Olympian

Pindar

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

  1. 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,
  2. since he has been victorious in both the pentathlon and the foot race; he has attained what no mortal man has ever attained before.
  3. Two wreaths of wild celery crowned him, when he appeared at the Isthmian festival; and Nemea does not speak differently.
  4. 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,
  5. 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
  6. over the number of your honors; for, truly, I would not know how to give a clear account of the number of pebbles in the sea.
  7. Each thing has its limit; knowing it is the best and most timely way. And I, sailing on my own course for the common good,