Complete Works of Pindar Page 4
[Greek: (o kallinike chair’ anax Herakleaes autos te k’ Iolaos, aichmaeta duo. taenella kallinike)]
to which perhaps some slight additions had been made, but not by Pindar.
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The strain of Archilochos sung without music at Olympia, the triple resonant psalm of victory, sufficed to lead to the hill of Kronos Epharmostos triumphing with his comrade friends: but now with darts of other sort, shot from the Muses’ far-delivering bow, praise Zeus of the red lightning, and Elis’ holy headland, which on a time Pelops the Lydian hero chose to be Hippodameia’s goodly dower.
And shoot a feathered arrow of sweet song Pythoward, for thy words shall not fall to the ground when thou tunest the throbbing lyre to the praise of the wrestlings of a man from famous Opous, and celebratest her and her son. For Themis and her noble daughter Eunomia the Preserver have made her their own, and she flourisheth in excellent deeds both at Kastalia and beside Alpheos’ stream: whence come the choicest of all crowns to glorify the mother city of Lokrians, the city of beautiful trees.
I, to illuminate the city of my friends with eager blaze of song, swifter than high-bred steed or winged ship will send everywhere these tidings, so be it that my hand is blessed at all in labouring in the choice garden of the Graces; for they give all pleasant things to men.
By fate divine receive men also valour and wisdom: how else1 might the hands of Herakles have wielded his club against the trident, when at Pylos Poseidon took his stand and prest hard on him, ay, and there prest him hard embattled Phoibos with his silver bow, neither would Hades keep his staff unraised, wherewith he leadeth down to ways beneath the hollow earth the bodies of men that die?
O my mouth, fling this tale from thee, for to speak evil of gods is a hateful wisdom, and loud and unmeasured words strike a note that trembleth upon madness. Of such things talk thou not; leave war of immortals and all strife aside; and bring thy words to the city of Protogeneia, where by decree of Zeus of the bickering lightning-flash Pyrrha and Deukalion coming down from Parnassos first fixed their home, and without bed of marriage made out of stones a race to be one folk: and hence cometh the name of peoples2. Awake for them the clear-toned gale of song, and if old wine be best, yet among songs prefer the newer flowers.
Truly men say that once a mighty water swept over the dark earth, but by the craft of Zeus an ebb suddenly drew off the flood. From these first men came anciently your ancestors of the brazen shields, sons of the women of the stock of Iapetos and of the mighty Kronidai, Kings that dwelt in the land continually; until the Olympian Lord caught up the daughter3 of Opöeis from the land of the Epeians, and lay with her in a silent place among the ridges of Mainalos; and afterward brought her unto Lokros, that age might not bring him4 low beneath the burden of childlessness. But the wife bare within her the seed of the Mightiest, and the hero saw the bastard born and rejoiced, and called him by the name of his mother’s father, and he became a man preeminent in beauty and great deeds: and his father gave unto him a city and a people to rule over.
Then there came unto him strangers, from Argos and from Thebes, and from Arcadia others, and from Pisa. But the son of Aktor and Aigina, Menoitios, he honoured above all settlers, him whose son5 went with the Atreidai to the plain of Teuthras and stood alone beside Achilles, when Telephos had turned the valiant Danaoi to flight, and drove them into the sterns of their sea-ships; so proved he to them that had understanding that Patroklos’ soul was strong. And thenceforward the son of Thetis persuaded him that he should never in murderous battle take his post far from his friend’s conquering spear.
Fit speech may I find for my journey in the Muses’ car; and let me therewith have daring and powers of ample scope. To back the prowess of a friend I came, when Lampromachos won his Isthmian crown, when on the same day both he and his brother overcame. And afterward at the gates6 of Corinth two triumphs again befell Epharmostos, and more in the valleys of Nemea. At Argos he triumphed over men, as over boys at Athens. And I might tell how at Marathon he stole from among the beardless and confronted the full-grown for the prize of silver vessels, how without a fall he threw his men with swift and cunning shock, and how loud the shouting pealed when round the ring he ran, in the beauty of his youth and his fair form and fresh from fairest deeds.
Also before the Parrhasian host was he glorified, at the assembly of Lykaian Zeus, and again when at Pellene he bare away a warm antidote of cold winds7. And the tomb of Iolaos, and Eleusis by the sea, are just witnesses to his honours.
The natural is ever best: yet many men by learning of prowess essay to achieve fame. The thing done without God is better kept in silence. For some ways lead further than do others, but one practice will not train us all alike. Skill of all kinds is hard to attain unto: but when thou bringest forth this prize, proclaim aloud with a good courage that by fate divine this man at least was born deft-handed, nimble-limbed, with the light of valour in his eyes, and that now being victorious he hath crowned at the feast Oilean Alas’ altar.
1: This is the common interpretation, implying that Herakles in contending with the gods here mentioned must have been helped by other gods. But perhaps it might also be translated ‘therefore how could the hands, &c.,’ meaning that since valour, as has just been said, comes from a divine source, it could not be used against gods, and that thus the story ought to be rejected.
2: Perhaps the story of the stones arose from the like sound of [Greek: Laos] and [Greek: Laas], words here regarded in the inverse relation to each other.
3: Protogeneia.
4: Lokros.
5: Patroklos.
6: The Isthmus, the gate between the two seas.
7: A cloak, the prize.
X. FOR AGESIDAMOS OF EPIZEPHYRIAN LOKRIS, WINNER IN THE BOYS’ BOXING-MATCH.
This ode bears somewhat the same relation to the next that the fourth does to the fifth. It was to be sung at Olympia on the night after the victory, and Pindar promises the boy to write a longer one for the celebration of his victory in his Italian home. The date is B.C. 484.
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Sometimes have men most need of winds, sometimes of showered waters of the firmament, the children of the cloud.
But when through his labour one fareth well, then are due honey-voiced songs, be they even a prelude to words that shall come after, a pledge confirmed by oath in honour of high excellence.
Ample is the glory stored for Olympian winners: thereof my shepherd tongue is fain to keep some part in fold. But only by the help of God is wisdom1 kept ever blooming in the soul.
Son of Archestratos, Agesidamos, know certainly that for thy boxing I will lay a glory of sweet strains upon thy crown of golden2 olive, and will have in remembrance the race of the Lokrians’ colony in the West.
There do ye, O Muses, join in the song of triumph: I pledge my word that to no stranger-banishing folk shall ye come, nor unacquainted with things noble, but of the highest in arts and valiant with the spear. For neither tawny fox nor roaring lion may change his native temper.
1: Perhaps [Greek: sophos] (which means often rather clever or skilful than wise) has here the special reference to poetic skill, which it often has in Pindar.
2: Golden here means supremely excellent, as in the first line of the eighth Olympian.
XI. FOR AGESIDAMOS OF EPIZEPHYRIAN LOKRIS, WINNER IN THE BOYS’ BOXING-MATCH.
It would seem by his own confession that Pindar did not remember till long afterwards the promise he made to Agesidamos in the last ode. We do not know how long afterwards this was written, but it must have been too late to greet the winner on his arrival in Italy; probably it was to be sung at the anniversary or some memorial celebration of his victory.
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Read me the name of the Olympic winner Archestratos’ son that I may know where it is written upon my heart: for I had forgotten that I owed him a sweet strain.
But do thou, O Muse, and thou Truth, daughter of Zeus, put forth your hands and keep from me the repr
oach of having wronged a friend by breaking my pledged word. For from afar hath overtaken me the time that was then yet to come, and hath shamed my deep debt.
Nevertheless from that sore reproach I may be delivered by payment with usury: behold how1 the rushing wave sweepeth down the rolling shingle, and how we also will render for our friend’s honour a tribute to him and to his people.
Truth inhabiteth the city of the Lokrians of the West, and Kalliope they hold in honour and mailëd Ares; yea even conquering Herakles was foiled by that Kykneän combat2.
Now let Agesidamos, winner in the boxing at Olympia, so render thanks to Ilas3 as Patroklos of old to Achilles. If one be born with excellent gifts, then may another who sharpeneth his natural edge speed him, God helping, to an exceeding weight of glory. Without toil there have triumphed a very few.
Of that light in the life of a man before all other deeds, that first of contests, the ordinances of Zeus4 have stirred me to sing, even the games which by the ancient tomb of Pelops the mighty Herakles founded, after that he slew Kleatos, Poseidon’s goodly son, and slew also Eurytos, that he might wrest from tyrannous Augeas against his will reward for service done5.
Lying in ambush beneath Kleonai did Herakles overcome them on the road, for that formerly these same violent sons of Molos made havoc of his own Tirynthian folk by hiding in the valleys of Elis. And not long after the guest-betraying king of the Epeans saw his rich native land, his own city, beneath fierce fire and iron blows sink down into the deep moat of calamity. Of strife against stronger powers it is hard to be rid. Likewise Augeas last of all in his perplexity fell into captivity and escaped not precipitate death.
Then the mighty son of Zeus having gathered together all his host at Pisa, and all the booty, measured a sacred grove for his sovereign Father; and having fenced round the Altis he marked the bounds thereof in a clear space, and the plain encompassing it he ordained for rest and feasting, and paid honour to the river Alpheos together with the twelve greatest gods. And he named it by the name of the Hill of Kronos; for theretofore it was without name, when Oinomaos was king, and it was sprinkled with much snow6.
And at this first-born rite the Fates stood hard at hand, and he who alone proveth sure truth, even Time. He travelling onward hath told us the clear tale of how the founder set apart the choicest of the spoil for an offering from the war, and sacrificed, and how he ordained the fifth-year feast with the victories of that first Olympiad.
Who then won to their lot the new-appointed crown by hands or feet or chariot, setting before them the prize of glory in the games, and winning it by their act? In the foot-race down the straight course of the stadion was Likymnios’ son Oionos first, from Nidea had he led his host: in the wrestling was Tegea glorified by Echemos: Doryklos won the prize of boxing, a dweller in the city of Tiryns, and with the four-horse chariot, Samos of Mantinea, Halirrhothios’ son: with the javelin Phrastor hit the mark: in distance Enikeus beyond all others hurled the stone with a circling sweep, and all the warrior company thundered a great applause.
Then on the evening the lovely shining of the fair-faced moon beamed forth, and all the precinct sounded with songs of festal glee, after the manner which is to this day for triumph.
So following the first beginning of old time, we likewise in a song named of proud victory will celebrate the thunder and the flaming bolt of loud-pealing Zeus, the fiery lightning that goeth with all victory7.
And soft tones to the music of the flute shall meet and mingle with my verse, which beside famous Dirke hath come to light after long time.
But even as a son by his lawful wife is welcome to a father who hath now travelled to the other side of youth, and maketh his soul warm with love — for wealth that must fall to a strange owner from without is most hateful to a dying man — so also, Agesidamos, when a man who hath done honourable deeds goeth unsung to the house of Hades, this man hath spent vain breath, and won but brief gladness for his toil.
On thee the pleasant lyre and the sweet pipe shed their grace, and the Pierian daughters of Zeus foster thy wide-spread fame.
I with them, setting myself thereunto fervently, have embraced the Lokrians’ famous race, and have sprinkled my honey upon a city of goodly men: and I have told the praises of Archestratos’ comely son, whom I beheld victorious by the might of his hand beside the altar at Olympia, and saw on that day how fair he was of form, how gifted with that spring-tide bloom, which erst with favour of the Cyprian queen warded from Ganymede unrelenting death.
1: Reading [Greek: horat on hopa].
2: This Kyknos seems to have been a Lokrian freebooter, said to have fought with success against Herakles.
3: His trainer.
4: Probably because Zeus was especially concerned, both with the fulfilment of promises and with the Olympic games.
5: For the story of these Moliones see Nestor’s speech, Hom. Il. xi. 670-761.
6: Perhaps this implies a tradition of a colder climate anciently prevailing in Peloponnesos: perhaps the mention of snow is merely picturesque, referring to the habitual appearance of the hill in winter, and the passage should then rather be rendered ‘when Oinomaos was king its snow-sprinkled top was without name.’
7: The Lokrians worshipped Zeus especially as the Thunderer, as certain coins of theirs, stamped with a thunderbolt, still testify.
XII. FOR ERGOTELES OF HIMERA, WINNER IN THE LONG FOOT-RACE.
Ergoteles was a native of Knosos in Crete, but civil dissension had compelled him to leave his country. He came to Sicily and was naturalized as a citizen of Himera. Had he stayed in Crete he would not have won this victory; nor the Pythian and Isthmian victories, referred to at the end of the ode, for the Cretans seem to have kept aloof, in an insular spirit, from the Panhellenic games.
The date of the ode is B.C. 472, the year after the Himeraeans had expelled the tyrant Thrasydaios of Akragas. The prayer to Fortune would seem to have reference specially to this event. The ode was probably sung in a temple either of Zeus or of Fortune.
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I pray thee, daughter of Zeus the Deliverer, keep watch over wide-ruling Himera, O saviour Fortune.
By thee upon the sea swift ships are piloted, and on dry land fierce wars and meetings of councils.
Up and down the hopes of men are tossed as they cleave the waves of baffling falsity: and a sure token of what shall come to pass hath never any man on the earth received from God: the divinations of things to come are blind.
Many the chances that fall to men when they look not for them, sometimes to thwart delight, yet others after battling with the surge of sorrowful pain have suddenly received for their affliction some happiness profound.
Son of Philanor, verily even the glory of thy fleet feet would have fallen into the sere leaf unrenowned, abiding by the hearth of thy kin, as a cock that fighteth but at home, had not the strife of citizen against citizen driven thee from Knosos thy native land.
But now at Olympia hast thou won a crown, O Ergoteles, and at Pytho twice, and at Isthmos, whereby thou glorifiest the hot springs where the nymphs Sicilian bathe, dwelling in a land that is become to thee as thine own.
XIII. FOR XENOPHON OF CORINTH, WINNER IN THE STADION RACE AND IN THE PENTATHLON.
The date of this victory is B.C. 464, when Xenophon won both the Stadion, or short foot-race of about a furlong or 220 yards, and also the Pentathlon, that is, probably, he won at least three out of the five contests which composed the Pentathlon — the Jump, Throwing the Disk, Throwing the Javelin, the Foot-race, and Wrestling, ([Greek: alma podokeian diskon akonta palaen]). For details, see Dict. Antiq. and Note on Nem. vii 71-73.
This ode and the speech of Glaukos in the sixth Book of the Iliad are the most conspicuous passages in poetry which refer to the great Corinthian hero Bellerophon.
It is thought that this ode was sung on the winner’s public entrance into Corinth.
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Thrice winner in Olympic games, of citizens beloved, to stranger
s hospitable, the house in whose praise will I now celebrate happy Corinth, portal of Isthmian Poseidon and nursery of splendid youth. For therein dwell Order, and her sisters, sure foundation of states, Justice and likeminded Peace, dispensers of wealth to men, wise Themis’ golden daughters. And they are minded to keep far from them Insolence the braggart mother of Loathing.
I have fair witness to bear of them, and a just boldness stirreth my tongue to speak. Nature inborn none shall prevail to hide. Unto you, sons1 of Aletes, ofttimes have the flowery Hours given splendour of victory, as to men excelling in valour, pre-eminent at the sacred games, and ofttimes of old have they put subtleties into your men’s hearts to devise; and of an inventor cometh every work.
Whence were revealed the new graces of Dionysos with the dithyramb that winneth the ox2? Who made new means of guidance to the harness of horses, or on the shrines of gods set the twin images of the king of birds 3? Among them thriveth the Muse of dulcet breath, and Ares in the young men’s terrible spears. Sovran lord of Olympia, be not thou jealous of my words henceforth for ever, O father Zeus; rule thou this folk unharmed, and keep unchanged the favourable gale of Xenophon’s good hap. Welcome from him this customary escort of his crown, which from the plains of Pisa he is bringing, having won with the five contests the stadion-race beside; the like whereof never yet did mortal man.
Also two parsley-wreaths shadowed his head before the people at the games of Isthmos, nor doth Nemea tell a different tale. And of his father Thessalos’ lightning feet is record by the streams of Alpheos, and at Pytho he hath renown for the single and for the double stadion gained both in a single day, and in the same month at rocky Athens a day of swiftness crowned his hair for three illustrious deeds, and the Hellotia4 seven times, and at the games of Poseidon between seas longer hymns followed his father Ptoiodoros with Terpsias and Eritimos. And how often ye were first at Delphi or in the Pastures of the Lion5, though with full many do I match your crowd of honours, yet can I no more surely tell than the tale of pebbles on the sea-shore. But in everything is there due measure, and most excellent is it to have respect unto fitness of times.