Nemean

Pindar

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

  1. Zeus the king of the immortals, and he promised that soon he would make one of the Nereids of the golden distaff the sea-dwelling wife of Peleus,
  2. after gaining the consent of their brother-in-law Poseidon, who often comes from Aegae to the famous Dorian Isthmus. There joyful bands welcome the god with the cry of reed-pipes, and contend with the bold strength of their limbs.
  3. The fortune that is born along with a man decides in every deed. And you, Euthymenes from Aegina, have twice fallen into the arms of Victory and attained embroidered hymns.
  4. Truly even now, Pytheas, your mother’s brother honors the kindred race of that hero following after you. Nemea is linked to him, and Aegina’s festival month which belongs to Apollo.
  5. And he was victorious over his peers both at home and in the lovely hollows of the hill of Nisus. I rejoice, because every state strives for noble deeds. Know that through the help of Menander’s good fortune you won sweet requital for your toils.
  6. It is fitting that a trainer of athletes should come from Athens.
  7. But if you come to Themistius, let there be no more coldness! Lift up your voice, and hoist the sails to the top-most yard; proclaim him as a boxer, and tell how he claimed double excellence with his victory in the pancratium at Epidaurus. Bring to the porch of Aeacus green garlands of flowers, in company with the golden-haired Graces.
  1. There is one race of men, one race of gods; and from a single mother we both draw our breath. But all allotted power divides us: man is nothing, but for the gods the bronze sky endures as a secure home forever. Nevertheless, we bear some resemblance to the immortals, either in greatness
  2. of mind or in nature, although we do not know, by day or by night, towards what goal fortune has written that we should run.
  3. Even now Alcimidas gives visible proof that his hereditary qualities are like the fruitful fields, which, in alternation,
  4. at one time give men yearly sustenance from the plains, and at another time gather strength from repose. He has come from the lovely games of Nemea, the athletic boy who, pursuing this ordinance of Zeus, has shown that he is a successful hunter in the wrestling ring,
  5. by planting his step in the tracks of his grandfather, his blood-relative. For that man, an Olympic victor, was the first to bring garlands from the Alpheus to the Aeacidae; and he had himself crowned five times at the Isthmus,
  6. and three times at Nemea, putting an end to the obscurity of Socleides, who proved to be the greatest of the sons of Hagesimachus,
  7. since he had three victorious sons who reached the summit of excellence,
  8. and who had a taste of toils. With the favorable fortune of the gods, no other family has been proclaimed by the boxing contest in the center of all Greece as the guardian of more garlands. I hope, with this great praise, to hit the target squarely, like one who shoots from a bow. Come, Muse, give a straight course to the glorious wind of song for this man.
  9. For when men pass away
  10. songs and stories preserve their fine deeds for them, and there is no shortage of these in the house of the Bassids. Their race has long been famous, carrying a cargo of their own victory songs; for those who plough the field of the Pierian Muses, they are able to provide a rich supply of songs, because of their proud achievements.
  11. In very holy Pytho the blood of this family was once victorious, his hands bound with leather straps—Callias, who had found favor with
  12. the children of Leto of the golden distaff, and beside Castalia at evening he was made radiant by the loud chorus of the Graces.
  13. And the bridge of the untiring sea [*](i.e. the Isthmus of Corinth.) honored Creontidas in the biennial festival of those who live around, when bulls are slain in the sacred precinct of Poseidon. And the herb of the Nemean lion once