Nemean

Pindar

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

  1. But golden-haired Achilles, staying in the home of Philyra as a child, played at great deeds, often
  2. brandishing in his hands a javelin with a short blade; swift as the wind, he dealt death to wild lions in battle, and he slew wild boars and carried their panting bodies to the Centaur, son of Cronus, first when he was six years old, and afterwards for all the time he spent there.
  3. Artemis and bold Athena gazed at him with wonder,
  4. as he slew deer without the help of dogs and crafty nets; for he excelled with his feet. I have this story as it was told by earlier generations. Deep-thinking Cheiron reared Jason under his stone roof, and later Asclepius,
  5. whom he taught the gentle-handed laws of remedies. And he arranged a marriage for Peleus with the lovely-bosomed [*](Reading with Snell ἀγλαόκολπον for ἀγλαόκαρπον. ) daughter of Nereus, and brought up for her their incomparable child, nurturing his spirit with all fitting things,
  6. so that when the blasts of the sea-winds sent him
  7. to Troy, he might withstand the spear-clashing war-shout of the Lycians and Phrygians and Dardanians; and when he came into close conflict with the spear-bearing Ethiopians, he might fix it in his mind that their leader, powerful Memnon the kinsman of Helenus, should not return to his home.
  8. From that point the light of the Aeacids has been fixed to shine far.
  9. Zeus, it is your blood and your contest at which my song aimed its shot, shouting the joy of this land with the voices of young men. Their cry is well-suited to victorious Aristocleides, who linked this island with glorious praise and the sacred
  10. Theoric temple of the Pythian god with splendid ambitions. By trial the accomplishment is made manifest, of that in which a man proves himself preeminent,
  11. as a boy among young boys, a man among men, or, thirdly, among elders, according to each stage which we,the race of men, possess.
  12. And mortal life sets in motion four excellences, and bids us to think of what is at hand. You are [*](Reading with Snell ἄπεσσι for ἄπεστι. ) not without these excellences. Farewell, my friend! I am sending this to you, honey mixed with white milk, crested with foam from mixing, a draught of song accompanied by the Aeolian breathings of flutes,
  13. although it is late. The eagle is swift among birds: he swoops down from afar, and suddenly seizes with his talons his blood-stained quarry; but chattering daws stay closer to the ground. By the grace of Clio on her lovely throne and because of your victorious spirit, the light has shone on you from Nemea and Epidaurus and Megara.
  1. When toils have been resolved, festivity is the best physician; and songs, the skillful daughters of the Muses, soothe with their touch. And warm water does not wet the limbs so gently
  2. as praise that accompanies the lyre. Speech lives longer than deeds; whatever words the tongue, with the favor of the Graces, draws from the deep mind.
  3. May it be mine to set forth such speech, in honor of Zeus the son of Cronus, and Nemea,
  4. and Timasarchus’ wrestling, as a prelude to my song. And may it be welcomed by the home of the Aeacids, with its fine towers, that light which shines for all, with justice that defends the stranger. And if your father Timocritus had still been warmed by the strength of the sun, playing embroidered notes on the cithara
  5. and bending to this strain, he would have often celebrated his triumphant son,
  6. because he had sent back from the contest at Cleonae a chain of garlands, and from splendid, illustrious Athens; and because in seven-gated Thebes,
  7. beside Amphitryon’s splendid tomb, the Cadmeans gladly crowned him with flowers, for the sake of Aegina. For he looked on [*](Reading with Snell and MSS κατέδρακεν for κατέδραμεν. ) a hospitable city, when he came as a friend to friends, to the prosperous court of Heracles,