Pythian

Pindar

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

  1. It is buffeted by neither the invading onset of winter rain, the loud-roaring cloud’s pitiless army, nor the wind that sweeps all kinds of rubble into the depths of the sea. Its facade, shining in pure light,
  2. will announce your chariot victory to the speech of men and make it famous—the victory you share with your father and your race, Thrasybulus, won in the vales of Crisa.
  3. You keep it on your right hand and
  4. uphold the commandment, one of the precepts which they say once in the mountains the son of Philyra enjoined on the powerful son of Peleus, when he was separated from his parents: first of the gods, worship the son of Cronus, the loud-voiced ruler of lightning and thunder;
  5. and never deprive your parents of such honor during their allotted lifetime.
  6. Long ago, too, powerful Antilochus showed that he had this way of thinking;
  7. he died for his father’s sake, by awaiting the man-slaying commander of the Ethiopians, Memnon. For the horse kept Nestor’s chariot from moving, since it had been wounded by Paris ’ arrows; and Memnon was aiming his strong spear.
  8. The old man of Messene, his mind reeling, shouted to his son;
  9. the cry he hurled did not fall to the ground; his god-like son stayed on the spot and paid for his father’s rescue with his own life,
  10. and because he accomplished this tremendous deed he seemed to the younger men to be the greatest man of his time in excellence towards his parents. These things are past. Of men alive today, Thrasybulus
  11. more than anyone has approached his father’ s standard,
  12. and he rivals his father’s brother in every splendor. He manages his wealth with intelligence, reaping not an unjust or arrogant youth, but the wisdom found in the quiet haunts of the Pierian Muses.
  13. Earth-shaking Poseidon, he is devoted to you, who rule over horse-races, and his thoughts are pleasing to you. His sweet temperament, when he associates with his drinking companions, surpasses even the bee’s intricate honeycomb.
  1. The great city of Athens is the most beautiful prelude of song, which the widely powerful race of the Alcmaeonids can lay as a foundation of odes in honor of their horses.
  2. What fatherland, what family will you name that is more illustrious in Greece ?
  3. For in all cities the story
  4. of the citizens of Erechtheus makes the rounds, Apollo, how they made your dwelling in divine Pytho a marvel to see. Five Isthmian victories lead my song forward, and one outstanding triumph
  5. at Zeus’ Olympian games, and two from Cirrha —
  6. yours, Megacles, and your ancestors’. I rejoice at this new success; but I grieve that fine deeds are repaid with envy.
  7. It is true what they say: the abiding bloom of good fortune brings with it both good and bad.