by Cecil Bowra
In that art which Pallas Athana invented, when
She wove to a tune
The ruthless Gorgon’s deathly dirge;
II
Which Perseus heard, pouring from those Virgins’ lips
[10] And the unapproachable serpent-heads,
In that woeful struggle, when he destroyed
The third part of the Sisters;
And brought to Seriphos in the sea
Her people’s doom and her own.
Ay, and he darkened the unearthly brood
Of Phorkos and made Polydektas rue
The gifts he asked for, and Danaä’s
[15] Long slavery and forced love!
For he had as his spoil broad-cheeked Medoisa’s head,
III
The son of Danaä: who, I say,
Was conceived of the living gold.
And when she delivered from these labours
The man she loved, the Maiden created
The flute’s wide-ranging music, to copy in it
That strong and loud lamentation
[20] Which reached her from Euryala’s eager jaws.
The Goddess invented it, and gave her invention
To mortal men,
Naming it ‘The Many-Headed Tune’,
The glorious summons
To the multitudinous games,
IV
[25] Blown through thin bronze, and blown through the reeds
Which grow near the fair-spaced city of the Graces
In the garden of the Nymph of Kaphisos.
Wherever dancing is, they are sure to be.
Any bliss that man may win
(And without labour, none!) God shall perfect
Today, perhaps! but fate may not be escaped.
Then lo! Time’s hand,
Throwing at you the unforeseen
Turns calculation upside down, and gives you
One thing, but another not yet.
Pythian XII, like Pythian VI, was composed in 490 B.C. Midas had probably come in the entourage of Xenokrates. It was probably meant to be performed on his return to Akragas, when Pindar would not be present.
1–3 Pindar had not yet visited Akragas and describes it from hearsay, quite correctly.
6–17 Athana invented the flute, and also a tune called ‘The Many-Headed’, which was supposed to be the lament of the Gorgon Euryala for her sister Medoisa, when Perseus killed her.
11 Perseus kills only Medoisa, and leaves the other two Gorgons alive.
12 He turns the inhabitants of Seriphos, with their king Polydektas, into stone for their maltreatment of his mother Danaä.
14 The Gorgons are children of Phorkos, but so are the Graiai, who had only one eye and one tooth between them. Perseus took the eye to force them to tell him where the Gorgons lived, and when they did, omitted to give it back to them.
17 Perseus was conceived when Zeus came to Danaä in a shower of gold.
26 The Graces were worshipped in Orchomenos. See Olympian XIV.
28–32 The ancient commentators say that Midas’ flute broke during his performance, but that he continued to play without a mouth-piece.
Olympian XIV
For Asopichos of Orchomenos, winner in the foot-race
I
The waters of Kaphisos belong
To the place of fine horses where you dwell,
Queens of song, in sparkling Orchomenos,
Graces, who watch
Over the ancient race of the Minyans,
[5] Hear, when I pray. By your help
All sweet and delightful things
Belong to men; if anyone
Is wise or lovely or famous.
For without the holy Graces
Not even the Gods rule dances or feasts.
[10] They dispose all that is done in Heaven;
Their thrones are set
At the side of Pythian Apollo, the golden-bowed,
And they worship the everlasting glory
Of the Father on Olympos.
II
O Lady Glory, and Mirth, delighting in music,
Children of the most mighty of Gods,
[15] Listen now, and Health, lover of the dance,
Look on the company lightly treading after friendly fortune.
I have come with a song for Asopichos
In the Lydian style with careful art;
For through you the Minyan race
[20] Is victorious at Olympia.
Go now, Echo, to the black walls
Of Persephona’s house
And bring the fine news to his father;
See Kleodamos and tell him
How his son
In the famous valleys of Pytho
Has crowned his young hair
With the wings of a glorious triumph.
Olympian XIV was probably composed in 488 B.C. to be sung on the victor’s return to his native Orchomenos, where the Graces – Aglaia (Glory), Euphrosyna (Mirth), and Thalia (Health) – had a prominent place in local cult.
4 Minyas was the legendary founder of Orchomenos; hence its inhabitants are Minyans.
20 ff. The victor’s father, Kleodamos, has recently died, but Pindar assumes that he is able to hear of his son’s success.
Pythian VII
For Megakles of Athens, winner in the chariot-race
Athens the mighty city!
For the strong house of the Alkmaionidai
This is the finest prelude
To lay as foundation-stone
Of my chariot-song.
For in what country, what clan, would you dwell
[5] And have more magnificent renown
For Hellas to hear?
For in every city the story runs
Of the citizens of Erechtheus,
Who built in shining Pytho
Thy porch, Apollo, marvellous to behold.
[10] There call to me also
Five victories at the Isthmos
And one paramount at God’s Olympia
And two by Krisa,
Megakles, yours and your fathers’!
And in this last happy fortune
Some pleasure I have; but sorrow as well
[15] At envy requiting your fine deeds.
– Thus always, they say,
Happiness, flowering and constant,
Brings after it
One thing with another.
Pythian VII was composed in 486 B.C. and performed at Delphoi after the victory, Pindar himself being present. Megakles was a leading Athenian statesman who had been ostracized from Athens early in the same year. He was recalled before the Persian invasion of 480 B.C.
9 The Alkmaionid clan, to which Megakles belonged, had built a new marble portico for the temple of Apollo at Delphoi. The temple of which ruins now survive dates from the fourth century, but small pieces of the Alkmaionid portico have been found.
15 Envy is seen as the reason for Megakles’ ostracism. It was probably due to his opposition to the policies of Themistokles.
Nemean II
For Timodamos of Acharnai, winner in the trial of strength
I
Just as the sons of Homer,
Singers of interwoven lines,
Often begin with a prelude to Zeus,
So this man also
Has taken the first instalment of victory
In the holy Games
[5] In the far-sung wood of Nemean Zeus.
II
Needs must be henceforward
That if the life which guides him straight
On his father’s road
Has given glory to mighty Athens,
Timonoos’ son shall often reap
The finest harvest of victories
[10] At the Isthmos and in the Pythian Games. It is right
III
That Orion should travel
Not far from the Doves of the mountains.
Truly Salamis has strength
To breed a man for the fight.
> In Troy Hektor heard of Aias.
Timodamos, your stout-hearted valour
[15] In the Trial of Strength gives you increase.
IV
In old tales Acharnai
Had brave men, and in every event of the Games
The sons of Timodamos
Are proclaimed for excelling.
By Parnassos, monarch on high,
They brought home four victories in the struggles,
[20] But from men of Korinth
V
In the valleys of high-born Pelops
They have already had eight wreaths fastened on them,
And seven at Nemea – and at home
Past counting – in the Games of Zeus.
Of him, townsmen, sing in your revel
When Timodamos comes home in glory,
[25] And lead on with the sweet-toned voice.
Nemean II was composed about 485 B.C. The victor comes from Acharnai in Attica.
1–3 The Sons of Homer were a guild of professional rhapsodes, whose chief task was to recite the Homeric poems, to which they made proprietary claims. The ‘interwoven lines’ may mean that one rhapsode would take over from another and so ensure a succession of reciters. Sometimes a Son of Homer would, before getting to his main task, recite a poem to some god, such as Zeus, and this is what Pindar has in mind here. Such hymns were called ‘preludes’.
10–12 When Orion pursued the Doves, they were saved by being turned into the constellation of the Pleiads. Pindar makes a play on words between ‘Orion’ and ‘mountains’, and his point is that after some minor victories Timodamos should win a great one.
13 Presumably the victor has also some connexion with Salamis, the home of Aias.
Nemean V
For Pytheas of Aigina, winner in the trial of strength
I
I am no maker of statues
Who fashions figures to stand unmoved
On the self-same pedestal.
On every merchantman, in every skiff
Go, sweet song, from Aigina,
And spread the news that Lampon’s son,
Pytheas, sturdy and strong,
Has won the wreath for All Strength in the Nemean Games,
[5] Though his cheeks show not yet the summer,
Mother of the grape’s soft down.
To hero-spearmen sprung from Kronos and Zeus
And from the golden Nereids,
To the Aiakidai, he has brought honour
And to his mother-city, land that loves strangers.
Of old they made her
Noble in men and renowned in ships,
[10] When they stood by the altar of Father Hellanios
And together spread out their hands to the sky,
The glorious sons of Endais,
With Phokos, the mighty prince,
Child of a goddess; – him the Sand-maiden
Bore where the sea-waves were breaking.
I am shy of speaking of a huge risk
Unrightfully hazarded,
How they left the fair-famed island,
[15] And what fate drove brave men from the Vineland.
I shall halt. Truth does not always
Gain if she displays
Her face unflinching;
And silence is often a man’s wisest counsel.
II
If my purpose is set to praise
Wealth or strength of hands or iron-clad war,
[20] Dig a long pit for my jump from here;
I have a light spring in my knees.
Eagles swoop even across the sea.
– For those men also graciously
The loveliest choir of Muses sang
On Pelion, and in their midst
Apollo swept the seven-tongued harp
With a golden quill
[25] And led songs in every kind.
They began with Zeus
And sang first of holy Thetis and Peleus,
– How the luxurious daughter of Kretheus,
Hippolyta, wished to snare him by a trick;
By elaborate craft she had won the help
Of her lord who watched over the Magnesians.
She rigged a false, lying tale
That Peleus tried to sleep with her,
[30] The bride of Akastos,
In his marriage-bed.
The truth was the opposite.
For often she tried to beguile him
And begged him with all her heart.
Her steep words stung him to anger,
And forthwith he scorned her embraces –
He was afraid of his Father’s anger, the God of Guests.
[35] But cloud-mover Zeus, King of Immortals,
Marked well and promised from the sky that soon
He should have for wife
A sea-maiden from the golden-spindled Nereids,
III
And win over their kinsman Poseidon.
– Often he comes from Aigai
To the famous Dorian Isthmos.
There the glad companies greet him, a God,
[40] With the peal of pipes and the rivalry of bold strong limbs.
The fate born with a man gives the verdict
On all that he does. You, Euthymenes,
Have fallen twice from Aigina into Victory’s arms
And clasped elaborate songs.
And now you also, Pytheas,
Have sprung after him,
And your mother’s brother exalts you,
A scion of the same stock as Peleus.
Nemea is tied to you,
And the month of this land which Apollo loves.
[45] All who came of his own age he conquered
At home and in the fine vale of Nisos’ Hill.
I am glad that all the city strives
For noble things.
Know this: through Menandros’ fortune
A sweet recompense for your labours
Is yours. It is right that sportsmen
Should be made by a craftsman from Athens.
[50] If you have come to sing of Themistios,
Shrink no longer. Give him your voice,
And spread out the sails on the topmost yard.
Proclaim that in boxing and the Trial of Strength
By his victory at Epidauros
He has won a twofold glory;
And to the porch of Aiakos
Bring the grassy garlands of flowers
And the long-haired Graces with you.
Nemean V was probably composed about 485 B.C. For the victor’s family, see also Isthmians V and VI.
7 Aiakos was the son of Zeus and Aigina; his wife Endaïs (12) was the daughter of the Centaur Cheiron, who was the son of Kronos.
9 The Aiakidai are the founding fathers of Aigina and pray to Zeus as Father Hellanios.
12 ff. Phokos was the step-brother of Peleus and Telamon and treacherously killed by them. The killers had to leave Aigina, which is also called the Vineland.
13 The Sand-maiden, Psamatheia, daughter of Nereus and Doris, sleeps with Aiakos.
22 ‘those men also’ – the Aiakidai. The Gods came to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, and at it Apollo told in song how Peleus rejected the proposals of Hippolyta, daughter of Kretheus and wife of Akastos. She behaves like Potiphar’s wife, but Peleus was saved by Zeus and given Thetis for wife.
36 The story of Thetis is told at greater length in Isthmian VIII. Poseidon, as competitor with Zeus for her hand, agrees to her marriage with Peleus.
41 Euthymenes is the uncle of Pytheas; Themistios is father of Enthymenes.
46 Nisos’ Hill is at Megara.
48 ff. Menandros is the Athenian trainer of Pytheas.
53 The porch of Aiakos is his shrine in Aigina, where the wreaths of victory are dedicated.
Isthmian VI
For Phylakidas of Aigina, winner in the boys’ trial of strength
I
As when men’s revelry swells,
We mix a second bowl of the Muses’ songs
In honour of Lampon’s prize-winning family.
At Nemea first, O Zeus, for you
They gained the finest of garlands;
[5] Now, in turn, for the Lord of the Isthmos
And the fifty Nereids
The youngest son, Phylakidas, is victor.
May a third time come
To make preparations for the Olympian Saviour on Aigina
And pour offerings of honey-voiced hymns.
[10] For if any man delights in expense and effort
And sets in action high gifts shaped by the Gods,
And with him his destiny
Plants the glory which he desires,
Already he casts his anchor on the furthest edge of bliss,
And the Gods honour him.
In such a spirit Kleonikos’ son
[15] Prays to look in the face
And welcome death and old age. I address my words
To high-throned Klotho and her sister Fates,
To follow the noble commands
Of a man that I love.
For you, sons of Aiakos, on your gilded chariots,
[20] I say that my clearest task
Is to visit this island and drench it with words of praise.
In fine doings countless roads
Have been cut, a hundred feet wide, and stretch ahead
Alike beyond the springs of Nile
And through the People beyond the North.
No city is so alien
Or so harsh of tongue that it does not hear
[25] Of the glory of the hero Peleus,
Blessed son-in-law of the Gods,
II
And of Aias and his father Telamon.
Him did Alkmana’s son
Bring with men of Tiryns in ships
To bronze-delighted war,
An eager partner in battle,
In a labour for heroes,
[30] For the trespasses of Laomedon. He took
Pergamos city, and with Telamon killed
The breed of Meropes, and the herdsman like a mountain,
Alkyoneus, whom he found at Phlegrai;
Nor did Herakles spare with his hands
