four times he had good luck at famous Isthmos and twice following
at Nemea, and twice at rocky Athens. And at Argos the bronze shield
knoweth him, and the deeds of Arcadia and of Thebes and the yearly
games Boeotian, and Pellene and Aigina where six times he won; and the
pillar of stone at Megara hath the same tale to tell.
But do thou, O Father Zeus, who holdest sway on the mountain-ridges of
Atabyrios glorify the accustomed Olympian winner's hymn, and the man
who hath done valiantly with his fists: give him honour at the hands
of citizens and of strangers; for he walketh in the straight way that
abhorreth insolence, having learnt well the lessons his true soul hath
taught him, which hath come to him from his noble sires. Darken not
thou the light of one who springeth from the same stock of Kallianax.
Surely with the joys of Eratidai the whole city maketh mirth. But the
varying breezes even at the same point of time speed each upon their
various ways.
[Footnote 1: Tlepolemos.]
[Footnote 2: That is, probably, without magic, or the pretence of
being anything but machines. This is considered an allusion to the
Telchines who lived before the Heliadai in Rhodes, and were magicians
as well as craftsmen. For illustrations of Rhodian art at various
times the British Museum may be consulted, which is particularly rich
in vases from Kameiros and Ialysos.]
[Footnote 3: That is, he presides over the celebration of games, as
tutelar hero of the island.]
VIII.
FOR ALKIMEDON OF AIGINA,
WINNER IN THE WRESTLING-MATCH OF BOYS.
* * * * *
The date of this victory is B.C. 460. Long as the ode is, it would
seem however to have been written, like the fourth Olympian, to be
sung in the procession to the altar of Zeus on the night of the
victory.
Of the forty-four odes remaining to us no less than eleven are in
honour of winners from Aigina.
* * * * *
O mother of gold-crowned contests, Olympia, queen of truth; where men
that are diviners observing burnt-offerings make trial of Zeus the
wielder of white lightnings, whether he hath any word concerning
men who seek in their hearts to attain unto great prowess and a
breathing-space from toil; for it is given in answer to the reverent
prayers of men--do thou, O tree-clad precinct of Pisa by Alpheos,
receive this triumph and the carrying of the crown.
Great is his glory ever on whom the splendour of thy honour waiteth.
Yet this good cometh to one, that to another, and many are the roads
to happy life by the grace of gods.
Thee, O Timosthenes[1], and thy brother hath Destiny assigned to Zeus
the guardian of your house, even to him who hath made thee glorious at
Nemea, and Alkimedon by the hill of Kronos a winner in Olympic games.
Now the boy was fair to look upon, neither shamed he by his deeds his
beauty, but in the wrestling match victorious made proclamation that
his country was Aigina of long oars, where saviour Themis who sitteth
in judgment by Zeus the stranger's succour is honoured more than any
elsewhere among men[2].
For in a matter mighty and bearing many ways to judge with unswayed
mind and suitably, this is a hard essay, yet hath some ordinance of
immortals given this sea-defended land to be to strangers out of every
clime a pillar built of God. May coming time not weary of this work.
To a Dorian folk was the land given in trust from Aiakos, even the man
whom Leto's son and far-ruling Poseidon, when they would make a crown
for Ilion, called to work with them at the wall, for that it was
destined that at the uprising of wars in city-wasting fights it should
breathe forth fierce smoke.
Now when it was new-built three dragons fiery-eyed leapt at the
rampart: two fell and perished in despair; but the third sprang in
with a war-cry[3].
Then Apollo pondering, the sign spake straightway unto Aiakos by his
side: 'Hero, where thy hands have wrought is Pergamos taken: thus
saith this sign, sent of the son of Kronos, loud-thundering Zeus. And
that not without thy seed; but with the first and fourth it shall be
subdued'[4].
Thus plainly spoke the god, and away to Xanthos and the Amazons of
goodly steeds and to Ister urged his car.
And the Trident-wielder for Isthmos over seas harnessed his swift
chariot, and hither[5] first he bare with him Aiakos behind the golden
mares, and so on unto the mount of Corinth, to behold his feast of
fame.
Now shall there never among men be aught that pleaseth all alike. If
I for Melesias[6] raise up glory in my song of his boys, let not envy
cast at me her cruel stone. Nay but at Nemea too will I tell of honour
of like kind with this, and of another ensuing thereon, won in the
pankration of men.
Verily to teach is easier to him that knoweth: it is folly if one hath
not first learnt, for without trial the mind wavereth. And beyond all
others can Melesias declare all works on that wise, what method shall
advance a man who from the sacred games may win the longed-for glory.
Now for the thirtieth time is honour gained for him by the victory of
Alkimedon, who by God's grace, nor failing himself in prowess, hath
put off from him upon the bodies of four striplings the loathed return
ungreeted of fair speech, and the path obscure[7]; and in his father's
father he hath breathed new vigour to wrestle with old age. A man that
hath done honourable deeds taketh no thought of death.
But I must needs arouse memory, and tell of the glory of their hands
that gave victory to the Blepsiad clan, to whom this is now the sixth
crown that hath come from the wreathed games to bind their brows.
Even the dead have their share when paid them with due rites, and
the grace of kinsmen's honour the dust concealeth not. From Hermes'
daughter Fame shall Iphion[8] hear and tell to Kallimachos this lustre
of Olympic glory, which Zeus hath granted to this house. Honour upon
honour may he vouchsafe unto it, and shield it from sore disease[9]. I
pray that for the share of glory fallen to them he raise against them
no contrary discontent, but granting them a life unharmed may glorify
them and their commonwealth.
[Footnote 1: Alkimedon's brother. He had won a victory at the Nemean
games.]
[Footnote 2: Aigina had a high commercial reputation, and strangers
were equitably dealt with in her courts.]
[Footnote 3: The two first dragons typify the Aiakids, Aias and
Achilles, who failed to enter Troy, the third typifies Achilles' son,
Neoptolemos, who succeeded.]
[Footnote 4: Aiakos' son, Telamon, was with Herakles when he took
Troy: his great-grandson Neoptolemos was in the Wooden Horse.]
[Footnote 5: To Aigina.]
[Footnote 6: Alkimedon's trainer.]
[Footnote 7: I. e. Alkimedon has escaped the disagreeable
circumstances of defeat and transferred them to the four opponents
against whom he was matched in four successive ties.]
[Footnote 8: Iphion seems to have been the father and Kallimachos the
uncle of Alkimedon.]
[Footnote 9: Perhaps Iphion and Kallimachos died of some severe
illness.]
IX.
FOR EPHARMOSTOS OF OPOUS,
WINNER IN THE WRESTLING-MATCH.
* * * * *
The date of this ode is uncertain. Its last line seems to imply that
it was sung at a banquet at Opous, after crowning the altar of Aias
Oileus, tutelar hero of the Lokrians. From the beginning we gather
that on the night of the victory at Olympia Epharmostos' friends had
sung in his honour the conventional triple strain of Archilochos--
[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.
* * * * *
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 else[1] 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 peoples[2]. 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 daughter[3] 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 him[4] 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 son[5] 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
gates[6] 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 winds[7]. 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.
[Footnote 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.]
[Footnote 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.]
[Footnote 3: Protogeneia.]
[Footnote 4: Lokros.]
[Footnote 5: Patroklos.]
[Footnote 6: The Isthmus, the gate between the two seas.]
[Footnote 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.
* * * * *
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 wisdom[1] 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 golden[2] 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.
[Footnote 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.]
[Footnote 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.
* * * * *
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 reproach 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 how[1] 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 combat[2].
Now let Agesidamos, winner in the boxing at Olympia, so render thanks
to Ilas[3] 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 Zeus[4] 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 done[5].
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 snow[6].
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
victory[7].
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.
[Footnote 1: Reading [Greek: horat on hopa].]
[Footnote 2: This Kyknos seems to have been a Lokrian freebooter, said
to have fought with success against Herakles.]
[Footnote 3: His trainer.]
[Footnote 4: Probably because Zeus was especially concerned, both with
the fulfilment of promises and with the Olympic games.]
[Footnote 5: For the story of these Moliones see Nestor's speech, Hom.
Il. xi. 670-761.]
[Footnote 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.']
[Footnote 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.
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *