Nemean

Pindar

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

  1. 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.
  2. For when men pass away
  3. 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.
  4. In very holy Pytho the blood of this family was once victorious, his hands bound with leather straps—Callias, who had found favor with
  5. the children of Leto of the golden distaff, and beside Castalia at evening he was made radiant by the loud chorus of the Graces.
  6. 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
  7. crowned him when he was victorious beneath the shady primeval mountains of Phlius.
  8. There are broad avenues open on every side for storytellers to adorn this glorious island, since the Aeacids provided them by example with an outstanding share of great excellence.
  9. Their name flies far, over the land and across the sea. It even reached the Ethiopians, when Memnon did not return to his home; Achilles descended from his chariot and fell upon [*](Reading with Snell ἔμπεσε for ἔμβαλε. ) them, a grievous antagonist,
  10. when he slew the son of the shining Dawn with the edge
  11. of his raging sword. Poets of former times found this highway, and I myself am following them; this is my concern. But the wave that rolls nearest to the ship is said to stir the spirit most of all. I came as a messenger, willingly bearing on my back a double burden,
  12. to proclaim that this twenty-fifth
  13. boast of victory from the games which men call sacred, Alcimidas, has been provided by you for your glorious family. Beside the sacred precinct of the son of Cronus, child, you and Polytimidas were deprived of two Olympic garlands
  14. by a sudden drawing of lots. I would say that Melesias is equal in speed to a dolphin that darts through the salt sea; he is the charioteer who guided your hands and strength.
  1. [*](On the uncertainty of the date, see C. Carey,A Commentary on Five Odes of Pindar ( New York 1981 ), p. 133. ) Eleithuia, seated beside the deep-thinking Fates, hear me, creator of offspring, child of Hera great in strength. Without you we see neither the light nor the dark night before it is our lot to go to your sister, Hebe, [*](Youth) with her lovely limbs.
  2. Yet we do not all draw our first breath for equal ends. Under the yoke of destiny, different men are held by different restraints. But it is by your favor that, even so, Sogenes the son of Thearion, distinguished by his excellence, is celebrated in song as glorious among pentathletes.
  3. For he lives in a city that loves music, the city of the Aeacidae with their clashing spears;
  4. and they very much want to foster a spirit familiar with contests. If someone is successful in his deeds, he casts a cause for sweet thoughts into the streams of the Muses. For those great acts of prowess dwell in deep darkness, if they lack songs, and we know of only one way to hold a mirror up to fine deeds:
  5. if, by the grace of Mnemosyne with her splendid headdress, one finds a recompense for toils in glorious song.
  6. Skillful men know the wind that will come on the day after tomorrow, and they do not suffer loss through the love of gain. The rich man and the poor man alike travel together to the boundary of death.