Olympian

Pindar

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

  1. While I praise a house that has been three times victorious at Olympia, gentle to her own citizens, and hospitable to strangers, I shall recognize prosperous Corinth,
  2. the portal of Isthmian Poseidon, glorious in her young men. There dwell Eunomia [*](Good Government) and her sisters, the secure foundation of cities: Dike, [*](Justice) and Eirene, [*](Peace) who was raised together with her, the guardians of wealth for men, the golden daughters of wise Themis. [*](Law)
  3. They are resolute in repelling
  4. Hybris, [*](Arrogance) the bold-tongued mother of Koros, [*](Surfeit) I have fine things to tell, and straightforward boldness urges my tongue to speak. It is impossible to conceal one’s inborn nature. As for you, sons of Aletes, often the Seasons have sent you victorious splendor
  5. for your consummate excellence when you won in sacred contests, and often into the hearts of men
  6. the Seasons rich in flowers have cast ancient inventiveness. But the fame for every work is due to its inventor. Whence did the graces of Dionysus first come to light, with the ox-driving dithyramb?
  7. Who invented the bridle for the harness of horses, or placed the double king of birds on top of the temples of gods? And in Corinth the sweet-breathing Muse blossoms, and also Ares, with the deadly spears of young men.
  8. Highest lord
  9. of Olympia, ruling far and wide; for all time, father Zeus, may you be ungrudging of our words, and ruling this people in safety, grant a straight course to the fair wind of Xenophon’s good fortune. Receive the ordained song of praise in honor of his garlands, the procession which he leads from the plains of Pisa,
  10. since he has been victorious in both the pentathlon and the foot race; he has attained what no mortal man has ever attained before.
  11. Two wreaths of wild celery crowned him, when he appeared at the Isthmian festival; and Nemea does not speak differently.
  12. The brilliance of his father Thessalus’ feet is stored up by the streams of the Alpheus, and at Pytho he has honor for the single and the double foot race within the circuit of a single day’s sun; and in the same month, in rocky Athens, one swift-footed day placed three very beautiful prizes on his head,
  13. and the games of Athena Hellotis give him seven victories. In the games of Poseidon between the two seas, the songs would be too long that could tell of all the victories won by Terpsias and Eritimus, with their father Ptoeodorus. And as for all the times you were best at Delphi, and in the lion’s pastures, I am ready to contend with many