Nemean

Pindar

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

  1. 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,
  2. when he slew the son of the shining Dawn with the edge
  3. 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,
  4. to proclaim that this twenty-fifth
  5. 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
  6. 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.
  7. And I expect that the story of Odysseus came to exceed his experiences, through the sweet songs of Homer,