Olympian

Pindar

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

  1. Mother of golden-crowned contests, Olympia, queen of truth! where prophets, judging from burnt sacrifices, inquire of Zeus of the flashing thunderbolt, if he has any message to give concerning men
  2. whose spirits are seeking to attain great excellence and a breathing-space from toils.
  3. Accomplishment is granted to the prayers of men in gratitude for their piety. Well-wooded grove of Pisa beside the Alpheus,
  4. welcome this victory-procession and the garland we bring to the victor; the man who is attended by your splendid prize of honor has great glory forever. Some good things come to one man, some to another; with the favor of the gods, there are many paths of success.
  5. Timosthenes, fortune has allotted you and your brother to the care of your ancestor Zeus, who made you renowned at Nemea, and made Alcimedon an Olympic victor beside the hill of Cronus. He was beautiful to look at, and his deeds did not belie his beauty
  6. when by his victory in wrestling he had Aegina with her long oars proclaimed as his fatherland. There the savior Themis, seated beside Zeus the god of hospitality, is honored
  7. more than among all other men. For when there is a heavy weight in the balance that sways many ways, to judge with a straight mind and not inopportunely
  8. is a difficult struggle. But some ordinance of the immortals set up as a divine pillar for visitors of all kinds this sea-girt land—and may the dawning time to come never tire of fulfilling this—
  9. guarded by the Dorian people since the time of Aeacus, whom wide-ruling Poseidon and the son of Leto, when they were about to build the crown of walls to encircle Ilium, summoned as a fellow worker; for it was fated that when war arose,
  10. in the city-destroying battles, that wall would breathe forth ravening smoke.
  11. And three gray-green serpents, when the wall was newly built, tried to leap into it; two of them fell down, stunned, and gave up their lives,