by Cecil Bowra
Victory in the Trial of Strength.
His strength is wonderful, and to behold
He is beautiful. He wins success
That brings no shame to his breeding.
He is aflame with the violet-crowned Muses,
And has given a share of their blossoms
To his uncle who shares his name,
[25] For whom bronze-shielded Ares mingled doom;
But honour is laid up for the brave.
Let him know this clearly, whosoever
In this cloud keeps off the hail of blood
From the country which he loves,
Who pays back havoc to a host of enemies,
And swells a huge glory for the race of his townsmen,
[30] In life and in death.
You, son of Diodotos, matched
The warrior Meleagros, and matched
Hektor and Amphiaraos,
When you breathed out your youth in all its flower-time
III
[35] In the foremost press of the fighters,
Where the bravest kept up the struggle of battle
In desperate hopes.
I suffered grief not to be spoken of. But now
The Earth-Holder has granted me calm
After the storm. I shall fasten garlands on my hair
And sing, and may the envy of Immortals not trouble me.
I shall seek the delight that each day brings
And in calm of mind
Come to old age and my fated days;
For all alike we die,
Though our doom is unequal.
If a man peers at what is afar,
He is too small to reach
The bronze-floored home of the Gods.
Winged Pagasos threw off
His master Bellerophon
When he wished to come to the sky’s dwellings
And the company of Zeus.
A most bitter end
Awaits what is sweet in despite of right.
Do them, Loxias, with thy blossom of golden hair,
Grant in thy contests
A crown of fine flowers to us at Pytho also.
Isthmian VII was probably composed about 454 B.C. after the battle of Oinophyta, in which the Athenians became masters of Boiotia.
3 The ringing brass concerns Damater in connexion with the mysteries.
5–7 Zeus, taking the shape of Amphitryon, begat Herakles from Alkmana.
8 Teiresias is the famous prophet. See Nemean I.
9 Iolaos, the Theban, is the close companion of Herakles.
11 Adrastos, one of the Seven against Thebes, is repulsed in battle.
27–37 The victor’s uncle, Strepsiadas, has been killed at Oinophyta, and is compared with heroes of the past.
43–8 When Bellerophon on Pagasos tried to come to Olympos, it threw him. See Olympian XIII, 91–2. This probably hints at Athens, which will come to disaster for wanting too much.
Olympian IV
For Psaumis of Kamarina, winner in the chariot-race
Charioteer most high
Of the unweary-footed lightning,
Zeus, thy circling Hours have sent me
With the gamut of the harp’s song
[5] To witness the loftiest of Games.
When friends fare well,
Straightway at the sweet news
Good men are glad.
Son of Kronos, master of windy Aitna,
Where powerful Typhos is trapped,
The hundred-headed,
[10] Welcome an Olympian conqueror,
And, for the Graces’ sake, this procession,
A light most lasting on deeds of great strength.
For Psaumis comes
On his chariot, crowned with the olive of Pisa.
[15] He is eager to set up renown
For Kamarina. May God be kind
To his prayers in time to come.
For I praise him, ready indeed to train horses,
Glad to entertain all strangers,
With his pure heart turned
[20] To Quiet who loves his city.
With no lie shall I stain the saying:
‘Trial is the test of men.’
– This freed Klymenos’ son
[25] From the Lemnian women’s disdain.
When he won the race in bronze armour,
He said to Hypsipyleia,
As he came to get his crown:
‘Such am I in fastness of foot:
My hand and my heart are to match.
Even on young men white hair grows
[30] Before the due season of life.’
Olympian IV was composed in 452 B.C. Nothing is known of Psaumis except that he was rather past the usual age for competing in the Games.
24–30 Klymenos’ son is the Argonaut Erginos, who won in the race in armour, over which Hypsipyleia, queen of the Amazons, presided.
Nemean XI
For Aristagoras of Tenedos, on his presentation at the Council Hall
I
Daughter of Rhea, to you the Council Hall belongs,
Hestia, sister of highest Zeus
And of Hera who shares his throne,
Receive Aristagoras gladly into your chamber,
And gladly his companions
Near to your shining sceptre;
[5] – They honour you and keep Tenedos upright.
They worship the first of goddesses
Often with libations, often with incense.
For them the harp rings loud, and the song;
And Right is practised by them at the never-failing board
Of Zeus the strangers’ God.
– May he pass to the end of his twelve months’ task
[10] In good repute with heart unwounded.
As for the man, I count him happy
For his father Hagesilas
And for his own marvellous body
And the fearlessness born with him.
But if any is fortunate
And likely to surpass others in beauty
And has shown his strength by being best in the Games,
[15] Let him remember: the limbs that he clothes are mortal
And at the end of all he will put on a garment of clay.
II
It is right that he should be praised
With good words from his townsmen,
And decked with sweet-sounding songs for men to sing.
Sixteen shining victories,
Won from the dwellers around,
[20] Have crowned Aristagoras and his fortunate country
In wrestling and the glorious Trial of Strength.
The timorous hopes of his parents held back their strong son
From trying the Games at Pytho and Olympia.
I say it on oath, in my belief,
If he had gone to Kastalia
[25] And to Kronos’ well-wooded hill,
He would have come home with more glory
Than the adversaries who fought him.
In the fifth-year festival founded by Herakles
He would have joined the revel and tied his hair
With purple branches. But among men
[30] One is flung from success by empty-hearted boasts,
But another, who rates too poorly his strength,
Lets the honours within his reach
Slip from his hand,
Plucked back by his unadventurous heart.
III
It were easy to guess in him
The ancient blood of Peisandros from Sparta,
– From Amyklai he came with Orestas
[35] And brought hither a troop of Aeolians armoured in bronze –
And Ismenos’ water flows in his veins
Through Melanippos his mother’s father.
High ancient enterprises
Renew their strength for the generations of men
In alternate ages.
Black ploughlands give not fruit in unbroken succession,
[40] And trees consent not in every year
To bear sweet-scented flowers in equal abundance,
But in each second season.
So is the human race driven
By fate. Of what comes from Zeus
We have no sure sign, and yet
We set foot upon great endeavours
[45] And hanker for many things.
Our bodies are chained to wanton hope,
And the waters of foresight lie far away.
We must hunt for the mean in our profits –
Loves beyond reach sting too sharply to madness.
Nemean XI is not a true Epinician but a song to celebrate the admission of the young Aristagoras to a post in the local council hall, as a cupbearer or something of the kind. The poem was included among the Epinicians because of its references to the games in which Aristagoras has, or has not, taken part. It was composed late in Pindar’s life, possibly about 446 B.C. Aristagoras was the brother of Theoxenos, in whose arms Pindar was said to have died at Argos.
2 Hestia, the goddess of the hearth.
24–5 If Aristagoras had competed in the Pythian and Olympian Games, he would have won.
33 Peisandros was a Spartan who came to Tenedos with Orestas and founded the Greek colony there.
37 On his mother’s side the boy is descended from the Theban hero Melanippos.
47–8 Pindar may be hinting obliquely at his own love for Theoxenos, for whom at this time he wrote a poem, which survives more or less complete:
We should, my heart, gather the flowers of love
At the moment that fits our years,
But if anyone sees the flashes
That shoot from the eyes of Theoxenos
And is not rolled on a wave of desire, of adamant
Or of iron has he been forged in his black heart
By a chilling force. Unhonoured
By black-eyed Aphrodita,
Either he toils brutally for money,
Or with a woman’s effrontery
He reels down every road, solacing his soul.
But I, because of the goddess, am gnawed by the heat
And melt like the wax of holy bees, whenever I look
Upon the youth and fresh limbs of boys.
Truly in Tenedos also
Attraction dwells, and Beauty
Nursed the son of Hagesilas.
Pythian VIII
For Aristomenes of Aigina, winner in the boys’ wrestling
I
Kind-hearted Quiet, daughter of Right,
You, who make mightiest cities
And hold the last keys of counsel or war,
Accept in the name of Aristomenes
[5] This Pythian victor-song.
For to use gentleness, or to be used with it,
You know the perfect time:
You too, if any
Drives home into his heart
Unsweet anger, will harden your face
[10] Against the might of your enemies, and clap
The upstart in the bilge.
– Porphyrion did not know this,
When he aroused her too far
(The gain I like best
Comes from the house of a willing giver,
[15] But Force trips up
At last even the loud boaster.)
– Cilician Typhos with a hundred heads
Did not escape her,
No, nor the Giants’ King.
They went down before
The thunderbolt and the arrows of Apollo:
Who welcomed with friendly heart
[20] Xenarkes’ son from Krisa,
With the grass of Parnassos in his hair
And with a Dorian triumph.
II
The Graces are never far
From the island city of Righteousness,
For she has at her side
The great and famous Aiakidai.
[25] Her renown is perfect from the beginning.
In many victorious contests
(Her poets say) the heroes from her breast
Stood first, and in the rush of battles:
She is bright with mortal sons also.
– I cannot stop to strike up a song,
[30] With harp and liquid voice, of the whole long tale,
Lest galling surfeit come.
But this, which runs at my feet,
Which you, boy, have earned,
Let it fly, the newest of her honours,
On the wings of my skill.
In wrestling matches you go in the steps
Of your mother’s brothers.
Theognetos at Olympia is not shamed by you,
Nor the victory of the enduring limbs
Of Kleitomachos at the Isthmos.
You exalt the Meidylid clan: of you was the word
Spoken in riddles once by Oikleës’ son,
When he saw the Sons holding their ground
[40] In the seven gates of Thebes,
III
When they came from Argos
On the second journey, the Afterborn.
Thus he spoke, whilst they fought –
‘Blood makes this noble temper
[45] Shine from their fathers in the sons.
I see him clearly
Plying the coiled snake on his fiery shield,
Alkman, the first in the gates of Kadmos:
But he that was broken with trouble before
[50] Is compassed with better-omened news,
The hero Adrastos;
Though his own kin shall turn his joy to woe.
He, and none of the Danaans beside,
Shall gather the bones of his own dead son,
And so by the Gods’ will shall come,
His army unharmed,
[55] To the wide streets where Abas ruled.’
So Amphiaraos spoke.
And I too
Am pleased to lay my wreaths upon Alkman
And shed the dew of my song.
He is my neighbour, he guards my goods,
He met me in my road
To Earth’s renownèd Navel,
[60] And broached that prophet’s art
Which is his by inheritance.
IV
And you, Far-Shooter,
Master of the glorious shrine
Which welcomes all in the valley of Pytho,
[65] You granted there that greatest of joys.
And at home before this,
In the feast of your Sister and you,
You added the Fivefold Contest’s coveted prize.
My King, be pleased, I pray you,
To let your eyes rain melody
On every step that I take.
[70] At the side of the sweet-singing procession
Justice is standing: and I pray, Xenarkes,
For the Gods’ unenvious regards
On all your fortunes.
For many suppose, he who has won good things
With no long stretch of toil
Is the wise man among fools
[75] And marshals his life
With plans of unerring judgement.
– But such things do not lie in man’s power.
Fate is the giver, and throws
Now one man above, now another beneath, his hands.
Compete in measure: you have had the prize
At Megara and in the valley of Marathon.
And of those Games of Hera at your home
[80] In three victories, Aristomenes,
You have made a conquest indeed.
V
And now four times you came down with bodies beneath you,
(You meant them harm),
To whom the Pythian feast has given
No glad home-coming like yours.
[85] They, when they meet their mothers,
Have no sweet laughter around them moving delight.
In back streets out of their enemies’ way,
They cower; disaster has bitt
en them.
But who, in his tenderest years,
Finds some new lovely thing,
His hope is high, and he flies
[90] On the wings of his manhood:
Better than riches are his thoughts.
– But man’s pleasure is a short time growing
And it falls to the ground
As quickly, when an unlucky twist of thought
Loosens its roots.
[95] Man’s life is a day. What is he?
What is he not? A shadow in a dream
Is man: but when God sheds a brightness,
Shining life is on earth
And life is sweet as honey.
Aigina, dear mother,
Keep this city in her voyage of freedom:
You with Zeus and lord Aiakos,
[100] Peleus, and noble Telamon, and Achilles.
Pythian VIII was written in 446 B.C. and performed in Aigina at a time of great expectation and excitement when it looked as if Aigina, which had for some ten years been under Athenian rule, might exploit Athens’ present troubles to free herself. Pindar has this situation very much in mind and sympathizes with the eager young athlete but at the same time instils warnings and advice.
1 The invocation of Quiet is to induce a balanced state of mind in a time of crisis.
12 The giant Porphyrion is a type of brutal arrogance which brings its own downfall, and to some extent a symbol for Athens which may do the same.
17 For Typhos, see Pythian I, 15 ff.
39 Oikleës’ son is Amphiaraos.
39–56 A short myth tells how when the Successors came to attack Thebes, Amphiaraos foretells that Alkman (Alkmaion) will lose his son. The point is that in any war allowance must be made in advance for losses.
36–60 On his way from Thebes to Delphoi Pindar has seen Alkmaion, in a vision or a dream, and heard a prophecy from him, which he does not disclose but may refer to the success of the victor.
98–100 The heroes named with Zeus are the traditional guardians of Aigina and will fight for her if war comes.
(Olympian V)
For Psaumis of Kamarina, winner with the mule-car
I
Of lofty triumphs the highest and sweetest
Won at Olympia, O daughter of Ocean, with smiling heart
Welcome, and the gifts of the unweary-footed chariot and of Psaumis:
Who honours thy town, Kamarina, nurse of its people,
[5] And hallowed the six twin altars at the Gods’ greatest feast