by Cecil Bowra
5
Pindar’s guiding and central theme is the part of experience in which human beings are exalted or illumined by a divine force, and this he commonly compares with light. At such times the consciousness is marvellously enhanced, and a man’s whole being has a new spaciousness and confidence. For Pindar this was the end and the justification of life, and he regarded himself as almost uniquely qualified to provide it. He has few words of praise for other poets and sees himself as supremely endowed by nature and training for his special task. Through song men attain immortality, even though this is not easily defined and seems to depend on being remembered by later generations. What Pindar conveys in song is precisely the enhancement of consciousness which his athletes enjoy in the moment of triumph. This is the central inspiration of Pindar’s work and accounts for his special quality. His vision is of a world in which both men and gods are active but all that really matters comes directly from the gods. For much of their time men lead a shadowy and unsubstantial existence, but when the gods send a divine brightness all is well with them. It is this brightness that Pindar seeks to convey. Even in his myths, where there are many vivid and stirring moments, there is very little pathos, still less tragic tension. What Pindar catches is the joy beyond ordinary emotions as it transcends and transforms them. It can be found in athletic success, convivial relaxation, song and music, friendship and love, in many natural sights and sounds, in prayer and hymns. He is a religious poet. He knows that everything worth having comes from the gods, that they are everywhere, that in any analysis men are as nothing compared with them, but just for this reason the poet’s task is to catch and keep the fleeting divine moment and to reveal to men what really matters in their busy bustling lives. Because he believes this, Pindar stands above politics and seeks his own eternal ends wherever they are to be found. It may be true that his art looks not forward but backward, that the past holds him and the future interests him not at all, but that is to say very little. He embodies with a notable purity certain spiritual forces which inspired and sustained the Greeks in their heyday and were by no means without honour even in Athens.
In antiquity Pindar’s poetry was thought to suffer from extraordinary lapses, and no doubt it does. It must have been difficult for him to rise with an authentic splendour to lists of athletic victories or genealogical details. His special vision could not possibly be at work with equal power everywhere, and we must remember that he was a professional poet who was invited to write on themes not of his own choosing, and almost certainly paid for doing so. He believed absolutely in the need of inspiration; he knew what it was and made the most of it. He also knew that even the most inspired poet must also be a craftsman who takes trouble with his craft. This too he did, and even when he does not thrill us he may charm us by his inventive ingenuity in handling some intractable topic. Yet so many and so sustained are his fine flights that we can understand that the Greeks compared him with an eagle and thought him their greatest lyric poet. This was what he too believed, and we may agree with him.
Main Events in the Games
Chariot-race
[20] The chariots were four-horsed. The course was twelve double laps, nearly nine miles. Accidents were frequent. When Arkesilas IV, king of Kyrene, sent a chariot to compete at the Pythian Games in 462 B.C., it survived when forty crashed.
Mule-car race
[25] This was introduced at Olympia early in the fifth century B.C. but discontinued in 444 B.C.
Horse-race
The course was one lap of six stades, about 1,200 yards. The jockeys rode without saddles or stirrups.
Foot-race
[30] This was from one end of the stadium to the other, about 200 yards.
Double foot-race
[35] This was from one end of the stadium to the other, and then back, in all about 400 yards.
Long foot-race
This varied at different places, but at Olympia was about three miles.
Race in armour
This was introduced towards the end of the sixth century.
The runner wore at least a helmet and carried a shield on his left arm.
Wrestling
The normal aim was to throw your opponent on the ground. A fall on the back or shoulders or hip counted as a fair throw. Three clean throws were needed for victory.
Boxing
There were no regular rounds, and no confined ring. The fight was to the finish, with either a knock-out or an admission of defeat. There was no rule against hitting a man when down. Thongs tied round the hands and wrists took the place of gloves.
Five Events
The pentathlon was a combined competition in running, jumping (long jump only), throwing the discus, throwing the javelin, and wrestling.
Trial of strength
The pankration was a competition in boxing and wrestling combined with kicking, strangling, and twisting. Biting and gouging were forbidden, but most other manoeuvres were not. You might kick your opponent in the belly, twist his foot out of its socket, or break his fingers. All neck-holds were allowed, a favourite being the ‘ladder-grip’ in which you climbed your opponent’s back, wound your legs round his belly, and your arms round his neck.
Flute
Early competitions in the Pythian Games seem often to have been musical, but in the fifth century that in flute-playing alone survived.
Pythian X
For Hippokleas of Thessaly, winner in the boys’ double foot-race
I
Happy Lakedaimon,
Blessed Thessaly! in both
One father begot their race of kings,
Herakles bravest in battle.
What are these high untimely words?
Pytho, and the town of Pelinna, call to me
And the sons of Aleuas call, that I should bring
[5] In triumph
For Hippokleas the loud voice of men.
He is tasting the Games.
To the host of the dwellers around
That vale in Parnassos
Proclaimed him, first of the boys
In the double foot-race.
[10] Apollo, sweet is the end of endeavor
(Sweet too its beginning)
When a God speeds its growing.
I think you planned that he should win this;
And the blood in him follows his father’s tracks,
Who won at Olympia twice
In the armour of Ares which takes the shock of war;
[15] And the Games under the rocks of Krisa,
In that deep meadow, put
Phrikias first in the runners’ race.
May their luck hold, and keep in the days to come
Their lordly wealth aflower!
II
So great a share of the lovely things of Hellas
Is theirs, let God not envy them
And change their fortune.
Though God alone never tastes woe,
Yet that man is happy and poets sing of him,
Who conquers with hand or swift foot
And wins the greatest of prizes
By steadfastness and strength
And lives to see
His young son, in turn, get garlands at Pytho.
He shall never climb the brazen sky;
But what glittering things we mortal men attain,
He travels there
To the farthest edge of sailing.
But not in ships or on foot
Will you find the marvellous road
To the games of the People beyond the North.
Perseus the prince has been at their feasts.
He came to their houses
And found them making high sacrifice
Of a hundred asses to their God.
In their feasts for ever and their praises
Is Apollo’s chief delight;
He laughs as he sees
Their beasts’ high-cocked presumption!
III
And the Muse never leaves that l
and,
For this is their life:
Everywhere the girls are dancing,
And the sound of the harps is loud,
And the noise of the flutes.
[40] They bind their hair with bay leaves of gold,
They feast and are glad.
And sickness never, nor cursed old age
Touches their holy bodies:
Without toil, without war
They dwell, and do not trouble
The stern scales of Nemesis.
Breathing the courage of his heart
[45] Came Danaä’s son,
Athana his guide,
To visit the Fortunate Ones.
He slew the Gorgon
And came with that head of writhing serpent-hair
To the islanders, and struck them
Dead in stone.
But for me no wonder
[50] If the Gods do it, nor anything hard for belief.
Easy the oar: drop the anchor quick from the bows.
Let it bite the bottom, to keep us off the reef.
The light of the holiday-song
Darts from one thought to another like a bee!
IV
[55] I hope that when men of Ephyra
Pour out sweet music beside Peneios
They will make Hippokleas with their singing
More splendid than ever,
For the wreathes he has won,
Among his fellows and elders,
And the young girls will look at him.
[60] – For many loves trouble the hopes of men.
To each his heart’s desire:
And when he gets it,
Ravishingly sweet will he find
The common thoughts he comes by;
And there’s no guessing
What any twelvemonth brings.
I know this:
Thorax is busy with delights for his friends!
Who for my sake took pains to harness
[65] This four-horse chariot of the Muses.
He loves me, I him: he my guide, I his, in friendship.
At the test, gold is proved by the touchstone,
And so is a true mind.
I have praise yet
For his excellent brothers, who bear on high
[70] The Thessalians’ land
And bring it to power.
In the hands of good men lies
The noble piloting of cities
Handed from father to son.
Pythian X was composed in 498 B.C., when Pindar was twenty years old. It was performed at the Thessalian town of Pelinna, not far from Larisa, the seat of the princely house of the Aleuads, with whom the victor was connected. Pindar himself was present. The real host and patron was Thorax, who was tagos or chief prince of Thessaly.
1–3 The association between Thessaly and Sparta through the common descent of their respective royal houses from Herakles reflects the present attempts of Sparta, under its king, Kleomenes, to extend Spartan power over northern Greece by a system of alliances.
15–16 The father of Hippokleas, Phrikias, has twice won the foot-race in armour at Olympia and once at Delphoi. The ‘rocks of Krisa’ are the rocky slopes of Parnassos, in whose flank the stadium at Delphoi was cut above the temple and the theatre.
29–49 Pindar tells of the fabulous Hyperboreans or People beyond the North, of whom there was some cult in Thessaly. He combines them with Perseus, who was also connected with Thessaly and visited the Hyperboreans in his quest for the Gorgon. The point of the myth is that the Hyperboreans are ideally happy, and that though no mere men can enjoy a like happiness, Hippokleas and his friends come as near as possible to it.
44 Perseus, son of Danaä, kills the Gorgon Medoisa and with her head turns into stone the people of the island of Seriphos. See Pythian XII, 12.
69 Thorax is assisted in the government of Thessaly by his brothers Eurypylos and Thrasydaios.
Pythian VI
For Xenokrates of Akragas, winner in the chariot-race
I
Listen! it is Aphrodite of the sudden glances,
Or is it the Graces, whose field we are ploughing now
On our road to the thunderous Earth’s enshrinèd navel,
Where, for a Pythian conqueror, waits
[5] A treasure-house of songs,
For the happy Emmenidai, for Akragas on her river,
And for Xenokrates: it is built with walls
In Apollo’s gold-stored combe.
II
[10] No wintry storms driving over,
Nor the loud thundercloud’s
Merciless army, nor the gale,
Shall sweep it, pounded in devouring silt,
Into the gulfs of the sea.
Its porch, in the pure light,
Shall stand, the herald of a conquest
That a chariot won in the fold of Krisa Hill,
Glorious in the mouths of men,
[15] Your father’s, Thrasyboulos, and all your clan’s.
III
You keep him on your right hand,
[20] Not swerving from the commandment:
Among the mountains, they say, Philyra’s son
Gave to the mighty child of Peleus far away from his home
This counsel: ‘Zeus Kronidas,
The deep-voiced Lord of Lightning and Thunderbolts,
Him thou shalt worship first of Gods:
[25] And a like honour
Give to thy parents for the length of their days.’
IV
Antilochos was a warrior long ago
Who kept this purpose.
[30] For he died for his father,
Braving the murderous
Memnon, prince of the Ethiopian host.
– Nestor’s chariot was held
(An arrow of Paris pierced his horse): and Memnon
Came on with mighty spear.
[35] And the old Messenian, shaken at heart,
Cried upon his son.
V
That cry cast forth
Did not fall to the ground.
There he stood fast, a more than man,
And paid his death for the rescue of his father:
[40] And gained, through his tremendous deed,
Among younger generations,
This fame, that he of the men of old
Was best son to his father.
It was long ago:
Of men now, Thrasyboulos has come nearest
[45] To what a father would have,
VI
And follows in all
His uncle’s paths of splendour.
He gives thought to his wealth,
Not plucking in violence or wrong
The flower of youth, but of wisdom
In the secret places of Pieria’s Maids.
[50] You, Earth-Shaker, master of running horses,
He pleases greatly, Poseidon: his thoughts are of you.
Sweet is his heart,
And when his companions feast with him, is like
Those cells the bees brim full.
Pythian VI was composed in 490 B.C. and performed at Delphoi soon after the victory, Pindar himself being present. Xenokrates was the brother of the Sicilian Theron, tyrant of Akragas, and a man of considerable consequence, but Pindar is more interested in his young son Thrasyboulos.
8–18 The song is compared with one of the treasuries built on the slope of Delphoi (the Athenian Treasury has been reconstructed from its original stones), and, like them, will defy all storms.
18 The chariot-race in the Pythian Games took place in the valley below Parnassos.
22 Philyra’s son is the Centaur Cheiron, who was the tutor of some great heroes. A lost work, The Precepts of Cheiron, seems to have contained apophthegms like that quoted by Pindar here.
28–39 Antilochos saved his father Nestor at the cost of his own life, and is held up to Thrasyboulos as a model son.
53 There survive a few lines from a drinking-son
g composed by Pindar for Thrasyboulos and presumably sung after the supper for the victory:
Thrasyboulos, this chariot of love-songs
I send to you after supper. May it be shared by all
Among the drinkers and Dionysos’ fruits
And the cups from Athens, a stinging delight;
When the wearying cares of men pass away
From their breasts, and in the sea of golden wealth
All alike we sail to a shore of lies.
When he who has nothing is rich, and in turn the wealthy …
Pythian XII
For Midas of Akragas, winner in the flute-playing
I
I pray you, lover of splendour, fairest of mortal cities,
Persephona’s home,
Queen, dwelling on your well-built height, where below
On the banks of Akragas the sheep are grazing,
[5] Take this Pythian wreath
Achieved by glorious Midas, and take himself,
Victor of Hellas
