling by the\nborders of Kyllene did piously and oft offer up prayer and sacrifice\nto Hermes, herald of the gods, who hath to his keeping the strife and\nappointment of games, and doeth honour to Arcadia the nurse of goodly\nmen,--then surely he, O son of Sostratos, with his loud-thundering\nsire, is the accomplisher of this thy bliss.\n\nMethinks I have upon my tongue a whetstone of loud sounding speech,\nwhich to harmonious breath constraineth me nothing loth. Mother of my\nmother was Stymphalian Metope[11] of fair flowers, for she bare Thebe\nthe charioteer, whose pleasant fountain I will drink, while I weave\nfor warriors the changes of my song.\n\nNow rouse thy fellows, Ain\u00ebas, first to proclaim the name of\nmaiden[12] Hera, and next to know for sure whether we are escaped from\nthe ancient reproach that spake truly of Boeotian swine. For thou art\na true messenger, a writing-tally[13] of the Muses goodly-haired, a\nbowl wherein to mix high-sounding songs.\n\nAnd bid them make mention of Syracuse and of Ortygia, which Hieron\nruleth with righteous sceptre devising true counsels, and doth honour\nto Demeter whose footsteps make red the corn, and to the feast of her\ndaughter with white steeds, and to the might of Aetnaean Zeus. Also he\nis well known of the sweet voices of the song and lute. Let not the\non-coming time break his good fortune. And with joyful welcome may\nhe receive this triumphal song, which travelleth from home to home,\nleaving Stymphalos' walls, the mother-city of Arcadia, rich in flocks.\n\nGood in a stormy night are two anchors let fall from a swift ship. May\nfriendly gods grant to both peoples[14] an illustrious lot: and thou\nO lord and ruler of the sea, husband of Amphitrite of the golden\ndistaff, grant this my friend straight voyage and unharmed, and bless\nthe joyous flower of my song.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Agesias is so called because an Iamid ancestor of his had\ngone with Archias when he planted the Corinthian colony of Syracuse.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Adrastos.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Phintis was Agesias' charioteer.]\n\n[Footnote 4: I. e. the nymph who gave her name to the place.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Aipytos.]\n\n[Footnote 6: Honey.]\n\n[Footnote 7: Iamos, from [Greek: ion]: the iris was considered a\nsymbol of immortality.]\n\n[Footnote 8: His father, Apollo.]\n\n[Footnote 9: At Olympia.]\n\n[Footnote 10: The course in the chariot-race was twelve times round\nthe Hippodrome.]\n\n[Footnote 11: The nymph of the lake Metop\u00eb near Stymphalos.]\n\n[Footnote 12: Hera was worshipped in her prenuptial as well as her\npostnuptial state.]\n\n[Footnote 13: It was a custom between correspondents who wished for\nsecrecy to have duplicate [Greek: skutalai], or letter-sticks. The\nwriter wrote on a roll wrapt round his stick, and the receiver of the\nletter read it wrapt similarly on his. And thus Aineas the bearer of\nthis ode would teach the chorus of Stymphalians how rightly to sing\nand understand it. See [Greek: skutalae] in Dict. Ant.]\n\n[Footnote 14: I. e. of Stymphalos and Syracuse. Agesias was a citizen\nof both, and thus his two homes are compared to two anchors.]\n\n\n\nVII.\n\nFOR DIAGORAS OF RHODES,\n\nWINNER IN THE BOXING-MATCH.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  Rhodes is said to have been colonised at the time of the Dorian\n  migrations by Argive Dorians from Epidauros, who were Herakleidai of\n  of the family of Tlepolemos. They founded a confederacy of three\n  cities, Kameiros, Lindos, and Ialysos. Ialysos was then ruled by\n  the dynasty of the Eratidai. Their kingly power had now been extinct\n  two hundred years, but the family was still pre-eminent in the state.\n  Of this family was Diagoras, and probably the ode was sung at a\n  family festival; but it commemorates the glories of the island generally.\n  The Rhodians caused it to be engraved in letters of gold in the\n  temple of Athene at Lindos.\n\n  There is a noteworthy incident of the Peloponnesian war which should\n  be remembered in connection with this ode. In the year 406, fifty-eight\n  years after this victory of Diagoras, during the final and most\n  embittering agony of Athens, one Dorieus, a son of Diagoras, and himself\n  a famous athlete, was captured by the Athenians in a sea-fight.\n  It was then the custom either to release prisoners of war for a ransom\n  or else to put them to death. The Athenians asked no ransom of\n  Dorieus, but set him free on the spot.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAs when from a wealthy hand one lifting a cup, made glad within with\nthe dew of the vine, maketh gift thereof to a youth his daughter's\nspouse, a largess of the feast from home to home, an all-golden\nchoicest treasure, that the banquet may have grace, and that he may\nglorify his kin; and therewith he maketh him envied in the eyes of the\nfriends around him for a wedlock wherein hearts are wedded--\n\nSo also I, my liquid nectar sending, the Muses' gift, the sweet fruit\nof my soul, to men that are winners in the games at Pytho or Olympia\nmake holy offering. Happy is he whom good report encompasseth; now\non one man, now on another doth the Grace that quickeneth look\nfavourably, and tune for him the lyre and the pipe's stops of music\nmanifold.\n\nThus to the sound of the twain am I come with Diagoras sailing home,\nto sing the sea-girt Rhodes, child of Aphrodite and bride of Helios,\nthat to a mighty and fair-fighting man, who by Alpheos' stream and by\nKastalia's hath won him crowns, I may for his boxing make award of\nglory, and to his father Demegetos in whom Justice hath her delight,\ndwellers in the isle of three cities with an Argive host, nigh to a\npromontory of spacious Asia.\n\nFain would I truly tell from the beginning from Tlepolemos the message\nof my word, the common right of this puissant seed of Herakles. For\non the father's side they claim from Zeus, and on the mother's from\nAstydameia, sons of Amyntor.\n\nNow round the minds of men hang follies unnumbered--this is the\nunachievable thing, to find what shall be best hap for a man both\npresently and also at the last. Yea for the very founder[1] of this\ncountry once on a time struck with his staff of tough wild-olive-wood\nAlkmene's bastard brother Likymnios in Tiryns as he came forth from\nMidea's chamber, and slew him in the kindling of his wrath. So even\nthe wise man's feet are turned astray by tumult of the soul.\n\nThen he came to enquire of the oracle of God. And he of the golden\nhair from his sweet-incensed shrine spake unto him of a sailing of\nships that should be from the shore of Lerna unto a pasture ringed\nwith sea, where sometime the great king of gods rained on the\ncity golden snow, what time by Hephaistos' handicraft beneath the\nbronze-wrought axe from the crown of her father's head Athene leapt to\nlight and cried aloud with an exceeding cry; and Heaven trembled at\nher coming, and Earth, the Mother.\n\nThen also the god who giveth light to men, Hyperion, bade his beloved\nsons see that they guard the payment of the debt, that they should\nbuild first for the goddess an altar in the sight of all men, and\nlaying thereon a holy offering they should make glad the hearts of\nthe father and of his daughter of the sounding spear. Now Reverence,\nForethought's child, putteth valour and the joy of battle into the\nhearts of men; yet withal there cometh upon them bafflingly the cloud\nof forgetfulness and maketh the mind to swerve from the straight path\nof action. For they though they had brands burning yet kindled not the\nseed of flame, but with fireless rites they made a grove on the hill\nof the citadel. For them Zeus brought a yellow cloud into the sky and\nrained much gold upon the land; and Glaukopis herself gave them to\nexcel the dwellers upon earth in every art of handicraft. For on their\nroads ran the semblances of beasts and creeping things: whereof they\nhave great glory, for to him that hath knowledge the subtlety that is\nwithout deceit[2] is the greater altogether.\n\nNow the ancient story of men saith that when Zeus and the other gods\nmade division of the earth among them, not yet was island Rhodes\napparent in the open sea, but in the briny depths lay hid. And for\nthat Helios was otherwhere, none drew a lot for him; so they left him\nportionless of land, that holy god. And when he spake thereof Zeus\nwould cast lots afresh; but he suffered him not, for that he said that\nbeneath the hoary sea he saw a certain land waxing from its root in\nearth, that should bring forth food for many men, and rejoice in\nflocks. And straightway he bade her of the golden fillet, Lachesis, to\nstretch her hands on high, nor violate the gods' great oath, but with\nthe son of Kronos promise him that the isle sent up to the light of\nheaven should be thenceforth a title of himself alone.\n\nAnd in the end of the matter his speech had fulfilment; there sprang\nup from the watery main an island, and the father who begetteth\nthe keen rays of day hath the dominion thereof, even the lord of\nfire-breathing steeds. There sometime having lain with Rhodos he begat\nseven sons, who had of him minds wiser than any among the men of old;\nand one begat Kameiros, and Ialysos his eldest, and Lindos: and they\nheld each apart their shares of cities, making threefold division of\ntheir father's land, and these men call their dwelling-places. There\nis a sweet amends for his piteous ill-hap ordained for Tlepolemos\nleader of the Tirynthians at the beginning, as for a god, even the\nleading thither of sheep for a savoury burnt-offering, and the award\nof honour in games[3].\n\nOf garlands from these games hath Diagoras twice won him crowns, and\nfour times he had good luck at famous Isthmos and twice following\nat Nemea, and twice at rocky Athens. And at Argos the bronze shield\nknoweth him, and the deeds of Arcadia and of Thebes and the yearly\ngames Boeotian, and Pellene and Aigina where six times he won; and the\npillar of stone at Megara hath the same tale to tell.\n\nBut do thou, O Father Zeus, who holdest sway on the mountain-ridges of\nAtabyrios glorify the accustomed Olympian winner's hymn, and the man\nwho hath done valiantly with his fists: give him honour at the hands\nof citizens and of strangers; for he walketh in the straight way that\nabhorreth insolence, having learnt well the lessons his true soul hath\ntaught him, which hath come to him from his noble sires. Darken not\nthou the light of one who springeth from the same stock of Kallianax.\nSurely with the joys of Eratidai the whole city maketh mirth. But the\nvarying breezes even at the same point of time speed each upon their\nvarious ways.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Tlepolemos.]\n\n[Footnote 2: That is, probably, without magic, or the pretence of\nbeing anything but machines. This is considered an allusion to the\nTelchines who lived before the Heliadai in Rhodes, and were magicians\nas well as craftsmen. For illustrations of Rhodian art at various\ntimes the British Museum may be consulted, which is particularly rich\nin vases from Kameiros and Ialysos.]\n\n[Footnote 3: That is, he presides over the celebration of games, as\ntutelar hero of the island.]\n\n\n\nVIII.\n\nFOR ALKIMEDON OF AIGINA,\n\nWINNER IN THE WRESTLING-MATCH OF BOYS.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe date of this victory is B.C. 460. Long as the ode is, it would\nseem however to have been written, like the fourth Olympian, to be\nsung in the procession to the altar of Zeus on the night of the\nvictory.\n\nOf the forty-four odes remaining to us no less than eleven are in\nhonour of winners from Aigina.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nO mother of gold-crowned contests, Olympia, queen of truth; where men\nthat are diviners observing burnt-offerings make trial of Zeus the\nwielder of white lightnings, whether he hath any word concerning\nmen who seek in their hearts to attain unto great prowess and a\nbreathing-space from toil; for it is given in answer to the reverent\nprayers of men--do thou, O tree-clad precinct of Pisa by Alpheos,\nreceive this triumph and the carrying of the crown.\n\nGreat is his glory ever on whom the splendour of thy honour waiteth.\nYet this good cometh to one, that to another, and many are the roads\nto happy life by the grace of gods.\n\nThee, O Timosthenes[1], and thy brother hath Destiny assigned to Zeus\nthe guardian of your house, even to him who hath made thee glorious at\nNemea, and Alkimedon by the hill of Kronos a winner in Olympic games.\n\nNow the boy was fair to look upon, neither shamed he by his deeds his\nbeauty, but in the wrestling match victorious made proclamation that\nhis country was Aigina of long oars, where saviour Themis who sitteth\nin judgment by Zeus the stranger's succour is honoured more than any\nelsewhere among men[2].\n\nFor in a matter mighty and bearing many ways to judge with unswayed\nmind and suitably, this is a hard essay, yet hath some ordinance of\nimmortals given this sea-defended land to be to strangers out of every\nclime a pillar built of God. May coming time not weary of this work.\n\nTo a Dorian folk was the land given in trust from Aiakos, even the man\nwhom Leto's son and far-ruling Poseidon, when they would make a crown\nfor Ilion, called to work with them at the wall, for that it was\ndestined that at the uprising of wars in city-wasting fights it should\nbreathe forth fierce smoke.\n\nNow when it was new-built three dragons fiery-eyed leapt at the\nrampart: two fell and perished in despair; but the third sprang in\nwith a war-cry[3].\n\nThen Apollo pondering, the sign spake straightway unto Aiakos by his\nside: 'Hero, where thy hands have wrought is Pergamos taken: thus\nsaith this sign, sent of the son of Kronos, loud-thundering Zeus. And\nthat not without thy seed; but with the first and fourth it shall be\nsubdued'[4].\n\nThus plainly spoke the god, and away to Xanthos and the Amazons of\ngoodly steeds and to Ister urged his car.\n\nAnd the Trident-wielder for Isthmos over seas harnessed his swift\nchariot, and hither[5] first he bare with him Aiakos behind the golden\nmares, and so on unto the mount of Corinth, to behold his feast of\nfame.\n\nNow shall there never among men be aught that pleaseth all alike. If\nI for Melesias[6] raise up glory in my song of his boys, let not envy\ncast at me her cruel stone. Nay but at Nemea too will I tell of honour\nof like kind with this, and of another ensuing thereon, won in the\npankration of men.\n\nVerily to teach is easier to him that knoweth: it is folly if one hath\nnot first learnt, for without trial the mind wavereth. And beyond all\nothers can Melesias declare all works on that wise, what method shall\nadvance a man who from the sacred games may win the longed-for glory.\n\nNow for the thirtieth time is honour gained for him by the victory of\nAlkimedon, who by God's grace, nor failing himself in prowess, hath\nput off from him upon the bodies of four striplings the loathed return\nungreeted of fair speech, and the path obscure[7]; and in his father's\nfather he hath breathed new vigour to wrestle with old age. A man that\nhath done honourable deeds taketh no thought of death.\n\nBut I must needs arouse memory, and tell of the glory of their hands\nthat gave victory to the Blepsiad clan, to whom this is now the sixth\ncrown that hath come from the wreathed games to bind their brows.\n\nEven the dead have their share when paid them with due rites, and\nthe grace of kinsmen's honour the dust concealeth not. From Hermes'\ndaughter Fame shall Iphion[8] hear and tell to Kallimachos this lustre\nof Olympic glory, which Zeus hath granted to this house. Honour upon\nhonour may he vouchsafe unto it, and shield it from sore disease[9]. I\npray that for the share of glory fallen to them he raise against them\nno contrary discontent, but granting them a life unharmed may glorify\nthem and their commonwealth.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Alkimedon's brother. He had won a victory at the Nemean\ngames.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Aigina had a high commercial reputation, and strangers\nwere equitably dealt with in her courts.]\n\n[Footnote 3: The two first dragons typify the Aiakids, Aias and\nAchilles, who failed to enter Troy, the third typifies Achilles' son,\nNeoptolemos, who succeeded.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Aiakos' son, Telamon, was with Herakles when he took\nTroy: his great-grandson Neoptolemos was in the Wooden Horse.]\n\n[Footnote 5: To Aigina.]\n\n[Footnote 6: Alkimedon's trainer.]\n\n[Footnote 7: I. e. Alkimedon has escaped the disagreeable\ncircumstances of defeat and transferred them to the four opponents\nagainst whom he was matched in four successive ties.]\n\n[Footnote 8: Iphion seems to have been the father and Kallimachos the\nuncle of Alkimedon.]\n\n[Footnote 9: Perhaps Iphion and Kallimachos died of some severe\nillness.]\n\n\n\nIX.\n\nFOR EPHARMOSTOS OF OPOUS,\n\nWINNER IN THE WRESTLING-MATCH.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe date of this ode is uncertain. Its last line seems to imply that\nit was sung at a banquet at Opous, after crowning the altar of Aias\nOileus, tutelar hero of the Lokrians. From the beginning we gather\nthat on the night of the victory at Olympia Epharmostos' friends had\nsung in his honour the conventional triple strain of Archilochos--\n\n  [Greek: (o kallinike chair' anax Herakleaes\n  autos te k' Iolaos, aichmaeta duo.\n  taenella kallinike)]\n\nto which perhaps some slight additions had been made, but not by\nPindar.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe strain of Archilochos sung without music at Olympia, the triple\nresonant psalm of victory, sufficed to lead to the hill of Kronos\nEpharmostos triumphing with his comrade friends: but now with darts of\nother sort, shot from the Muses' far-delivering bow, praise Zeus of\nthe red lightning, and Elis' holy headland, which on a time Pelops the\nLydian hero chose to be Hippodameia's goodly dower.\n\nAnd shoot a feathered arrow of sweet song Pythoward, for thy words\nshall not fall to the ground when thou tunest the throbbing lyre\nto the praise of the wrestlings of a man from famous Opous, and\ncelebratest her and her son. For Themis and her noble daughter\nEunomia the Preserver have made her their own, and she flourisheth in\nexcellent deeds both at Kastalia and beside Alpheos' stream: whence\ncome the choicest of all crowns to glorify the mother city of\nLokrians, the city of beautiful trees.\n\nI, to illuminate the city of my friends with eager blaze of song,\nswifter than high-bred steed or winged ship will send everywhere these\ntidings, so be it that my hand is blessed at all in labouring in the\nchoice garden of the Graces; for they give all pleasant things to men.\n\nBy fate divine receive men also valour and wisdom: how else[1] might\nthe hands of Herakles have wielded his club against the trident, when\nat Pylos Poseidon took his stand and prest hard on him, ay, and there\nprest him hard embattled Phoibos with his silver bow, neither would\nHades keep his staff unraised, wherewith he leadeth down to ways\nbeneath the hollow earth the bodies of men that die?\n\nO my mouth, fling this tale from thee, for to speak evil of gods is\na hateful wisdom, and loud and unmeasured words strike a note that\ntrembleth upon madness. Of such things talk thou not; leave war of\nimmortals and all strife aside; and bring thy words to the city of\nProtogeneia, where by decree of Zeus of the bickering lightning-flash\nPyrrha and Deukalion coming down from Parnassos first fixed their\nhome, and without bed of marriage made out of stones a race to be one\nfolk: and hence cometh the name of peoples[2]. Awake for them the\nclear-toned gale of song, and if old wine be best, yet among songs\nprefer the newer flowers.\n\nTruly men say that once a mighty water swept over the dark earth, but\nby the craft of Zeus an ebb suddenly drew off the flood. From these\nfirst men came anciently your ancestors of the brazen shields, sons of\nthe women of the stock of Iapetos and of the mighty Kronidai, Kings\nthat dwelt in the land continually; until the Olympian Lord caught up\nthe daughter[3] of Op\u00f6eis from the land of the Epeians, and lay with\nher in a silent place among the ridges of Mainalos; and afterward\nbrought her unto Lokros, that age might not bring him[4] low beneath\nthe burden of childlessness. But the wife bare within her the seed of\nthe Mightiest, and the hero saw the bastard born and rejoiced, and\ncalled him by the name of his mother's father, and he became a man\npreeminent in beauty and great deeds: and his father gave unto him a\ncity and a people to rule over.\n\nThen there came unto him strangers, from Argos and from Thebes, and\nfrom Arcadia others, and from Pisa. But the son of Aktor and Aigina,\nMenoitios, he honoured above all settlers, him whose son[5] went with\nthe Atreidai to the plain of Teuthras and stood alone beside Achilles,\nwhen Telephos had turned the valiant Danaoi to flight, and drove them\ninto the sterns of their sea-ships; so proved he to them that had\nunderstanding that Patroklos' soul was strong. And thenceforward the\nson of Thetis persuaded him that he should never in murderous battle\ntake his post far from his friend's conquering spear.\n\nFit speech may I find for my journey in the Muses' car; and let me\ntherewith have daring and powers of ample scope. To back the prowess\nof a friend I came, when Lampromachos won his Isthmian crown, when on\nthe same day both he and his brother overcame. And afterward at the\ngates[6] of Corinth two triumphs again befell Epharmostos, and more in\nthe valleys of Nemea. At Argos he triumphed over men, as over boys\nat Athens. And I might tell how at Marathon he stole from among the\nbeardless and confronted the full-grown for the prize of silver\nvessels, how without a fall he threw his men with swift and cunning\nshock, and how loud the shouting pealed when round the ring he ran,\nin the beauty of his youth and his fair form and fresh from fairest\ndeeds.\n\nAlso before the Parrhasian host was he glorified, at the assembly of\nLykaian Zeus, and again when at Pellene he bare away a warm antidote\nof cold winds[7]. And the tomb of Iolaos, and Eleusis by the sea, are\njust witnesses to his honours.\n\nThe natural is ever best: yet many men by learning of prowess essay to\nachieve fame. The thing done without God is better kept in silence.\nFor some ways lead further than do others, but one practice will not\ntrain us all alike. Skill of all kinds is hard to attain unto: but\nwhen thou bringest forth this prize, proclaim aloud with a good\ncourage that by fate divine this man at least was born deft-handed,\nnimble-limbed, with the light of valour in his eyes, and that now\nbeing victorious he hath crowned at the feast Oilean Alas' altar.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: This is the common interpretation, implying that Herakles\nin contending with the gods here mentioned must have been helped by\nother gods. But perhaps it might also be translated 'therefore how\ncould the hands, &c.,' meaning that since valour, as has just been\nsaid, comes from a divine source, it could not be used against gods,\nand that thus the story ought to be rejected.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Perhaps the story of the stones arose from the like sound\nof [Greek: Laos] and [Greek: Laas], words here regarded in the inverse\nrelation to each other.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Protogeneia.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Lokros.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Patroklos.]\n\n[Footnote 6: The Isthmus, the gate between the two seas.]\n\n[Footnote 7: A cloak, the prize.]\n\n\n\nX.\n\nFOR AGESIDAMOS OF EPIZEPHYRIAN LOKRIS,\n\nWINNER IN THE BOYS' BOXING-MATCH.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  This ode bears somewhat the same relation to the next that the fourth\n  does to the fifth. It was to be sung at Olympia on the night after\n  the victory, and Pindar promises the boy to write a longer one for\n  the celebration of his victory in his Italian home. The date is\n  B.C. 484.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSometimes have men most need of winds, sometimes of showered waters of\nthe firmament, the children of the cloud.\n\nBut when through his labour one fareth well, then are due honey-voiced\nsongs, be they even a prelude to words that shall come after, a pledge\nconfirmed by oath in honour of high excellence.\n\nAmple is the glory stored for Olympian winners: thereof my shepherd\ntongue is fain to keep some part in fold. But only by the help of God\nis wisdom[1] kept ever blooming in the soul.\n\nSon of Archestratos, Agesidamos, know certainly that for thy boxing I\nwill lay a glory of sweet strains upon thy crown of golden[2] olive,\nand will have in remembrance the race of the Lokrians' colony in the West.\n\nThere do ye, O Muses, join in the song of triumph: I pledge my word\nthat to no stranger-banishing folk shall ye come, nor unacquainted\nwith things noble, but of the highest in arts and valiant with the\nspear. For neither tawny fox nor roaring lion may change his native\ntemper.\n\n[Footnote 1: Perhaps [Greek: sophos] (which means often rather clever\nor skilful than wise) has here the special reference to poetic skill,\nwhich it often has in Pindar.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Golden here means supremely excellent, as in the first\nline of the eighth Olympian.]\n\n\n\nXI.\n\nFOR AGESIDAMOS OF EPIZEPHYRIAN LOKRIS,\n\nWINNER IN THE BOYS' BOXING-MATCH.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  It would seem by his own confession that Pindar did not remember till\n  long afterwards the promise he made to Agesidamos in the last ode.\n  We do not know how long afterwards this was written, but it must\n  have been too late to greet the winner on his arrival in Italy; probably\n  it was to be sung at the anniversary or some memorial celebration\n  of his victory.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nRead me the name of the Olympic winner Archestratos' son that I may\nknow where it is written upon my heart: for I had forgotten that I\nowed him a sweet strain.\n\nBut do thou, O Muse, and thou Truth, daughter of Zeus, put forth your\nhands and keep from me the reproach of having wronged a friend by\nbreaking my pledged word. For from afar hath overtaken me the time\nthat was then yet to come, and hath shamed my deep debt.\n\nNevertheless from that sore reproach I may be delivered by payment\nwith usury: behold how[1] the rushing wave sweepeth down the rolling\nshingle, and how we also will render for our friend's honour a tribute\nto him and to his people.\n\nTruth inhabiteth the city of the Lokrians of the West, and Kalliope\nthey hold in honour and mail\u00ebd Ares; yea even conquering Herakles was\nfoiled by that Kykne\u00e4n combat[2].\n\nNow let Agesidamos, winner in the boxing at Olympia, so render thanks\nto Ilas[3] as Patroklos of old to Achilles. If one be born with\nexcellent gifts, then may another who sharpeneth his natural edge\nspeed him, God helping, to an exceeding weight of glory. Without toil\nthere have triumphed a very few.\n\nOf that light in the life of a man before all other deeds, that first\nof contests, the ordinances of Zeus[4] have stirred me to sing, even\nthe games which by the ancient tomb of Pelops the mighty Herakles\nfounded, after that he slew Kleatos, Poseidon's goodly son, and slew\nalso Eurytos, that he might wrest from tyrannous Augeas against his\nwill reward for service done[5].\n\nLying in ambush beneath Kleonai did Herakles overcome them on the\nroad, for that formerly these same violent sons of Molos made havoc of\nhis own Tirynthian folk by hiding in the valleys of Elis. And not long\nafter the guest-betraying king of the Epeans saw his rich native land,\nhis own city, beneath fierce fire and iron blows sink down into the\ndeep moat of calamity. Of strife against stronger powers it is hard\nto be rid. Likewise Augeas last of all in his perplexity fell into\ncaptivity and escaped not precipitate death.\n\nThen the mighty son of Zeus having gathered together all his host at\nPisa, and all the booty, measured a sacred grove for his sovereign\nFather; and having fenced round the Altis he marked the bounds thereof\nin a clear space, and the plain encompassing it he ordained for rest\nand feasting, and paid honour to the river Alpheos together with the\ntwelve greatest gods. And he named it by the name of the Hill of\nKronos; for theretofore it was without name, when Oinomaos was king,\nand it was sprinkled with much snow[6].\n\nAnd at this first-born rite the Fates stood hard at hand, and he who\nalone proveth sure truth, even Time. He travelling onward hath told us\nthe clear tale of how the founder set apart the choicest of the spoil\nfor an offering from the war, and sacrificed, and how he ordained the\nfifth-year feast with the victories of that first Olympiad.\n\nWho then won to their lot the new-appointed crown by hands or feet\nor chariot, setting before them the prize of glory in the games, and\nwinning it by their act? In the foot-race down the straight course of\nthe stadion was Likymnios' son Oionos first, from Nidea had he led his\nhost: in the wrestling was Tegea glorified by Echemos: Doryklos won\nthe prize of boxing, a dweller in the city of Tiryns, and with the\nfour-horse chariot, Samos of Mantinea, Halirrhothios' son: with the\njavelin Phrastor hit the mark: in distance Enikeus beyond all others\nhurled the stone with a circling sweep, and all the warrior company\nthundered a great applause.\n\nThen on the evening the lovely shining of the fair-faced moon beamed\nforth, and all the precinct sounded with songs of festal glee, after\nthe manner which is to this day for triumph.\n\nSo following the first beginning of old time, we likewise in a song\nnamed of proud victory will celebrate the thunder and the flaming\nbolt of loud-pealing Zeus, the fiery lightning that goeth with all\nvictory[7].\n\nAnd soft tones to the music of the flute shall meet and mingle with my\nverse, which beside famous Dirke hath come to light after long time.\n\nBut even as a son by his lawful wife is welcome to a father who hath\nnow travelled to the other side of youth, and maketh his soul warm\nwith love--for wealth that must fall to a strange owner from without\nis most hateful to a dying man--so also, Agesidamos, when a man who\nhath done honourable deeds goeth unsung to the house of Hades, this\nman hath spent vain breath, and won but brief gladness for his toil.\n\nOn thee the pleasant lyre and the sweet pipe shed their grace, and the\nPierian daughters of Zeus foster thy wide-spread fame.\n\nI with them, setting myself thereunto fervently, have embraced the\nLokrians' famous race, and have sprinkled my honey upon a city of\ngoodly men: and I have told the praises of Archestratos' comely son,\nwhom I beheld victorious by the might of his hand beside the altar at\nOlympia, and saw on that day how fair he was of form, how gifted with\nthat spring-tide bloom, which erst with favour of the Cyprian queen\nwarded from Ganymede unrelenting death.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Reading [Greek: horat on hopa].]\n\n[Footnote 2: This Kyknos seems to have been a Lokrian freebooter, said\nto have fought with success against Herakles.]\n\n[Footnote 3: His trainer.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Probably because Zeus was especially concerned, both with\nthe fulfilment of promises and with the Olympic games.]\n\n[Footnote 5: For the story of these Moliones see Nestor's speech, Hom.\nIl. xi. 670-761.]\n\n[Footnote 6: Perhaps this implies a tradition of a colder climate\nanciently prevailing in Peloponnesos: perhaps the mention of snow is\nmerely picturesque, referring to the habitual appearance of the hill\nin winter, and the passage should then rather be rendered 'when\nOinomaos was king its snow-sprinkled top was without name.']\n\n[Footnote 7: The Lokrians worshipped Zeus especially as the Thunderer,\nas certain coins of theirs, stamped with a thunderbolt, still\ntestify.]\n\n\n\nXII.\n\nFOR ERGOTELES OF HIMERA,\n\nWINNER IN THE LONG FOOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  Ergoteles was a native of Knosos in Crete, but civil dissension had\n  compelled him to leave his country. He came to Sicily and was\n  naturalized as a citizen of Himera. Had he stayed in Crete he\n  would not have won this victory; nor the Pythian and Isthmian\n  victories, referred to at the end of the ode, for the Cretans seem to\n  have kept aloof, in an insular spirit, from the Panhellenic games.\n\n  The date of the ode is B.C. 472, the year after the Himeraeans had\n  expelled the tyrant Thrasydaios of Akragas. The prayer to Fortune\n  would seem to have reference specially to this event. The ode was\n  probably sung in a temple either of Zeus or of Fortune.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI pray thee, daughter of Zeus the Deliverer, keep watch over\nwide-ruling Himera, O saviour Fortune.\n\nBy thee upon the sea swift ships are piloted, and on dry land fierce\nwars and meetings of councils.\n\nUp and down the hopes of men are tossed as they cleave the waves of\nbaffling falsity: and a sure token of what shall come to pass hath\nnever any man on the earth received from God: the divinations of\nthings to come are blind.\n\nMany the chances that fall to men when they look not for them,\nsometimes to thwart delight, yet others after battling with the surge\nof sorrowful pain have suddenly received for their affliction some\nhappiness profound.\n\nSon of Philanor, verily even the glory of thy fleet feet would have\nfallen into the sere leaf unrenowned, abiding by the hearth of thy\nkin, as a cock that fighteth but at home, had not the strife of\ncitizen against citizen driven thee from Knosos thy native land.\n\nBut now at Olympia hast thou won a crown, O Ergoteles, and at Pytho\ntwice, and at Isthmos, whereby thou glorifiest the hot springs where\nthe nymphs Sicilian bathe, dwelling in a land that is become to thee\nas thine own.\n\n\n\nXIII.\n\nFOR XENOPHON OF CORINTH,\n\nWINNER IN THE STADION RACE AND IN THE PENTATHLON.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe date of this victory is B.C. 464, when Xenophon won both the\nStadion, or short foot-race of about a furlong or 220 yards, and also\nthe Pentathlon, that is, probably, he won at least three out of the\nfive contests which composed the Pentathlon--the Jump, Throwing the\nDisk, Throwing the Javelin, the Foot-race, and Wrestling, ([Greek:\nalma podokeian diskon akonta palaen]). For details, see Dict. Antiq.\nand Note on Nem. vii 71-73.\n\nThis ode and the speech of Glaukos in the sixth Book of the Iliad\nare the most conspicuous passages in poetry which refer to the great\nCorinthian hero Bellerophon.\n\nIt is thought that this ode was sung on the winner's public entrance\ninto Corinth.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThrice winner in Olympic games, of citizens beloved, to strangers\nhospitable, the house in whose praise will I now celebrate happy\nCorinth, portal of Isthmian Poseidon and nursery of splendid youth.\nFor therein dwell Order, and her sisters, sure foundation of states,\nJustice and likeminded Peace, dispensers of wealth to men, wise\nThemis' golden daughters. And they are minded to keep far from them\nInsolence the braggart mother of Loathing.\n\nI have fair witness to bear of them, and a just boldness stirreth my\ntongue to speak. Nature inborn none shall prevail to hide. Unto you,\nsons[1] of Aletes, ofttimes have the flowery Hours given splendour\nof victory, as to men excelling in valour, pre-eminent at the sacred\ngames, and ofttimes of old have they put subtleties into your men's\nhearts to devise; and of an inventor cometh every work.\n\nWhence were revealed the new graces of Dionysos with the dithyramb\nthat winneth the ox[2]? Who made new means of guidance to the harness\nof horses, or on the shrines of gods set the twin images of the king\nof birds [3]? Among them thriveth the Muse of dulcet breath, and Ares\nin the young men's terrible spears. Sovran lord of Olympia, be not\nthou jealous of my words henceforth for ever, O father Zeus; rule\nthou this folk unharmed, and keep unchanged the favourable gale of\nXenophon's good hap. Welcome from him this customary escort of his\ncrown, which from the plains of Pisa he is bringing, having won with\nthe five contests the stadion-race beside; the like whereof never yet\ndid mortal man.\n\nAlso two parsley-wreaths shadowed his head before the people at the\ngames of Isthmos, nor doth Nemea tell a different tale. And of his\nfather Thessalos' lightning feet is record by the streams of Alpheos,\nand at Pytho he hath renown for the single and for the double stadion\ngained both in a single day, and in the same month at rocky Athens a\nday of swiftness crowned his hair for three illustrious deeds, and the\nHellotia[4] seven times, and at the games of Poseidon between seas\nlonger hymns followed his father Ptoiodoros with Terpsias and\nEritimos. And how often ye were first at Delphi or in the Pastures of\nthe Lion[5], though with full many do I match your crowd of honours,\nyet can I no more surely tell than the tale of pebbles on the\nsea-shore. But in everything is there due measure, and most excellent\nis it to have respect unto fitness of times.\n\nI with your fleet sailing a privateer will speak no lie concerning the\nvalour of Corinth's heroes, whether I proclaim the craft of her men\nof old or their might in war, whether of Sisyphos of subtlest cunning\neven as a god, and Medea who made for herself a marriage in her sire's\ndespite, saviour of the ship Argo and her crew: or whether how of old\nin the struggle before the walls of Dardanos the sons of Corinth were\ndeemed to turn the issue of battle either way, these with Atreus' son\nstriving to win Helen back, those to thrust them utterly away[6].\n\nNow when Glaukos was come thither out of Lydia the Danaoi feared him.\nTo them he proclaimed that in the city of Peirene his sire bare rule\nand had rich heritage of land and palace, even he who once, when he\nlonged to bridle the snaky Gorgon's son, Pegasos, at Peirene's spring,\nsuffered many things, until the time when maiden Pallas brought to\nhim a bit with head-band of gold, and from a dream behold it was very\ndeed.\n\nFor she said unto him 'Sleepest thou O Aiolid king? Come, take this\ncharmer of steeds, and show it to thy father[7] the tamer of horses,\nwith the sacrifice of a white bull.'\n\nThus in the darkness as he slumbered spake the maiden wielder of\nthe shadowy aegis--so it seemed unto him--and he leapt up and stood\nupright upon his feet. And he seized the wondrous bit that lay by his\nside, and found with joy the prophet of the land, and showed to him,\nthe son of Koiranos, the whole issue of the matter, how on the altar\nof the goddess he lay all night according to the word of his prophecy,\nand how with her own hands the child of Zeus whose spear is the\nlightning brought unto him the soul-subduing gold.\n\nThen the seer bade him with all speed obey the vision, and that when\nhe should have sacrificed to the wide-ruling Earth-enfolder the\nstrong-foot beast[8], he should build an altar straightway to Athene,\nqueen of steeds.\n\nNow the power of Gods bringeth easily to pass such things as make\nforecast forsworn. Surely with zealous haste did bold Bellerophon bind\nround the winged steed's jaw the softening charm, and make him his:\nthen straightway he flew up and disported him in his brazen arms.\n\nIn company with that horse also on a time, from out of the bosom of\nthe chill and desert air, he smote the archer host of Amazons, and\nslew the Solymoi, and Chimaira breathing fire. I will keep silence\ntouching the fate of him: howbeit Pegasos hath in Olympus found a home\nin the ancient stalls of Zeus.\n\nBut for me who am to hurl straight the whirling javelin it is not meet\nto spend beside the mark my store of darts with utmost force of hand:\nfor to the Muses throned in splendour and to the Oligaithidai a\nwilling ally came I, at the Isthmos and again at Nemea. In a brief\nword will I proclaim the host of them, and a witness sworn and true\nshall be to me in the sweet-tongued voice of the good herald[9], heard\nat both places sixty times.\n\nNow have their acts at Olympia, methinks, been told already: of those\nthat shall be hereafter I will hereafter clearly speak. Now I live in\nhope, but the end is in the hands of gods. But if the fortune of the\nhouse fail not, we will commit to Zeus and Enyalios the accomplishment\nthereof.\n\nYet other glories won they, by Parnassos' brow, and at Argos how many\nand at Thebes, and such as nigh the Arcadians[10] the lordly altar of\nZeus Lykaios shall attest, and Pallene, and Sikyon, and Megara,\nand the well-fenced grove of the Aiakidai, and Eleusis, and lusty\nMarathon, and the fair rich cities beneath Aetna's towering crest, and\nEuboea. Nay over all Hellas if thou searchest, thou shalt find more\nthan one sight can view.\n\nO king Zeus the Accomplisher, grant them with so light feet[11] to\nmove through life, give them all honour, and sweet hap of their goodly\nthings.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: The clan of the Oligaithidai, to which Xenophon\nbelonged.]\n\n[Footnote 2: I. e. as a prize. But the passage may be taken\ndifferently as referring to the symbolical identification of Dionysos\nwith the bull. Dithyrambic poetry was said to have been invented or\nimproved by Arion of Corinth.]\n\n[Footnote 3: This refers to the introduction into architecture by the\nCorinthians of the pediment, within or above which were at that time\nconstantly placed images of eagles.]\n\n[Footnote 4: The feast of Athene Hellotis.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Nemea.]\n\n[Footnote 6: The Lykians who fought under Glaukos on the Trojan side\nwere of Corinthian descent.]\n\n[Footnote 7: Poseidon.]\n\n[Footnote 8: A bull.]\n\n[Footnote 9: Proclaiming the name and city of the winner in the\ngames.]\n\n[Footnote 10: Reading [Greek: Arkasin asson].]\n\n[Footnote 11: As in their foot-races.]\n\n\n\nXIV.\n\nFOR ASOPICHOS OF ORCHOMENOS,\n\nWINNER IN THE BOYS' SHORT FOOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis ode was to be sung, probably by a chorus of boys, at the winner's\ncity Orchomenos, and most likely in the temple of the three or Graces,\nAglaia, Euphrosyne and Thalia.\n\nThe date of the victory is B.C. 476.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nO ye who haunt the land of goodly steeds that drinketh of Kephisos'\nwaters, lusty Orchomenos' queens renowned in song, O Graces, guardians\nof the Minyai's ancient race, hearken, for unto you I pray. For by\nyour gift come unto men all pleasant things and sweet, and the wisdom\nof a man and his beauty, and the splendour of his fame. Yea even gods\nwithout the Graces' aid rule never at feast or dance; but these have\ncharge of all things done in heaven, and beside Pythian Apollo of\nthe golden bow they have set their thrones, and worship the eternal\nmajesty of the Olympian Father.\n\nO lady Aglaia, and thou Euphrosyne, lover of song, children of the\nmightiest of the gods, listen and hear, and thou Thalia delighting in\nsweet sounds, and look down upon this triumphal company, moving with\nlight step under happy fate. In Lydian mood of melody concerning\nAsopichos am I come hither to sing, for that through thee, Aglaia,\nin the Olympic games the Minyai's home is winner. Fly, Echo, to\nPersephone's dark-walled home, and to his father bear the noble\ntidings, that seeing him thou mayest speak to him of his son, saying\nthat for his father's honour in Pisa's famous valley he hath crowned\nhis boyish hair with garlands from the glorious games.\n\n\n\nTHE PYTHIAN ODES.\n\nI.\n\nFOR HIERON OF AITNA,\n\nWINNER IN THE CHARIOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\nThe date of this victory is B.C. 474\n\nIn the year 480, the year of Salamis, the Syracusans under Hieron had\ndefeated the Carthaginians in the great battle of Himera.\n\nIn 479 a great eruption of Etna (Aitna) began. In 476 Hieron founded,\nnear the mountain but we may suppose at a safe distance, the new city\nof Aitna, in honour of which he had himself proclaimed as an Aitnaian\nafter this and other victories in the games.\n\nAnd in this same year, 474, he had defeated the Etruscans, or Tuscans,\nor Tyrrhenians in a great sea-fight before Cumae.\n\nPindar might well delight to honour those who had been waging so well\nagainst the barbarians of the South and West the same war which the\nHellenes of the mother-country waged against the barbarians of the\nEast.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nO golden Lyre, thou common treasure of Apollo and the Muses\nviolet-tressed, thou whom the dancer's step, prelude of festal mirth,\nobeyeth, and the singers heed thy bidding, what time with quivering\nstrings thou utterest preamble of choir-leading overture--lo even the\nsworded lightning of immortal fire thou quenched, and on the sceptre\nof Zeus his eagle sleepeth, slackening his swift wings either side,\nthe king of birds, for a dark mist thou hast distilled on his arched\nhead, a gentle seal upon his eyes, and he in slumber heaveth his\nsupple back, spell-bound beneath thy throbs.\n\nYea also violent Ares, leaving far off the fierce point of his spears,\nletteth his heart have joy in rest, for thy shafts soothe hearts\ndivine by the cunning of Leto's son and the deep-bosomed Muses.\n\nBut whatsoever things Zeus loveth not fly frighted from the voice of\nthe Pierides, whether on earth or on the raging sea; whereof is he who\nlieth in dreadful Tartaros, the foe of the gods, Typhon of the hundred\nheads, whom erst the den Kilikian of many names did breed, but now\nverily the sea-constraining cliffs beyond Cumae, and Sicily, lie heavy\non his shaggy breast: and he is fast bound by a pillar of the sky,\neven by snowy Etna, nursing the whole year's length her frozen snow.\n\nWhereout pure springs of unapproachable fire are vomited from the\ninmost depths: in the daytime the lava-streams pour forth a lurid rush\nof smoke: but in the darkness a red rolling flame sweepeth rocks with\nuproar to the wide deep sea.\n\nThat dragon-thing[1] it is that maketh issue from beneath the terrible\nfiery flood, a monster marvellous to look upon, yea a marvel to hear\nof from such as go thereby and tell what thing is prisoned between\nthe dark-wooded tops of Etna and the plain, where the back of him is\ngalled and furrowed by the bed whereon he lieth.\n\nO Zeus, be it ours to find favour in thy sight, who art defender\nof this mountain, the forehead of a fruitful land, whose namesake\nneighbour city hath been ennobled by her glorious founder, for that on\nthe race-course at the Pythian games the herald made proclamation of\nher name aloud, telling of Hieron's fair victory in the chariot-race.\n\nNow the first boon to men in ships is that a favourable breeze come to\nthem as they set forth upon the sea; for this is promise that in\nthe end also they shall come with good hap home. So after this good\nfortune doth reason show us hope of crowns to come for Aitna's horses,\nand honour in the banquet-songs.\n\nO Phoibos, lord of Lykia and of Delos, who lovest the spring of\nCastaly on thy Parnassos, be this the purpose of thy will, and grant\nthe land fair issue of her men.\n\nFor from gods come all means of mortal valour, hereby come bards and\nmen of mighty hand and eloquent speech.\n\nThis is the man I am fain to praise, and trust that not outside the\nring shall I hurl the bronze-tipped javelin I brandish in my hand, but\nwith far throw outdo my rivals in the match.\n\nWould that his whole life may give him, even as now, good luck and\nwealth right onward, and of his pains forgetfulness.\n\nVerily it shall remind him in what fightings of wars he stood up with\nsteadfast soul, when the people found grace of glory at the hands\nof gods, such as none of the Hellenes hath reaped, a proud crown of\nwealth.\n\nFor after the ensample of Philoktetes he went but now to war: and when\nnecessity was upon them even they of proud spirit sought of him a\nboon.\n\nTo Lemnos once they say came godlike heroes to fetch thence the archer\nson of Paian, vexed of an ulcerous wound; and he sacked the city of\nPriam and made an end of the Danaoi's labours, for the body wherewith\nhe went was sick, but this was destined from the beginning.\n\nEven thus to Hieron may God be a guide for the time approaching, and\ngive him to lay hold upon the things of his desire.\n\nAlso in the house of Deinomenes do me grace, O Muse, to sing, for sake\nof our four-horsed car: no alien joy to him is his sire's victory.\n\nCome then and next for Etna's king let us devise a friendly song, for\nwhom with god-built freedom after the laws of Hyllic pattern hath that\ncity been founded of Hieron's hand: for the desire of the sons of\nPamphylos and of the Herakleidai dwelling beneath the heights of\nTa\u00ffgetos is to abide continually in the Dorian laws of Aigimios. At\nAmyklai they dwelt prosperously, when they were come down out of\nPindos and drew near in honour to the Tyndaridai who ride on white\nhorses, and the glory of their spears waxed great.\n\nThou Zeus, with whom are the issues of things, grant that the true\nspeech of men ever bear no worse report of citizens and kings beside\nthe water of Am\u00ebnas. By thine aid shall a man that is chief and\nthat instructeth his son after him give due honour unto his people and\nmove them to be of one voice peacefully.\n\nI pray thee, son of Kronos, grant that the Phenician and the Tuscan\nwar-cry be hushed at home, since they have beheld the calamity of\ntheir ships that befell them before Cumae, even how they were smitten\nby the captain of the Syracusans, who from their swift ships hurled\ntheir youth into the sea, to deliver Hellas from the bondage of the\noppressor.\n\nFrom Salamis shall I of Athenians take reward of thanks, at Sparta\nwhen I shall tell[2] in a song to come of the battle[3] before\nKithairon, wherein the Medes that bear crooked bows were overthrown,\nbut by the fair-watered banks of Him\u00ebras it shall be for the song\nI have rendered to the sons of Deinomenes, which by their valour they\nhave earned, since the men that warred against them are overthrown.\n\nIf thou shalt speak in season, and comprehend in brief the ends of\nmany matters, less impeachment followeth of men; for surfeit blunteth\nthe eagerness of expectancy; and city-talk of others' praise grieveth\nhearts secretly.\n\nNevertheless, for that envy is preferred before pity[4], let slip not\nfair occasion: guide with just helm thy people and forge the sword\nof thy speech on an anvil whereof cometh no lie. Even a word falling\nlightly is of import in that it proceedeth from thee. Of many things\nart thou steward: many witnesses are there to thy deeds of either\nkind.\n\nBut abiding in the fair flower of this spirit, if thou art fain to be\ncontinually of good report, be not too careful for the cost: loose\nfree like a mariner thy sail unto the wind.\n\nFriend, be not deceived by time-serving words of guile. The voice of\nthe report that liveth after a man, this alone revealeth the lives of\ndead men to the singers and to the chroniclers: the loving-kindness\nof Craesus fadeth not away; but him who burned men with fire within a\nbrazen bull, Phalaris that had no pity, men tell of everywhere\nwith hate, neither will any lute in hall suffer him in the gentle\nfellowship of young boys' themes of songs.\n\nTo be happy is the chiefest prize; to be glorious the next lot: if a\nman have lighted on both and taken them to be his, he hath attained\nunto the supreme crown.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Typhon.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Reading [Greek: erion].]\n\n[Footnote 3: Plataea.]\n\n[Footnote 4: I. e. it is better to be envied than to be pitied.]\n\n\n\nII.\n\nFOR HIERON OF SYRACUSE,\n\nWINNER IN THE CHARIOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe classification of this ode as Pythian is probably a mistake:\nperhaps the victory was won at the Theban festival in honour of\nHerakles, or of Iolaos.\n\nAnaxilaos, tyrant of Rhegium and Messana, had been deterred by\nHieron's threats from attacking the Epizephyrian Lokrians, and the ode\nis partly occupied with congratulations of Hieron on this protective\nact. As Anaxilaos died B.C. 476, and Hieron was only placed at the\nhead of the Syracusan state two years before, this seems to fix the\ndate somewhere in these two years. As Pindar talks of sending his song\nacross the sea, we may suppose that it was sung at Syracuse.\n\nThere is much obscurity about the significances of this ode. The\npoet's motive in telling the story of Ixion's sins has been variously\nguessed at. Some think it was meant to deter Hieron from contriving\nthe death of his brother Polyzelos in battle in order to get\npossession of Polyzelos' wife (and if Hieron was to be suspected of\nsuch a thought it would be quite in Pindar's manner to mingle warning\nand reproof with praise): some think that it refers to the ingratitude\nof Anaxilaos toward Hieron. And most probably the latter part of the\node, in which sincerity is approved, and flattery and calumny are\ncondemned, had some special and personal reference, though we need not\nsuppose, as the commentators are fond of doing here and elsewhere,\nthat it was aimed at Bacchylides or other rival poets.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nGreat city of Syracuse, precinct of warrior Ares, of iron-armed men\nand steeds the nursing-place divine, to thee I come[1], bearing from\nmy bright Thebes this song, the tidings of earth-shaking racing of the\nfour-horse car, wherein hath Hieron with his goodly chariot\novercome, and decked with far-seen splendour of crowns Ortygia the\ndwelling-place of Artemis of the river, her by whose help he tamed\nwith soothing hand his colts of spangled rein.\n\nFor the archer maiden with both hands fitteth the glittering\ntrappings, and Hermes, god of games, whensoever Hieron to the polished\ncar and bridle-guided wheels[2] yoketh the strength of his steeds,\ncalling on the wide-ruling god, the trident-wielder.\n\nNow unto various kings pay various men sweet song, their valour's\nmeed. So the fair speech of Cyprus echoeth around the name of Kinyras,\nhim whom Apollo of the golden hair loved fervently, and who dwelt a\npriest in the house of Aphrodite: for to such praise are men moved by\nthe thankfulness that followeth the recompense of friendly acts. But\nof thee, O thou son of Deinomenes, the maiden daughter of the Lokrian\nin the west before the house-door telleth in her song, being out of\nbewildering woes of war by thy might delivered, so that her eyes are\nnot afraid for anything.\n\nIxion, they say, by order of the gods, writhing on his winged wheel,\nproclaimeth this message unto men: _To him who doeth thee service make\nrecompense of fair reward_.\n\nThis lesson learned he plainly; for when that among the friendly\nKronidai he had gotten a life of pleasantness, his bliss became\ngreater than he could bear, and with mad heart he lusted after Hera,\nwhose place was in the happy marriage-bed of Zeus: yet insolence drove\nhim to the exceeding folly; but quickly suffering his deserts the man\ngained to himself a misery most rare.\n\nTwo sins are the causes of his pain; one that he first among the\nheroes shed blood of kindred[3] craftily, the other that in the\nchambers of the ample heavens he attempted the wife of Zeus--for in\nall things it behoveth to take measure by oneself[4].\n\nYet a mocking love-bed hurried him as he approached the couch[5] into\na sea of trouble; for he lay with a cloud, pursuing the sweet lie,\nfond man: for its form was as the form of the most highest among the\ndaughters of heaven, even the child of Kronos; and the hands of Zeus\nhad made it that it might be a snare unto him, a fair mischief. Thus\ncame he unto the four-spoked wheel, his own destruction; and having\nfallen into chains without escape he became proclaimer of that\nmessage[6] unto many.\n\nHis mate[7], without favour of the Graces, bare unto him a monstrous\nson, and like no other thing anywhere, even as its mother was, a thing\nwith no place or honour, neither among men, neither in the society of\ngods. Him she reared and called by the name Kentauros, and he in the\nvalleys of Pelion lay with Magnesian mares, and there were born thence\na wondrous tribe, like unto both parents, their nether parts like unto\nthe dams, and their upper parts like unto the sire.\n\nGod achieveth all ends whereon he thinketh--God who overtaketh even\nthe winged eagle, and outstrippeth the dolphin of the sea, and\nbringeth low many a man in his pride, while to others he giveth glory\nincorruptible.\n\nFor me it is meet to eschew the sharp tooth of bitter words; for,\nthough afar off, I have seen the fierce Archilochos lacking most\nthings and fattening but on cruel words of hate. Of most worth are\nriches when joined to the happy gift of wisdom. And this lot hast\nthou, and mayest illustrate it with liberal soul, thou sovereign chief\nover many streets filled with goodly garlands, and much people. If any\nsaith that ever yet was any man of old time throughout Hellas who\nexcelled thee in honour or in the multitude of possessions, such an one\nwith vain purpose essayeth a fruitless task.\n\nUpon the flower-crowned prow[8] will I go up to sing of brave deeds\ndone. Youth is approved by valour in dread wars; and hence say I that\nthou hast won boundless renown in thy battles, now with horsemen, now\non foot: also the counsels of thine elder years give me sure ground of\npraising thee every way.\n\nAll hail! This song like to Phenician merchandize is sent across the\nhoary sea: do thou look favourably on the strain of Kaster in Aeolian\nmood[9], and greet it in honour of the seven-stringed lute.\n\nBe what thou art, now I have told thee what that is: in the eyes of\nchildren the fawning ape is ever comely: but the good fortune of\nRhadamanthos hath come to him because the fruit that his soul bare was\ntrue, neither delighteth he in deceits within his heart, such as by\nwhisperer's arts ever wait upon mortal man.\n\nAn overpowering evil are the secret speakings of slander, to the\nslandered and to the listener thereto alike, and are as foxes in\nrelentless temper. Yet for the beast whose name is of gain[10] what\ngreat thing is gained thereby? For like the cork above the net, while\nthe rest of the tackle laboureth deep in the sea, I am unmerged in the\nbrine.\n\nImpossible is it that a guileful citizen utter potent words among the\ngood, nevertheless he fawneth on all and useth every subtlety. No part\nhave I in that bold boast of his, 'Let me be a friend to my friend,\nbut toward an enemy I will be an enemy and as a wolf will cross his\npath, treading now here now there in crooked ways[11].' For every form\nof polity is a man of direct speech best, whether under a despotism,\nor whether the wild multitude, or the wisest, have the state in their\nkeeping.\n\nAgainst God it is not meet to strive, who now upholdeth these, and\nnow again to those giveth great glory. But not even this cheereth the\nheart of the envious; for they measure by an unjust balance, and their\nown hearts they afflict with bitter pain, till such time as they\nattain to that which their hearts devise.\n\nTo take the car's yoke on one's neck and run on lightly, this helpeth;\nbut to kick against the goad is to make the course perilous. Be it\nmine to dwell among the good, and to win their love.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Pindar here identifies himself with his ode, which he\nsent, not took, to Syracuse. Compare Ol. vii. 13, &c.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Properly [Greek: harmata] would seem to include all\nexcept the body of the chariot ([Greek: diphros]) in which the\ncharioteer stood.]\n\n[Footnote 3: His father-in-law Deioneus.]\n\n[Footnote 4: I. e. to estimate rightly one's capacities,\ncircumstances, rights, duties.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Reading [Greek: poti koiton ikont'].]\n\n[Footnote 6: The message spoken of above, v. 24.]\n\n[Footnote 7: The cloud, the phantom-Hera.]\n\n[Footnote 8: The prow of the ship carrying this ode, with which\nPindar, as has been said, identifies himself.]\n\n[Footnote 9: It is supposed that another ode, more especially in\nhonour of the chariot-victory, is here meant, which was to be sent\nlater.\n\nFrom this point to the end the ode reads like a postscript of private\nimport and reference.]\n\n[Footnote 10: It is at least doubtful whether [Greek: kerdo] a fox is\nreally connected with [Greek: kerdos] gain.]\n\n[Footnote 11: It appears to me to be an absurdity to suppose that\nPindar means to express in this sentence his own rule of conduct,\nas the commentators have fancied. He is all through this passage\ncondemning 'crooked ways.']\n\n\n\nIII.\n\nFOR HIERON OF SYRACUSE,\n\nWINNER IN THE HORSE-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe dates both of the victory and of the ode are uncertain. But as\nPherenikos, the horse that won this race at Pytho, is the same that\nwon at Olympia B.C. 472, in honour of which event the First Olympian\nwas written, the victory cannot have been very long before that date,\nthough the language of the ode implies that it was written a good deal\nlater, probably for an anniversary of the victory. It must at least\nhave been written before Hieron's death in 467. It is much occupied\nwith his illness.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFain were I (if meet it be to utter from my mouth the prayer conceived\nof all) that Cheiron the son of Philyra were alive and had not\nperished among men, even the wide-ruling seed of Kronos the son of\nOuranos; and that there still lorded it in Pelion's glens that Beast\nuntamed, whose soul was loving unto men, even such as when of old he\ntrained the gentle deviser of limb-saving anodynes, Asklepios, the\nhero that was a defence against all kind of bodily plague.\n\nOf him was the daughter[1] of Phlegyas of goodly steeds not yet\ndelivered by Eileithuia aid of mothers, ere by the golden bow she was\nslain at the hands of Artemis, and from her child-bed chamber went\ndown into the house of Hades, by contriving of Apollo. Not idle is the\nwrath of sons of Zeus.\n\nShe in the folly of her heart had set Apollo at nought, and taken\nanother spouse without knowledge of her sire, albeit ere then she had\nlain with Phoibos of the unshorn hair, and bare within her the seed of\na very god.\n\nNeither awaited she the marriage-tables nor the sound of many voices\nin hymeneal song, such as the bride's girl-mates are wont to sing at\neventide with merry minstrelsy: but lo, she had longing for things\notherwhere, even as many before and after. For a tribe there is most\nfoolish among men, of such as scorn the things of home, and gaze on\nthings that are afar off, and chase a cheating prey with hopes that\nshall never be fulfilled.\n\nOf such sort was the frenzied strong desire fair-robed Koronis\nharboured in her heart, for she lay in the couch of a stranger that\nwas come from Arcady.\n\nBut one that watched beheld her: for albeit he was at sheep-gathering\nPytho, yet was the temple's king Loxias aware thereof, beside his\nunerring partner[2], for he gave heed to his own wisdom, his mind that\nknoweth all things; in lies it hath no part, neither in act or thought\nmay god or man deceive him.\n\nTherefore when he was aware of how she lay with the stranger Ischys\nson of Elatos, and of her guile unrighteous, he sent his sister fierce\nwith terrible wrath to go to Lakereia--for by the steep shores of the\nBoibian lake was the home of her virginity--and thus a doom adverse\nblasted her life and smote her down: and of her neighbours many fared\nill therefore and perished with her: so doth a fire that from one\nspark has leapt upon a mountain lay waste wide space of wood.\n\nBut when her kinsfolk had laid the damsel upon the pile of wood, and\nfierce brightness of Hephaistos ran around it, then said Apollo: 'Not\nany longer may I endure in my soul to slay mine own seed by a most\ncruel death in company with its mother's grievous fate.'\n\nHe said, and at the first stride he was there, and from the corpse\ncaught up the child, and the blaze of the burning fiery pile was\ncloven before him asunder in the midst.\n\nThen to the Kentaur of Magnes he bare the child, that he should teach\nhim to be a healer of the many-plaguing maladies of men. And thus all\nthat came unto him whether plagued with self-grown sores or with limbs\nwounded by the lustrous bronze or stone far-hurled, or marred by\nsummer heat or winter cold--these he delivered, loosing each from\nhis several infirmity, some with emollient spells and some by kindly\npotions, or else he hung their limbs with charms, or by surgery he\nraised them up to health.\n\nYet hath even wisdom been led captive of desire of gain. Even him did\ngold in his hands glittering beguile for a great reward to bring back\nfrom death a man already prisoner thereto: wherefore the hands of the\nson of Kronos smote the twain of them through the midst, and bereft\ntheir breasts of breath, and the bright lightning dealt them doom.\n\nIt behoveth to seek from gods things meet for mortal souls, knowing\nthe things that are in our path and to what portion we are born.\nDesire not thou, dear my soul, a life immortal, but use the tools that\nare to thine hand.\n\nNow were wise Cheiron in his cavern dwelling yet, and had our\nsweet-voiced songs laid haply some fair magic on his soul, then had\nI won him to grant to worthy men some healer of hot plagues, some\noffspring of Leto's son, or of her son's sire[3].\n\nAnd then in a ship would I have sailed, cleaving the Ionian sea, to\nthe fountain of Arethusa, to the home of my Aitnaian friend, who\nruleth at Syracuse, a king of good will to the citizens, not envious\nof the good, to strangers wondrous fatherly. Had I but landed there\nand brought unto him a twofold joy, first golden health and next this\nmy song of triumph to be a splendour in his Pythian crown, which of\nlate Pherenikos[4] won by his victory at Kirrha--I say that then\nshould I have come unto him, after that I had passed over the deep\nsea, a farther-shining light than any heavenly star.\n\nBut I am minded to pray to the Mother[5] for him, to the awful goddess\nunto whom, and unto Pan, before my door nightly the maidens move in\ndance and song.\n\nYet, O Hieron, if thou art skilled to apprehend the true meaning of\nsayings, thou hast learnt to know this from the men of old; _The\nimmortals deal to men two ill things for one good._ The foolish cannot\nbear these with steadfastness but the good only, putting the fair side\nforward.\n\nBut thee a lot of happiness attendeth, for if on any man hath mighty\nDestiny looked favourably, surely it is on a chief and leader of a\npeople.\n\nA life untroubled abode not either with Peleus, son of Aiakos, or with\ngodlike Kadmos: yet of all mortals these, they say, had highest\nbliss, who both erewhile listened to the singing of the Muses\ngolden-filleted, the one in seven-gated Thebes, when he wedded\nlarge-eyed Harmonia, the other on the mountainside, when he took to\nhim Thetis to be his wife, wise Nereus' glorious daughter. And with\nboth of them gods sate at meat, and they beheld the sons of Kronos\nsitting as kings on thrones of gold, and they received from them gifts\nfor their espousals; and by grace of Zeus they escaped out of their\nformer toils and raised up their hearts to gladness.\n\nYet again in the after time the bitter anguish of those daughters[6]\nrobbed Kadmos of a part of bliss: howbeit the Father Zeus came to\nwhite-armed Thyone's[7] longed-for couch.\n\nAnd so did the son of Peleus whom Thetis bare at Phthia, her only son,\ndie by an arrow in war, and moved the Danaoi to lament aloud, when his\nbody was burning in fire.\n\nNow if any by wisdom hath the way of truth he may yet lack good\nfortune, which cometh of the happy gods.\n\nThe blasts of soaring winds blow various ways at various times.\nNot for long cometh happiness to men, when it accompanieth them in\nexceeding weight.\n\nSmall will I be among the small, and great among the great. Whatever\nfortune follow me, I will work therewith, and wield it as my power\nshall suffice. If God should offer me wealth and ease, I have hope\nthat I should first have won high honour to be in the times afar off.\n\nNestor and Lykian Sarpedon, who live in the speech of men, we know\nfrom tales of sounding song, built up by cunning builders.\n\nBy songs of glory hath virtue lasting life, but to achieve them is\neasy to but few.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Koronis.]\n\n[Footnote 2: His father, Zeus.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Some Asklepios or Apollo.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Hieron's horse.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Rhea or Kybele, the mother of the gods. 'Next door to\nPindar's house was a temple of the mother of the gods and of Pan,\nwhich he had built himself.' Scholiast.]\n\n[Footnote 6: Ino, Agaue, and Autonoe.]\n\n[Footnote 7: Semele.]\n\n\n\nIV.\n\nFOR ARKESILAS OF KYRENE,\n\nWINNER IN THE CHARIOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPindar has made this victory of Arkesilas, King of the Hellenic colony\nof Kyrene in Africa, an occasion for telling the story of Jason's\nexpedition with the Argonauts. The ostensible reason for introducing\nthe story is that Kyrene had been colonised from the island of Thera\nby the descendants of the Argonaut Euphemos, according to the prophecy\nof Medea related at the beginning of the ode. But Pindar had another\nreason. He wished to suggest an analogy between the relation of the\nIolkian king Pelias to Jason and the relation of Arkesilas to his\nexiled kinsman Demophilos. Demophilos had been staying at Thebes,\nwhere Pindar wrote this ode, to be afterwards recited at Kyrene. It\nwas written B.C. 466, when Pindar was fifty-six years of age, and is\nunsurpassed in his extant works, or indeed by anything of this kind in\nall poetry.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis day O Muse must thou tarry in a friend's house, the house of the\nking of Kyrene of goodly horses, that with Arkesilas at his triumph\nthou mayst swell the favourable gale of song, the due of Leto's\nchildren, and of Pytho. For at Pytho of old she who sitteth beside the\neagles of Zeus--nor was Apollo absent then--the priestess, spake this\noracle, that Battos should found a power in fruitful Libya, that\nstraightway departing from the holy isle he might lay the foundations\nof a city of goodly chariots upon a white breast of the swelling\nearth, and might fulfil in the seventeenth generation the word of\nMedea spoken at Thera, which of old the passionate child of Aietes,\nqueen of Colchians, breathed from immortal lips. For on this wise\nspake she to the warrior Jason's god-begotten crew: 'Hearken O sons\nof high-hearted mortals and of gods. Lo I say unto you that from this\nsea-lashed land the daughter[1] of Epaphos shall sometime be planted\nwith a root to bring forth cities that shall possess the minds of men,\nwhere Zeus Ammon's shrine is builded.\n\nAnd instead of short-finned dolphins they shall take to them fleet\nmares, and reins instead of oars shall they ply, and speed the\nwhirlwind-footed car.\n\nBy that augury shall it come to pass that Thera shall be mother-city\nof mighty commonwealths, even the augury that once at the outpourings\nof the Tritonian lake Euphemos leaping from the prow took at the hands\nof a god who in the likeness of man tendered this present to the\nstranger of a clod of earth; and the Father Kronian Zeus confirmed it\nwith a peal of thunder.\n\n[2]What time he came suddenly upon them as they were hanging against\nthe ship the bronze-fluked anchor, fleet Argo's bridle; for now for\ntwelve days had we borne from Ocean over long backs of desert-land our\nsea-ship, after that by my counsel we drew it up upon the shore.\n\nThen came to us the solitary god, having put on the splendid semblance\nof a noble man; and he began friendly speech, such as well-doers use\nwhen they bid new-comers to the feast.\n\nBut the plea of the sweet hope of home suffered us not to stay. Then\nhe said that he was Eurypylos son of the earth-embracer, immortal\nEnnosides; and for that he was aware that we hasted to be gone, he\nstraightway caught up of the chance earth at his feet a gift that he\nwould fain bestow. Nor was the hero unheeding, but leaping on the\nshore and striking hand in hand he took to him the fateful clod.\n\nBut now I hear that it was washed down from the ship and departed into\nthe sea with the salt spray of evening, following the watery deep. Yet\nverily often did I charge the labour-lightening servants that they\nshould keep it safe, but they forgat: and now upon this island[3]\nis the imperishable seed of spacious Libya strown before the time\nappointed; for if the royal son[4] of Poseidon, lord of horses, whom\nEuropa Tityos' child bare him on Kephisos' banks, had in his own home\nthrown it down beside the mouth of Hades'[5] gulf, then in the fourth\ngeneration of his sons his seed would have taken that wide continent\nof Libya, for then they would have gone forth from mighty Lakedaimon,\nand from the Argive gulf, and from Mykenai.\n\nBut now he shall in wedlock with a stranger-wife raise up a chosen\nseed, who coming to this island with worship of their gods shall beget\none to be lord of the misty plains[6]. Him sometime shall Phoibos in\nhis golden house admonish by oracles, when in the latter days he shall\ngo down into the inner shrine at Pytho, to bring a host in ships to\nthe rich Nile-garden of the son of Kronos[7].'\n\nSo ran Medea's rhythmic utterance, and motionless in silence the\ngodlike heroes bowed their heads as they hearkened to the counsels of\nwisdom.\n\nThee, happy son[8] of Polymnestos, did the oracle of the Delphian\nbee[9] approve with call unasked to be the man whereof the word was\nspoken, for thrice she bid thee hail and declared thee by decree of\nfate Kyrene's king, what time thou enquiredst what help should be from\nheaven for thy labouring speech. And verily even now long afterward,\nas in the bloom of rosy-blossomed spring, in the eighth descent from\nBattos the leaf of Arkesilas is green. To him Apollo and Pytho have\ngiven glory in the chariot-race at the hands of the Amphiktyons: him\nwill I commend to the Muses, and withal the tale of the all-golden\nfleece; for this it was the Minyai sailed to seek when the god-given\nglories of their race began.\n\nWhat power first drave them in the beginning to the quest? What\nperilous enterprise clenched them with strong nails of adamant?\n\nThere was an oracle of God which said that Pelias should die by force\nor by stern counsels of the proud sons of Aiolos, and there had come\nto him a prophecy that froze his cunning heart, spoken at the central\nstone of tree-clad mother Earth, that by every means he should keep\nsafe guard against the man of one sandal, whensoever from a homestead\non the hills he shall have come to the sunny land of glorious Iolkos,\nwhether a stranger or a citizen he be.\n\nSo in the fulness of time he came, wielding two spears, a wondrous\nman; and the vesture that was upon him was twofold, the garb of the\nMagnetes' country close fitting to his splendid limbs, but above he\nwore a leopard-skin to turn the hissing showers; nor were the bright\nlocks of his hair shorn from him but over all his back ran rippling\ndown. Swiftly he went straight on, and took his stand, making trial of\nhis dauntless soul, in the marketplace when the multitude was full.\n\nHim they knew not; howbeit some one looking reverently on him would\nspeak on this wise: 'Not Apollo surely is this, nor yet Aphrodite's\nlord of the brazen car; yea and in glistening Naxos died ere now, they\nsay, the children of Iphimedeia, Otos and thou, bold king Ephialtes:\nmoreover Tityos was the quarry of Artemis' swift arrow sped from her\ninvincible quiver, warning men to touch only the loves within their\npower.'\n\nThey answering each to each thus talked; but thereon with headlong\nhaste of mules and polished car came Pelias; and he was astonied when\nhe gazed on the plain sign of the single sandal on the right foot. But\nhe dissembled his fear within his heart and said unto him, 'What land,\nO stranger, dost thou claim to be thy country, and who of earth-born\nmortals bare thee of her womb out of due time[10]? Tell me thy race\nand shame it not by hateful lies.'\n\nAnd him with gentle words the other answered undismayed, 'I say to\nthee that I bear with me the wisdom of Cheiron, for from Chariklo\nand Philyra I come, from the cave where the Centaur's pure daughters\nreared me up, and now have I fulfilled twenty years among them without\ndeceitful word or deed, and I am come home to seek the ancient honour\nof my father, held now in rule unlawful, which of old Zeus gave to\nthe chief Aiolos and his children. For I hear that Pelias yielding\nlawlessly to evil thoughts hath robbed it from my fathers whose right\nit was from the beginning; for they, when first I looked upon the\nlight, fearing the violence of an injurious lord, made counterfeit\nof a dark funeral in the house as though I were dead, and amid the\nwailing of women sent me forth secretly in purple swathing-bands, when\nnone but Night might know the way we went, and gave me to Cheiron the\nson of Kronos to be reared.\n\nBut of these things the chief ye know. Now therefore kind citizens\nshow me plainly the house of my fathers who drave white horses; for it\nshall hardly be said that a son of Aison, born in the land, is come\nhither to a strange and alien soil. And Jason was the name whereby the\ndivine Beast[11] spake to me.'\n\nThus he said, and when he had entered in, the eyes of his father knew\nhim; and from his aged eyelids gushed forth tears, for his soul was\nglad within him when he beheld his son, fairest of men and goodliest\naltogether.\n\nThen came to him both brothers, when they heard that Jason was come\nhome, Pheres from hard by, leaving the fountain Hypereis, and out of\nMessena Amythaon, and quickly came Admetos and Melampos to welcome\nhome their cousin. And at a common feast with gracious words Jason\nreceived them and made them friendly cheer, culling for five long\nnights and days the sacred flower of joyous life.\n\nBut on the sixth day he began grave speech, and set the whole matter\nbefore his kinsmen from the beginning, and they were of one mind with\nhim.\n\nThen quickly he rose up with them from their couches, and they came to\nPelias' hall, and they made haste and entered and stood within.\n\nAnd when he heard them the king himself came forth to them, even the\nson of Tyro of the lovely hair. Then Jason with gentle voice opened on\nhim the stream of his soft speech, and laid foundation of wise words:\n'Son of Poseidon of the Rock, too ready are the minds of mortal men to\nchoose a guileful gain rather than righteousness, howbeit they travel\never to a stern reckoning. But thee and me it behoveth to give law\nto our desires, and to devise weal for the time to come. Though\nthou knowest it yet will I tell thee, how that the same mother bare\nKretheus and rash Salmoneus, and in the third generation we again were\nbegotten and look upon the strength of the golden sun. Now if there\nbe enmity between kin, the Fates stand aloof and would fain hide the\nshame. Not with bronze-edged swords nor with javelins doth it beseem\nus twain to divide our forefathers' great honour, nor needeth it,\nfor lo! all sheep and tawny herds of kine I yield, and all the lands\nwhereon thou feedest them, the spoil of my sires wherewith thou makest\nfat thy wealth. That these things furnish forth thy house moveth me\nnot greatly; but for the kingly sceptre and throne whereon the son of\nKretheus sate of old and dealt justice to his chivalry, these without\nwrath between us yield to me, lest some new evil arise up therefrom.'\n\nThus he spake, and mildly also did Pelias make reply: 'I will be even\nas thou wilt, but now the sere of life alone remaineth to me, whereas\nthe flower of thy youth is but just burgeoning; thou art able to take\naway the sin that maketh the powers beneath the earth wroth with us:\nfor Phrixos biddeth us lay his ghost, and that we go to the house of\nAietes, and bring thence the thick-fleeced hide of the ram, whereby of\nold he was delivered from the deep and from the impious weapons of his\nstepmother. This message cometh to me in the voice of a strange dream:\nalso I have sent to ask of the oracle at Kastalia whether it be worth\nthe quest, and the oracle chargeth me straightway to send a ship on\nthe sacred mission. This deed do thou offer me to do, and I swear to\ngive thee up the sway and kingly rule. Let Zeus the ancestral god of\nthee and me be witness of my oath and stablish it surely in thine\neyes.'\n\nSo they made this covenant and parted; but Jason straightway bade\nheralds to make known everywhere that a sailing was toward. And\nquickly came three sons of Zeus, men unwearied in battle, whose\nmothers were Alkmene and Leto of the glancing eyes[12], and two\ntall-crested men of valour, children of the Earth-shaker, whose honour\nwas perfect as their might, from Pylos and from farthest Tainaros:\nhereby was the excellence of their fame established--even Euphemos'\nfame, and thine, wide-ruling Periklymenos. And at Apollo's bidding\ncame the minstrel father of song, Orpheus of fair renown.\n\nAnd Hermes of the golden staff sent two sons to the toilsome task,\nEchion and Eurytos in the joy of their youth; swiftly they came, even\nfrom their dwelling at the foot of Pangaios: and willingly and with\nglad heart their father Boreas, king of winds, harnessed Zetes and\nKala\u00efs, men both with bright wings shooting from their backs. For Hera\nkindled within those sons of gods the all-persuading sweet desire\nfor the ship Argo, that none should be left behind and stay by his\nmother's side in savourless and riskless life, but each, even were\ndeath the price, achieve in company with his peers a magic potency of\nhis valour.\n\nNow when that goodly crew were come to Iolkos, Jason mustered them\nwith thanks to each, and the seer Mopsos prophesied by omens and by\nsacred lots, and with good will sped the host on board.\n\nAnd when they had hung the anchors over the prow, then their chief\ntaking in his hands a golden goblet stood up upon the stern and called\non Zeus whose spear is the lightning, and on the rush of waves and\nwinds and the nights and paths of the deep, to speed them quickly\nover, and for days of cheer and friendly fortune of return. And from\nthe clouds a favourable voice of thunder pealed in answer; and there\ncame bright lightning flashes bursting through.\n\nThen the heroes took heart in obedience to the heavenly signs; and the\nseer bade them strike into the water with their oars, while he spake\nto them of happy hopes; and in their rapid hands the rowing sped\nuntiringly.\n\nAnd with breezes of the South they came wafted to the mouth of the\nAxine sea; there they founded a shrine and sacred close of Poseidon,\ngod of seas, where was a red herd of Thracian bulls, and a new-built\naltar of stone with hollow top[13].\n\nThen as they set forth toward an exceeding peril they prayed the lord\nof ships that they might shun the terrible shock of the clashing\nrocks: for they were twain that had life, and plunged along more\nswiftly than the legions of the bellowing winds; but that travel of\nthe seed of gods made end of them at last[14].\n\nAfter that they came to the Phasis; there they fought with dark-faced\nKolchians even in the presence of Aietes. And there the queen of\nkeenest darts, the Cyprus-born, first brought to men from Olympus the\nfrenzied bird, the speckled wry-neck[15], binding it to a four-spoked\nwheel without deliverance, and taught the son of Aison to be wise in\nprayers and charms, that he might make Medea take no thought to honour\nher parents, and longing for Hellas might drive her by persuasion's\nlash, her heart afire with love.\n\nThen speedily she showed him the accomplishment of the tasks her\nfather set, and mixing drugs with oil gave him for his anointment\nantidotes of cruel pain, and they vowed to be joined together in sweet\nwedlock.\n\nBut when Aietes had set in the midst a plough of adamant, and oxen\nthat from tawny jaws breathed flame of blazing fire, and with bronze\nhoofs smote the earth in alternate steps, and had led them and yoked\nthem single-handed, he marked out in a line straight furrows, and for\na fathom's length clave the back of the loamy earth; then he spake\nthus: 'This work let your king, whosoever he be that hath command\nof the ship, accomplish me, and then let him bear away with him the\nimperishable coverlet, the fleece glittering with tufts of gold.'\n\nHe said, and Jason flung off from him his saffron mantle, and putting\nhis trust in God betook himself to the work; and the fire made him not\nto shrink, for that he had had heed to the bidding of the stranger\nmaiden skilled in all pharmacy. So he drew to him the plough and\nmade fast by force the bulls' necks in the harness, and plunged the\nwounding goad into the bulk of their huge sides, and with manful\nstrain fulfilled the measure of his work. And a cry without speech\ncame from Aietes in his agony, at the marvel of the power he beheld.\n\nThen to the strong man his comrades stretched forth their hands, and\ncrowned him with green wreaths, and greeted him with gracious words.\nAnd thereupon the wondrous son[16] of Helios told him in what place\nthe knife of Phrixos had stretched the shining fell; yet he trusted\nthat this labour at least should never be accomplished by him. For it\nlay in a thick wood and grasped by a terrible dragon's jaws, and he in\nlength and thickness was larger than their ship of fifty oars, which\nthe iron's blows had welded.\n\nLong were it for me to go by the beaten track, for the time is nigh\nout, and I know a certain short path, and many others look to me for\nskill. The glaring speckled dragon, O Arkesilas, he slew by subtlety,\nand by her own aid he stole away Medea, the murderess of Pelias. And\nthey went down into the deep of Ocean and into the Red Sea, and to the\nLemnian race of husbandslaying wives; there also they had games and\nwrestled for a prize of vesture, and lay with the women of the land.\n\nAnd then it was that in a stranger womb, by night or day, the fateful\nseed was sown of the bright fortune of thy race. For there began the\ngenerations of Euphemos, which should be thenceforth without end. And\nin time mingling among the homes of Lakedaimonian men they made their\ndwelling in the isle that once was Kalliste[17]: and thence the son\nof Leto gave thy race the Libyan plain to till it and to do honour\ntherein to your gods, and to rule the divine city of golden-throned\nKyrene with devising of the counsels of truth.\n\nNow hearken to a wise saying even as the wisdom of Oedipus. If one\nwith sharp axe lop the boughs of a great oak and mar the glorious\nform, even in the perishing of the fruit thereof it yet giveth token\nof that it was; whether at the last it come even to the winter fire,\nor whether with upright pillars in a master's house it stand, to serve\ndrear service within alien walls, and the place thereof knoweth it no\nmore[18].\n\nBut thou art a physician most timely, and the god of healing maketh\nthy light burn brightly. A gentle hand must thou set to a festering\nwound. It is a small thing even for a slight man to shake a city, but\nto set it firm again in its place this is hard struggle indeed, unless\nwith sudden aid God guide the ruler's hand. For thee are prepared the\nthanks which these deeds win. Be strong to serve with all thy might\nKyrene's goodly destiny.\n\nAnd of Homer's words take this to ponder in thy heart: _Of a good\nmessenger_, he saith, _cometh great honour to every deed._ Even to the\nMuse is right messengership a gain. Now good cause have Kyrene and the\nglorious house of Battos to know the righteous mind of Demophilos. For\nhe was a boy with boys, yet in counsels an old man of a hundred years:\nand the evil tongue he robbeth of its loud voice, and hath learnt to\nabhor the insolent, neither will he make strife against the good, nor\ntarry when he hath a deed in hand. For a brief span hath opportunity\nfor men, but of him it is known surely when it cometh, and he waiteth\nthereon a servant but no slave.\n\nNow this they say is of all griefs the sorest, that one knowing good\nshould of necessity abide without lot therein. Yea thus doth Atlas\nstruggle now against the burden of the firmament, far from his native\nland and his possessions. Yet the Titans were set free by immortal\nZeus. As time runneth on the breeze abateth and there are shiftings of\nthe sails. And he hath hope that when he shall have endured to the end\nhis grievous plague he shall see once more his home, and at Apollo's\nfountain[19] joining in the feast give his soul to rejoice in her\nyouth, and amid citizens who love his art, playing on his carven lute,\nshall enter upon peace, hurting and hurt of none. Then shall he tell\nhow fair a fountain of immortal verse he made to flow for Arkesilas,\nwhen of late he was the guest of Thebes.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Libya. Epaphos was son of Zeus by Io.]\n\n[Footnote 2: This incident happened during the wanderings of the\nArgonauts on their return with the Golden Fleece from Kolchis to\nIolkos.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Thera.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Euphemos.]\n\n[Footnote 5: At Tainaros there was a cave supposed to be a mouth of\nHades.]\n\n[Footnote 6: Of Libya.]\n\n[Footnote 7: The purport of this is: If Euphemos had taken the clod\nsafely home to Tainaros in Lakonia, then his great-grandsons with\nemigrants from other Peloponnesian powers would have planted a colony\nin Libya. But since the clod had fallen into the sea and would be\nwashed up on the shore of the island of Thera, it was necessary that\nEuphemos' descendants should first colonize Thera, and then, but not\ntill the seventeenth generation, proceed, under Battos, to found the\ncolony of Kyrene in Libya.]\n\n[Footnote 8: Battos.]\n\n[Footnote 9: The priestess.]\n\n[Footnote 10: The epithet [Greek: polias] is impossible to explain\nsatisfactorily. It has been suggested to me by Professor S.H. Butcher,\nthat [Greek: chamaigenaes] may have been equivalent to [Greek:\ngaegenaes] and that Pelias may thus mean, half ironically, to imply\nthat Jason's stature, garb and mien, as well as his mysteriously\nsudden appearance, argue him a son of one of the ancient giants who\nhad been seen of old among men.]\n\n[Footnote 11: The Kentaur Cheiron.]\n\n[Footnote 12: I. e. one son of Zeus and Alkmene, Herakles, and two\nsons of Zeus and Leto, Kastor and Polydeukes.]\n\n[Footnote 13: For the blood of the victims.]\n\n[Footnote 14: The Symplegades having failed to crush the ship Argo\nbetween them were themselves destroyed by the shock of their encounter\nwith each other. Probably a tradition of icebergs survived in this\nstory.]\n\n[Footnote 15: Used as a love-charm.]\n\n[Footnote 16: Aietes.]\n\n[Footnote 17: Thera.]\n\n[Footnote 18: In this parable the oak is the state, the boughs its\nbest men, the fire and the alien house destruction and servitude.]\n\n[Footnote 19: The fountain Kyra in the heart of the city Kyrene.]\n\n\n\nV.\n\nFOR ARKESILAS OF KYRENE,\n\nWINNER IN THE CHARIOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis ode celebrates the same victory as the foregoing. It would seem\nthat the chariot had been consecrated to Apollo and left in the temple\nat Delphi, but the horses were brought home to Kyrene and led in\nprocession through the sacred street of Apollo, with their charioteer\nKarrhotos, brother of Arkesilas' wife.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWide-reaching is the power of wealth, whensoever a mortal man hath\nreceived it at the hands of Fate with pure virtue mingled, and\nbringeth it to his home, a follower that winneth him many friends.\nArkesilas, thou favourite of the gods, thou verily seekest after it\nwith good report from the first steps of thy glorious life, with aid\nof Kastor of the golden car, who after the wintry storm hath shed\nbright calm about thy happy hearth[1].\n\nNow the wise bear better the power that is given of God. And thou\nwalkest in righteousness amid thy prosperity which is now great;\nfirst, for that thou art king of mighty cities, thy inborn virtue\nhath brought this majestic honour to thy soul, and again thou art now\nblessed in that from the famous Pythian games thou hast won glory by\nthy steeds, and hast received this triumphal song of men, Apollo's\njoy.\n\nTherefore forget not, while at Kyrene round Aphrodite's pleasant\ngarden thy praise is sung, to set God above every other as the cause\nthereof: also love thou Karrhotos[2] chiefest of thy friends; who\nhath not brought with him Excuse the daughter of late-considering\nAfterthought back to the house of the just-ruling sons of Battos; but\nbeside the waters of Kastalia a welcomed guest he crowned thy hair\nwith the crown of the conquering car, for the reins were safe[3] in\nhis hands throughout the twelve swift turns along the sacred course.\n\nOf the strong harness brake he no whit: but there is hung up[4] all\nthat cunning work of the artificers that he brought with him when he\npassed over the Krisaian hill to the plain within the valley of the\ngod: therefore now the chamber of cypress-wood possesseth it, hard by\nthe statue which the bow-bearing Kretans dedicated in the Parnassian\nshrine, the natural image in one block[5]. Therefore with eager heart\nit behoveth thee to go forth to meet him who hath done thee this good\nservice.\n\nThee also, son[6] of Alexibios, the Charites of lovely hair make\nglorious. Blessed art thou for that after much toil thou hast a\nmonument of noble words. Among forty charioteers who fell[7] thou\ndidst with soul undaunted bring thy car unhurt, and hast now come back\nfrom the glorious games unto the plain of Libya and the city of thy\nsires.\n\nWithout lot in trouble hath there been never any yet, neither shall\nbe: yet still the ancient bliss of Battos followeth the race, albeit\nwith various fortune; a bulwark is it to the city, and to strangers a\nmost welcome light.\n\nFrom Battos even deep-voiced lions[8] fled in fear when he uttered\nbefore them a voice from overseas: for the captain and founder Apollo\ngave the beasts over to dire terror, that he might not be false to his\noracles which he had delivered to the ruler of Kyrene.\n\nApollo it is who imparteth unto men and women cures for sore maladies,\nand hath bestowed on them the lute, and giveth the Muse to whomsoever\nhe will, bringing into their hearts fair order of peace; and\ninhabiteth the secret place of his oracles; whereby at Lakedaimon and\nat Argos and at sacred Pylos he made to dwell the valiant sons of\nHerakles and Aigimios[9].\n\nFrom Sparta they say came my own dear famous race[10]: thence sprang\nthe sons of Aigeus who came to Thera, my ancestors, not without\nhelp of God; but a certain destiny brought thither a feast of much\nsacrifice[11], and thence receiving, O Apollo, thy Karneia we honour\nat the banquet the fair-built city of Kyrene, which the spear-loving\nstrangers haunt[12], the Trojan seed of Antenor. For with Helen they\ncame thither after they had seen their native city smoking in the\nfires of war.\n\nAnd now to that chivalrous race do the men whom Aristoteles[13]\nbrought, opening with swift ships a track through the deep sea, give\ngreeting piously, and draw nigh to them with sacrifice and gifts.\n\nHe also planted greater groves of gods, and made a paved road[14] cut\nstraight over the plain, to be smitten with horsehoofs in processions\nthat beseech Apollo's guardianship for men; and there at the end of\nthe market-place he lieth apart in death. Blessed was he while he\ndwelt among men, and since his death the people worship him as their\nhero.\n\nAnd apart from him before their palace lie other sacred kings that\nhave their lot with Hades; and even now perchance they hear, with\nsuch heed as remaineth to the dead, of this great deed sprinkled with\nkindly dew of outpoured song triumphal, whence have they bliss in\ncommon with their son Arkesilas unto whom it falleth due.\n\nHim it behoveth by the song of the young men to celebrate Phoibos of\nthe golden sword, seeing that from Pytho he hath won a recompense of\nhis cost in this glad strain of glorious victory.\n\nOf him the wise speak well: I but repeat their words saying that he\ncherisheth understanding above his years, that in eloquent speech and\nboldness he is as the wide-winged eagle among birds, and his strength\nin combat like a tower. And he hath wings to soar with the Muses,\nas his mother before him, and now hath he proved him a cunning\ncharioteer: and by all ways that lead to honour at home hath he\nadventured.\n\nAs now the favour of God perfecteth his might, so for the time to\ncome, blest children of Kronos, grant him to keep it in counsel and\nin deed, that never at any time the wintry blast of the late autumn\nwinds[15] sweep him away. Surely the mighty mind of Zeus guideth the\ndestiny of the men he loveth. I pray that to the seed of Battos he may\nat Olympia grant a like renown.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Kastor was not only a patron of charioteers, but also,\nwith his twin-brother Polydeukes, a protector of mariners and giver of\nfair weather.]\n\n[Footnote 2: The charioteer.]\n\n[Footnote 3: I. e. well-handled and un-broken in the sharp turns round\nthe goal.]\n\n[Footnote 4: I. e. in Apollo's temple at Delphi.]\n\n[Footnote 5: This would seem to have been a piece of wood growing\nnaturally in the form of a man.]\n\n[Footnote 6: Karrhotos.]\n\n[Footnote 7: This seems great havoc among the starters. Probably\nbesides the forty who fell there were others who were not actually\nupset but yet did not win. No doubt the race must have been run in\nheats, but these must still have been crowded enough to make the crush\nat the turns exceedingly dangerous.]\n\n[Footnote 8: Pausanias says that Battos, the founder of Kyrene, was\ndumb when he went to Africa, but that on suddenly meeting a lion the\nfright gave him utterance. According to Pindar the lions seem to have\nbeen still more alarmed, being startled by Battos' foreign accent.]\n\n[Footnote 9: The Dorians.]\n\n[Footnote 10: There were Aigidai at Sparta and Spartan colonies, of\nwhich Kyrene was one, and also at Thebes: to the latter branch of the\nfamily Pindar belonged.]\n\n[Footnote 11: The Karneia, a Dorian feast of which we hear often in\nhistory.]\n\n[Footnote 12: These Trojan refugees were supposed to have anciently\nsettled on the site where Kyrene was afterwards built. Battos (or\nAristoteles) and his new settlers honoured the dead Trojans as tutelar\nheroes of the spot.]\n\n[Footnote 13: Battos.]\n\n[Footnote 14: The sacred street of Apollo, along which the procession\nmoved which sang this ode. The pavement, and the tombs cut in the rock\non each side are still to be seen, or at least were in 1817, when the\nItalian traveller Della Cella visited the place. B\u00f6ckh quotes from\nhis Viaggio da Tripoli di Barberia alle frontiere occedentali dell'\nEgitto, p. 139: 'Oggi ho passeggiato in una delle strade (di Cirene)\nche serba ancora Papparenza di essere stata fra le pi\u00f9 cospicue. Non\nsolo \u00e8 tutta intagliata nel vivo sasso, ma a due lati \u00e8 fiancheggiata\nda lunga fila di tombe quadrate di dieci circa piedi di altezza, anch'\nesse tutte d'un pezzo scavate nella roccia.']\n\n[Footnote 15: I. e., probably, calamity in old age.]\n\n\n\nVI.\n\nFOR XENOKRATES OF AKRAGAS,\n\nWINNER IN THE CHARIOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis victory was won B.C. 494, when Pindar was twenty-eight years old,\nand the ode was probably written to be sung at Delphi immediately\non the event. Thus, next to the tenth Pythian, written eight years\nbefore, this is the earliest of Pindar's poems that remains to us.\n\nXenokrates was a son of Ainesidamos and brother of Theron. The second\nIsthmian is also in his honour.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHearken! for once more we plough the field[1] of Aphrodite of the\nglancing eyes, or of the Graces call it if you will, in this our\npilgrimage to the everlasting centre-stone of deep-murmuring[2] earth.\n\nFor there for the blissful Emmenidai, and for Akragas by the\nriverside, and chiefliest for Xenokrates, is builded a ready treasure\nof song within the valley of Apollo rich in golden gifts.\n\nThat treasure of his shall neither wind nor wintry rain-storm coming\nfrom strange lands, as a fierce host born of the thunderous cloud,\ncarry into the hiding places of the sea, to be beaten by the\nall-sweeping drift:\n\nBut in clear light its front shall give tidings of a victory won\nin Krisa's dells, glorious in the speech of men to thy father\nThrasyboulos, and to all his kin with him.\n\nThou verily in that thou settest him ever at thy right hand cherishest\nthe charge which once upon the mountains they say the son[3] of\nPhilyra gave to him of exceeding might, even to the son of Peleas,\nwhen he had lost his sire: first that of all gods he most reverence\nKronos' son, the deep-voiced lord of lightnings and of thunders, and\nthen that he never rob of like honour a parent's spell of life.\n\nAlso of old time had mighty Antilochos this mind within him, who died\nfor his father's sake, when he abode the murderous onset of Memnon,\nthe leader of the Ethiop hosts.\n\nFor Nestor's chariot was stayed by a horse that was stricken of the\narrows of Paris, and Memnon made at him with his mighty spear. Then\nthe heart of the old man of Messene was troubled, and he cried unto\nhis son; nor wasted he his words in vain; in his place stood up the\ngodlike man and bought his father's flight by his own death. So by the\nyoung men of that ancient time he was deemed to have wrought a mighty\ndeed, and in succouring of parents to be supreme.\n\nThese things are of the past; but of men that now are Thrasyboulos\nhath come nearest to our fathers' gauge. And following his uncle also\nhe hath made glory to appear for him; and with wisdom doth he handle\nwealth, neither gathereth the fruit of an unrighteous or overweening\nyouth, but rather of knowledge amid the secret places of the Pierides.\nAnd to thee, Earthshaker, who didst devise ventures of steeds, with\nright glad heart he draweth nigh. Sweet is his spirit toward the\ncompany of his guests, yea sweeter than the honeycomb, the toil of\nbees.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: The field of poesy.]\n\n[Footnote 2: An epithet appropriate to volcanic soils.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Cheiron.]\n\n\n\nVII.\n\nFOR MEGAKLES OF ATHENS,\n\nWINNER IN THE FOUR-HORSE CHARIOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMegakles won this victory B.C. 490, the year of the battle of\nMarathon. He was a member of the great house of the Alkmaionidai, to\nwhich Kleisthenes and Perikles belonged. Megakles was a frequent name\nin the family: this Megakles was probably the nephew, possibly the\nson, of Kleisthenes.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFairest of preludes is the great name of Athens to whosoever will lay\nfoundation of songs for the mighty race of Alkmaionidai and for their\nsteeds. What country, what house among all lands shall I name more\nglorious throughout Hellas?\n\nFor unto all cities is the fame familiar of the citizens of\nErechtheus, who at divine Pytho have wrought thee, O Apollo, a\nglorious house[1].\n\nAnd I hereto am led by victories, at Isthmos five, and one\npre-eminent, won at Olympia at the feast of Zeus, and two at Kirrha,\nwhich thou, O Megakles, and thy sire have won.\n\nNow at this new good fortune I rejoice; yet somewhat also I grieve,\neven to behold how envy requiteth noble deeds[2]. Yet thus ever, they\nsay, must fair hap abiding with a man engender bad with good.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: The Alkmainodai had lately been spending large sums on\nthe rebuilding of Apollo's temple at Delphi.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Megakles was twice ostracized.]\n\n\n\nVIII.\n\nFOR ARISTOMENES OF AIGINA,\n\nWINNER IN THE WRESTLING-MATCH.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe precise date of this ode is uncertain, but there is strong\ninternal evidence of its having been written soon after the battle of\nSalamis, after which, as is well known, the [Greek: aristeia] or first\nhonours for valour, were awarded to Aigina. The insolence of the\nbarbarian despot seems to be symbolized by that of the giants Typhon\nand Porphyrion.\n\nThe ode was apparently to be sung on the winner's return to Aigina. No\nless than eleven of the extant odes were written for winners from that\nisland.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nO kindly Peace, daughter of Righteousness, thou that makest cities\ngreat, and boldest the supreme keys of counsels and of wars, welcome\nthou this honour to Aristomenes, won in the Pythian games.\n\nThou knowest how alike to give and take gentleness in due season: thou\nalso, if any have moved thy heart unto relentless wrath, dost terribly\nconfront the enemy's might, and sinkest Insolence in the sea.\n\nThus did Porphyrion provoke thee unaware. Now precious is the gain\nthat one beareth away from the house of a willing giver. But violence\nshall ruin a man at the last, boast he never so loudly. He of Kilikia,\nTyphon of the hundred heads, escaped not this, neither yet the king of\ngiants[1]: but by the thunderbolt they fell and by the bow of Apollo,\nwho with kind intent hath welcomed Xenarches home from Kirrha, crowned\nwith Parnassian wreaths and Dorian song.\n\nNot far from the Graces' ken falleth the lot of this righteous\nisland-commonwealth, that hath attained unto the glorious deeds of the\nsons of Aiakos[2]: from the beginning is her fame perfect, for she is\nsung of as the nurse of heroes foremost in many games and in violent\nfights: and in her mortal men also is she pre-eminent.\n\nBut my time faileth me to offer her all I might tell at length by lute\nand softer voice of man, so that satiety vex not.\n\nSo let that which lieth in my path, my debt to thee, O boy, the\nyoungest of thy country's glories, run on apace, winged by my art.\n\nFor in wrestlings thou art following the footsteps of thy uncles, and\nshamest neither Theognetos at Olympia, nor the victory that at Isthmos\nwas won by Kleitomachos' stalwart limbs.\n\nAnd in that thou makest great the clan of the Midylidai thou attainest\nunto the very praise which on a time the son of Oikleus spake in\na riddle, when he saw at seven-gated Thebes the sons of the Seven\nstanding to their spears, what time from Argos came the second race on\ntheir new enterprise[3]. Thus spake he while they fought: 'By nature,\nson, the noble temper of thy sires shineth forth in thee. I see\nclearly the speckled dragon that Alkmaion weareth on his bright\nshield, foremost at the Kadmean gates.\n\nAnd he who in the former fight fared ill, hero Adrastos, is now\nendowed with tidings of a better omen. Yet in his own house his\nfortune shall be contrariwise: for he alone of all the Danaan host,\nafter that he shall have gathered up the bones of his dead son, shall\nby favour of the gods come back with unharmed folk to the wide streets\nof Abas[4].'\n\nOn this wise spake Amphiaraos. Yea and with joy I too myself throw\ngarlands on Alkmaion's grave, and shower it withal with songs, for\nthat being my neighbour and guardian of my possessions[5] he met me as\nI went up to the earth's centre-stone, renowned in song, and showed\nforth the gift of prophecy which belongeth unto his house[6].\n\nBut thou, far-darter, ruler of the glorious temple whereto all men go\nup, amid the glens of Pytho didst there grant this the greatest of\njoys: and at home before didst thou bring to him at the season of thy\nfeast the keen-sought prize of the pentathlon. My king, with willing\nheart I make avowal that through thee is harmony before mine eyes in\nall that I sing of every conqueror.\n\nBy the side of our sweet-voiced song of triumph hath Righteousness\ntaken her stand, and I pray, O Xenarches[7], that the favour of God be\nunfailing toward the fortune of thee and thine. For if one hath good\nthings to his lot without long toil, to many he seemeth therefore to\nbe wise among fools and to be crowning his life by right devising of\nthe means. But these things lie not with men: it is God that ordereth\nthem, who setteth up one and putteth down another, so that he is bound\nbeneath the hands of the adversary.\n\nNow at Megara also hast thou won a prize, and in secluded Marathon,\nand in the games of Hera in thine own land, three times, Aristomenes,\nhast thou overcome.\n\nAnd now on the bodies of four others[8] hast thou hurled thyself with\nfierce intent, to whom the Pythian feast might not award, as unto\nthee, the glad return, nor the sweet smile that welcometh thee to thy\nmother's side; nay but by secret ways they shrink from meeting their\nenemies, stricken down by their evil hap.\n\nNow he that hath lately won glory in the time of his sweet youth is\nlifted on the wings of his strong hope and soaring valour, for his\nthoughts are above riches.\n\nIn a little moment groweth up the delight of men; yea and in like sort\nfalleth it to the ground, when a doom adverse hath shaken it.\n\nThings of a day--what are we, and what not? Man is a dream of shadows.\n\nNevertheless when a glory from God hath shined on them, a clear light\nabideth upon men, and serene life.\n\nAigina[9], mother dear, this city in her march among the free, with\nZeus and lordly Aiakos, with Peleus and valiant Telamon and with\nAchilles, guard thou well.\n\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Porphyrion.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Aiakos and his descendants, especially Aias, were the\nchief national heroes of Aigina.]\n\n[Footnote 3: It seems doubtful what this legend exactly was. Either\nAmphiaraos, during the attack of the first Seven against Thebes,\nsaw by prophetic vision the future battle of the second Seven, the\nEpigonoi, among whom were his own son Alkmaion, and Adrastos, the sole\nsurvivor of the first Seven; or else these are the words of his oracle\nafter his death, spoken when the battle of the Epigonoi had begun but\nwas not yet ended.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Abas was an ancient king of Argos.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Probably there was a shrine of Alkmaion near Pindar's\nhouse at Thebes, so that he considered his household to be under the\nhero's protection: perhaps he had deposited money in the shrine, for\ntemples were often used as treasuries.]\n\n[Footnote 6: Probably in some vision seen by Pindar on his journey to\nDelphi.]\n\n[Footnote 7: Father of Aristomenes.]\n\n[Footnote 8: His competitors in four ties of the wrestling-match.]\n\n[Footnote 9: The nymph, protectress of the island.]\n\n\n\nIX.\n\nFOR TELESIKRATES OF KYRENE,\n\nWINNER OF THE FOOT-RACE IN FULL ARMOUR.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe Hellenic heavy-armed soldier was often called upon to advance at a\nrun, as for instance in the charge at Marathon. With a view no doubt\nto such occasions this race in full armour had been instituted at\nPytho in 498, and in 478 it was won by Telesikrates. The ode was\nprobably sung in a procession at Thebes, before Telesikrates had gone\nback to Kyrene, but the legends related are mainly connected with\nKyrene. Probably the commentators are right in supposing\nthat Telesikrates was to take home with him a bride from the\nmother-country, a fact which makes the legends told specially\nappropriate.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI have desire to proclaim with aid of the deep-vested Graces a victory\nat Pytho of Telesikrates bearing the shield of bronze, and to speak\naloud his name, for his fair fortune and the glory wherewith he hath\ncrowned Kyrene, city of charioteers.\n\nKyrene[1] once from Pelion's wind-echoing dells Leto's son, the\nflowing-haired, caught up and in a golden car bore away the\nhuntress-maiden to the place where he made her queen of a land rich in\nflocks, yea richest of all lands in the fruits of the field, that her\nhome might be the third part[2] of the mainland of earth, a stock that\nshould bear lovely bloom. And silver-foot Aphrodite awaited the Delian\nstranger issuing from his car divine, and lightly laid on him her\nhand: then over their sweet bridal-bed she cast the loveliness of\nmaiden shame, and in a common wedlock joined the god and the daughter\nof wide-ruling Hypseus, who then was king of the haughty Lapithai,\na hero whose father's father was the Ocean-god--for amid the famous\nmountain-dells of Pindos the Naiad Kre\u00fcsa bare him after she had\ndelight in the bed of Peneus, Kre\u00fcsa, daughter of Earth.\n\nNow the child he reared was Kyrene of the lovely arms: She was not one\nwho loved the pacings to and fro before the loom, neither the delights\nof feastings with her fellows within the house, but with bronze\njavelins and a sword she fought against and slew wild beasts of prey;\nyea and much peace and sure she gave thereby to her father's herds,\nbut for sleep, the sharer of her bed, short spent she it and sweet,\ndescending on her eyelids as the dawn drew near.\n\nOnce as she struggled alone, without spear, with a terrible lion, he\nof the wide quiver, far-darting Apollo, found her: and straightway he\ncalled Cheiron from his hall and spake to him aloud: 'Son of Philyra,\ncome forth from thy holy cave, and behold and wonder at the spirit of\nthis woman, and her great might, what strife she wageth here with soul\nundaunted, a girl with heart too high for toil to quell; for her mind\nshaketh not in the storm of fear. What man begat her? From what tribe\nwas she torn to dwell in the secret places of the shadowing hills? She\nhath assayed a struggle unachievable. Is it lawful openly to put forth\nmy hand to her, or rather on a bridal-bed pluck the sweet flower?'\n\nTo him the Centaur bold with a frank smile on his mild brow made\nanswer straightway of his wisdom: 'Secret are wise Lovecraft's keys\nunto love's sanctities, O Phoibos, and among gods and men alike all\ndeem this shame, to have pleasure of marriage at the first openly. Now\neven thee, who mayest have no part in lies, thy soft desire hath led\nto dissemble in this thy speech.\n\nThe maiden's lineage dost thou, O king, enquire of me--thou who\nknowest the certain end of all things, and all ways? How many leaves\nthe earth sendeth forth in spring, how many grains of sand in sea and\nriver are rolled by waves and the winds' stress, what shall come to\npass, and whence it shall be, thou discernest perfectly. But if even\nagainst wisdom I must match myself, I will speak on. To wed this\ndamsel camest thou unto this glen, and thou art destined to bear her\nbeyond the sea to a chosen garden of Zeus, where thou shalt make her a\ncity's queen, when thou hast gathered together an island-people to\na hill in the plain's midst. And now shall queenly Libya of broad\nmeadow-lands well-pleased receive for thee within a golden house thy\nglorious bride, and there make gift to her of a portion in the land,\nto be an inhabiter thereof with herself, neither shall it be lacking\nin tribute of plants bearing fruit after all kinds, neither a stranger\nto the beasts of chase. There shall she bring forth a son, whom\nglorious Hermes taking up from his mother's arms shall bear to the\nfair-throned Hours and to Earth: and they shall set the babe upon\ntheir knees, and nectar and ambrosia they shall distil upon his lips,\nand shall make him as an immortal, a Zeus or a holy Apollo, to men\nbeloved of him a very present help, a tutelar of flocks, and to some\nAgreus and Nomios; but to others Aristaios shall be his name.'\n\nBy these words he made him ready for the bridal's sweet fulfilment.\nAnd swift the act and short the ways of gods who are eager to an end.\nThat same day made accomplishment of the matter, and in a golden\nchamber of Libya they lay together; where now she haunteth a city\nexcellent in beauty and glorious in the games.\n\nAnd now at sacred Pytho hath the son of Karneadas wedded that city\nto the fair flower of good luck: for by his victory there he hath\nproclaimed Kyrene's name, even her's who shall receive him with glad\nwelcome home, to the country of fair women bringing precious honour\nout of Delphi.\n\nGreat merits stir to many words: yet to be brief and skilful on\nlong themes is a good hearing for bards: for fitness of times is in\neverything alike of chief import.\n\nThat Iolaos had respect thereto[3] seven-gated Thebes knoweth well,\nfor when he had stricken down the head of Eurystheus beneath the edge\nof the sword, she buried the slayer beneath the earth in the tomb of\nAmphitryon the charioteer, where his father's father was laid, a guest\nof the Spartoi, who had left his home to dwell among the streets of\nthe sons of Kadmos who drave white horses. To him and to Zeus at once\ndid wise Alkmene bear the strength of twin sons prevailing in battle.\n\nDull is that man who lendeth not his voice to Herakles, nor hath in\nremembrance continually the waters of Dirke that nurtured him and\nIphikles. To them will I raise a song of triumph for that I have\nreceived good at their hands, after that I had prayed to them that the\npure light of the voiceful Graces might not forsake me. For at Aigma\nand on the hill of Nisos twice ere now I say that I have sung Kyrene's\npraise, and by my act have shunned the reproach of helpless dumbness.\n\nWherefore if any of the citizens be our friend, yea even if he be\nagainst us, let him not seek to hide the thing that hath been well\ndone in the common cause, and so despise the word of the old god of\nthe sea[4]. He biddeth one give praise with the whole heart to noble\ndeeds, yea even to an enemy, so be it that justice be on his side.\n\nFull many times at the yearly feast of Pallas have the maidens seen\nthee winner, and silently they prayed each for herself that such an\none as thou, O Telesikrates, might be her beloved husband or her son;\nand thus also was it at the games of Olympia and of ample-bosomed\nEarth[5], and at all in thine own land.\n\nMe anywise to slake my thirst for song the ancient glory of thy\nforefathers summoneth to pay its due and rouse it yet again--to tell\nhow that for love of a Libyan woman there went up suitors to the city\nof Irasa to woo Antaios' lovely-haired daughter of great renown; whom\nmany chiefs of men, her kinsmen, sought to wed, and many strangers\nalso; for the beauty of her was marvellous, and they were fain to cull\nthe fruit whereto her gold-crowned youth had bloomed.\n\nBut her father gained for his daughter a marriage more glorious still.\nNow he had heard how sometime Danaos at Argos devised for his forty\nand eight maiden daughters, ere mid-day was upon them, a wedding\nof utmost speed--for he straightway set the whole company at the\nrace-course end, and bade determine by a foot-race which maiden each\nhero should have, of all the suitors that had come.\n\nEven on this wise gave the Libyan a bridegroom to his daughter, and\njoined the twain. At the line he set the damsel, having arrayed her\nsplendidly, to be the goal and prize, and proclaimed in the midst that\nhe should lead her thence to be his bride who, dashing to the front,\nshould first touch the robes she wore.\n\nThereon Alexidamos, when that he had sped through the swift course,\ntook by her hand the noble maiden, and led her through the troops of\nNomad horsemen. Many the leaves and wreaths they showered on him; yea\nand of former days many plumes of victories had he won.\n\n\n\n[Footnote 1: A Thessalian maiden, from whom, according to this legend,\nthe colony of Kyrene in Africa took its name.]\n\n[Footnote 2: I. e. Libya, the continent which we now call Africa.]\n\n[Footnote 3: I. e. by seizing the moment left to him before it should\nbe too late to act. Thebes and Kyrene were connected by the fact that\nmembers of the Aigid family lived at both places.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Nereus. Powers of divination and wisdom generally are\noften attributed to sea-deities.]\n\n[Footnote 5: I. e. at Delphi or Pytho. As being the supposed centre of\nthe Earth it was the place of the worship of the Earth-goddess.]\n\n\n\nX.\n\nFOR HIPPOKLEAS OF THESSALY,\n\nWINNER IN THE TWO-STADION FOOT-RACE OF BOYS.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe only reason we know for the digression about Perseus which\noccupies great part of this ode seems to be that Thorax, who engaged\nPindar to write it for Hippokleas, and perhaps Hippokleas himself,\nbelonged to the family of the Aleuadai, who were descended through\nHerakles from Perseus.\n\nThis ode is the earliest entire poem of Pindar's which survives. He\nwrote it when he was twenty years old. The simplicity of the style and\nmanner of composition are significant of this. But there can scarcely\nbe said to be traces here of Pindar's early tendency in dealing with\nmythological allusions to 'sow not with the hand but with the whole\nsack,' which Korinna advised him to correct, and which is conspicuous\nin a fragment remaining to us of one of his Hymns.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHappy is Lakedaimon, blessed is Thessaly: in both there reigneth a\nrace sprung from one sire, from Herakles bravest in the fight. What\nvaunt is this unseasonable? Nay, now, but Pytho calleth me, and\nPelinnaion[1], and the sons of Aleuas who would fain lead forth the\nloud voices of a choir of men in honour of Hippokleas.\n\nFor now hath he tasted the joy of games, and to the host of the\ndwellers round about hath the valley beneath Parnassos proclaimed him\nbest among the boys who ran the double race[2].\n\nO Apollo, sweet is the end when men attain thereto, and the beginning\navailed more when it is speeded of a god. Surely of thy devising were\nhis deeds: and this his inborn valour hath trodden in the footsteps\nof his father twice victor at Olympia in panoply of war-affronting\narms[3]: moreover the games in the deep meadow beneath Kirrha's cliff\ngave victory to the fleet feet of Phrikias[4].\n\nMay good luck follow them, so that even in after days the splendour of\ntheir wealth shall bloom. Of the pleasant things of Hellas they\nhave no scanty portion to their lot; may they happen on no envious\nrepentings of the gods. A god's heart, it may be, is painless ever;\nbut happy and a theme of poet's song is that man who for his valiance\nof hands or feet the chiefest prizes hath by strength and courage won,\nand in his life-time seen his young son by good hap attaining to the\nPythian crown. Never indeed shall he climb the brazen heaven, but\nwhatsoever splendours we of mortal race may reach, through such he\nhath free course even to the utmost harbourage. But neither by taking\nship, neither by any travel on foot, to the Hyperborean folk shalt\nthou find the wondrous way.\n\nYet of old the chieftain Perseus entered into their houses and feasted\namong them, when that he had lighted on them as they were sacrificing\nample hecatombs of asses to their god. For ever in their feasts and\nhymns hath Apollo especial joy, and laugheth to see the braying ramp\nof the strange beasts. Nor is the Muse a stranger to their lives, but\neverywhere are stirring to and fro dances of maidens and shrill noise\nof pipes: and binding golden bay-leaves in their hair they make them\nmerry cheer. Nor pestilence nor wasting eld approach that hallowed\nrace: they toil not neither do they fight, and dwell unharmed of cruel\nNemesis.\n\nIn the eagerness of his valiant heart went of old the son of Dana\u00eb,\nfor that Athene led him on his way, unto the company of that blessed\nfolk. Also he slew the Gorgon and bare home her head with serpent\ntresses decked, to the island folk a stony death. I ween there is no\nmarvel impossible if gods have wrought thereto.\n\nLet go the oar, and quickly drive into the earth an anchor from the\nprow, to save us from the rocky reef, for the glory of my song of\npraise flitteth like a honey-bee from tale to tale.\n\nI have hope that when the folk of Ephyra pour forth my sweet strains\nby Peneus' side, yet more glorious shall I make their Hippokleas for\nhis crowns and by my songs among his fellows and his elders, and I\nwill make him possess the minds of the young maidens.\n\nFor various longings stir secretly the minds of various men; yet each\nif he attain to the thing he striveth for will hold his eager desire\nfor the time present to him, but what a year shall bring forth, none\nshall foreknow by any sign.\n\nMy trust is in the kindly courtesy of my host Thorax, of him who to\nspeed my fortune hath yoked this four-horse car of the Pierides, as\nfriend for friend, and willing guide for guide.\n\nAs gold to him that trieth it by a touch-stone, so is a true soul\nknown.\n\nHis noble brethren also will we praise, for that they exalt and make\ngreat the Thessalians' commonwealth. For in the hands of good men\nlieth the good piloting of the cities wherein their fathers ruled.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Hippokleas' birth-place.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Down the stadion (220 yards) and back.]\n\n[Footnote 3: I. e. in the race run in full armour, like that at Pytho\nwhich Telesikrates, of Kyrene won, celebrated in the fore-going ode.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Probably a horse with which Hippokleas' father won a race\nat Pytho.]\n\n\n\nXI.\n\nFOR THRASYDAIOS OF THEBES,\n\nWINNER IN THE BOYS' SHORT FOOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe date of this victory was B.C. 478, nearly two years after the\nbattle of Plataea, and the deliverance of Thebes from Persian\ninfluence and the sway of a tyrannous oligarchy. But beyond this we\nhave nothing certain to which we can refer the allusions to Theban\naffairs, public and private, which we have reason to think present in\nthe ode.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nDaughters of Kadmos, thou Semele whose goings are with the queens of\nOlympus, and thou Ino Leukothea who housest with the Nereids of the\nsea, come ye up with the mother[1] of a mighty son, even of Herakles,\nunto the temple of M[)e]lia[2] and into the holy place of the golden\ntripods, which beyond all others Loxias hath honoured, and named it\nthe shrine Ismenian, a truthful seat of seers; where now, O children\nof Harmonia, he calleth the whole heroic sisterhood of the soil to\nassemble themselves together, that of holy Themis and of Pytho and\nthe Earth-navel of just judgments ye may sing at early evening, doing\nhonour to seven-gated Thebes, and to the games at Kirrha, wherein\nThrasydaios hath made his father's house glorious by casting thereon a\nthird wreath for his victory in the rich cornlands[3] of Pylades, who\nwas the host of Lakonian Orestes.\n\nOrestes, on the murder of his father, Arsino\u00eb his nurse saved from the\nviolent hands of Klytaimnestra and out of the ruinous treason, what\ntime the daughter of Dardanid Priam, Kassandra, was by the glittering\nbronze in company with Agamemnon's soul sped to the shadowy shore of\nAcheron by the woman who had no pity.\n\nDid then the slaughter of Iphigenia far from her own land on Euripos'\nshore so sting her mother to the arousal of a wrath of grievous act?\nOr had nocturnal loves misguided her, in thraldom to a paramour's\nembrace? a sin in new-wed brides most hateful, and that cannot be\nhidden for the talk of stranger tongues: for the citizens repeat the\nshame. For prosperity must sustain an envy equalling itself: but\nconcerning the man of low place the rumour is obscure.\n\nThus died the hero himself[4], the son of Atreus, when after long\ntime he came unto famous Amyklai, and drew down with him to death the\nmaiden prophetess[5], after that he consumed with fire the Trojans'\nhabitations of softness.\n\nAnd thus Orestes, in the tenderness of his youth, came and was the\nguest of the old man Strophios, who dwelt at the foot of Parnassos:\nbut with long-tarrying sword he slew his mother, and left Aigisthos'\nbody in its blood.\n\nVerily, my friends, by triple roads of interchanging ways I have wound\nabout, though heretofore I had kept on a straight track. Or hath some\nwind blown me out of my course, as when it bloweth a boat upon the\nsea? But thine it is, my Muse, since thou for reward didst promise the\nloan thereof, to raise thy voice for silver now on this tale, now\non that, so that for this time at least it is on behalf either of\nThrasydaios or of his sire who conquered at Pytho: for of both are the\njoy and glory burning lights.\n\nOf old for victories in the chariot-race they had bright glory at\nOlympia in the famous games for the swiftness of their steeds: and now\nhave they gone down among the naked runners in the stadion, and have\nput to rebuke the host of the Hellenes by their speed.\n\nGod grant me to desire things honourable, seeking things possible in\nmy life's prime.\n\nThe middle course I find to prosper most enduringly in the\ncommonwealth, and a state of tyranny I condemn. On well-doing for the\ncommon good[6] I bestow my pains: so are the envious baffled, if one\nhath excelled in such acts to the uttermost, and bearing it modestly\nhath shunned the perilous reproach of insolence: so also at the end\nshall he find black death more gracious unto him, to his dear children\nleaving the best of possessions, even the glory of an honourable name.\n\nThis it is that beareth abroad the name of Iolaos in song, and the\nnames of the mighty Kastor and of thee, king Polydeukes, ye sons of\ngods, who one day in Therapnai and the next in Olympus have your\ndwelling-place.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Alkmene.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Mother of Ismenios and Teucros, by Apollo.]\n\n[Footnote 3: In Phokis.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Agamemnon. It is a strange variety of the tale that he\nis spoken of as having been murdered at Amyklai and not at Argos or\nMykenai. So above Orestes is called Lakonian.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Kassandra.]\n\n[Footnote 6: (Not for a party.)]\n\n\n\nXII.\n\nFOR MIDAS OF AKRAGAS,\n\nWINNER IN THE FLUTE-PLAYING MATCH.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis is an early ode: the victory was won either in 494 or 450. It\nwas to be sung, it would seem, at Akragas, and very probably in a\nprocession to the shrine of the tutelar divinity of the city, with an\naddress to whom it seemingly begins, though it is difficult to say\nwhat degree of personification is intended.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI pray thee, lover of splendour, most beautiful among the cities of\nmen, haunt of Persephone, thou who by the banks of Akragas' stream\nthat nourisheth thy flocks, inhabitest a citadel builded pleasantly--O\nqueen, graciously and with goodwill of gods and men welcome this crown\nthat is come forth from Pytho for Midas' fair renown; and him too\nwelcome therewithal who hath overcome all Hellas in the art which once\non a time Pallas Athene devised, when she made music of the fierce\nGorgon's death-lament.\n\nThat heard she pouring from the maiden heads and heads of serpents\nunapproachable amidst the anguish of their pains, when Perseus had\nstricken the third sister, and to the isle Seriphos and its folk bare\nthence their doom.\n\nYea also he struck with blindness the wondrous brood of Phorkos[1],\nand to Polydektes' bridal brought a grievous gift, and grievous\neternally he made for that man his mother's slavery and ravished bed:\nfor this he won the fair-faced Medusa's head, he who was the son of\nDana\u00eb, and sprung, they say, from a living stream of gold.\n\nBut the Maiden[2], when that she had delivered her well-beloved from\nthese toils, contrived the manifold music of the flute, that with such\ninstrument she might repeat the shrill lament that reached her from\nEuryale's[3] ravening jaws.\n\nA goddess was the deviser thereof, but having created it for\na possession of mortal men, she named that air she played the\nmany-headed[4] air, that speaketh gloriously of folk-stirring games,\nas it issueth through the thin-beat bronze and the reeds which grow by\nthe Graces' city of goodly dancing-ground in the precinct of Kephisos'\nnymph, the dancers' faithful witnesses.\n\nBut if there be any bliss among mortal men, without labour it is not\nmade manifest: it may be that God will accomplish it even to-day, yet\nthe thing ordained is not avoidable: yea, there shall be a time that\nshall lay hold on a man unaware, and shall give him one thing beyond\nhis hope, but another it shall bestow not yet.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: The three Grey Sisters, whose one common eye Perseus\nstole,\n\n  [Greek: daenaiai korai\n  treis kyknomorphoi koinon omm' ektaemenai\n  monodontes, has outh' haelios prosderketai\n  aktisin, outh' hae nukteros maenae pote.]\n\nAesch. Prom. 813.\n\nThis must mean some kind of twilight, not total darkness, or they\ncould hardly have missed their eye.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Athene.]\n\n[Footnote 3: One of the Gorgons.]\n\n[Footnote 4: A certain [Greek: nomos aulaetikos] was known by this\nname.]\n\n\n\nTHE NEMEAN ODES.\n\nI.\n\nFOR CHROMIOS OF AITNA,\n\nWINNER IN THE CHARIOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis Chromios was a son of Agesidamos and brother-in-law of Hieron,\nand the same man for whom the ninth Nemean was written. He had become\na citizen of Hieron's new city of Aitna, and won this victory B.C.\n473.\n\nThis ode seems to have been sung before his house in Ortygia, a\npeninsula on which part of Syracuse was built, and in which was the\nfountain Arethusa. The legend of Arethusa and Alpheos explains the\nepithets of Ortygia with which the ode opens. The greater part of the\node is occupied with the story of Herakles, perhaps because Chromios\nwas of the Hyllean tribe and thus traced his descent to Herakles.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nO resting-place august of Alpheos, Ortygia, scion of famous Syracuse,\nthou that art a couch of Artemis and a sister of Delos[1], from thee\ngoeth forth a song of sweet words, to set forth the great glory of\nwhirlwind-footed steeds in honour of Aitnaian Zeus.\n\nFor now the car of Chromios, and Nemea, stir me to yoke to his\nvictorious deeds the melody of a triumphal song. And thus by that\nman's heaven-sped might I lay my foundations in the praise of gods. In\ngood fortune men speak well of one altogether: and of great games the\nMuse is fain to tell.\n\nSow then some seed of splendid words in honour of this isle, which\nZeus, the lord of Olympus, gave unto Persephone, and bowed his hair\ntoward her in sign that this teeming Sicily he would exalt to be the\nbest land in the fruitful earth, with gorgeous crown of citadels. And\nthe son of Kronos gave unto her a people that wooeth mailed war, a\npeople of the horse and of the spear, and knowing well the touch of\nOlympia's golden olive-leaves. Thus shoot I arrows many, and without\nfalsehood I have hit the mark.\n\nAnd now at the doors of the hall of a hospitable man I stand to sing\na goodly song, where is prepared for me a friendly feast, and not\nunwonted in that house are frequent stranger-guests: thus hath he\nfound good friends to pour a quenching flood on the mouldering fire of\nreproach.\n\nEach hath his several art: but in straight paths it behoveth him to\nwalk, and to strive hard wherein his nature setteth him. Thus worketh\nstrength in act, and mind in counsels, when one is born to foresee\nwhat shall come after. In thy nature, son of Agesidamos, are uses both\nfor this and that.\n\nI love not to keep hidden in my house great wealth, but to have joy of\nthat I have, and to have repute of liberality to my friends: for the\nhopes of much-labouring men seem to me even as mine.\n\nNow I to Herakles cleave right willingly, among high deeds of valour\nrousing an ancient tale; how that when from his mother's womb the son\nof Zeus escaping the birth-pang came quickly into the glorious light\nwith his twin-brother, not unobserved of Hera did he put on the\nsaffron swaddling bands; but the queen of gods in the kindling of her\nanger sent presently the two snakes, and they when the doors were\nopened went right on into the wide bedchamber, hasting to entwine the\nchildren, that they should be a prey to their fierce teeth.\n\nBut the boy lifted up his head upright and was first to essay the\nfight, seizing with inevitable grasp of both his hands the two\nserpents by the necks, and time, as he strangled them, forced the\nbreath out of their monstrous forms.\n\nBut a shock unendurable startled the women about Alkmene's bed, yea\nand herself too started to her feet from the couch half-robed, and\nwould fain have beaten back the fierce beasts' violence.\n\nAnd quickly ran thronging thither with bronze arms the captains of\nthe sons of Kadmos; and brandishing in his hand his sword bare of its\nsheath came Amphitryon smitten with sharp pain; for everyone alike is\ngrieved by the ills of his own house, but the heart is soon quit of\nsorrow that careth but for another's care.\n\nAnd he stood in amazement, and gladness mingled with his fear; for he\nsaw the marvellous courage and might of his son, since the immortals\nhad turned to the contrary the saying of the messengers unto him.\n\nThen he called a man that lived nigh to him, a chosen prophet of the\nmost high Zeus, Teiresias the true seer: and he set forth to him and\nto all his company with what manner of fortune should the child have\nhis lot cast, how many lawless monsters on the dry land, how many on\nthe sea he should destroy.\n\nOthers moreover, of men the hatefullest, who walked in guile and\ninsolence, he prophesied that he should deliver over unto death:\nsaying that when on Phlegra's plain the gods should meet the giants\nin battle, beneath the rush of his arrows their bright hair should be\nsoiled with earth; but he in peace himself should obtain a reward of\nrest from his great toils throughout all time continually within the\nhouse of bliss, and after that he had received fair Hebe to be his\nbride, and made his marriage-feast, should remain beside Zeus, the son\nof Kronos, well-pleased with his dwelling-place divine.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: I. e. so honoured by Artemis as to rank with her native\nDelos.]\n\n\n\nII.\n\nFOR TIMODEMOS OF ATHENS,\n\nWINNER IN THE PANKRATION.\n\n* * * *\n\nThe date of this ode is unknown. It would seem to have been sung at\nAthens on the winner's return home. He belonged to the clan of the\nTimodemidai of Salamis, but to the deme of Acharnai.\n\nAs to the nature of the Pankration see Dict. Ant. It was a combination\nof wrestling and boxing, probably with wide license of rules. The best\nextant illustration of it in sculpture is the famous group of the\nPankratiasts (commonly called the Luttatori) in the Tribune of the\nUffizi at Florence.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFrom the self-same beginning whence the Homerid bards draw out the\nlink\u00e8d story of their song, even a prelude calling upon Zeus--so also\nNemeaian Zeus it is in whose far-famous grove this man hath attained\nunto laying his first foundation of victory in the sacred games.\n\nAnd yet again must the son of Timono\u00f6s, if in the way of his fathers'\nguiding him straight this age hath given him to be a glory of great\nAthens--yet again and often must he pluck the noble flower of Isthmian\ngames, and in the Pythian conquer. Like is it that not far from the\nmountain-brood of Pleiads[1] shall be the rising of Orion.\n\nWell able verily is Salamis to rear a man of battles: so at Troy was\nHektor aware of Aias; and so now, O Timodemos, art thou glorified by\nthy stubborn prowess in the pankration.\n\nAcharnai of old was famous for its men, and as touching games the\nTimodemidai rank there pre-eminent. Beneath Parnassos' lordly height\nthey won four victories in the games; moreover in the valleys of noble\nPelops they have obtained eight crowns at the hands of the men of\nCorinth, and seven at Nemea; and at home more than may be numbered, at\nthe games of Zeus:\n\nTo whose glory, O citizens, sing for Timodemos a song of triumph, and\nbring him in honour home, and chant our prelude tunefully.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: The Pleiads were daughters of Atlas. One victory betokens\nanother to come, as the rising of a constellation betokens the rising\nof its neighbour.]\n\n\n\nIII.\n\nFOR ARISTOKLEIDES OF AIGINA,\n\nWINNER IN THE PANKRATION.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe date of the victory is unknown: the ode seems to have been written\nlong afterwards, probably for some anniversary celebration of the\nevent.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nO divine Muse, our mother, I pray thee come unto this Dorian isle\nAigina stranger-thronged, for the sacred festival of the Nemean\ngames[1]: for by the waters of Asopos[2] young men await thee, skilled\nto sing sweet songs of triumph, and desiring to hear thy call.\n\nFor various recompense are various acts athirst; but victory in the\ngames above all loveth song, of crowns and valiant deeds the fittest\nfollower. Thereof grant us large store for our skill, and to the king\nof heaven with its thronging clouds do thou who art his daughter begin\na noble lay; and I will marry the same to the voices of singers and to\nthe lyre.\n\nA pleasant labour shall be mine in glorifying this land where of old\nthe Myrmidons dwelt, whose ancient meeting-place Aristokleides through\nthy favour hath not sullied with reproach by any softness in the\nforceful strife of the pankration; but a healing remedy of wearying\nblows he hath won at least in this fair victory in the deep-lying\nplain of Nemea.\n\nNow if this son of Aristophanes, being fair of form and achieving\ndeeds as fair, hath thus attained unto the height of manly excellence,\nno further is it possible for him to sail untraversed sea beyond the\npillars of Herakles, which the hero-god set to be wide-famed witnesses\nof the end of voyaging: for he had overcome enormous wild-beasts on\nthe seas, and tracked the streams through marshes to where he came to\nthe goal that turned him to go back homeward, and there did he mark\nout the ends of the earth.\n\nBut to what headland of a strange shore, O my soul, art thou carrying\naside the course of my ship? To Aiakos and to his race I charge thee\nbring the Muse. Herein is perfect justice, to speak the praise of good\nmen: neither are desires for things alien the best for men to cherish:\nsearch first at home: a fitting glory for thy sweet song hast thou\ngotten there in deeds of ancient valour.\n\nGlad was King Peleus when he cut him his gigantic spear, he who took\nIolkos by his single arm without help of any host, he who held firm in\nthe struggle Thetis the daughter of the sea.\n\nAlso the city of Laomedon did mighty Telamon sack, when he fought with\nIolaos by his side, and again to the war of the Amazons with brazen\nbows he followed him; neither at any time did man-subduing terror\nabate the vigour of his soul.\n\nBy inborn worth doth one prevail mightily; but whoso hath but precepts\nis a vain man and is fain now for this thing and now again for that,\nbut a sure step planteth he not at any time, but handleth countless\nenterprises with a purpose that achieveth naught.\n\nNow Achilles of the yellow hair, while he dwelt in the house of\nPhilyra[3], being yet a child made mighty deeds his play; and\nbrandishing many a time his little javelin in his hands, swift as the\nwind he dealt death to wild lions in the fight, and boars he slew also\nand dragged their heaving bodies to the Centaur, son of Kronos, a six\nyears' child when he began, and thenceforward continually. And Artemis\nmarvelled at him, and brave Athene, when he slew deer without dogs or\ndevice of nets; for by fleetness of foot he overcame them.\n\nThis story also of the men of old have I heard: how within his cavern\nof stone did deep-counselled Cheiron rear Jason, and next Asklepios,\nwhom he taught to apportion healing drugs with gentle hand: after this\nit was that he saw the espousals of Nereus' daughter of the shining\nwrists, and fondling nursed her son, strongest of men, rearing his\nsoul in a life of harmony; until by blowing of sea winds wafted to\nTroy he should await the war-cry of the Lykians and of the Phrygians\nand of the Dardanians, cried to the clashing of spears; and joining in\nbattle with the lancer Ethiops hand to hand should fix this purpose in\nhis soul, that their chieftain Memnon, Helenos' fiery cousin, should\ngo back again to his home no more.\n\nThenceforward burneth ever a far-shining light for the house of\nAiakos; for thine O Zeus is their blood, even as thine also are the\ngames whereat my song is aimed, by the voice of the young men of the\nland proclaiming aloud her joy. For victorious Aristokleides hath well\nearned a cheer, in that he hath brought new renown to this island, and\nto the Theoroi[4] of the Pythian god, by striving for glory in the\ngames.\n\nBy trial is the issue manifest, wherein may one be more excellent than\nhis fellows, whether among boys a boy, or among men a man, or in the\nthird age among elders, according to the nature of our mortal race.\nFour virtues doth a long life bring, and biddeth one fit his thought\nto the things about him[5]. From such virtues this man is not far.\n\nFriend, fare thee well: I send to thee this honey mingled with white\nmilk, and the dew of the mixing hangeth round about it, to be a drink\nof minstrelsy distilled in breathings of Aiolian flutes; albeit it\ncome full late.\n\nSwift is the eagle among the birds of the air, who seizeth presently\nwith his feet his speckled prey[6], seeking it from afar off; but in\nlow places dwell[7] the chattering daws. To thee at least, by the will\nof throned Kleio, for sake of thy zeal in the games, from Nemea and\nfrom Epidauros and from Megara hath a great light shined.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: I. e. commemorating the Nemean games and the victories\nobtained by citizens of Aigina there.]\n\n[Footnote 2: There seems to have been a stream of this name in Aigina,\nas well as in Boeotia.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Cheiron's mother.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Sent from Aigina to Apollo's temple at Delphi.]\n\n[Footnote 5: This is very obscure: B\u00f6ckh said that the longer he\nconsidered it the more obscure it became to him. Donaldson 'is\ninclined to think that Pindar is speaking with reference to the\nPythagorean division of virtue into four species, and that he assigns\none virtue to each of the four ages of human life (on the same\nprinciple as that which Shakespeare has followed in his description of\nthe seven ages) namely temperance as the virtue of youth, courage of\nearly manhood, justice of mature age, and prudence of old age.']\n\n[Footnote 6: Snakes.]\n\n[Footnote 7: Or 'on vile things feed.']\n\n\n\nIV.\n\nFOR TIMASARCHOS OF AIGINA,\n\nWINNER IN THE BOYS' WRESTLING-MATCH.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe date of this ode is unknown: we can only infer, from the way in\nwhich Athens is spoken of, that it was written before the war between\nthat state and Aigina. It seems to have been sung on the winner's\nreturn home, very likely in a procession through the streets.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBest of physicians for a man's accomplished toil is festive joy:\nand the touch of songs, wise daughters of the Muses, hath power of\ncomforting. Less doth warm water avail to bathe limbs for soothing\nthan words of praise married to the music of the lyre. For speech is\nlonger-lived than act, whensoever by favour of the Graces the tongue\nhath drawn it forth out of the depth of the heart.\n\nBe it the prelude of my hymn to dedicate it to Zeus the son of Kronos,\nand to Nemea, and to the wrestling of Timasarchos; and may it have\nwelcome in the Aiakids' stronghold of goodly towers, the common light\nof all, which aideth the stranger with justice[1].\n\nNow if thy sire Timokritos were still cheered by the quickening sun,\nfull oft with music manifold of the lute would he have bent him unto\nthis my theme, and sounded a hymn for the fair triumphs that\nhave brought thee a chain of wreaths, even from the games of the\nKleonaians[2] now, and erewhile from the bright and famous Athens, and\nat seven-gated Thebes: for beside Amphitryon's splendid sepulchre the\nsons of Kadmos nothing loth sprinkled the winner with flowers for\nAigina's sake. For thither as a friend to friends he came, though to a\ncity not his own, and abode in the fortunate hall of Herakles.\n\nWith Herakles on a time did mighty Telamon destroy the city of Troy,\nand the Meropes, and the man of war, the great and terrible Alkyoneus,\nyet not until by hurling of stones he had subdued twelve four-horse\nchariots, and horse-taming heroes twice so many thereupon. Unversed in\nbattles must he be who understandeth not this tale, for whoso will do\naught is like to suffer also.\n\nBut to tell the tale at length custom forbiddeth me, and the\nconstraining hours: and a love-spell draweth me to put forth my hand\nto the feast of the new moon.\n\nAlbeit the deep brine of the sea hold thee even to thy waist,\nnevertheless bear bravely up against conspirings; assuredly shall\nwe shine forth above our enemies as we sail home in open day; while\nanother man of envious eye turneth about in darkness an empty purpose\nthat falleth to the ground. For me I know certainly that whatsoever\nexcellence Fate that is our lord hath given me, time creeping onward\nwill bring to its ordained fulfilment.\n\nWeave then this woof too presently, sweet my lute, a strain with\nLydian harmony that shall be dear to Oinone[3], and to Cyprus, where\nTeukros, son of Telamon, holdeth rule in a new land.\n\nBut Aias hath the Salamis of his father: and in the Euxine Sea\nAchilles hath a shining isle, and at Phthia hath Thetis power, and\nNeoptolemos in wide Epeiros, where cattle-pasturing headlands, from\nDodona onwards, slope forward to the Ionian Sea. And beside the foot\nof Pelion did Peleus set his face against Iolkos, and deliver it over\nto be a servant to the Haimones, after that he had proved the guileful\ncounsels of Hippolyte, Akastos' wife.\n\nFor by (stealing) his sword of cunning workmanship the son[4] of\nPelias prepared death for him in an ambush; but Cheiron delivered him\nout of his hand; and thus he fulfilled the destiny ordained him of\nZeus, and having escaped the violence of the fire and the dauntless\nlion's claws exceeding keen, and the bitings of teeth most\nterrible[5], he espoused one of the Nereids high-enthroned, and beheld\nthe circle of fair seats whereon were sitting the kings of heaven and\nof the sea, as they revealed unto him their gifts, and the kingdom\nthat should be unto him and unto his seed.\n\nNightward[6] beyond Gadeira none may pass. Turn back again to the\nmainland of Europe the tackle of our ship; for it were impossible for\nme to go through unto the end all the tale of the sons of Aiakos.\n\nFor the Theandrid clan came I a ready herald of games that make men's\nlimbs wax strong, to Olympia and to Isthmos, and to Nemea according\nto my promise, where having put themselves to the proof they are\nreturning homeward, not without wreaths whose fruitage is renown; and\nthere report hath told us, O Timasarchos, that thy clan's name is\npreeminent in songs of victory.\n\nOr if further for thy mother's brother Kallikles thou biddest me set\nup a pillar whiter than Parian stone, lo as the refining of gold\nshoweth forth all his splendours, so doth a song that singeth a\nman's rare deeds make him as the peer of kings. Let Kallikles in his\ndwelling beside Acheron find in my tongue a minstrel of his praise,\nfor that at the games[7] of the deep-voiced wielder of the trident\nhis brows were green with parsley of Corinth; of him, boy, did\nEuph\u00e4nes, thy aged grandsire, rejoice erewhile to sing.\n\nEach hath his own age-fellow; and what each hath seen for himself that\nmay he hope to set forth best of all. How for Melesias'[8] praise\nmust such an one grapple in the strife, bending the words beneath his\ngrasp, yielding not his ground as he wrestleth in speech, of gentle\ntemper toward the good, but to the froward a stern adversary.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Aigina. See Ol viii. 21; Pyth. viii. 22.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Kleonai was very near Nemea, and the Kleonaians were for\na long time managers of the Nemean games.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Seemingly the same personage as Aigina.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Akastos.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Thetis, resisting her wooer Peleus, changed herself into\nfire and wild beasts. See Dict. Myth.]\n\n[Footnote 6: Westward.]\n\n[Footnote 7: The Isthmian games.]\n\n[Footnote 8: Timasarchos' trainer in wrestling. He is here praised in\nterms borrowed from the wrestling-school.]\n\n\n\nV.\n\nFOR PYTHEAS OF AIGINA,\n\nWINNER IN THE BOYS' PANKRATION.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe date of this ode is uncertain. The winner's brother Phylakidas,\ngained the two victories, also in the pankration, which are celebrated\nin the fourth and fifth Isthmians.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nNo statuary I, that I should fashion images to rest idly on their\npedestals, nay but by every trading-ship and plying boat forth from\nAigina fare, sweet song of mine, and bear abroad the news, how that\nLampon's son, the strong-limbed Pytheas, hath won at Nemea the\npankratiast's crown, while on his cheeks he showeth not as yet the\nvine-bloom's mother, mellowing midsummer.\n\nSo to the warrior heroes sprung from Kronos and Zeus and from the\ngolden nymphs, even to the Aiakidai, hath he done honour, and to the\nmother-city, a friendly field to strangers. That she should have issue\nof goodly men and should be famous in her ships, this prayed they of\nold, standing beside the altar of their grandsire, Zeus Hellenios, and\ntogether stretched forth their hands toward heaven, even the glorious\nsons of Endais[1] and the royal strength of Phokos, the goddess-born,\nwhom on the sea-beach Psamatheia[2] bare. Of their deed portentous and\nunjustly dared I am loth to tell, and how they left that famous isle,\nand of the fate that drove the valiant heroes from Oinone. I will make\npause: not for every perfect truth is it best that it discover its\nface: silence is oft man's wisest thought.\n\nBut if the praise of good hap or of strength of hand or of steel-clad\nwar be my resolve, let one mark me a line for a long leap hence: in\nmy knees I have a nimble spring: even beyond the sea the eagles wing\ntheir way.\n\nWith goodwill too for the Aiakidai in Pelion sang the Muses' choir\nmost fair, and in the midst Apollo playing with golden quill upon his\nseven-toned lyre led them in ever-changing strains. They first of all\nfrom Zeus beginning sang of holy Thetis and of Peleus, and how that\nKretheus' dainty daughter Hippolyte would fain have caught him by her\nwile, and persuaded his friend the king of the Magnetes her husband by\ncounsels of deceit, for she forged a lying tale thereto devised, how\nthat he essayed to go in unto her in Akastos' bridal bed. But the\ntruth was wholly contrary thereto, for often and with all her soul she\nhad besought him with beguiling speech; but her bold words vexed his\nspirit; and forthwith he refused the bride, fearing the wrath of the\nFather who guardeth host and guest. And he, the cloud-compelling Zeus\nin heaven, the immortal's king, was aware thereof, and he promised\nhim that with all speed he would find him a sea-bride from among the\nNereids of golden distaffs, having persuaded thereto Poseidon, their\nkinsman by his marriage, who from Aigai to the famous Dorian Isthmus\ncometh oftentimes, where happy troops with the reed-flute's noise\nwelcome the god, and in bold strength of limb men strive.\n\nThe fate that is born with a man is arbiter of all his acts. Thou,\nEuthymenes[3], at Aigina falling into the goddess victory's arms didst\nwin thee hymns of subtle strain: yea and now too to thee, O Pytheas,\nwho art his kinsman of the same stock and followest in his footsteps,\ndoth thy mother's brother honour. Nemea is favourable unto him, and\nthe month[4] of his country that Apollo loveth: the youth that came\nto strive with him he overcame, both at home and by Nisos' hill of\npleasant glades[5]. I have joy that the whole state striveth for\nglory. Know that through Menander's[6] aid thou hast attained unto\nsweet recompense of toils. And meet it is that from Athens a fashioner\nof athletes come.\n\nBut if thou comest to Themistios[7], to sing of him, away with chill\nreserve, shout aloud, hoist to the top-yard of the mast the sail, and\ntell how in the boxing and the pankration at Epidauros he won a double\nprize of valour, and to the portals of Aiakos bare fresh wreaths of\nflowers, led by the Graces of the yellow hair.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Wife of Aiakos and mother of Peleus and Telamon. They\nkilled Phokos.]\n\n[Footnote 2: A sea-nymph, mother of Phokos by Aiakos.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Maternal uncle of Pytheas.]\n\n[Footnote 4: The month called in Aigina Delphinios (April-May) when\nthe Nemean games took place.]\n\n[Footnote 5: At Megara]\n\n[Footnote 6: Pytheas' trainer, an Athenian.]\n\n[Footnote 7: Maternal grandfather of Pytheas.]\n\n\n\nVI.\n\nFOR ALKIMIDAS OF AIGINA,\n\nWINNER IN THE BOYS' WRESTLING-MATCH.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe date of this ode is unknown, but from the mention of the trainer\nMelesias it has been inferred that it was among Pindar's later works.\nIt would seem to have been sung at Aigina, perhaps at some feast of\nthe Bassid clan given in honour of the victory.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOne race there is of men and one of gods, but from one mother[1] draw\nwe both our breath, yet is the strength of us diverse altogether,\nfor the race of man is as nought, but the brazen heaven abideth, a\nhabitation steadfast unto everlasting.\n\nYet withal have we somewhat in us like unto the immortals' bodily\nshape or mighty mind, albeit we know not what course hath Destiny\nmarked out for us to run, neither in the daytime, neither in the\nnight.\n\nAnd now doth Alkimidas give proof that it is with his kindred as with\nfruitful fields: for they in turn now yield to man his yearly bread\nupon the plains, and now again they pause, and gather back their\nstrength[2].\n\nFrom the pleasant meeting-places of Nemea hath the athlete boy come\nback, who following the ordinance[3] of Zeus hath now approved him no\nbaffled hunter in his wrestling-quest, and hath guided his feet by\nthe foot-prints of Praxidamas, his father father, of whose blood he\nsprang.\n\nFor Praxidamas also by his Olympian victory first won olive-wreath\nfrom Alpheos for the Aiakidai, and five times been crowned at Isthmos,\nand at Nemea thrice, he took away thereby the obscurity of Sokleides,\nwho was the eldest of the sons of Agesimachos[4].\n\nFor these three-warriors attained unto the topmost height of prowess,\nof all who essayed the games, and by grace of God to no other house\nhath the boxing-match given keeping of so many crowns in this inmost\nplace of all Hellas. I deem that though my speech be of high sound I\nyet shall hit the mark, as it were an archer shooting from a bow.\n\nCome, Muse, direct thou upon this house a gale of glorious song: for\nafter that men are vanished away, the minstrel's story taketh up their\nnoble acts, whereof is no lack to the Bassid clan; old in story is the\nrace and they carry cargo of home-made renown, able to deliver into\nthe Muses' husbandmen rich matter of song in honour of their lofty\ndeeds.\n\nFor at sacred Pytho in like wise did a scion of the same stock\novercome, with the thong of the boxer bound about his hand, even\nKallias in whom were well-pleased the children of Leto of the golden\ndistaff, and beside Kastaly in the evening his name burnt bright, when\nthe glad sounds of the Graces rose.\n\nAlso the Bridge[5] of the untiring sea did honour unto Kreontidas at\nthe triennial sacrifice of bulls by the neighbour states in the holy\nplace of Poseidon; and once did the herb[6] of the lion shadow his\nbrows for a victory won beneath the shadeless primal hills of Phlious.\n\nWide avenues of glory are there on every side for chroniclers to\ndraw nigh to do honour unto this isle: for supreme occasion have the\nchildren of Aiakos given them by the showing forth of mighty feats.\n\nOver land and beyond the sea is their name flown forth from afar: even\nunto the Ethiopians it sprang forth, for that Memnon came not home:\nfor bitter was the battle that Achilles made against him, having\ndescended from his chariot upon the earth, what time by his fierce\nspear's point he slew the son of the bright Morn.\n\nAnd herein found they of old time a way wherein to drive their car:\nand I too follow with my burden of song: and all men's minds, they\nsay, are stirred the most by whatsoever wave at the instant rolleth\nnearest to the mainsheet of the ship.\n\nOn willing shoulders bear I this double load, and am come a messenger\nto proclaim this honour won in the games that men call holy to be the\nfive-and-twentieth that the noble house of Alkimidas hath shown forth:\nyet were two wreaths in the Olympian games beside the precinct of\nKronion denied to thee, boy, and to Polytimidas, by the fall of the\nlot[7].\n\nPeer of the dolphin hurrying through the brine--such would I call\nMelesias[8] by whom thy hands and strength were guided, as a chariot\nby the charioteer.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Earth.]\n\n[Footnote 2: The ancients understood little of the rotation of crops,\nand often let their fields lie fallow alternate years.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Of the celebrity of alternate generations.]\n\n[Footnote 4: The order of descent was: Agesimachos, Sokleides,\nPraxidamas, Theon, Alkimidas. Of these the first, third, and fifth,\nwere distinguished athletes, the others not.]\n\n[Footnote 5: The Isthmos.]\n\n[Footnote 6: The parsley which grew near the lair of the Nemean lion.]\n\n[Footnote 7: This can hardly mean, as some commentators take it,\nthe drawing of any particular tie; for if better men than any given\ncompetitor were entered for the match, his defeat would be inevitable\nwhether they were encountered sooner or later.]\n\n[Footnote 8: Alkimidas' trainer.]\n\n\n\nVII.\n\nFOR SOGENES OF AIGINA,\n\nWINNER IN THE BOYS' PENTATHLON.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis victory was probably won B.C. 462. The ode would seem to be full\nof allusions, which however we cannot with any certainty explain. It\nis partly occupied with the celebration of Achilles' son Neoptolemos,\nand Pindar seems anxious to repel the charge of having on some\noccasion depreciated that hero.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nO Eileithuia that sittest beside the deep-counselling Moirai, child of\nthe mighty Hera, thou who bringest babes to the birth, hearken unto\nus! Without thee looked we never on the light or on the darkness of\nthe night, nor came ever unto her who is thy sister, even Hebe of the\ncomely limbs.\n\nBut we receive our breath not all for a like life; each to his several\nlot is kept apart by the yoke of fate.\n\nNow by thy grace hath Sogenes the son of Thearion been foremost\nin prowess, and his glory is sung aloud among the winners of the\nfive-game prize.\n\nFor he is a dweller in a city that loveth song, even this city of the\nspear-clashing sons of Aiakos, and exceeding fain are they to cherish\na spirit apt for the strife of the games.\n\nIf a man have good hap in his attempt, he throweth into the Muses'\nstream sweet cause of song: for even deeds of might for lack of song\nfall into deep darkness, and in but one way have we knowledge of a\nmirror for fair deeds, if by the grace of Mnemosyne of the shining\nfillet they attain unto a recompense of toils by the sound of voice\nand verse.\n\nWise shipmates know that the wind which tarrieth shall come on the\nthird day, nor throw away their goods through greed of more[1]: the\nrich and the poor alike fare on their way to death.\n\nNow I have suspicion that the fame of Odysseus is become greater\nthan his toils, through the sweet lays that Homer sang; for over the\nfeigning of his winged craft something of majesty abideth, and the\nexcellence of his skill persuadeth us to his fables unaware.\n\nBlind hearts have the general folk of men; for could they have\ndiscovered the truth, never would stalwart Aias in anger for the arms\nhave struck through his midriff the sharp sword--even he who after\nAchilles was best in battle of all men whom, to win back his bride for\nfair-haired Menelaos, the fair breeze of straight-blowing Zephyros\nwafted in swift ships toward Ilos' town.\n\nBut to all men equally cometh the wave of death, and falleth on the\nfameless and the famed: howbeit honour ariseth for them whose fair\nstory God increaseth to befriend them even when dead, whoso have\njourneyed to the mighty centre-stone of wide-bosomed earth.\n\nThere now beneath the floor of Pytho lieth Neoptolemos, dying there\nwhen he had sacked the city of Priam where the Danaoi toiled with him.\nHe sailing thence missed Skyros, and they wandered till they came to\nEphyra, and in Molossia he was king for a little while: howbeit his\nrace held this state[2] continually. Then was he gone to the god's\nhome[3], carrying an offering of the chief spoils from Troy: and there\nin quarrel concerning meats a man smote him with a knife.\n\nThereat were the Delphian entertainers of strangers grieved\nexceedingly: nevertheless he but paid a debt to destiny: for it was\nneedful that in that most ancient grove someone of the lords the sons\nof Aiakos should abide within thenceforward, beside the goodly walls\nof the god's house, and that when with plenteous sacrifice the\nprocessions do honour to the heroes, he should keep watch that fair\nright be done. Three words shall be enough: when he presideth over the\ngames there is no lie found in his testimony thereof.\n\nO thou Aigina, of thy children that are of Zeus I have good courage to\nproclaim that as of inheritance they claim the path to glory, through\nsplendour of their valorous deeds: howbeit in every work a rest is\nsweet, yea even of honey cometh surfeit and of the lovely flowers of\nLove.\n\nNow each of us is in his nature diverse, and several are the lots\nof life we draw, one this and one another: but that one man receive\nperfect bliss, this is impossible to men. I cannot find to tell of any\nto whom Fate hath given this award abidingly.\n\nTo thee, Thearion[4], she giveth fair measure of bliss, first daring\nin goodly deeds, and then understanding and sound mind. Thy friend am\nI, and I will keep far from the man I love the secret slander, and\nbring nigh unto him praise and true glory, as it were streams of\nwater: for meet is such recompense for the good.\n\nIf there be near me now a man of the Achaians who dwelleth far up the\nIonian sea, he shall not upbraid me: I have faith in my proxeny[5]:\nand among the folk of my own land I look forth with clear gaze, having\ndone naught immoderate, and having put away all violence from before\nmy feet. So let the life that remaineth unto me run cheerly on.\n\nHe who knoweth shall say if indeed I come with slanderous speech upon\nmy lips to strike a jarring note. To thee, Sogenes of the house of the\nsons of Euxenos, I swear that without overstepping the bound I have\nsent forth the swift speech of my tongue as it were a bronze-headed\njavelin, such as saveth from the wrestling the strong neck sweatless\nyet, or ever the limbs be plunged in the sun's fire[6].\n\nIf toil there were, delight more abundant followeth after. Let be; if\nsomewhat over far I soared when I cried aloud, yet am I not froward,\nthat I should deny his glory unto one that conquereth.\n\nThe weaving of wreaths is an easy thing: tarry a little: behold the\nMuse fasteneth together gold and white ivory, and a lily flower\nwithal, that she hath plucked from beneath the deep sea's dew[7].\n\nOf Zeus be mindful when thou tellest of Nemea, and guide the\nmultitudinous voices of our song with a quiet mind: meet is it that\nwith gentle voice we celebrate in this land the king of gods: for\nthey tell how he begat Aiakos of a mortal mother, to be for his own\nfortunate land a ruler of cities, and for thee, Herakles, a loving\nfriend and brother.\n\nAnd if man receiveth aught from man, then may we say that neighbour\nis to neighbour a joy worth all else, if he loveth him with steadfast\nsoul: now if even a god will consent hereto, then in such bond with\nthee, O conqueror of the giants[8], is Sogenes fain to dwell happily\nin the well-built sacred street of his ancestors, cherishing a mind of\ntenderness toward his sire: for as when four horses are yoked together\nin a car, so hath he his house in the midst of thy holy places, and\ngoeth in unto them both on the right hand and on the left[9].\n\nO blessed spirit, thine is it to win hereto the husband of Hera, and\nthe grey-eyed maid[10]; and thou art able to give to mortals strength\never and again against baffling perplexities. Make thou to cleave to\nthem[11] a life of steadfast strength, and wind the bliss thereof amid\nboth youth and a serene old age, and may their children's children\npossess continually the honours that they now have, and greater in the\ntime to come.\n\nNever shall my heart confess that I have outraged Neoptolemos with\nirreclaimable words. But thrice and four times to tell over the same\ntale is emptiness in the end thereof, even as he of the proverb that\nbabbleth among children how that Korinthos was the son of Zeus[12].\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Retaining the reading [Greek: hupo kerdei balon]. I\nconjecture it to mean, 'do not in their eagerness for trade choose an\nunfavourable and dangerous time for their voyage, but wait for the\n[Greek: kairos], the right opportunity.']\n\n[Footnote 2: The kingdom of Epeiros. Pyrrhos, the invader of Italy,\ncalled himself a descendant of Neoptolemos (who was also called\nPyrrhos).]\n\n[Footnote 3: Delphi.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Father of Sogenes.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Pindar would seem to have been [Greek: proxenos] at\nThebes for some state of Epeiros, to which fact he appeals as a proof\nthat he stood well with the Epirot descendants of Neoptolemos.]\n\n[Footnote 6: The Pentathlon was composed of five contests, namely,\nthe jump, throwing the disk, throwing the javelin, the foot-race, and\nwrestling. The prize was for the best man in three contests out of the\nfive. These came in the order in which they are enumerated above; thus\nif the best javelin-thrower had already won two of the other matches\nhe would not be challenged to wrestle, as the prize of the Pentathlon\nwould be already his. Very probably this had been the case with\nSogenes, so that it would naturally occur to Pindar thus allusively to\nexpand his not unfrequent comparison of his own art of poetry to that\nof a javelin-thrower or archer. On the Pentathlon may be consulted\nan article by Professor Percy Gardner in the _Journal of Hellenic\nStudies_ for October, 1880; and also Smith's _Dictionary of\nAntiquities_ (revised edition).]\n\n[Footnote 7: Coral.]\n\n[Footnote 8: Herakles.]\n\n[Footnote 9: Thearion's house seems to have had a shrine, or at least\nsome sacred ground, of Herakles at each side of it, so that he might\nregard that hero as his neighbour.]\n\n[Footnote 10: Athene.]\n\n[Footnote 11: Thearion and Sogenes.]\n\n[Footnote 12: A proverbial equivalent for vain and wearisome\nrepetition.]\n\n\n\nVIII.\n\nFOR DEINIS OF AIGINA,\n\nWINNER IN THE SHORT FOOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe date of this ode is unknown. It was probably sung before the\nshrine of Aiakos at Aigina.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSpirit of beautiful youth, thou herald of Aphrodite's loves ambrosial,\nwho on the eyes of girl or boy alighting, with tenderly constraining\nhands dost handle one, but other otherwise--it is enough if one not\nswerving from the true aim, in his every act prevail to attain to the\nfulfilment of his worthier loves.\n\nSuch loves were they that waited on the bridal-bed of Zeus and Aigina,\nand were dispensers unto them of the Cyprian's[1] gifts: and thence\nsprang there a son[2] to be king of Oinone[3], in might of hand and in\ncounsel excellent, and many a time did many pray that they might look\non him: for the chosen among the heroes that dwelt around him were\nfain of their own will to submit them unto his sovereignty, both whoso\nin rocky Athens were leaders of the host, and at Sparta the children\nof Pelops.\n\nSo Aiakos' holy knees clasp I a suppliant for a city well-beloved and\nfor these citizens, and I bear a Lydian crown wrought cunningly with\nthe sound of song, a glory out of Nemea for two races run, of Deinis\nand of his father Meges.\n\nBehold, the happiness that is planted with the favour of God is most\nabiding among men; even such as once in the isle of Cyprus loaded\nKinyras with riches.\n\nWith poised feet I stand, and take breath for a little ere I speak.\nFor much and in many ways hath been said ere now; and the contriving\nof new things and putting them to the touchstone to be tried is\nperilous altogether.\n\nIn words find the envious their dainties: envy fasteneth ever on the\ngood, and careth not to strive against the base.\n\nYea thus did envy slay the son of Telamon, thrusting him through with\nhis own sword. Verily if one be of stout heart but without gift of\nspeech, such an one is a prey unto forgetfulness in a bitter strife,\nand to the shiftiness of lies is proffered the prize of the greatest.\nFor in the secret giving of their votes the Danaoi courted Odysseus,\nand thus did Aias, robbed of the golden arms, wrestle in the grip of a\nbloody death.\n\nYet diverse verily were the strokes wherewith those twain had cloven\nthe warm flesh of the foe, what time they bare up the war against the\nhedge of spears, whether about Achilles newly slain, or in whatsoever\nlabours else of those wide-ruining days.\n\nThus was there even of old the treacherous speech of hate, that\nwalketh with the subtleties of tales, intent on guile, slander that\nbreedeth ill: so doth it violence on the thing that shineth, and\nuplifteth the rottenness of dim men's fame.\n\nNever in me be this mind, O our father Zeus, but to the paths of\nsimplicity let me cleave throughout my life, that being dead I may set\nupon my children a name that shall be of no ill report.\n\nFor gold some pray, and some for limitless lands: mine be it amid my\ntownsfolk's love to shroud my limbs in earth, still honouring where\nhonour is due, and sowing rebuke on the evildoers.\n\nThus groweth virtue greater, uplifted of the wise and just, as when a\ntree watered by fresh dew shooteth toward the moist air on high.\n\nManifold are the uses of friends, chiefest truly amid the press of\ntoil, yet doth joy also desire to behold his own assurance.[4]\n\nAh Meges, to bring back thy spirit to earth is to me impossible, and\nof empty hopes the end is naught. Yet for thy house and the clan of\nChariadai I can upraise a lofty column of song in honour of these two\npairs of fortunate feet[5].\n\nI have joy to utter praise meet for the act, for by such charms of\nsong doth a man make even labour a painless thing. Yet surely was\nthere a Komos-song even of old time, yea before strife began between\nAdrastos and the sons of Kadmos[6].\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Aphrodite.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Aiakos.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Aigina.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Through celebration in song, which a friendly poet can\ngive.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Of Meges and Deinis.]\n\n[Footnote 6: The invention of encomiastic hymns was attributed by\nlegend to the time of the expedition of Adrastos and the other six\nagainst Thebes.]\n\n\n\nIX.\n\nFOR CHROMIOS OF AITNA,\n\nWINNER IN THE CHARIOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis ode is placed by usage among the Nemeans, but the victory was not\nwon at Nemea, but at Sikyon, in the local games called Pythian. Its\ndate is unknown: it must have been after the founding of Aitna, B.C.\n476. Probably the ode was sung in a procession at Aitna, some length\nof time after the victory. The Chromios is the Chromios of the first\nNemean, Hieron's brother-in-law.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFrom Apollo at Sikyon will we lead our triumph forth, ye Muses, unto\nthe new-made city of Aitna, where doors are opened wide to greet the\ninvading guests, even to the fortunate house of Chromios. Come claim\nfor him a song of sweetness: for he goeth up into the chariot of his\nvictory, and biddeth us sing aloud to the mother[1] and her twin\nchildren who keep watch over high Pytho in fellowship.\n\nNow there is a saying among men, that one hide not in silence on the\nground a good deed done: and meet for such brave tales is divine song.\n\nTherefore will we arouse the pealing lyre and rouse the flute, in\nhonour of the very crown of all contests of steeds, which Adrastos in\nhonour of Phoibos ordained beside Asopos' stream.\n\nWhereof when I make mention with voiceful honour I will celebrate\nwithal the Hero[2], who then being king in that place did by the\nfounding of a new feast and struggles of the strength of men and of\ncarven cars make his city known abroad and glorious.\n\nFor he was flying before Amphiaraos of bold counsels, and before a\ndangerous civil strife, from Argos and his father's house: for no\nlonger were the sons of Talaos lords therein, for a sedition had\nthrust them forth. The stronger man endeth the contention that hath\nbeen before.\n\nBut when they had given to the son of Oikleus for his wife, as one\nshould give surety of an oath, Eriphyle, the slayer of her husband,\nthey became the greatest of the fair-haired Danaoi. So thereafter led\nthey on a time against seven-gated Thebes a host of men, but not by a\nroad of signs propitious: nor would the son of Kronos speed them on\ntheir mad journey from their homes, but by the quivering lightnings he\ndarted forth he bade them hold from their road[3].\n\nBut unto a revealed calamity hasted that company to go forth with\nbronze shields and the gear of steeds; and on the banks of Ismenos,\nstayed from their sweet return, they fed the white smoke with their\nbodies.\n\nFor seven pyres devoured the young men's limbs, but for Amphiaraos\nZeus by almighty thunderbolt clave the deep-breasted earth, and buried\nhim with his steeds, or ever the warrior's soul should be shamed by\nthe smiting of him in the back by Periklymenos' spear. For when the\nterror cometh of heaven, then flee even the sons of gods.\n\nIf it be possible, O son of Kronos, this trial of valour against\nPhenician spears[4] for life or death I would fain defer unto the\nutmost: and I beg of thee to grant unto the sons of the men of Aitna\nfor long time a portion in good laws, and to make their people to\ndwell among glories that the citizens have won. Men are there here\nthat love steeds and that have souls above desire of wealth. Hard of\ncredence is the word I have spoken; for the spirit of honour which\nbringeth glory is stolen secretly by lust of gain.\n\nHadst thou been shield-bearer to Chromios among foot and horse and in\nfightings of ships, thou hadst judged concerning his jeopardy in the\nfierce fray, for in war did that divine honour stir his warrior-soul\nto ward off havoc of Enyalios. Few are there who may prevail by\nstrength or valour to contrive a turning of the cloud of imminent\ndeath against the ranks of the enemy. Howbeit they tell how Hektor's\nglory flowered beside Skamander's streams, and thus on the steep\ncliffs of Heloros' banks[5], where men call the ford the Fountain of\nAres, hath this light shined for Agesidamos' son in the beginning of\nhis praise.\n\nAnd other deeds on other days will I declare, many done amid the dust\non the dry land, and yet others on the neighbouring sea. Now out of\ntoils which in youth have been done with righteousness there ripeneth\ntoward old age a day of calm.\n\nLet Chromios know that he hath from the gods a lot of wondrous bliss.\nFor if one together with much wealth have won him glorious renown, it\nis impossible that a mortal's feet touch any further mountain-top.\n\nThe banquet loveth peace, and by a gentle song a victory flourisheth\nafresh, and beside the bowl the singer's voice waxeth brave. Let one\nmix it now, that sweet proclaimer of the triumphal song, and in silver\ngoblets hand the grapes' potent child, even the goblets which for\nChromios his mares erst won, and sent to him from sacred Sikyon,\nentwined with well-earned crowns of Leto's son.\n\nNow claim I, father Zeus, to have well sung this excellent deed by aid\nof the Charites, and beyond many to do honour to this victory by my\nwords, for the javelin that I throw falleth nearest to the Muses'\nmark.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Leto.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Adrastos.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Lightning and thunder were often an encouraging sign\n(there is an instance in the fourth Pythian), but this would depend on\nthe manner of them.]\n\n[Footnote 4: War with the Carthaginians, who were still threatening\nthe Hellenic colonists in Sicily, in spite of their recent defeat.]\n\n[Footnote 5: About B.C. 492 a battle was fought on the Heloros between\nthe Syracusans and the army of Hippokrates, tyrant of Gela.]\n\n\n\nX.\n\nFOR THEAIOS OF ARGOS,\n\nWINNER IN THE WRESTLING-MATCH.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis ode, like the last, is improperly called Nemean. It commemorates\na victory won at the feast of the Hekatombaia at Argos. The date is\nunknown.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe city of Danaos and of his fifty bright-throned daughters, Argos\nthe home of Hera, meet abode of gods, sing Graces! for by excellencies\ninnumerable it is made glorious in the deeds of valiant men.\n\nLong is the tale of Perseus[1], that telleth of the Gorgon Medusa:\nmany are the cities in Egypt founded by the hands of Epaphos[2]:\nneither went Hypermnestra's choice astray when she kept sheathed her\nsolitary sword[3].\n\nAlso their Diomedes did the grey-eyed goddess make incorruptible and\na god: and at Thebes, the earth blasted by the bolts of Zeus received\nwithin her the prophet[4], the son of Oikleus, the storm-cloud of war.\n\nMoreover in women of beautiful hair doth the land excel. Thereto in\ndays of old Zeus testified, when he followed after Alkmene and after\nDana\u00eb.\n\nAnd in the father of Adrastos and in Lynkeus did Argos mingle ripe\nwisdom with upright justice: and she reared the warrior Amphitryon.\nNow he came to the height of honour in his descendants, for in bronze\narmour he slew the Teleboai, and in his likeness the king of the\nimmortals entered his hall, bearing the seed of fearless Herakles,\nwhose bride in Olympos is Hebe, who by the side of her mother, the\nqueen of marriage, walketh of all divinities most fair.\n\nMy tongue would fail to tell in full the honours wherein the sacred\nArgive land hath part: also the distaste[5] of men is ill to meet. Yet\nwake the well-strung lyre, and take thought of wrestlings; a strife\nfor the bronze shield stirreth the folk to sacrifice of oxen unto Hera\nand to the issue of games, wherein the son of Oulias, Theaios, having\novercome twice, hath obtained forgetfulness of the toils he lightly\nbore.\n\nAlso on a time at Pytho he was first of the Hellenic host, and won\ncrowns at Isthmos and at Nemea, led thither by fair hap, and gave work\nfor the Muses' plough by thrice winning at the Gates[6] of the Sea and\nthrice on the famous plains in the pastures of Adrastos' home[7]. Of\nthat he longeth for, O Father Zeus, his mouth is silent, with thee are\nthe issues of deeds: but with a spirit strong to labour and of a good\ncourage he prayeth thy grace. Both Theaios, and whosoever struggleth\nin the perfect consummation of all games, know this, even the\nsupremacy of the ordinance of Herakles that is holden at Pisa[8]: yet\nsweet preluding strains are those that twice have welcomed his triumph\nat the festival of the Athenians: and in earthenware baked in the\nfire, within the closure of figured urns, there came among the goodly\nfolk of Hera[9] the prize of the olive fruit[10].\n\nOn the renowned race of thy mother's sires there waiteth glory of\ngames by favour of the Graces and the sons of Tyndareus together. Were\nI kinsman of Thrasyklos and Antias I would claim at Argos not to hide\nmine eyes. For with how many victories hath this horse-breeding city\nof Proitos flourished! even in the Corinthian corner and from the\nmen of Kleonai[11] four times, and from Sikyon they came laden with\nsilver, even goblets for wine, and out of Pellene clad in soft woof of\nwool[12]. But to tell over the multitude of their prizes of bronze is\na thing impossible--to count them longer leisure were needed--which\nKleitor and Tegea and the Achaians' high-set cities and the Lykaion\nset for a prize by the race-course of Zeus for the conquerors by\nstrength of hands or feet.\n\nAnd since Kastor and his brother Polydeukes came to be the guests\nof Pamphaes[13], no marvel is it that to be good athletes should be\ninborn in the race. For they[14] it is who being guardians of the wide\nplains of Sparta with Hermes and Herakles mete out fair hap in games,\nand to righteous men they have great regard. Faithful is the race of\ngods.\n\nNow, changing climes alternately, they dwell one day with their dear\nfather Zeus, and the next in the secret places under the earth, within\nthe valleys of Therapnai, fulfilling equal fate: because on this wise\nchose Polydeukes to live his life rather than to be altogether god and\nabide continually in heaven, when that Kastor had fallen in the fight.\n\nHim did Idas, wroth for his oxen, smite with a bronze spearhead, when\nfrom his watch upon Ta\u00ffgetos Lynkeus had seen them sitting within a\nhollow oak; for he of all men walking the earth had keenest eyes. So\nwith swift feet they were straightway come to the place, and compassed\nspeedily a dreadful deed[15].\n\nBut terrible also was the vengeance which by the devising of Zeus\nthose sons[16] of Aphareus suffered: for on the instant came Leto's\nson[17] in chase of them: and they stood up against him hard by the\nsepulchre of their father. Thence wrenched they a carved headstone\nthat was set to glorify the dead, and they hurled it at the breast of\nPolydeukes. But they crushed him not, neither made him give back,\nbut rushing onward with fierce spear he drave the bronze head into\nLynkeus' side. And against Idas Zeus hurled a thunderbolt of consuming\nfire.\n\nSo were those brothers in one flame[18] burnt unbefriended: for a\nstrife with the stronger is grievous for men to mix in.\n\nThen quickly came back the son of Tyndareus[19] to his great brother,\nand found him not quite dead, but the death-gasp rattled in his\nthroat. Then Polydeukes wept hot tears, and groaned, and lifted up his\nvoice, and cried: 'Father Kronion--ah! what shall make an end of woes?\nBid me, me also, O king, to die with him. The glory is departed from\na man bereaved of friends. Few are they who in a time of trouble are\nfaithful in companionship of toil.'\n\nThus said he, and Zeus came, and stood before his face, and spake\nthese words: 'Thou art my son: but thy brother afterward was by mortal\nseed begotten in thy mother of the hero that was her husband. But\nnevertheless, behold I give thee choice of these two lots: if,\nshunning death and hateful old age, thou desirest for thyself to dwell\nin Olympus with Athene and with Ares of the shadowing spear, this lot\nis thine to take: but if in thy brother's cause thou art so hot, and\nart resolved in all to have equal share with him, then half thy time\nthou shalt be alive beneath the earth, and half in the golden house of\nheaven.'\n\nThus spake his father, and Polydeukes doubted not which counsel he\nshould choose. So Zeus unsealed the eye, and presently the tongue\nalso, of Kastor of the brazen mail.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Son of the Argive Dana\u00eb.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Son of the Argive Io.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Or perhaps: 'Neither were Hypermnestra's story misplaced\nhere, how she, &c.']\n\n[Footnote 4: Amphiaraos.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Disgust at hearing anything profusely praised.]\n\n[Footnote 6: At Corinth, in the Isthmian games.]\n\n[Footnote 7: Nemea.]\n\n[Footnote 8: The Olympic games.]\n\n[Footnote 9: The Argives.]\n\n[Footnote 10: The Athenian prize seems to have been an olive-bough in\na vase of burnt clay.]\n\n[Footnote 11: Near Nemea.]\n\n[Footnote 12: I. e. with prizes of cloaks.]\n\n[Footnote 13: An ancestor of Theaios. Probably he had given Theoxenia.\nSee Ol. III.]\n\n[Footnote 14: Kastor and Polydeukes.]\n\n[Footnote 15: They slew Kastor.]\n\n[Footnote 16: Idas and Lynkeus.]\n\n[Footnote 17: Polydeukes.]\n\n[Footnote 18: Either of the thunderbolt, or of a funeral-pile.]\n\n[Footnote 19: Both brothers were nominally sons of Tyndareus, but\nreally only Kastor was: Polydeukes was a son of Zeus.]\n\n\n\nXI.\n\nFOR ARISTAGORAS OF TENEDOS,\n\nON HIS ELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY OF THE SENATE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis ode again was written neither for a Nemean nor for any other\nathletic victory, but for the [Greek: eisitaeria] or initiatory\nceremonies at the election of a new [Greek: prytanis] of Tenedos. The\nPrytanis would seem to have been a kind of President of the Senate.\nThe date is unknown.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nDaughter of Rhea, who hast in thy keeping the city halls[1], O\nHestia! sister of highest Zeus and of Hera sharer of his throne, with\ngood-will welcome Aristagoras to thy sanctuary, with good-will also\nhis fellows[2] who draw nigh to thy glorious sceptre, for they\nin paying honour unto thee keep Tenedos in her place erect, by\ndrink-offerings glorifying thee many times before the other gods, and\nmany times by the savour of burnt sacrifice; and the sound of their\nlutes is loud, and of their songs: and at their tables never-failing\nare celebrated the rites of Zeus, the stranger's friend.\n\nSo with fair fame and unvexed heart may Aristagoras fulfil his\ntwelve-month term.\n\nBlessed among men I count his father Arkesilas, and himself for his\nsplendid body and his heritage of a dauntless heart.\n\nBut if any man shall possess wealth, and withal surpass his fellows in\ncomely form, and in games have shown his strength to be the best, let\nsuch an one remember that his raiment is upon mortal limbs, and that\nthe earth shall be his vesture at the end.\n\nYet in good words of his fellow-citizens is it meet that his praise be\ntold, and that we make his name comely with notes of honey-sounding\nsong.\n\nNow among the neighbouring peoples sixteen illustrious victories have\ncrowned Aristagoras and his famous clan in the wrestling-match and\nin the pankration of weighty honour. But hopes too diffident of his\nparents kept back the might of their son from essaying the Pythian or\nOlympian strife: yet verily by the God of Truth I am persuaded that\nboth at Castaly and at the tree-clad hill of Kronos, had he gone\nthither, he should have turned back home with more honour than any of\nhis rivals who had striven with him, when that he had kept the fifth\nyear's feast[3] ordained of Herakles with dance and song, and with the\nshining shoots had bound his hair.\n\nBut thus among mortals is one cast down from weal by empty boasts,\nwhile another through overmuch mistrusting of his strength is robbed\nof his due honours, for that a spirit of little daring draggeth him\nbackward by the hand.\n\nThis were an easy thing to divine, that Peisander's[4] stock was from\nSparta in the time of old (for from Amyklai he came[5] with Orestes,\nbringing hither an army of Aiolians in bronze mail): and also that the\nblood of his mother's brother Melanippos was blended with Ismenos'\nstream[6].\n\nThe virtues of an old descent repeat their vigour uncertainly in the\ngenerations of men. Neither doth the black-soiled tilth bring forth\nfruit continually, neither will the trees be persuaded to bear with\nevery year's return a fragrant flower of equal wealth, but in their\nturns only. Thus also doth destiny lead on the race of mortals. From\nZeus there cometh no clear sign to men: yet nevertheless we enter on\nhigh counsels, and meditate many acts: for by untameable hope our\nbodies are enthralled: but the tides of our affairs are hidden from\nour fore-knowledge. Meet is it to pursue advantage moderately:\nfiercest is the madness that springeth from unappeasable desires.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: The sacred fire of the state, over which Hestia watched,\nwas kept in the Prytaneion.]\n\n[Footnote 2: The other Senators.]\n\n[Footnote 3: The Olympic.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Ancestor of Aristagoras and head of his clan.]\n\n[Footnote 5: 'In the loins of his father.']\n\n[Footnote 6: I. e. a Theban alliance.]\n\n\n\nTHE ISTHMIAN ODES.\n\n\nI.\n\nFOR HERODOTOS OF THEBES.\n\nWINNER IN THE CHARIOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe date of this ode is unknown. We gather from the first strophe that\nPindar was engaged at the time to write an ode in honour of the Delian\nApollo to be sung at Keos, but that he put this off in order first to\nwrite the present ode in honour of a victory won for his own native\nstate of Thebes.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nO mother, Thebe of the golden shield, thy service will I set even\nabove the matter that was in my hand. May rocky Delos, whereto I am\nvowed, be not therefore wroth with me. Is there aught dearer to the\ngood than noble parents?\n\nGive place O Apollonian isle: these twain fair offices, by the grace\nof God, will I join together in their end, and to Phoibos of the\nunshorn hair in island Keos with men of her sea-race will I make my\nchoral song, and therewithal this other for the sea-prisoning cliffs\nof Isthmos.\n\nFor six crowns hath Isthmos given from her games to the people of\nKadmos, a fair glory of triumph for my country, for the land wherein\nAlkmene bare her dauntless son, before whom trembled aforetime the\nfierce hounds of Geryon.\n\nBut I for Herodotos' praise am fain to do honour unto his four-horsed\ncar, and to marry to the strain of Kastoreian or Iolaic song the fame\nthat he hath earned, handling his reins in his own and no helping\nhand.\n\nFor these Kastor and Iolaos were of all heroes the mightiest\ncharioteers, the one to Lakedaimon, the other born to Thebes. And at\nthe games they entered oftenest for the strife, and with tripods and\ncaldrons and cups of gold they made fair their houses, attaining unto\nvictorious crowns: clear shineth their prowess in the foot-race, run\nnaked or with the heavy clattering shield; and when they hurled the\njavelin and the quoit: for then was there no five-fold game[1], but\nfor each several feat there was a prize. Oft did they bind about their\nhair a crowd of crowns, and showed themselves unto the waters of Dirke\nor on Eurotas' banks[2], the son of Iphikles a fellow-townsman of\nthe Spartoi's race, the son of Tyndareus inhabiting the upland\ndwelling-place of Therapna[3] among the Achaians.\n\nSo hail ye and farewell: I on Poseidon and holy Isthmos, and on the\nlake-shores of Onchestos will throw the mantle of my song, and will\namong the glories of this man make glorious also the story of his\nfather Asopodoros' fate, and his new country Orchomenos, which, when\nhe drave ashore on a wrecked ship, harboured him amid his dismal\nhap[4]. But now once more hath the fortune of his house raised him up\nto see the fair days of the old time: and he who hath suffered pain\nbeareth forethought within his soul.\n\nIf a man's desire be wholly after valour, and he give thereto both\nwealth and toil, meet is it that to such as attain unto it we offer\nwith ungrudging heart high meed of praise. For an easy gift it is for\na son of wisdom[5], by a good word spoken in recompense for labour\nmanifold to set on high the public fame. For diverse meeds for diverse\nworks are sweet to men, to the shepherd and to the ploughman, to the\nfowler and to him whom the sea feedeth--howbeit all those strive but\nto keep fierce famine from their bellies; but whoso in the games or in\nwar hath won delightful fame, receiveth the highest of rewards in fair\nwords of citizens and of strangers.\n\nUs it beseemeth to requite the earth-shaking son of Kronos, who is\nalso neighbour unto us, and to sound his praise as our well-doer,\nwho hath given speed to the horses of our car, and to call upon thy\nsons[6], Amphitryon, and the inland dwelling[7] of Minyas, and the\nfamous grove of Demeter, even Eleusis, and Euboia with her curving\nrace-course. And thy holy place, Protesilas, add I unto these, built\nthee at Phylake by Achaian men.\n\nBut to tell over all that Hermes lord of games hath given to Herodotos\nby his horses, the short space of my hymn alloweth not. Yea and full\noft doth the keeping of silence bring forth a larger joy.\n\nNow may Herodotos, up-borne upon the sweet-voiced Muse's shining\nwings, yet again with wreaths from Pytho and choice wreaths from\nAlpheos from the Olympian games entwine his hand, and bring honour\nunto seven-gated Thebes.\n\nNow if one at home store hidden wealth, and fall upon other men to\nmock them, this man considereth not that he shall give up his soul to\ndeath having known no good report.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: The Pentathlon. See Introduction to Ol. xiii, and note on\nNem. vii, p. 129.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Rivers were [Greek: kourotrophoi] (nurturers of youth),\nand thus young men who had achieved bodily feats were especially bound\nto return thanks to the streams of their native places.]\n\n[Footnote 3: In Lakonia.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Asopodoros seems to have been banished from Thebes and\nkindly received in his banishment by Orchomenos.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Here, as elsewhere probably in the special sense of a\npoet.]\n\n[Footnote 6: Herakles and Iolaos.]\n\n[Footnote 7: Orchomenos.]\n\n\n\nII.\n\nFOR XENOKRATES OF AKRAGAS,\n\nWINNER IN THE CHARIOT-RACE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis is the same winner for whom the sixth Pythian ode was written.\nIts date would seem to be 476, while that of the sixth Pythian\nwas 494. Yet the opening passage of this ode seems to imply that\nXenokiates' son Thrasyboulos was still little more than a boy, whereas\nin 494 he had been old enough to be his father's charioteer, and this\nwould be eighteen years later. But perhaps the passage is only an\nallusion to Thrasyboulos' boyhood as a time past. And certainly both\nXenokrates and his brother Theron seem to be spoken of in this ode as\nalready dead, and we know that Theron did not die till 473. Perhaps\ntherefore Thrasyboulos was celebrating in 472 the anniversary of his\ndeceased father's victory, four years after the victory itself.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe men of old, Thrasyboulos, who went up into the Muse's car to give\nwelcome with the loud-voiced lyre, lightly for honour of boys shot\nforth their honey-sounding songs, whensoever in one fair of form was\nfound that sweetest summer-bloom that turneth hearts to think on\nfair-throned Aphrodite.\n\nFor then the Muse was not yet covetous nor a hireling, neither were\nsweet lays tender-voiced sold with silvered faces by Terpsichore of\nhoneyed speech. But now doth she bid heed the word of the Argive\nman[1] which keepeth nigh to the paths of truth:\n\n'Money, money maketh man,' he said, when robbed of goods at once and\nfriends.\n\nForasmuch as thou art wise it is nothing hidden to thee that I sing,\nwhile I do honour to the Isthmian victory won by speed of horses,\nwhich to Xenokrates did Poseidon give, and sent to him a wreath of\nDorian parsley to bind about his hair, a man of goodly chariot, a\nlight of the people of Akragas.\n\nAlso at Krisa did far-prevailing Apollo look upon him, and gave him\nthere too glory: and again when he attained unto the crowns of the\nErectheidai in shining Athens he found no fault in the chariot-saving\nhand of the man Nikomachos who drave his horses, the hand wherewith in\nthe instant of need he bare on all the reins[2].\n\nMoreover the heralds of the seasons[3], the Elean truce-bringers\nof Zeus the son of Kronos, recognized him, having met belike with\nhospitality from him, and in a voice of dulcet breath they gave him\ngreeting for that he had fallen at the knees of golden Victory in\ntheir land which men call the holy place of Olympic Zeus, where the\nsons[4] of Ainesidamos attained unto honour everlasting.\n\nFor no stranger is your house, O Thrasyboulos, to pleasant shouts\nof triumph, neither to sweet-voiced songs. For not uphill neither\nsteep-sloped is the path whereby one bringeth the glories of the\nHelikonian maidens to dwell with famous men.\n\nBy a far throw of the quoit may I hurl even so far as did Xenokrates\nsurpass all men in the sweetness of his spirit. In converse with\ncitizens was he august, and upheld horse-racing after the Hellenes'\nwont: also worshipped he at all festivals of the gods, nor ever did\nthe breeze that breathed around his hospitable board give him cause to\ndraw in his sail, but with the summer-gales he would fare unto Phasis,\nand in his winter voyage unto the shores of Nile[5].\n\nLet not Thrasyboulos now, because that jealous hopes beset the mind\nof mortals, be silent concerning his father's prowess, nor from these\nhymns: for not to lie idle have I devised them. That message give him,\nNikesippos, when thou comest unto my honoured friend.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Aristodemos.]\n\n[Footnote 2: I. e. either tightened the near or slackened the off\nreins to the utmost in turning the goal, or perhaps, gave full rein to\nhis horses between each turn or after the final one.]\n\n[Footnote 3: The heralds who proclaimed throughout Hellas the approach\nof the Olympic games, and an universal solemn truce during their\ncelebration.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Theron, the tyrant of Akragas, and Xenokrates.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Metaphorically, in the extent of his hospitality.]\n\n\n\nIII.\n\nFOR MELISSOS OF THEBES,\n\nWINNER IN THE PANKRATION.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe date of this ode is uncertain, though some on the hypothesis that\nthe battle alluded to is the battle of Plataiai, have dated it 478\nor 474. In this battle, whatever it was, the Kleonymid clan to which\nMelissos belonged had lost four men. The celebrity of the clan in the\ngames seems to have been eclipsed for some time, but Melissos revived\nit by a chariot-victory at Nemea and this pankration-victory at the\nIsthmus, won in spite of his small stature which might have seemed to\nplace him at a disadvantage. The ode compares his match against his\nantagonists with that of Herakles against the African giant Antaios.\n\nVery probably this ode was sung at a night meeting of the clan, while\nthe altars of Herakles were blazing.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIf any among men having good fortune and dwelling amid prizes of\nrenown or the power of wealth restraineth in his heart besetting\ninsolence, this man is worthy to have part in his citizens' good\nwords.\n\nBut from thee, O Zeus, cometh all high excellence to mortals; and\nlonger liveth their bliss who have thee in honour, but with minds\nperverse it consorteth never steadfastly, flourishing throughout all\ntime.\n\nIn recompense for glorious deeds it behoveth that we sing the valiant,\nand amid his triumphal company exalt him with fair honours. Of two\nprizes is the lot fallen to Melissos, to turn his heart unto sweet\nmirth, for in the glens of Isthmos hath he won crowns, and again\nin the hollow vale of the deep-chested lion being winner in the\nchariot-race he made proclamation that his home was Thebes.\n\nThus shameth he not the prowess of his kinsmen. Ye know the ancient\nfame of Kleonymos with the chariot: also on the mother's side being\nakin to the Labdakidai his race hath been conversant with riches, and\nbestowed them on the labours of the four-horse car.\n\nBut time with rolling days bringeth changes manifold: only the\nchildren of gods are free of wounds.\n\nBy grace of God I have ways countless everywhere open unto me[1]: for\nthou hast shown forth to me, O Melissos, in the Isthmian games an\nample means to follow in song the excellence of thy race: wherein the\nKleonymidai flourish continually, and in favour with God pass onward\nthrough the term of mortal life: howbeit changing gales drive all men\nwith ever-changing drift.\n\nThese men verily are spoken of as having honour at Thebes from the\nbeginning, for that they cherished the inhabitants round about, and\nhad no part in loud insolence; if there be borne about by the winds\namong men aught of witness to the great honour of quick or dead, unto\nsuch have they attained altogether. By the brave deeds of their house\nthey have touched the pillars of Herakles, that are at the end of\nthings. Beyond that follow thou no excellence.\n\nHorse-breeders moreover have they been, and found favour with mailed\nAres; but in one day the fierce snow-storm of war hath made a happy\nhearth to be desolate of four men.\n\nBut now once more after that wintry gloom hath it blossomed, even as\nin the flowery months the earth blossometh with red roses, according\nto the counsels of gods.\n\nFor the Shaker of Earth who inhabiteth Onchestos and the Bridge[2]\nbetween seas that lieth before the valley of Corinth, now giveth to\nthe house this hymn of wonder, and leadeth up out of her bed the\nancient glory of the famous deeds thereof: for she was fallen on\nsleep; but she awaketh and her body shineth preeminent, as among stars\nthe Morning-star.\n\nFor in the land of Athens proclaiming a victory of the car, and at\nSikyon at the games of Adrastos did she give like wreaths of song for\nthe sons of Kleonymos that then were. For neither did they refrain to\ncontend with the curved chariot in the great meetings of the people,\nbut they had delight to strive with the whole folk of Hellas in\nspending their wealth on steeds.\n\nTouching the unproven there is silence, and none knoweth them: yea and\neven from them that strive Fortune hideth herself until they come unto\nthe perfect end; for she giveth of this and of that.\n\nThe better man hath been ere now overtaken and overthrown by the craft\nof worse. Verily ye know the bloody deed of Aias, that he wrought\nbeneath the far-spent night, when he smote himself through with his\nown sword, whereby he upbraideth yet the children of the Hellenes, as\nmany as went forth to Troy.\n\nBut lo! Homer hath done him honour among men, and by raising up his\nexcellence in the fulness thereof hath through the rod[3] of his\ndivine lays delivered it to bards after him to sing.\n\nFor the thing that one hath well said goeth forth with a voice unto\neverlasting: over fruitful earth and beyond the sea hath the light of\nfair deeds shined, unquenchable for ever.\n\nMay we find favour with the Muses, that for Melissos too we kindle\nsuch beacon-blaze of song, a worthy prize of the pankration for this\nscion of Telesias' son.\n\nHe being like unto the roaring lions in courage taketh unto him their\nspirit to be his own in the struggle: but in sleight he is as the fox\nthat spreadeth out her feet[4] and preventeth the swoop of the eagle:\nfor all means must be essayed by him that would prevail over his foe.\nFor not of the stature of Orion was this man, but his presence is\ncontemptible, yet terrible is he to grapple with in his strength.\n\nAnd verily once to the house of Antaios came a man to wrestle against\nhim, of short stature but of unbending soul, from Kadmean Thebes even\nunto corn-bearing Libya, that he might cause him to cease from roofing\nPoseidon's temple with the skulls of strangers--even the son of\nAlkmene, he who ascended up to Olympus, after that he had searched out\nthe surface of the whole earth and of the crag-walled hoary sea,\nand had made safe way for the sailing of ships. And now beside the\naegis-bearer he dwelleth, possessing happiness most fair, and hath\nhonour from the immortals as their friend, and hath Hebe to wife, and\nis lord of a golden house, and husband of Hera's child.\n\nUnto his honour upon the heights Elektrai we of this city prepare a\nfeast and new-built altar-ring, where we offer burnt sacrifice in\nhonour of the eight mail-clad men that are dead, whom Megara, Kreon's\ndaughter, bore to be sons of Herakles.\n\nTo them at the going down of the day there ariseth a flame of fire and\nburneth all night continually, amid a savoury smoke hurling itself\nagainst the upper air: and on the second day is the award of the\nyearly games, a trial of strength.\n\nTherein did this our man, his head with myrtle-wreaths made white,\nshow forth a double victory, after another won already among the boys,\nfor that he had regard unto the many counsels of him who was the pilot\nof his helm[5]. And with Orseas' name I join him in my triumphal song,\nand shed over them a glory of delight.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: 'Many themes on which I can justly praise the clan.']\n\n[Footnote 2: The Isthmus.]\n\n[Footnote 3: The rod or staff carried anciently by poets and reciters\nof poems.]\n\n[Footnote 4: I. e. throwing herself on her back with feet upward. If\nit is meant that she counterfeits death, then of course the parallel\nwith the pankratiast will only hold good to the extent of the supine\nposture.]\n\n[Footnote 5: His trainer, Orseas.]\n\n\n\nIV.\n\nFOR PHYLAKIDAS OF AIGINA,\n\nWINNER IN THE PANKRATION.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis Phylakidas was a son of Lampon, and a brother of the Pytheas for\nwhom the fifth Nemean was written. This ode must have been written\nshortly after the battle of Salamis, probably B.C. 478, and was to\nbe sung at Aigina, perhaps at a festival of the goddess Theia who is\ninvoked at the beginning. She, according to Hesiod, was the mother\nof the Sun, the Moon, and the Morning, and was also called [Greek:\nEuruphaessa] and [Greek: chruse], from which latter name perhaps came\nher association with gold and wealth.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMother of the Sun, Theia of many names, through thee it is that men\nprize gold as mighty above all things else: for ships that strive upon\nthe sea and horses that run in chariots, for the honour that is of\nthee, O queen, are glorified in swiftly circling struggle.\n\nAnd that man also hath won longed-for glory in the strife of games,\nfor whose strong hand or fleet foot abundant wreaths have bound his\nhair. Through God is the might of men approved.\n\nTwo things alone there are that cherish life's bloom to its utmost\nsweetness amidst the fair flowers of wealth--to have good success and\nto win therefore fair fame. Seek not to be as Zeus; if the portion\nof these honours fall to thee, thou hast already all. The things of\nmortals best befit mortality.\n\nFor thee, Phylakidas, a double glory of valour is at Isthmos stored,\nand at Nemea both for thee and for Pytheas a pankratiast's crown.\n\nNot without the sons of Aiakos will my heart indite of song: and in\ncompany of the Graces am I come for sake of Lampon's sons to this\ncommonwealth of equal laws[1]. If then on the clear high road of\ngod-given deeds she hath set her feet, grudge not to mingle in song a\nseemly draught of glory for her toil.\n\nFor even the great men of old that were good warriors have profited of\nthe telling of their tale, and are glorified on the lute and in the\npipe's strains manifold, through immeasurable time: and to the cunning\nin words[2] they give matter by the grace of Zeus.\n\nThus by their worship with the blaze of burnt-offerings among\nAitolians have the mighty sons[3] of Oineus honour, and at Thebes\nIolaos the charioteer, and at Argos Perseus, and by the streams of\nEurotas Polydeukes and Kastor's spear:\n\nBut in Oinone the great souls of Aiakos and his sons, who after much\nfighting twice sacked the Trojans' town, first when they went with\nHerakles, and again with the sons of Atreus.\n\nNow drive me upward still; say who slew Kyknos, and who Hektor, and\nthe dauntless chief of Ethiop hosts, bronze-mailed Memnon. What man\nwas he who with his spear smote noble Telephos by Ka\u00efkos' banks? Even\nthey whose home my mouth proclaimeth to be Aigina's glorious isle:\na tower is she, builded from long ago, to tempt the climb of\nhigh-adventuring valour.\n\nMany arrows hath my truthful tongue in store wherewith to sound\nthe praises of her sons: and even but now in war might Aias' city,\nSalamis, bear witness thereto in her deliverance by Aigina's seamen\namid the destroying tempest of Zeus, when death came thick as hail on\nthe unnumbered hosts. Yet let no boast be heard. Zeus ordereth this or\nthat, Zeus, lord of all.\n\nNow in pleasant song even these honours also of the games welcome the\njoy for a fair victory. Let any strive his best in such, who hath\nlearnt what Kleonikos' house can do. Undulled is the fame of their\nlong toil, nor ever was their zeal abated by any counting of the cost.\n\nAlso have I praise for Pytheas, for that he guided aright[4] the\ncourse of Phylakidas' blows in the struggle of hands that bring limbs\nlow, an adversary he of cunning soul.\n\nTake for him a crown, and bring the fleecy fillet, and speed him on\nhis way with this new winged hymn.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Aigina.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Poets.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Meleager and his brothers.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Pytheas had given his brother example, and very probably\nprecept also, in the pankration.]\n\n\n\nV.\n\nFOR PHYLAKIDAS OF AIGINA,\n\nWINNER IN THE PANKRATION.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis ode seems to be of earlier date than the last, though placed\nafter it in our order. The occasion is similar. Probably it was sung\nat a banquet at Lampon's house.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAs one may do amid merry revel of men, so mingle we a second time the\nbowls of Muses' melody in honour of Lampon's athlete progeny.\n\nOur first, O Zeus, was unto thee, when at Nemea we[1] won thy\nexcellent crown, and now is this second unto the lord[2] of Isthmos\nand unto the fifty daughters of Nereus, for that Phylakidas the\nyoungest son is winner in the games. And be it ours to make ready yet\na third for the Saviour[3], the Olympian one, and in honour of Aigina\nmake libation of our honey-speaking song.\n\nFor if a man rejoice to suffer cost and toil, and achieve god-builded\nexcellence, and therewithal fate plant for him fair renown, already\nat the farthest bounds of bliss hath such an one cast anchor, for the\nglory that he hath thereby from God. With such desires prayeth the\nson[4] of Kleonikos that he may fulfil them ere he meet death or hoary\neld.\n\nNow I call on high-throned Klotho and her sister Fates to draw nigh\nunto the praying of the man I love.\n\nAnd upon you also, golden-charioted seed of Aiakos, I say it is clear\nlaw to me to shed the dew of my good words, what time I set my foot[5]\nupon this isle.\n\nFor innumerable hundred-foot[6] straight roads are cleft for your\nfair deeds to go forth, beyond the springs of Nile, and through the\nHyperboreans' midst: neither is any town so barbarous and strange\nof speech that it knoweth not the fame of Peleus, that blissful\nson-in-law of gods, or of Aias son of Telamon, and of Aias' sire; whom\nunto brazen war an eager ally with Tirynthian men Alkmene's son took\nwith him in his ships to Troy, to the place of heroes' toil, to take\nvengeance for Laomedon's untruth.\n\nThere did Herakles take the city of Pergamos, and with help of Telamon\nslew the nations of the Meropes, and the herdsman whose stature was as\na mountain, Alkyoneus whom he found at Phlegrai, and spared not of his\nhands the terrible twanging bowstring.\n\nBut when he went to call the son of Aiakos to the voyage he found the\nwhole company at the feast. And as he stood there in his lion's skin,\nthen did Telamon their chief challenge Amphitryon's son of the mighty\nspear to make initiative libation of nectar, and handed on unto him\nthe wine-cup rough with gold.\n\nAnd Herakles stretched forth to heaven his invincible hands and spake\non this wise: 'If ever, O father Zeus, thou hast heard my prayer with\nwilling heart, now, even now, with strong entreaty I pray thee that\nthou give this man a brave child of Eriboia's womb, that by award of\nfate my friend may gain a son of body as staunch[7] as this hide that\nhangeth about me, which was of the beast that I slew at Nemea, first\nof all my labours; and let his soul be of like sort.'\n\nAnd when he had thus spoken, the god sent forth the king of birds,\na mighty eagle, and sweet delight thrilled him within, and he spake\naloud as a seer speaketh: 'Behold, the son whom thou askest shall\nbe born unto thee, O Telamon:' also after the bird's name that had\nappeared unto them he said that the child's name should be the mighty\nAias[8], terrible in the strife of warring hosts: so he spake, and\nsate him down straightway.\n\nBut for me it were long to tell all those valiant deeds. For for\nPhylakidas am I come, O Muse, a dispenser of thy triumphal songs, and\nfor Pytheas, and for Euthymenes[9]; therefore in Argive fashion my\ntale shall be of fewest words.\n\nThree victories have they won in the pankration of Isthmos, and others\nat leafy Nemea, even these noble sons and their mother's brother: how\nfair a portion of song have they brought to light! yea and they water\nwith the Charites' delicious dew their clan of the Psalychidai, and\nhave raised up the house of Themistios, and dwell here in a city which\nthe gods love well.\n\nAnd Lampon, in that he bestoweth practice on all he doth, holdeth\nin high honour the word of Hesiod which speaketh thereof[10], and\nexhorteth thereunto his sons, whereby he bringeth unto his city a\ngeneral fame: and for his kind entreating of strangers is he loved, to\nthe just mean aspiring, to the just mean holding fast; and his tongue\ndeparteth not from his thoughts: and among athlete men he is as the\nbronze-grinding Naxian whetstone amid stones[11].\n\nNow will I give him to drink of the holy water of Dirke, which\ngolden-robed Mnemosyne's deep-girdled daughters made once to spring\nout of the earth, beside the well-walled gates of Kadmos.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: I. e. Pytheas. See Nem. v.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Poseidon.]\n\n[Footnote 3: [Greek: Zeus Sotaer], to whom the third cup at a feast\nwas drunk. He is here invoked also to give a third victory to the\nfamily at the Olympic games.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Lampon.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Figuratively said, as elsewhere.]\n\n[Footnote 6: A hundred feet wide, seemingly.]\n\n[Footnote 7: Not 'invulnerable.' A magic invulnerability was only\nattributed to heroes by later legend.]\n\n[Footnote 8: From [Greek: aietos] an eagle.]\n\n[Footnote 9: Maternal uncle of Pytheas and Phylakidas.]\n\n[Footnote 10: [Greek: melete de ergon ophellei]. Opp. 411.]\n\n[Footnote 11: I. e. he stimulates their zeal and skill. The Naxian\nwhetstone seems to be emery.]\n\n\n\nVI.\n\nFOR STREPSIADES OF THEBES,\n\nWINNER IN THE PANKRATION.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe date of this ode is not fixed, but it has been supposed that the\nbattle referred to--apparently a defeat--in which the winner's uncle\nwas killed was the battle of Oinophyta, fought B.C. 457. But this, and\nthe notion that the democratic revolution at Thebes is referred to,\nare only conjectures.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWherewithal of the fair deeds done in thy land, O divine Thebe, hath\nthy soul had most delight? Whether when thou broughtest forth to the\nlight Dionysos of the flowing hair, who sitteth beside Demeter to whom\nthe cymbals clang? or when at midnight in a snow of gold thou didst\nreceive the mightiest of the gods, what time he stood at Amphitryon's\ndoors and beguiled his wife, to the begetting of Herakles? Or when\nthou hadst honour in the wise counsels of Teiresias, or in Iolaos the\ncunning charioteer, or the unwearied spears of the Spartoi? or when\nout of the noise of the strong battle-cry thou sentest Adrastos home\nto horse-breeding Argos, of his countless company forlorn? or when\nthou madest the Dorian colony of the men of Lakedaimon stand upright\nupon its feet[1], and the sons of Aigeus thy progeny took Amyklai,\naccording to the oracles of Pytho?\n\nNay, but the glory of the old time sleepeth, and mortals are unmindful\nthereof, save such as married to the sounding stream of song attaineth\nunto the perfect meed that wisdom[2] giveth. New triumph now lead for\nStrepsiades with melodious hymn: for at Isthmos hath he borne away the\npankratiast's prize. Wondrous in strength is he, and to look upon of\ngoodly shape, and his valour is such as shameth not his stature.\n\nSo shineth he forth by grace of the Muses iris-haired, and to his\nuncle of like name hath he given to share his crown, for albeit\nbronze-shielded Ares gave him over unto death, yet remaineth there for\nthe valiant a recompense of renown. For let whoso amid the cloud of\nwar from his beloved country wardeth the bloody shower, and maketh\nhavoc in the enemy's host, know assuredly that for the race of his\nfellow-citizens he maketh their renown wax mightily, yea when he is\ndead even as while he was yet alive.\n\nSo didst thou, son[3] of Diodotos, following the praise of the warrior\nMeleagros, and of Hektor, and of Amphiaraos, breathe forth the spirit\nof thy fair-flowering youth amid the company of fighters in the front,\nwhere the bravest on slenderest hopes bare up the struggle of war.\n\nThen suffered I a pang unspeakable, but now hath the earth-grasper[4]\ngranted unto me a calm after the storm: I will set chaplets on my hair\nand sing. Now let no jealousy of immortals mar whatever sweet thing\nthrough a day's pursuit I follow, as it leadeth on up to old age, and\nunto the term of life appointed.\n\nFor all we in like manner die, albeit our lots be diverse. If any lift\nup his eye to look upon things afar off, yet is he too weak to attain\nunto the bronze-paved dwelling of the gods. Thus did winged Pegasos\nthrow his lord Bellerophon, when he would fain enter into the heavenly\nhabitations and mix among the company of Zeus. Unrighteous joyance a\nbitter end awaiteth.\n\nBut to us, O Loxias of the golden-flowing hair, give also at thy\nPythian games a new fair-flowering crown.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: The Theban Aigidai helped the mythical 'return of the\nHerakleidai.']\n\n[Footnote 2: Wisdom of bards.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Strepsiades the uncle.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Poseidon.]\n\n\n\nVII.\n\nFOR KLEANDROS OF AIGINA,\n\nWINNER IN THE PANKRATION.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAll that we can be certain of as to the date of this ode is that it\nwas written soon after the final expulsion of the Persians. From the\nfirst strophe we learn that Kleandros had won a Nemean as well as an\nIsthmian victory, and perhaps this ode really belongs to the former.\nIt was to be sung, it seems, before the house of Telesarchos the\nwinner's father, at Aigina.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFor Kleandros in his prime let some of you, ye young men, go stand\nbefore the shining portal of his father Telesarchos, and rouse a song\nof triumph, to be a glorious recompense of his toils, for that he hath\nachieved reward of victory at Isthmos, and hath showed his strength in\nthe games of Nemea.\n\nFor him I also, albeit heavy at heart[1], am bidden to call upon the\ngolden Muse. Yea since we are come forth from our sore troubles let\nus not fall into the desolation of crownlessness, neither nurse our\ngriefs; but having ease from our ills that are past mending, we will\nset some pleasant thing before the people, though it follow hard on\npain: inasmuch as some god hath put away from us the Tantalos-stone\nthat hung above our heads, a curse intolerable to Hellas.\n\nBut now hath the passing of this terror ended my sore disquietude, and\never it is better to look only on the thing hard by. For the guile of\ntime hangeth above the heads of men, and maketh the way of their life\ncrooked, yet if Freedom abide with them, even such things may mortals\ncure.\n\nBut it is meet that a man cherish good hope: and meet also that I,\nwhom seven-gated Thebes reared, proffer chiefly unto Aigina the\nchoicest of the Graces' gifts, for that from one sire were two\ndaughters[2] born, youngest of the children of Asopos, and found\nfavour in the eyes of the king Zeus.\n\nOne by the fair stream of Dirke he set to be the queen of a city of\ncharioteers, and thee the other he bare to the Oinopian isle, and lay\nwith thee, whence to the sire of great thunderings thou didst bear the\ngodlike Aiakos, best of men upon the earth.\n\nThis man even among divinities became a decider of strife: and his\ngodlike sons and his sons' sons delighting in battle were foremost in\nvalour when they met in the ringing brazen melley: chaste also were\nthey approved, and wise of heart.\n\nThereof was the god's council mindful, what time for the hand of\nThetis there was strife between Zeus and glorious Poseidon, each\nhaving desire that she should be his fair bride, for love had obtained\ndominion over them.\n\nYet did not the wisdom of the immortal gods fulfil for them such\nmarriage, when they had heard a certain oracle. For Themis of wise\ncounsels spake in the midst of them of how it was pre-destined that\nthe sea-goddess should bear a royal offspring mightier than his\nfather, whose hand should wield a bolt more terrible than the\nlightning or the dread trident, if she came ever into the bed of Zeus,\nor of brethren of Zeus.\n\n'Cease ye herefrom: let her enter a mortal's couch and see her son\nfall in war, who shall be as Ares in the might of his hands, and as\nthe lightning in the swiftness of his feet. My counsel is that ye give\nher to be the heaven-sent prize of Peleus son of Aiakos, whom the\nspeech of men showeth to be their most righteous, an offspring of\nIolkos' plain. Thus straightway let the message go forth to Cheiron's\ncave divine, neither let the daughter of Nereus put a second time\ninto your hands the ballot-leaves of strife. So on the evening of the\nmid-month moon shall she unbind for the hero the fair girdle of her\nvirginity.'\n\nThus spake the goddess her word to the children of Kronos, and they\nbowed their everlasting brows. Nor failed her words of fruit, for they\nsay that to Thetis' bridals came those twain kings even with the rest.\n\nOut of the mouths of the wise hath the young valour of Achilles\nbeen declared to them that beheld it not. He it was who stained the\nvine-clad Mysian plain with the dark blood of Telephos that he shed\nthereon, and made for the sons of Atreus a safe return across the sea,\nand delivered Helen, when that he had cut asunder with his spear the\nsinews of Troy, even the men who kept him back as he plied the work\nof slaughterous battle on the plain, the strength of Memnon and\nhigh-hearted Hektor, and other chiefs of pride. Unto all these did\nAchilles, champion of the Aiakid race, point the way to the house of\nPersephone, and thereby did he glorify Aigina and the root whence he\nwas sprung.\n\nNeither in death was he of songs forsaken, for at his funeral pyre and\nbeside his tomb stood the Helikonian maiden-choir, and poured thereon\na dirge of many melodies. For so the immortals willed, to give charge\nunto the songs of goddesses over that valorous man even in his death.\n\nAnd now also holdeth such charge good, and the Muses' chariot speedeth\nto sound the glories of Nikokles the boxer[3]. Honour to him who in\nthe Isthmian vale hath won the Dorian parsley: for he even as Achilles\novercame men in battle, turning them to confusion, with hand from\nwhich flight was vain. Him shameth not this kinsman of his father's\nnoble brother. Wherefore let some one of the young men his fellows\ntwine for Kleandros a wreath of tender myrtle for his pankratiast\nvictory. For the games whose name is of Alkathoos[4], and the youth of\nEpidauros[5], have ere now entertained him with good hap. To praise\nhim is given unto the good: for in no hidden corner quenched he his\nyouth, unproven in honourable deeds.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Because, though the Persians had been defeated, Thebes,\nPindar's city, had not shared the glory.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Thebe and Aigine.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Uncle of the winner.]\n\n[Footnote 4: A son of Pelops: he slew the lion of Kithairon.]\n\n[Footnote 5: The Epidaurian games were in honour of Asklepios.]\n\n\n\nFRAGMENTS.\n\nNearly two-thirds of the Fragments cannot be assigned to any distinct\nclass: the rest are divided among (1) [Greek: Epinikia], or Triumphal\nOdes (such as are the odes remaining to us entire), (2) [Greek:\nHymnoi], or Hymns sung by a choir in honour of gods, (3) [Greek:\nPaianes], or Hymns of a like kind but anciently addressed especially\nto Apollo and Artemis for their intervention against pestilence, (4)\n[Greek: Dithyramboi], or choral songs of more general compass, verging\nsometimes on the drama, (5) [Greek: Prosodia], or Processional Songs,\n(6) [Greek: Parthenia], or Songs for a Choir of Maidens, (7) [Greek:\nHyporchaemata], or Songs with Accompaniment of Dance, (8) [Greek:\nEnkomia], or Odes sung by a [Greek: komos] in praise of some person\nbut not necessarily on any special occasion, (9) [Greek: Skolia], or\nSongs to be sung at Banquets, (10) [Greek: Thraenoi], or Dirges.\n\n\n\nFRAGMENT OF A DITHYRAMB,\n\nTO BE SUNG AT ATHENS.\n\nHither! Olympian gods to our choice dance, and make your grace to\ndescend thereon and to glorify it, ye who in sacred Athens visit the\ncity's incensed centre-stone, and her famed market-place of splendid\nornament; receive ye violet-entwin\u00ebd crowns and drink-offerings of\nspring-gathered herbs, and look on me who am come from the house of\nZeus with my bright song a second time unto the ivy-crown\u00ebd god, whom\nwe call Bromios, even the god of clamorous shout.\n\nTo sing the offspring[1] of the Highest and of Kadme\u00e4n mothers am I\ncome.\n\nIn Argive Nemea the prophet of the god overlooketh not the branch of\npalm, what time with the opening of the chamber of the Hours, the\nnectarous plants perceive the fragrant spring[2].\n\nThen, then are strown over the face of the eternal earth the lovely\nviolet-tufts, then are roses twined in hair, then sound to the flute's\naccompaniment voices of song, then sound our choice hymns unto the\nhonour of bright-filleted Semele ...\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Dionysos, son of Zeus and of Semele, daughter of Kadmos.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Bockh has suggested the following ingenious explanation\nof this passage. In the temple of Zeus at Nemea grew a sacred palm,\nand a branch of this was given, together with his crown, to a winner\nin the Nemean games. Pindar had been at those games in the winter, and\nmeans that he, like the priest of the temple, could foresee from the\ntokens of the branch that spring was approaching, and with spring the\nvernal Dionysia at Athens.]\n\n\nFRAGMENTS OF A PROCESSION-SONG ([Greek: prosodion]),\n\nIN HONOUR OF DELOS.\n\nHail! god-reared daughter of the sea, earth-shoot most dear to\nbright-haired Leto's children, wide earth's immoveable marvel, who of\nmortals art called Delos, but of the blessed gods in Olympus the dark\nearth's far-seen star[1]... ... For of old time it[2] drifted before\nthe waves and stress of winds from every side; but when she[3] of\nKoios set foot thereon, as the swift pains of her travailing drew\nnigh, then verily from roots deep down in earth there sprang upright\nfour pillars with adamantine base, and on their capitals they held up\nthe rock: there was the goddess delivered, and looked upon her blessed\nbrood........\n\n\n[Footnote 1: The old mythical name of Delos was Asteria.]\n\n[Footnote 2: The island.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Leto.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nFRAGMENT OF A SONG WITH ACCOMPANIMENT OF DANCE\n([Greek: huporchaema]), WRITTEN ON OCCASION OF AN ECLIPSE\nOF THE SUN, PROBABLY THAT OF APRIL 30, B.C. 463.\n\nWherefore, O Light of the Sun, thou that seest all things and givest\nbounds unto the sight of mine eyes--wherefore O star supreme hast thou\nin the daytime hidden thyself, and made useless unto men the wings of\ntheir strength and the paths that wisdom findeth, and hastest along a\nway of darkness to bring on us some strange thing?\n\nNow in the name of Zeus I pray unto thee, O holy Light, that by thy\nswift steeds thou turn this marvel in the sight of all men to be for\nthe unimpaired good hap of Thebes. Yet if the sign which thou showest\nus be of some war, or destruction of harvest, or an exceeding storm of\nsnow, or ruinous civil strife, or emptying of the sea upon the earth,\nor freezing of the soil, or summer rains pouring in vehement flood, or\nwhether thou wilt drown the earth and make anew another race of men,\nthen will I suffer it amid the common woe of all....\n\n\n\nFRAGMENTS.\n\nI\n\nFRAGMENTS OF DIRGES (thraenoi).\n\n.... For them shineth below the strength of the sun while in our world\nit is night, and the space of crimsonflowered meadows before their\ncity is full of the shade of frankincense-trees, and of fruits of\ngold. And some in horses, and in bodily feats, and some in dice,\nand some in harp-playing have delight; and among them thriveth all\nfair-flowering bliss; and fragrance streameth ever through the lovely\nland, as they mingle incense of every kind upon the altars of the\ngods....\n\nII.\n\n.... BY happy lot travel all unto an end that giveth them rest from\ntoils. And the body indeed is subject unto the great power of death,\nbut there remaineth yet alive a shadow of life; for this only is from\nthe gods; and while the limbs stir, it sleepeth, but unto sleepers\nin dreams discovereth oftentimes the judgment that draweth nigh for\nsorrow or for joy..\n\nIII\n\nBut from whomsoever Persephone accepteth atonement made for an ancient\nwoe, their souls unto the light of the sun above she sendeth back\nagain in the ninth year. And from those souls spring noble kings,\nand men swift and strong and in wisdom very great: and through the\nafter-time they are called holy heroes among men......\n\n\nTHE END.","title":"The Extant Odes of Pindar: Translated with Introduction and Short Notes by Ernest Myers","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":52169}