Olympian

Pindar

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

  1. Read me the name of the Olympic victor, the son of Archestratus, where it has been written in my mind. For I owed him a sweet song, and I have forgotten. But come, Muse, you and the daughter of Zeus, unforgetting Truth: with the hand that puts things right,
  2. keep from me the blame for lying, for wronging my friend.
  3. Approaching from far away, the future has arrived and made me ashamed of my deep debt. Still, payment with interest has a way of dissolving the bitter reproach of men.
  4. Now, just as the flowing wave overwhelms the rolling pebble, so shall I pay my account in full, in gratitude and friendship.
  5. For unswerving Exactitude rules the city of the Western Locrians, and Calliope is important to them, and bronze-armored Ares.
  6. Battle with Cycnus set back even Heracles, strong and violent; let Hagesidamus, victorious as a boxer at Olympia, offer thanks to Ilas, just as Patroclus did to Achilles.
  7. With the help of a god, one man can sharpen another who is born for excellence, and encourage him to tremendous achievement.
  8. Without toil only a few have attained joy, a light of life above all labors. The laws of Zeus urge me to sing of that extraordinary contest-place which Heracles founded by the ancient tomb of Pelops
  9. with its six altars, after he killed Cteatus, the flawless son of Poseidon
  10. and Eurytus too, with a will to exact from the unwilling Augeas, strong and violent, the wages for his menial labor.
  11. Heracles lay in wait in the thicket below Cleonae, and in his turn overcame those men by the roadside; for once before those arrogant Moliones had destroyed his Tirynthian army, when it was encamped in the valley of Elis,