The Odes of Pindar (Penguin ed.)

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The Odes of Pindar (Penguin ed.) Page 3

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

 

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