Complete Works of Pindar Read online

  Canst thou by searching find out God?

  Why dost thou deem that to be wisdom, in which one man in small measure excelleth another? For man is not able with his human mind to search out the counsels of the gods, but he was born of a mortal mother.

  FOR THE ATHENIANS

  of spring. The festival included dithyrambic contests between choruses of fifty members each.

  Haste to the dance and send your glorious favour, ye Olympian gods, who, in holy Athens, are marching to the densely crowded incense-breathing centre of the city, and to its richly adorned and glorious mart, there to receive garlands bound with violets, and songs culled in the spring-time. And look upon me, who, with joyance of songs, am once more sped by Zeus into the presence of the ivy-crowned god, whom we mortals call Bromius and Eriboas, to celebrate the progeny of sires supreme and of Cadmean mothers.

  Clearly seen are the bright symbols of sacred rites, whensoever, at the opening of the chamber of the purple-robed Hours, the fragrant Spring bringeth the nectar-breathing plants. Then, oh then, are flung on the immortal earth the lovely tresses of violets, and roses are entwined in the hair; then ring the voices of songs to the sound of flutes; then ring the dances in honour of diadem-wreathed Semelê.

  The Fame of Athens

  Oh! the gleaming, and the violet-crowned, and the sung in story; the bulwark of Hellas, famous Athens, city divine!

  The Battle of Artemisium

  There, where the sons of Athens laid the bright foundation of Liberty.

  Death for the Father-Land

  Harken! O War-shout, daughter of War! prelude of spears! to whom soldiers are sacrificed for their city’s sake in the holy sacrifice of death.

  Poems, past and present

  In olden days, the lay of the dithyramb was wont to wind its straggling length along, and the sibilant san was discarded from the lips of men...

  For thee, O mighty Mother! are present as preludes the clashing cymbals, and the clappers of ringing rattles, and the torch that blazeth beneath glowing pine-trees.

  PROCESSIONAL SONGS

  On Delos

  Hail, O heaven-built isle, most lovely scion of the children of bright-haired Lêto, O daughter of the sea, thou unmoved marvel of the spacious earth, by mortal men called Dêlos, but by the blessed gods of Olympus known as the far-seen star of the dark- blue earth...

  For aforetime, that isle was tossed on the waves by all manner of whirling winds; but, when Lêtô, the daughter of Coeüs, in the frenzy of her imminent pangs of travail, set foot on her, then it was that four lofty pillars rose from the roots of earth, and on their capitals held up the rock with their adamantine bases. There it was that she gave birth to, and beheld, her blessed offspring.

  For the Aeginetans. On the goddess Aphaia

  Is there any nobler theme for our commencing or for our closing strains, than to sing the deep-zoned Lêtô, and the goddess that driveth the swift steeds?

  MAIDENS’ SONGS

  Partheneia, adding that even these have a certain nobility and dignity of style. One of the species of the Partheneion was the Daphnephorikon, an ode sung at a festival celebrated by a procession bearing branches of bay to the temple of Apollo at Thebes or at Delphi. (See below, p. 566.)

  From a maiden’s song to Pan

  O Pan, that rulest over Arcadia, and art the warder of holy shrines... thou companion of the Great Mother, thou dear delight of the holy Graces!

  Dionysus, the giver of milk

  They that dwell near Galaxion in Boeotia became aware of the advent of Dionysus by the abundant supply of milk: —

  “For, like fairest water from fountains, even so the milk of the dams began to gush forth from all the flocks; and they hasted, and filled the jars; and not a single wine-skin or jug lingered in their homes, but the wooden pails, and all the jars, were filled.”

  Plutarch, Pyth. Or. 29, p. 409; quoted without the name of Pindar, to whom it was first ascribed by Schneidewin in 1834.

  On Aealadas I

  ... that I may fulfil my duties as a prophet-priest. The honours of mortals are diverse, but on every man falleth the burden of envy for his merit; while the head of him that hath nought is hidden in dark silence. In friendly wise would I pray to the children of Cronus that an unbroken prosperity may be decreed for Aeoladas and his race. The days of mortals are deathless, although the body die. Yet he, whose house is not reft of children nor utterly overthrown beneath the stroke of stern necessity, liveth free from toilsome labour; for the time before birth I deem equal to death.

  On Aeoladas II

  [Hail! O Pierian maiden robed in gold! I speak, now that I have fitly discharged my duty.]

  For Loxias hath gladly come to bring unto Thêbê immortal glory.

  But quickly girding up my robe, and bearing in my delicate hands a splendid branch of bay, I shall sing the all-glorious home of Aeoladas and of his son Pagôndas, with my maidenly head gay with garlands. To the notes of the lotus-pipe shall I mimic in song a siren-sound of praise, such as husheth the swift blasts of Zephyr; and whenever chill Boreas speedeth on with strength of tempest, and stirreth up the swift rush of the South-wind...

  Many are the fair deeds of old that I remember, while I adorn them in song, but the rest are known to Almighty Zeus alone. For myself, maidenly thought and maidenly speech are most meet. Neither for man nor for woman, whose children are dear to me, ought I to forget a fitting strain. As a faithful witness, have I come to the dance, in honour of Agasicles and his noble parents, and also by reason of our friendship. For, of old, as well as now, have they been honoured among their neighbours, both in the famous victories of swift-footed steeds, victories which adorned their locks with garlands on the shores of renowned Onchestus, and by Itonia’s glorious fane, and at Pisa...

  ... to seven-gated Thebes.

  A jealous anger at their just ambition provoked a bitter and unrelenting strife; but, giving loyal satisfaction, it ended in friendship.

  Son of Damaena! stepping forth with foot well- omened, lead thou the march for me. First on the road shalt thou be followed by thy happy daughter, while she advanceth with her feet beside the leafy branch of bay, she whom her mother, Andaesistrota, hath trained to all manner of skill, gladly linking her with fair handiwork of many a kind.

  Let not the twain, when they have seen the nectar from my spring, stray in their thirst to another stream, — a stream of brine.

  DANCE-SONGS

  without the cithara. It was not confined to religious subjects, as is clear from some of the following fragments. It is substituted for the encomiastic or epinician ode, in the poem addressed to Hieron. (See further in H. W. Smyth’s Greek Melic Poets, lxix-lxxv.)

  TO HIERON OF SYRACUSE

  It is said by the scholiast on the Ares of Aristophanes that Hieron had given the mules with which he had won the Pythian victory to his charioteer. Pindar here gives Hieron a hint that the mules were of little use without the chariot.

  Mark what I say to thee! O namesake-father of temples divine! founder of Aetna! for among the Nomad Scythians, one is wandering all alone, one who hath no wain-borne home; but the pair hath gone inglorious without a mule-car.

  The Sicilian mule-car

  From mount Taÿgetus cometh the Laconian hound, the cleverest creature in chasing the quarry. The goats of Scyros are the best for milk; arms are from Argos; the chariot from Thebes. But it is from fruitful Sicily that you must seek the deftly-wrought mule-car.

  A good beginning

  When, for any deed, a beginning hath been shown by God, straight indeed is the path for pursuing virtue, and fairer are its issues.

  An Eclipse

  God can cause unsullied light to spring out of black night. He can also shroud in a dark cloud of gloom the pure light of day.

  “Dulce bellum inexpertis.”

  To the inexperienced war is pleasant, but he that hath had experience of it, in his heart sorely feareth its approach.

  Concord in the State

  L
et him that giveth tranquillity to the community of citizens, look for the bright light of manly Peace, when from out his heart he hath plucked hateful faction, faction that bringeth poverty, and is an ill nurse of youth.

  Heracles and his club

  He gave a draught blended with blood; and, wielding his rude club, he inflicted full many a wound, and, lastly, lifting it up, he rent asunder the sturdy flanks, and the marrow was crushed from the bones of the spine.

  EULOGIES

  ON THERON OF ACRAGAS

  ... and his ancestors colonised Rhodes, and starting thence, they inhabit a lofty city, where they offer many a gift to the immortals, and where they were followed by a cloud of ever-flowing wealth.

  ON ALEXANDER, SON OF AMNXTAS

  (Alexander, son of Amyntas, was king of Macedonia in 505-455 B.C. He was compelled to submit to the Persians in 480, but was really a friend of the Greek cause. He is known as “Alexander the Philhellene.” He is here described as the namesake of Alexander (Paris), the son of Priam.)

  Namesake of the blessed Trojans, son of brave Amyntas!...

  ’Tis meet for the good to be hymned with fairest songs... For this is the only tribute that vergeth on the honours due to the immortals; but every noble deed dieth, if suppressed in silence.

  FOR XENOPHON OF CORINTH

  vow, the following ode was sung in the temple of the goddess, while the hundred women danced to the words of the song. The same Olympic victory was celebrated in the thirteenth Olympian ode.

  Guest-loving girls! servants of Suasion in wealthy Corinth! ye that burn the golden tears of fresh frankincense, full often soaring upward in your souls unto Aphrodite, the heavenly mother of Loves! She hath granted you, ye girls, blamelessly to cull on lovely couches the blossom of delicate bloom; for, under force, all things are fair.

  Yet I wonder what the lords of the Isthmus will say of my devising such a prelude for a sweet roundelay to be the companion of common women...

  We have tested gold with a pure touchstone...

  O Queen of Cyprus! a herded troop of a hundred girls hath been brought hither to thy sacred grove by Xenophon in his gladness for the fulfilment of his vows...

  ON THEOXENUS OF TENEDOS

  with the father of Aristagoras, the counsellor of Tenedos who is the theme of the eleventh Nemean. (Cp. Wilamowitz, Berlin Akad. 24 June, 1909, pp. 829-839.)

  RIGHT it were, fond heart, to cull love’s blossom in due season, in life’s prime; but whosoever, when once he hath seen the rays flashing from the eyes of Theoxenus, doth not swell with desire, his black heart, with its frozen flame, hath been forged of adamant or of iron; and, unhonoured of brightly glancing Aphrodîtê, he either toileth over hoarded wealth, or, with a woman’s courage, is borne along enslaved to a path that is utterly cold.

  But I, for the sake of that Queen of love, like the wax of the holy bees that is melted beneath the heat of the sun, waste away when I look at the young limbs of blooming boys. Thus I ween that even in Tenedos Suasion and Charm dwelt in the soul of the son of Hagêsilas.

  Love

  May we love, and yield to another’s love, in season due. In thy passion for that rite, deem it not, my soul, more important than due measure.

  TO HIERON OF SYRACUSE

  (The barbitos), which, I ween, was first found long ago by Terpander of Lesbos, when, in the banquets of the Lydians, he heard the twanging of the shrill- toned pectis sounding in unison with it.

  Nor let delight grow dim, while thou livest; know that for man the best of all things are days spent in delight.

  TO THRASYBULUS OF ACRAGAS

  A song for the end of a feast We may compare this song with a fragment of Bacchylides, translated as follows in Jebb’s edition, p. 418:—”As the cups go swiftly round, a sweet subduing power warms the heart.... That power sends a man’s thoughts soaring; — straightway he is stripping cities of their diadem of towers, — he dreams that he shall be monarch of the world; — his halls gleam with gold and ivory; — over the sunlit sea his wheat-ships bring wealth untold from Egypt: — such are the raptures of the reveller’s soul.”

  I SEND thee, Thrasybulus, this car of lovely songs, to close thy banquet. At the common board, it may well be a sweet incentive to thy boon companions, and to the wine of Dionysus, and to the cups that came from Athens; what time the wearisome cares of men have vanished from their bosoms, and, on a wide sea of golden wealth, we are all alike voyaging to some visionary shore. He that is penniless is then rich, and even they that are wealthy find their hearts expanding, when they are smitten by the arrows of the vine.

  The Delights of Dessert

  When the banquet is ceasing, then sweet is dessert, though it follow the fullest feast.

  The Cottabus

  ... and (may I delight in) the graces of Aphrodisian Loves, that so, drinking deep with Cheimarus, I may fling the cottabus in a contest with Agathônidas.

  DIRGES

  the progress of the soul through the future ages. After death, all receive their due reward, and the spirits of the just are purified, until they are free from all taint of evil.

  Elysium

  For them the sun shineth in his strength, in the world below, while here ’tis night; and, in meadows red with roses, the space before their city is shaded by the incense-tree, and is laden with golden fruits...

  Some of them delight themselves with horses and with wrestling; others with draughts, and with lyres; while beside them bloometh the fair flower of perfect bliss. And o’er that lovely land fragrance is ever shed, while they mingle all manner of incense with the far-shining fire on the altars of the gods.

  From the other side sluggish streams of darksome night belch forth a boundless gloom.

  The survival of the soul

  ... having, by happy fortune, culled the fruit of the rite that releaseth from toil. And, while the body of all men is subject to over-mastering death, an image of life remaineth alive, for it alone cometh from the gods. But it sleepeth, while the limbs are active; yet, to them that sleep, in many a dream it giveth presage of a decision of things delightful or doleful.

  The spirits of just men made perfect

  But, as for those from whom Persephone shall exact the penalty of their pristine woe, in the ninth year she once more restoreth their souls to the upper sun-light; and from these come into being august monarchs, and men who are swift in strength and supreme in wisdom; and, for all future time, men call them sainted heroes.

  The happiness of the blessed

  The happiness of the blessed is no fugitive.

  “Whom universal Nature did lament.”

  The stars and the rivers and the waves call thee back.

  The Eleusinian Mysteries

  Blessed is he who hath seen these things before he goeth beneath the earth; for he understandeth the end of mortal life, and the beginning (of a new life) given of god.

  Linus, Hymenaeus, Iâlemus

  There are lays of paeans, coming in due season, which belong to the children of Lêtô of the golden distaff. There are other lays, which, from amid the crowns of flourishing ivy, long for the dithyramb of Dionysus; but in another song did three goddesses lull to rest the bodies of their sons.

  The first of these sang a dirge over the clear-voiced Linus; and the second lamented with her latest strains Hymenaeus, who was seized by Fate, when first he lay with another in wedlock; while the third sorrowed over Iâlemus, when his strength was stayed by the onset of a raging malady.

  But the son of Oeagrus, Orpheus of the golden sword...

  FROM ODES OF UNCERTAIN CLASS

  Apollo and Heracles

  For he honoured thee, O Far-darter, that strikest up the clearly sounding lyres. Remember that he set up an altar in the dells of holy Paros to thee, the king, and to the honoured Father, son of Cronus, on crossing to this side of the Isthmus, when, as a herald, he began to tell of the doom fated for Laomedon. For there was the ancient oracle...

  Locrian music

  As a rival
to the Ionian music, song and harmony with flutes were devised by one of the Locrians, who dwell beside the white-crested hill of Zephyrium, beyond the Ausonian foreland, a gleaming city; and he dedicated it, as a chariot of clear song, as a paean meet for Apollo and the Muses.

  But I, while I hear him playing his few notes, plying as I do a babbling art, vie with his lay, like a dolphin of the sea, whom the lovely sound of flutes thrilled on the waters of the waveless deep.

  The Gifts of God

  God that doeth all things for mortals, even maketh grace to grow for song.

  The Felicity of the gods