Olympian

Pindar

Pindar. Arnson Svarlien, Diane, translator. Created for the Perseus Project, 1990.

  1. Achilles, who laid low Hector, the irresistible, unswerving pillar of Troy, and who consigned to death Memnon the Ethiopian, son of the Dawn. I have many swift arrows in the quiver under my arm,
  2. arrows that speak to the initiated. But the masses need interpreters. [*](On this line see W. H. Race, “The End of Olympian 2: Pindar and the Vulgus,” CSCA 12, 1979, 251-67, and G. W. Most, “Pindar O. 2.83-90,” CQ 36, 1986, 304-16. ) The man who knows a great deal by nature is truly skillful, while those who have only learned chatter with raucous and indiscriminate tongues in vain like crows
  3. against the divine bird of Zeus. Now, bend your bow toward the mark; tell me, my mind, whom are we trying to hit
  4. as we shoot arrows of fame from a gentle mind? I will aim at Acragas, and speak with true intent a word sworn by oath: no city for a hundred years has given birth to a man more beneficent in his mind or more generous with his hand
  5. than Theron. But praise is confronted by greed, which is not accompanied by justice, but stirred up by depraved men, eager to babble and to bury the fine deeds of noble men. Since the sand of the shore is beyond all counting,
  6. who could number all the joys that Theron has given others?
  1. I pray that I may be pleasing to the hospitable sons of Tyndareus and to Helen of the beautiful hair while I honor renowned Acragas by raising my song in praise of Theron’s victory at Olympia, won by the choicest of horses with untiring feet. With this in view the Muse stood beside me when I found a shining new manner
  2. of fitting the splendid voice of the victory procession to the Dorian sandal.