Pindar and Anacreon/Pindar/Olympic Odes/9
THE NINTH OLYMPIC ODE.
TO EPHARMOSTUS, THE OPUNTIAN, ON HIS VICTORY IN THE PALÆSTRA, GAINED IN THE SEVENTY-THIRD OLYMPIAD.
ARGUMENT.
Beginning with the praises of the victor, Pindar digresses to those of his native city Opus.—Then, being led by the mention of the propitious power of the Graces, to speak of Hercules' contest with Neptune, Apollo, and Pluto, which was carried on by their assistance, he checks himself, considering it an act of impiety to relate tales that may be disparaging to any of the gods.—Then follows a digression relating to Deucalion's flood, and the reparation of the human race after the waters had subsided.—The poet addressing Epharmostus and the citizens of Opus, as being descended from Deucalion and Pyrrha, through their daughter Protogeneia, who had by Jupiter a son called Opus, from whom the city was named.—His hospitality is celebrated, and his reception, among his other guests, of Menætius, whose son Patroclus is mentioned with high commendation as having assisted Achilles in his attack on Telephus, who had put to flight the Grecian band.—He then aspires to the car of the muses, who would enable him to frame a song that might do justice to the several triumphs of Lampromachus and Epharmostus, which he enumerates; attributing the victor's excellence and various graces to the favour of the gods, and concluding with a compliment to his hero, who, after his victory in the Oilean games, offered sacrifices and funeral rites at the tomb of Ajax.
Archilochus' Olympic strain [1]
With triple harmony combined,
Might have sufficed the friendly trains,
And gratified the victor's mind.
What, time, as Epharmostus leads, 5
By Saturn's hill the pomp proceeds.
But haste the sounding shafts to throw [2]
From the far-darting muses' bow;
The first to heaven's eternal king,
Who guides the lightning's lurid wing; 10
The next to Elis' sacred tower,
Uprear'd the rocky heights above,
Which Lydian Pelops gain'd, fair dower
Of chaste Hippodameia's love. 16
Towards Pytho next thine efforts bend, 15
A sweet and winged shaft to send.
Nor shalt thou raise a feeble strain,
Earth sprung, that falls to earth again.
When in fair Opus' praise you shake the string,
And her brave hero of the wrestler's ring; 20
Whose sons, preserved by equal laws, obey
Bright Themis and her glorious daughter's sway. [3]
There now the virtues flourish wide,
And with transplanted radiance glow,
Blooming as by Alphéus' tide, 25
Or where Castalia's waters flow.
Hence from her verdant grove the frequent crown
His Locrian city's fame exalts with fair renown. 32
But I, who joy my much-loved state
With festal hymns to celebrate, 30
Swift as the courser sweeps the plain,
Or winged vessel ploughs the main,
To all the listening world around
Will send the conquest's joyful sound.
Since, aided by a hand divine, 35
Within the Graces' choicest bower,
I make their blooming treasures mine,
And cull the sweets of every flower.
For they the charms of life bestow,
While all the brave and wise to them their virtues owe. 43 40
How else could great Alcides' hand
With shaken club provoke to fight
The god who wields the trident's might,
At Pylos when he took his stand,
To drive the hero from the land? 45
How dare to challenge as a foe
The monarch of the silver bow?
Nor could stern Pluto's grasp retain
Unmoved the sceptre of his reign,
Which drives the forms devoid of breath [4] 50
Within the hollow vale of death.
No more, unhallow'd lips, assail
The mighty gods with slanderous tale.
It sounds of madness thus to rise
In impious vaunts against the skies. 55
Be contests banish'd from the strain
That celebrates th' immortal train;
And rather by the poet's tongue
Protogeneia's city sung.
Where, as ordain'd by heaven's eternal king, 60
Whose power directs the lightning's varied wing,
Descending from Parnassus' lofty height,
Pyrrha and her Deucalion sought the plain,
Rear'd the first dome, and call'd that race to light,
Whose stony birth they bade the name retain. [5] 65
Then wake for them the tuneful string—
Though wine improved by mellowing age
The palate's suffrage more engage,
Yet choose a newer lay the victors praise to sing.
In tales of ancient lore 'tis said 70
O'er earth the whelming waters spread
Urged all their congregated force.
But Jove's high will his headlong course
Bade the usurping foe restrain,
And sink absorb'd the refluent main. 75
From them your sires, the warlike race
Of old Iapetus, descend;
Whose glorious deeds the brightest grace
To Saturn their forefather lend;
And hence a line of native kings 80
In regular succession springs. 84
Ere yet th' Olympic ruler's hand
Had ravish'd from th' Epean land
The daughter of fair Opus' lord,
And on the dark Mænalian heights 85
Mingled with her in love's delights;
To Locrus then his bride restored,
Lest age, death's harbinger, should doom
The childless monarch to the tomb. 92
Soon as the heavenly scion came, 90
The raptured hero gazed with joy
On the supposititious boy,
And call'd him by his uncle's name—
In manly deeds and outward grace
Above the sons of mortal race— 95
Permitting to his sceptred hand
Dominion o'er the subject land. 100
From Argos some, from Thebes, and Pisa's plain,
And fair Arcadia, throng the frequent train.
But most his love and admiration won 100
Menætius, Actor and Ægina's son:
Whose offspring, when brave Atreus' host
Invaded Teuthras' Mysian land,
Alone could with Achilles boast
The adverse army to withstand: 105
When Telephus the Grecian train
Drove seaward to their ships again.
Hence might the wise and prudent find
The strength of great Patroclus' mind. 115
Hence might the tender love appear 110
By Thetis' warlike offspring shown;
"Quit not," he said, "my conquering spear,
Nor join the war's array alone."
Oh! could I in the muses' car
Soar, eloquent of speech, afar— 115
Since bold emprise and power belong
To the high-favour'd child of song.
Inspired with hospitable aim
I come the virtues to proclaim,
Which round thy honour'd temples twine, 120
Lampromachus, the Isthmian pine;
When both in one triumphant day
The victor's chaplet bore away.
Two other joys at Corinth's gate
His brow in after times await; 125
And victory twice in Nemea's grove
The wreath for Epharmostus wove.
In Argos' strife of men renown'd,
While yet a boy at Athens crown'd;
When in the Marathonian field, 130
Departing from the beardless train.
He made the veteran warriors yield, [6]
The cup of silver to obtain.
Oh! with what matchless swiftness there
He ran the circus' destined round, 135
While shouting myriads rend the air
With admiration's joyful sound.
His lonely form and deeds of might
Bursting upon the raptured sight.
Wondrous in the Parrhasian plain 140
Before contending hosts he strove,
When all the congregated train
Hallowed thy feast, Lycæan Jove. 145
And when Pallene's robe he bears,
Warm refuge from the chilling airs. 145
Full oft has Iolaus' shrine
Upon Eleusis' sea-girt strand
Witnessed the splendid acts which shine
To crown the efforts of his hand.
In his own path each labours well, 150
As nature grants him to excel.
While many with laborious aim
Toil up the rugged steep of fame,
If the kind god forbear to bless
Their vain endeavour with success, 155
Let silence hide th' unfinish'd tale
Within oblivion's dusky veil.
Far different are the ways which tend
To glory as their common end. 158
Not all mankind are prone to feel 160
In the same care an equal zeal.
But arduous paths must they explore
Who to the heights of wisdom soar.
While I this lay triumphant bring,
With voice sonorous let me sing 165
The hero's praise whose spirit bold
Join'd to a frame of hardy mould,
Urged him upon th' Oilean plain
The palm of glory to obtain.
Then round the Æantean shrine 170
In festal pomp the wreath entwine. [7] 168
- ↑ It appears to have been customary to sing at the Olympic games a hymn of Archilochus, consisting of three strophes, and composed in honour of Hercules; which began thus:
Καλλινικε χαιρ᾽ αναξ
Ἡρακλεις.To this Pindar here alludes.
- ↑ Addressed co the chorus.
- ↑ Eunomia, the genius of good government.
- ↑ The office which is here attributed to the sceptre of Pluto, is by the poets usually described as characterizing the caduceus of Mercury.—See Homer, Il. xxiv. 213; Virg., Æn. iv. 242; Horat., Od. i, 24.—The last of which passages is thus translated by Francis:—
"Yet ne'er returns the vital heat,
The shadowy form to animate.
Soon as the ghost-compelling god
Forms his black troops with horrid rod,
He will not, lenient to the breath
Of prayer, unbar the gates of death." - ↑ Λαος, a people, from λαας, a stone. So Ovid, speaking of Deucalion's Deluge, (Met. i. 411,) says:—
"Superorum munere, saxa
Missa viri manibus faciem traxere virilem;
Et de fœmineo reparata est fœmina jactu.
Inde genus durum sumus, experiensque laborum,
Et documenta damus, qua simus origine nati."Pindar, by deducing the origin of the Locrians from a daughter or daughters of Jupiter, gives another proof of his anxiety to assign to the cities in honour of whose townsmen his odes are composed, as ancient and illustrious a source as history or mythology will permit. It would be a futile attempt to supply the defective links in the genealogical chain between Deucalion and Locrus, from whom the people derive their appellation; but this perplexity involves the origin of many ancient nations, who have recourse to mythological fiction for that which the integrity of truth will not supply.
- ↑ I. e., in the Isthmus, where the games were celebrated. So Æschylus, describing the Cimmerian Bosphorus, says, (P. V. 754.:)—
Ισθμον δ᾽ επ᾽ αυτις στενοποροις λιμνης πυλαις
Κιμμερικον ἡξεις. - ↑ It was the custom for the victors on their return from Olympia to institute sacred rites in honour of the indigenous hero Ajax, son of Oileus, and to crown his shrine with a chaplet. The Æantean games were particularly celebrated at Opus.