honour of the chariot-victory, is here meant, which was to be sent
later.
From this point to the end the ode reads like a postscript of private
import and reference.]
[Footnote 10: It is at least doubtful whether [Greek: kerdo] a fox is
really connected with [Greek: kerdos] gain.]
[Footnote 11: It appears to me to be an absurdity to suppose that
Pindar means to express in this sentence his own rule of conduct,
as the commentators have fancied. He is all through this passage
condemning 'crooked ways.']
III.
FOR HIERON OF SYRACUSE,
WINNER IN THE HORSE-RACE.
* * * * *
The dates both of the victory and of the ode are uncertain. But as
Pherenikos, the horse that won this race at Pytho, is the same that
won at Olympia B.C. 472, in honour of which event the First Olympian
was written, the victory cannot have been very long before that date,
though the language of the ode implies that it was written a good deal
later, probably for an anniversary of the victory. It must at least
have been written before Hieron's death in 467. It is much occupied
with his illness.
* * * * *
Fain were I (if meet it be to utter from my mouth the prayer conceived
of all) that Cheiron the son of Philyra were alive and had not
perished among men, even the wide-ruling seed of Kronos the son of
Ouranos; and that there still lorded it in Pelion's glens that Beast
untamed, whose soul was loving unto men, even such as when of old he
trained the gentle deviser of limb-saving anodynes, Asklepios, the
hero that was a defence against all kind of bodily plague.
Of him was the daughter[1] of Phlegyas of goodly steeds not yet
delivered by Eileithuia aid of mothers, ere by the golden bow she was
slain at the hands of Artemis, and from her child-bed chamber went
down into the house of Hades, by contriving of Apollo. Not idle is the
wrath of sons of Zeus.
She in the folly of her heart had set Apollo at nought, and taken
another spouse without knowledge of her sire, albeit ere then she had
lain with Phoibos of the unshorn hair, and bare within her the seed of
a very god.
Neither awaited she the marriage-tables nor the sound of many voices
in hymeneal song, such as the bride's girl-mates are wont to sing at
eventide with merry minstrelsy: but lo, she had longing for things
otherwhere, even as many before and after. For a tribe there is most
foolish among men, of such as scorn the things of home, and gaze on
things that are afar off, and chase a cheating prey with hopes that
shall never be fulfilled.
Of such sort was the frenzied strong desire fair-robed Koronis
harboured in her heart, for she lay in the couch of a stranger that
was come from Arcady.
But one that watched beheld her: for albeit he was at sheep-gathering
Pytho, yet was the temple's king Loxias aware thereof, beside his
unerring partner[2], for he gave heed to his own wisdom, his mind that
knoweth all things; in lies it hath no part, neither in act or thought
may god or man deceive him.
Therefore when he was aware of how she lay with the stranger Ischys
son of Elatos, and of her guile unrighteous, he sent his sister fierce
with terrible wrath to go to Lakereia--for by the steep shores of the
Boibian lake was the home of her virginity--and thus a doom adverse
blasted her life and smote her down: and of her neighbours many fared
ill therefore and perished with her: so doth a fire that from one
spark has leapt upon a mountain lay waste wide space of wood.
But when her kinsfolk had laid the damsel upon the pile of wood, and
fierce brightness of Hephaistos ran around it, then said Apollo: 'Not
any longer may I endure in my soul to slay mine own seed by a most
cruel death in company with its mother's grievous fate.'
He said, and at the first stride he was there, and from the corpse
caught up the child, and the blaze of the burning fiery pile was
cloven before him asunder in the midst.
Then to the Kentaur of Magnes he bare the child, that he should teach
him to be a healer of the many-plaguing maladies of men. And thus all
that came unto him whether plagued with self-grown sores or with limbs
wounded by the lustrous bronze or stone far-hurled, or marred by
summer heat or winter cold--these he delivered, loosing each from
his several infirmity, some with emollient spells and some by kindly
potions, or else he hung their limbs with charms, or by surgery he
raised them up to health.
Yet hath even wisdom been led captive of desire of gain. Even him did
gold in his hands glittering beguile for a great reward to bring back
from death a man already prisoner thereto: wherefore the hands of the
son of Kronos smote the twain of them through the midst, and bereft
their breasts of breath, and the bright lightning dealt them doom.
It behoveth to seek from gods things meet for mortal souls, knowing
the things that are in our path and to what portion we are born.
Desire not thou, dear my soul, a life immortal, but use the tools that
are to thine hand.
Now were wise Cheiron in his cavern dwelling yet, and had our
sweet-voiced songs laid haply some fair magic on his soul, then had
I won him to grant to worthy men some healer of hot plagues, some
offspring of Leto's son, or of her son's sire[3].
And then in a ship would I have sailed, cleaving the Ionian sea, to
the fountain of Arethusa, to the home of my Aitnaian friend, who
ruleth at Syracuse, a king of good will to the citizens, not envious
of the good, to strangers wondrous fatherly. Had I but landed there
and brought unto him a twofold joy, first golden health and next this
my song of triumph to be a splendour in his Pythian crown, which of
late Pherenikos[4] won by his victory at Kirrha--I say that then
should I have come unto him, after that I had passed over the deep
sea, a farther-shining light than any heavenly star.
But I am minded to pray to the Mother[5] for him, to the awful goddess
unto whom, and unto Pan, before my door nightly the maidens move in
dance and song.
Yet, O Hieron, if thou art skilled to apprehend the true meaning of
sayings, thou hast learnt to know this from the men of old; _The
immortals deal to men two ill things for one good._ The foolish cannot
bear these with steadfastness but the good only, putting the fair side
forward.
But thee a lot of happiness attendeth, for if on any man hath mighty
Destiny looked favourably, surely it is on a chief and leader of a
people.
A life untroubled abode not either with Peleus, son of Aiakos, or with
godlike Kadmos: yet of all mortals these, they say, had highest
bliss, who both erewhile listened to the singing of the Muses
golden-filleted, the one in seven-gated Thebes, when he wedded
large-eyed Harmonia, the other on the mountainside, when he took to
him Thetis to be his wife, wise Nereus' glorious daughter. And with
both of them gods sate at meat, and they beheld the sons of Kronos
sitting as kings on thrones of gold, and they received from them gifts
for their espousals; and by grace of Zeus they escaped out of their
former toils and raised up their hearts to gladness.
Yet again in the after time the bitter anguish of those daughters[6]
robbed Kadmos of a part of bliss: howbeit the Father Zeus came to
white-armed Thyone's[7] longed-for couch.
And so did the son of Peleus whom Thetis bare at Phthia, her only son,
die by an arrow in war, and moved the Danaoi to lament aloud, when his
body was burning in fire.
Now if any by wisdom hath the way of truth he may yet lack good
fortune, which cometh of the happy gods.
The blasts of soaring winds blow various ways at various times.
Not for long cometh happiness to men, when it accompanieth them in
exceeding weight.
Small will I be among the small, and great among the great. Whatever
fortune follow me, I will work therewith, and wield it as my power
shall suffice. If God should offer me wealth and ease, I have hope
that I should first have won high honour to be in the times afar off.
Nestor and Lykian Sarpedon, who live in the speech of men, we know
from tales of sounding song, built up by cunning builders.
By songs of glory hath virtue lasting life, but to achieve them is
easy to but few.
[Footnote 1: Koronis.]
[Footnote 2: His father, Zeus.]
[Footnote 3: Some Asklepios or Apollo.]
[Footnote 4: Hieron's horse.]
[Footnote 5: Rhea or Kybele, the mother of the gods. 'Next door to
Pindar's house was a temple of the mother of the gods and of Pan,
which he had built himself.' Scholiast.]
[Footnote 6: Ino, Agaue, and Autonoe.]
[Footnote 7: Semele.]
IV.
FOR ARKESILAS OF KYRENE,
WINNER IN THE CHARIOT-RACE.
* * * * *
Pindar has made this victory of Arkesilas, King of the Hellenic colony
of Kyrene in Africa, an occasion for telling the story of Jason's
expedition with the Argonauts. The ostensible reason for introducing
the story is that Kyrene had been colonised from the island of Thera
by the descendants of the Argonaut Euphemos, according to the prophecy
of Medea related at the beginning of the ode. But Pindar had another
reason. He wished to suggest an analogy between the relation of the
Iolkian king Pelias to Jason and the relation of Arkesilas to his
exiled kinsman Demophilos. Demophilos had been staying at Thebes,
where Pindar wrote this ode, to be afterwards recited at Kyrene. It
was written B.C. 466, when Pindar was fifty-six years of age, and is
unsurpassed in his extant works, or indeed by anything of this kind in
all poetry.
* * * * *
This day O Muse must thou tarry in a friend's house, the house of the
king of Kyrene of goodly horses, that with Arkesilas at his triumph
thou mayst swell the favourable gale of song, the due of Leto's
children, and of Pytho. For at Pytho of old she who sitteth beside the
eagles of Zeus--nor was Apollo absent then--the priestess, spake this
oracle, that Battos should found a power in fruitful Libya, that
straightway departing from the holy isle he might lay the foundations
of a city of goodly chariots upon a white breast of the swelling
earth, and might fulfil in the seventeenth generation the word of
Medea spoken at Thera, which of old the passionate child of Aietes,
queen of Colchians, breathed from immortal lips. For on this wise
spake she to the warrior Jason's god-begotten crew: 'Hearken O sons
of high-hearted mortals and of gods. Lo I say unto you that from this
sea-lashed land the daughter[1] of Epaphos shall sometime be planted
with a root to bring forth cities that shall possess the minds of men,
where Zeus Ammon's shrine is builded.
And instead of short-finned dolphins they shall take to them fleet
mares, and reins instead of oars shall they ply, and speed the
whirlwind-footed car.
By that augury shall it come to pass that Thera shall be mother-city
of mighty commonwealths, even the augury that once at the outpourings
of the Tritonian lake Euphemos leaping from the prow took at the hands
of a god who in the likeness of man tendered this present to the
stranger of a clod of earth; and the Father Kronian Zeus confirmed it
with a peal of thunder.
[2]What time he came suddenly upon them as they were hanging against
the ship the bronze-fluked anchor, fleet Argo's bridle; for now for
twelve days had we borne from Ocean over long backs of desert-land our
sea-ship, after that by my counsel we drew it up upon the shore.
Then came to us the solitary god, having put on the splendid semblance
of a noble man; and he began friendly speech, such as well-doers use
when they bid new-comers to the feast.
But the plea of the sweet hope of home suffered us not to stay. Then
he said that he was Eurypylos son of the earth-embracer, immortal
Ennosides; and for that he was aware that we hasted to be gone, he
straightway caught up of the chance earth at his feet a gift that he
would fain bestow. Nor was the hero unheeding, but leaping on the
shore and striking hand in hand he took to him the fateful clod.
But now I hear that it was washed down from the ship and departed into
the sea with the salt spray of evening, following the watery deep. Yet
verily often did I charge the labour-lightening servants that they
should keep it safe, but they forgat: and now upon this island[3]
is the imperishable seed of spacious Libya strown before the time
appointed; for if the royal son[4] of Poseidon, lord of horses, whom
Europa Tityos' child bare him on Kephisos' banks, had in his own home
thrown it down beside the mouth of Hades'[5] gulf, then in the fourth
generation of his sons his seed would have taken that wide continent
of Libya, for then they would have gone forth from mighty Lakedaimon,
and from the Argive gulf, and from Mykenai.
But now he shall in wedlock with a stranger-wife raise up a chosen
seed, who coming to this island with worship of their gods shall beget
one to be lord of the misty plains[6]. Him sometime shall Phoibos in
his golden house admonish by oracles, when in the latter days he shall
go down into the inner shrine at Pytho, to bring a host in ships to
the rich Nile-garden of the son of Kronos[7].'
So ran Medea's rhythmic utterance, and motionless in silence the
godlike heroes bowed their heads as they hearkened to the counsels of
wisdom.
Thee, happy son[8] of Polymnestos, did the oracle of the Delphian
bee[9] approve with call unasked to be the man whereof the word was
spoken, for thrice she bid thee hail and declared thee by decree of
fate Kyrene's king, what time thou enquiredst what help should be from
heaven for thy labouring speech. And verily even now long afterward,
as in the bloom of rosy-blossomed spring, in the eighth descent from
Battos the leaf of Arkesilas is green. To him Apollo and Pytho have
given glory in the chariot-race at the hands of the Amphiktyons: him
will I commend to the Muses, and withal the tale of the all-golden
fleece; for this it was the Minyai sailed to seek when the god-given
glories of their race began.
What power first drave them in the beginning to the quest? What
perilous enterprise clenched them with strong nails of adamant?
There was an oracle of God which said that Pelias should die by force
or by stern counsels of the proud sons of Aiolos, and there had come
to him a prophecy that froze his cunning heart, spoken at the central
stone of tree-clad mother Earth, that by every means he should keep
safe guard against the man of one sandal, whensoever from a homestead
on the hills he shall have come to the sunny land of glorious Iolkos,
whether a stranger or a citizen he be.
So in the fulness of time he came, wielding two spears, a wondrous
man; and the vesture that was upon him was twofold, the garb of the
Magnetes' country close fitting to his splendid limbs, but above he
wore a leopard-skin to turn the hissing showers; nor were the bright
locks of his hair shorn from him but over all his back ran rippling
down. Swiftly he went straight on, and took his stand, making trial of
his dauntless soul, in the marketplace when the multitude was full.
Him they knew not; howbeit some one looking reverently on him would
speak on this wise: 'Not Apollo surely is this, nor yet Aphrodite's
lord of the brazen car; yea and in glistening Naxos died ere now, they
say, the children of Iphimedeia, Otos and thou, bold king Ephialtes:
moreover Tityos was the quarry of Artemis' swift arrow sped from her
invincible quiver, warning men to touch only the loves within their
power.'
They answering each to each thus talked; but thereon with headlong
haste of mules and polished car came Pelias; and he was astonied when
he gazed on the plain sign of the single sandal on the right foot. But
he dissembled his fear within his heart and said unto him, 'What land,
O stranger, dost thou claim to be thy country, and who of earth-born
mortals bare thee of her womb out of due time[10]? Tell me thy race
and shame it not by hateful lies.'
And him with gentle words the other answered undismayed, 'I say to
thee that I bear with me the wisdom of Cheiron, for from Chariklo
and Philyra I come, from the cave where the Centaur's pure daughters
reared me up, and now have I fulfilled twenty years among them without
deceitful word or deed, and I am come home to seek the ancient honour
of my father, held now in rule unlawful, which of old Zeus gave to
the chief Aiolos and his children. For I hear that Pelias yielding
lawlessly to evil thoughts hath robbed it from my fathers whose right
it was from the beginning; for they, when first I looked upon the
light, fearing the violence of an injurious lord, made counterfeit
of a dark funeral in the house as though I were dead, and amid the
wailing of women sent me forth secretly in purple swathing-bands, when
none but Night might know the way we went, and gave me to Cheiron the
son of Kronos to be reared.
But of these things the chief ye know. Now therefore kind citizens
show me plainly the house of my fathers who drave white horses; for it
shall hardly be said that a son of Aison, born in the land, is come
hither to a strange and alien soil. And Jason was the name whereby the
divine Beast[11] spake to me.'
Thus he said, and when he had entered in, the eyes of his father knew
him; and from his aged eyelids gushed forth tears, for his soul was
glad within him when he beheld his son, fairest of men and goodliest
altogether.
Then came to him both brothers, when they heard that Jason was come
home, Pheres from hard by, leaving the fountain Hypereis, and out of
Messena Amythaon, and quickly came Admetos and Melampos to welcome
home their cousin. And at a common feast with gracious words Jason
received them and made them friendly cheer, culling for five long
nights and days the sacred flower of joyous life.
But on the sixth day he began grave speech, and set the whole matter
before his kinsmen from the beginning, and they were of one mind with
him.
Then quickly he rose up with them from their couches, and they came to
Pelias' hall, and they made haste and entered and stood within.
And when he heard them the king himself came forth to them, even the
son of Tyro of the lovely hair. Then Jason with gentle voice opened on
him the stream of his soft speech, and laid foundation of wise words:
'Son of Poseidon of the Rock, too ready are the minds of mortal men to
choose a guileful gain rather than righteousness, howbeit they travel
ever to a stern reckoning. But thee and me it behoveth to give law
to our desires, and to devise weal for the time to come. Though
thou knowest it yet will I tell thee, how that the same mother bare
Kretheus and rash Salmoneus, and in the third generation we again were
begotten and look upon the strength of the golden sun. Now if there
be enmity between kin, the Fates stand aloof and would fain hide the
shame. Not with bronze-edged swords nor with javelins doth it beseem
us twain to divide our forefathers' great honour, nor needeth it,
for lo! all sheep and tawny herds of kine I yield, and all the lands
whereon thou feedest them, the spoil of my sires wherewith thou makest
fat thy wealth. That these things furnish forth thy house moveth me
not greatly; but for the kingly sceptre and throne whereon the son of
Kretheus sate of old and dealt justice to his chivalry, these without
wrath between us yield to me, lest some new evil arise up therefrom.'
Thus he spake, and mildly also did Pelias make reply: 'I will be even
as thou wilt, but now the sere of life alone remaineth to me, whereas
the flower of thy youth is but just burgeoning; thou art able to take
away the sin that maketh the powers beneath the earth wroth with us:
for Phrixos biddeth us lay his ghost, and that we go to the house of
Aietes, and bring thence the thick-fleeced hide of the ram, whereby of
old he was delivered from the deep and from the impious weapons of his
stepmother. This message cometh to me in the voice of a strange dream:
also I have sent to ask of the oracle at Kastalia whether it be worth
the quest, and the oracle chargeth me straightway to send a ship on
the sacred mission. This deed do thou offer me to do, and I swear to
give thee up the sway and kingly rule. Let Zeus the ancestral god of
thee and me be witness of my oath and stablish it surely in thine
eyes.'
So they made this covenant and parted; but Jason straightway bade
heralds to make known everywhere that a sailing was toward. And
quickly came three sons of Zeus, men unwearied in battle, whose
mothers were Alkmene and Leto of the glancing eyes[12], and two
tall-crested men of valour, children of the Earth-shaker, whose honour
was perfect as their might, from Pylos and from farthest Tainaros:
hereby was the excellence of their fame established--even Euphemos'
fame, and thine, wide-ruling Periklymenos. And at Apollo's bidding
came the minstrel father of song, Orpheus of fair renown.
And Hermes of the golden staff sent two sons to the toilsome task,
Echion and Eurytos in the joy of their youth; swiftly they came, even
from their dwelling at the foot of Pangaios: and willingly and with
glad heart their father Boreas, king of winds, harnessed Zetes and
Kalaïs, men both with bright wings shooting from their backs. For Hera
kindled within those sons of gods the all-persuading sweet desire
for the ship Argo, that none should be left behind and stay by his
mother's side in savourless and riskless life, but each, even were
death the price, achieve in company with his peers a magic potency of
his valour.
Now when that goodly crew were come to Iolkos, Jason mustered them
with thanks to each, and the seer Mopsos prophesied by omens and by
sacred lots, and with good will sped the host on board.
And when they had hung the anchors over the prow, then their chief
taking in his hands a golden goblet stood up upon the stern and called
on Zeus whose spear is the lightning, and on the rush of waves and
winds and the nights and paths of the deep, to speed them quickly
over, and for days of cheer and friendly fortune of return. And from
the clouds a favourable voice of thunder pealed in answer; and there
came bright lightning flashes bursting through.
Then the heroes took heart in obedience to the heavenly signs; and the
seer bade them strike into the water with their oars, while he spake
to them of happy hopes; and in their rapid hands the rowing sped
untiringly.
And with breezes of the South they came wafted to the mouth of the
Axine sea; there they founded a shrine and sacred close of Poseidon,
god of seas, where was a red herd of Thracian bulls, and a new-built
altar of stone with hollow top[13].
Then as they set forth toward an exceeding peril they prayed the lord
of ships that they might shun the terrible shock of the clashing
rocks: for they were twain that had life, and plunged along more
swiftly than the legions of the bellowing winds; but that travel of
the seed of gods made end of them at last[14].
After that they came to the Phasis; there they fought with dark-faced
Kolchians even in the presence of Aietes. And there the queen of
keenest darts, the Cyprus-born, first brought to men from Olympus the
frenzied bird, the speckled wry-neck[15], binding it to a four-spoked
wheel without deliverance, and taught the son of Aison to be wise in
prayers and charms, that he might make Medea take no thought to honour
her parents, and longing for Hellas might drive her by persuasion's
lash, her heart afire with love.
Then speedily she showed him the accomplishment of the tasks her
father set, and mixing drugs with oil gave him for his anointment
antidotes of cruel pain, and they vowed to be joined together in sweet
wedlock.
But when Aietes had set in the midst a plough of adamant, and oxen
that from tawny jaws breathed flame of blazing fire, and with bronze
hoofs smote the earth in alternate steps, and had led them and yoked
them single-handed, he marked out in a line straight furrows, and for
a fathom's length clave the back of the loamy earth; then he spake
thus: 'This work let your king, whosoever he be that hath command
of the ship, accomplish me, and then let him bear away with him the
imperishable coverlet, the fleece glittering with tufts of gold.'
He said, and Jason flung off from him his saffron mantle, and putting
his trust in God betook himself to the work; and the fire made him not
to shrink, for that he had had heed to the bidding of the stranger
maiden skilled in all pharmacy. So he drew to him the plough and
made fast by force the bulls' necks in the harness, and plunged the
wounding goad into the bulk of their huge sides, and with manful
strain fulfilled the measure of his work. And a cry without speech
came from Aietes in his agony, at the marvel of the power he beheld.