Nemean

Pindar

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

  1. I sing what is known to the god [*](Reading θεῷ τε καὶ ὅστις, with the mss. ) and to whoever strives for the chief crown in the foremost games. Pisa holds the highest ordinance, that of Heracles. Still, the sweet voices of the Athenians at their festival twice sang victory-songs as a prelude for Theaeus,
  2. and in earth baked by fire olive oil came to the fine men of Hera’s city in jars with richly painted sides.
  3. Theaeus, the honor of successful contests often attends on the well-known race of your maternal ancestors, by the favor of the Graces and the Tyndarids. I would think it right, if I were a kinsman of Thrasyclus
  4. and Antias, not to veil the light in my eyes. For this horse-breeding city of Proetus has flourished with so many victories in the glens of Corinth, and four times from the men of Cleonae.
  5. And from Sicyon they returned with silver wine-goblets, and from Pellana with soft wool cloaks around their shoulders.
  6. But it is impossible to give a full reckoning of their countless prizes of bronze—for it would require long leisure to number them—which Cleitor and Tegea and the upland cities of the Achaeans and Mount Lycaeon set by the racecourse of Zeus for men to win with the strength of their feet and hands.
  7. But since Castor
  8. and his brother Polydeuces came to Pamphaës to receive a hospitable welcome, it is no wonder that it is innate in their race to be good athletes; since the Dioscuri, guardians of spacious Sparta, along with Hermes and Heracles, administer the flourishing institution of the games, and they care very much for just men. Indeed, the race of the gods is trustworthy.
  9. Changing places in alternation, the Dioscuri spend one day beside their dear father Zeus, and the other beneath the depths of the earth in the hollows of Therapne, each fulfilling an equal destiny, since Polydeuces preferred this life to being wholly a god and living in heaven, when Castor was killed in battle.
  10. For Idas, angered for some reason about his cattle, stabbed him with the point of his bronze spear.