The Extant Odes of Pindar Part 8

In company with that horse also on a time, from out of the bosom of the chill and desert air, he smote the archer host of Amazons, and slew the Solymoi, and Chimaira breathing fire. I will keep silence touching the fate of him: howbeit Pegasos hath in Olympus found a home in the ancient stalls of Zeus.

But for me who am to hurl straight the whirling javelin it is not meet to spend beside the mark my store of darts with utmost force of hand: for to the Muses throned in splendour and to the Oligaithidai a willing ally came I, at the Isthmos and again at Nemea. In a brief word will I proclaim the host of them, and a witness sworn and true shall be to me in the sweet-tongued voice of the good herald[9], heard at both places sixty times.

Now have their acts at Olympia, methinks, been told already: of those that shall be hereafter I will hereafter clearly speak. Now I live in hope, but the end is in the hands of G.o.ds. But if the fortune of the house fail not, we will commit to Zeus and Enyalios the accomplishment thereof.

Yet other glories won they, by Parna.s.sos' brow, and at Argos how many and at Thebes, and such as nigh the Arcadians[10] the lordly altar of Zeus Lykaios shall attest, and Pallene, and Sikyon, and Megara, and the well-fenced grove of the Aiakidai, and Eleusis, and l.u.s.ty Marathon, and the fair rich cities beneath Aetna's towering crest, and Euboea. Nay over all h.e.l.las if thou searchest, thou shalt find more than one sight can view.

O king Zeus the Accomplisher, grant them with so light feet[11] to move through life, give them all honour, and sweet hap of their goodly things.

[Footnote 1: The clan of the Oligaithidai, to which Xenophon belonged.]

[Footnote 2: I. e. as a prize. But the pa.s.sage may be taken differently as referring to the symbolical identification of Dionysos with the bull. Dithyrambic poetry was said to have been invented or improved by Arion of Corinth.]

[Footnote 3: This refers to the introduction into architecture by the Corinthians of the pediment, within or above which were at that time constantly placed images of eagles.]

[Footnote 4: The feast of Athene h.e.l.lotis.]

[Footnote 5: Nemea.]

[Footnote 6: The Lykians who fought under Glaukos on the Trojan side were of Corinthian descent.]

[Footnote 7: Poseidon.]

[Footnote 8: A bull.]

[Footnote 9: Proclaiming the name and city of the winner in the games.]

[Footnote 10: Reading [Greek: Arkasin a.s.son].]

[Footnote 11: As in their foot-races.]

XIV.

FOR ASOPICHOS OF ORCHOMENOS,

WINNER IN THE BOYS' SHORT FOOT-RACE.

This ode was to be sung, probably by a chorus of boys, at the winner's city Orchomenos, and most likely in the temple of the three or Graces, Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thalia.

The date of the victory is B.C. 476.

O ye who haunt the land of goodly steeds that drinketh of Kephisos'

waters, l.u.s.ty Orchomenos' queens renowned in song, O Graces, guardians of the Minyai's ancient race, hearken, for unto you I pray. For by your gift come unto men all pleasant things and sweet, and the wisdom of a man and his beauty, and the splendour of his fame. Yea even G.o.ds without the Graces' aid rule never at feast or dance; but these have charge of all things done in heaven, and beside Pythian Apollo of the golden bow they have set their thrones, and worship the eternal majesty of the Olympian Father.

O lady Aglaia, and thou Euphrosyne, lover of song, children of the mightiest of the G.o.ds, listen and hear, and thou Thalia delighting in sweet sounds, and look down upon this triumphal company, moving with light step under happy fate. In Lydian mood of melody concerning Asopichos am I come hither to sing, for that through thee, Aglaia, in the Olympic games the Minyai's home is winner. Fly, Echo, to Persephone's dark-walled home, and to his father bear the n.o.ble tidings, that seeing him thou mayest speak to him of his son, saying that for his father's honour in Pisa's famous valley he hath crowned his boyish hair with garlands from the glorious games.

THE PYTHIAN ODES.

I.

FOR HIERON OF AITNA,

WINNER IN THE CHARIOT-RACE.

The date of this victory is B.C. 474

In the year 480, the year of Salamis, the Syracusans under Hieron had defeated the Carthaginians in the great battle of Himera.

In 479 a great eruption of Etna (Aitna) began. In 476 Hieron founded, near the mountain but we may suppose at a safe distance, the new city of Aitna, in honour of which he had himself proclaimed as an Aitnaian after this and other victories in the games.

And in this same year, 474, he had defeated the Etruscans, or Tuscans, or Tyrrhenians in a great sea-fight before c.u.mae.

Pindar might well delight to honour those who had been waging so well against the barbarians of the South and West the same war which the h.e.l.lenes of the mother-country waged against the barbarians of the East.

O golden Lyre, thou common treasure of Apollo and the Muses violet-tressed, thou whom the dancer's step, prelude of festal mirth, obeyeth, and the singers heed thy bidding, what time with quivering strings thou utterest preamble of choir-leading overture--lo even the sworded lightning of immortal fire thou quenched, and on the sceptre of Zeus his eagle sleepeth, slackening his swift wings either side, the king of birds, for a dark mist thou hast distilled on his arched head, a gentle seal upon his eyes, and he in slumber heaveth his supple back, spell-bound beneath thy throbs.

Yea also violent Ares, leaving far off the fierce point of his spears, letteth his heart have joy in rest, for thy shafts soothe hearts divine by the cunning of Leto's son and the deep-bosomed Muses.

But whatsoever things Zeus loveth not fly frighted from the voice of the Pierides, whether on earth or on the raging sea; whereof is he who lieth in dreadful Tartaros, the foe of the G.o.ds, Typhon of the hundred heads, whom erst the den Kilikian of many names did breed, but now verily the sea-constraining cliffs beyond c.u.mae, and Sicily, lie heavy on his s.h.a.ggy breast: and he is fast bound by a pillar of the sky, even by snowy Etna, nursing the whole year's length her frozen snow.

Whereout pure springs of unapproachable fire are vomited from the inmost depths: in the daytime the lava-streams pour forth a lurid rush of smoke: but in the darkness a red rolling flame sweepeth rocks with uproar to the wide deep sea.

That dragon-thing[1] it is that maketh issue from beneath the terrible fiery flood, a monster marvellous to look upon, yea a marvel to hear of from such as go thereby and tell what thing is prisoned between the dark-wooded tops of Etna and the plain, where the back of him is galled and furrowed by the bed whereon he lieth.

O Zeus, be it ours to find favour in thy sight, who art defender of this mountain, the forehead of a fruitful land, whose namesake neighbour city hath been enn.o.bled by her glorious founder, for that on the race-course at the Pythian games the herald made proclamation of her name aloud, telling of Hieron's fair victory in the chariot-race.

Now the first boon to men in ships is that a favourable breeze come to them as they set forth upon the sea; for this is promise that in the end also they shall come with good hap home. So after this good fortune doth reason show us hope of crowns to come for Aitna's horses, and honour in the banquet-songs.

O Phoibos, lord of Lykia and of Delos, who lovest the spring of Castaly on thy Parna.s.sos, be this the purpose of thy will, and grant the land fair issue of her men.

For from G.o.ds come all means of mortal valour, hereby come bards and men of mighty hand and eloquent speech.

This is the man I am fain to praise, and trust that not outside the ring shall I hurl the bronze-tipped javelin I brandish in my hand, but with far throw outdo my rivals in the match.

Would that his whole life may give him, even as now, good luck and wealth right onward, and of his pains forgetfulness.