Isthmean

Pindar

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

  1. or these songs. For I did not fashion them to stand idle. Give this message, Nicasippus, when you come across my trusty friend.
  1. If any man has good fortune, either in famous contests or by the strength of his wealth, yet restrains troublesome ambition in his mind, he is worthy to be joined with his townsmen’s praises. Zeus, great excellence attends on mortals
  2. from you. Greater prosperity lives with those who revere you; but it does not keep company with crooked minds, flourishing equally for all time.
  3. As a recompense for glorious deeds, it is right to celebrate a noble man, and it is right to exalt him in victory-songs with the gentle Graces. Yes, in two contests Melissus
  4. has had a share of good fortune, to turn his heart to sweet joyfulness; he received garlands in the glens of the Isthmus, and in the valley of the deep-chested lion he had Thebes announced
  5. when he was victorious in horse-racing. He does not dishonor the inborn excellence he has from his ancestors.
  6. Surely you know of the ancient glory of Cleonymus in the chariot-races. And, being related to the Labdacids on their mother’s side, they followed a path of wealth with the toil of their four-horse teams. But the whirling days of a man’s lifetime change many things. Only the children of the gods are unwounded.
  1. Thanks to the gods, I have countless paths opening on every side; Melissus, at the Isthmian games you revealed abundant resources for celebrating in song the excellence of your family, in which the sons of Cleonymus flourish perpetually,
  2. with a god’s favor, as they progress towards the mortal end of life. But a changeable wind sweeps down and drives all men at different times.
  3. These men truly are spoken of as honored in Thebes from the beginning; they have good relations with the neighboring towns, and are bereft of loud arrogance. And as for the memorials that fly through all the world,
  4. memorials of boundless fame for living and dead men, they have attained all of these in full. Through their manly deeds they reached from home to touch the farthest limit, the pillars of Heracles—
  5. do not pursue excellence any farther than that! And they became breeders of horses
  6. and were pleasing to bronze-clad Ares. But on a single day the rough storm of war robbed their blessed hearth of four men. Now, after the wintry gloom of the changing months, the ground has blossomed as if with crimson roses
  7. by the will of the gods. The shaker of the earth who dwells at Onchestus
  8. and at the sea-bridge before the walls of Corinth, by offering to that family this marvellous song, wakes from her bed their ancient fame for glorious deeds. For she had fallen asleep, but now she has awakened and her body shines, marvellous to see, like the morning-star among other stars.
  9. She proclaimed their chariot victorious on the high ground of Athens and also in Sicyon at the games of Adrastus, and thus gave them leaves of song, like these, from the singers of their time. Nor did they keep their curved chariot from competing in the general contests; striving against all of Greece, they rejoiced in spending their wealth on their horses.
  10. Those who attempt nothing face silence and obscurity,
  11. and fortune remains hidden even to those who contend, until they reach the final goal. For she dispenses from this side and from that, and the skill of weaker men
  12. can overtake and trip up a stronger man. Indeed, you know of the bloodstained might of Aias, which late at night he pierced by falling on his own sword, thus bringing blame on all the sons of the Greeks who went to Troy.
  13. But he is honored throughout the world by Homer, who set the record right concerning all his excellence and told it with the staff of his divine words, for posterity to play.