Nemean

Pindar

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

  1. From that point the light of the Aeacids has been fixed to shine far.
  2. 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
  3. 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,
  4. 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.
  5. 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,
  6. 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,
  8. with whom once powerful Telamon destroyed Troy and the Meropes and the great and terrible warrior Alcyoneus, but not before that giant had laid low, by hurling a rock, twelve chariots and twice twelve horse-taming heroes who were riding in them.
  9. A man who did not understand this proverb would appear to be inexperienced in battle: since “it is likely that the doer will also suffer.”
  10. The laws of song and the hurrying hours prevent me from telling a long story,
  11. and I am drawn, by a magic charm on my heart, to touch on the new-moon festival. Nevertheless, although the deep salt sea holds you around the middle, strain against treacherous plots. We will be seen arriving in the light far above our enemies. But another man, with an envious glance,
  12. broods in the darkness over an empty thought
  13. that falls to the ground. As for me, I know that whatever excellence ruling destiny gave me, time will creep forward and bring it to its appointed perfection. Weave out, sweet lyre, right now,
  14. the beloved song with Lydian harmony, for Oenone and Cyprus, where Teucer the son of Telamon reigns far from home; but Aias holds ancestral Salamis,