by Cecil Bowra
No slur on the inborn worth of men.
[15] You know the ancient renown
Of Kleonymos in chariots.
On their mother’s side they are kin
To the Labdakidai
And walked through wealth
In their labour for four-horse teams.
But Time with its rolling days
Changes now this, now that.
Truly the sons of Gods are not to be wounded.
IV
I
By grace of the gods
I have an endless path
On every side; for you, Melissos, in the Isthmian Games
Have revealed to me abundant means
To pursue in song the prowess of your race.
In it the sons of Kleonymos
[5] Have always flowered; a God helps them
As they come to the mortal end of life.
Many are the different winds
That rush down and drive all men.
From the beginning they were honoured
And told of at Thebes;
They were hosts to the dwellers around
And lacked loud-mouthed insolence.
[10] All the testimonies of boundless glory
Of the dead and the living
That blow among men
They have clasped to perfection.
By uttermost works of manhood
From home they grip the Pillars of Herakles
They yearn not for further prowess beyond that.
They became breeders of horses
And delighted brazen Ares.
[15] But on a single day
A happy hearth was robbed
Of four men by the rude snow-storm of war.
But now again, after the winter’s murk,
The patterned earth has burst into blossom
[20] With scarlet roses,
II
By the Gods’ designs. The Mover of Earth,
Who dwells in Onchestos and the bridge of the sea
Before the walls of Korinth,
Gave this wonderful hymn to their race
And awakes from its bed their ancient renown
[25] For glorious doings. It fell asleep,
But it stirs again
And is bright on the body
As the star of Dawn shines out among other stars.
It heralded their chariot-victory
In the fields of Athens;
And in the Games of Adrastos at Sikyon
It gave leaves of song, like mine, from men of those days,
[30] Nor did they keep their curving car away
From the festivals where all men go,
But strove against all the Hellenes
And rejoiced in the cost of horses.
– Those who make no trial
Win silences that know them not.
Even for men who struggle Fortune
Stays undiscerned
Until they come to the lofty end;
[35] She gives of this and of that.
The craft of worse men
Catches the better man and sends him sprawling. You know
Of the valour of Aias. He ripped it in blood
On his own sword late at night,
And brings reproach to all sons of the Hellenes
[40] Who went to Troy.
III
But Homer has done him
Honour among men; for he set straight
All his prowess, and to his wand of celestial words
Told of it, to the delight of men to come.
For this goes forth undying in speech
[45] If a man says a thing well.
Over the fruitful earth and across the sea
The sunbeam of fine doings has gone
Unquenchable for ever.
May we find the Muses in friendly mood, to kindle
That beacon-flame of songs for Melissos also,
A garland worthy of the Trial of Strength,
For the scion of Telesiadas. In struggle, at heart he is like
[50] The daring of savage, loud-bellowing lions,
And in cunning a vixen,
Who hurls herself on her back
And withstands the eagle’s swoop.
(A man must do everything
To wipe out his adversary.)
He had not the build of Orion,
But though he was poor to look at,
[55] He was heavy to meet in encounter.
Once indeed to the house of Antaios from Kadmeian Thebes
Came a man short of stature, but in spirit
Unbreakable, to corn-bearing Libya
To wrestle with him,
That he might stop him from roofing
[60] Poseidon’s shrine with the skulls of strangers,
IV
The son of Alkmana. He came to Olympos,
After he had sought out
The deep-edged hollow of every land
And the grey sea, and tamed the Strait for sailing.
Now he dwells at the side of the Aegis-holder
[65] In bliss most beautiful.
The Undying Ones have honoured him
As one whom they love, and Youth is his bride;
He dwells, a prince, in golden halls,
And Hera is his wife’s mother.
To him above the Alektran gates
We citizens prepare a feast
And a newly built crown of altars.
We offer burnt sacrifice
For the death of eight bronze-clad sons,
[70] Whom Kreon’s daughter, Megara, bore to him.
In their honour when the daylight sinks
A flame rises and flares all night long,
Lashing the air with the smoke of sacrifice.
On the second day takes place
The decision of the yearly Games,
And strength gets to work. In them,
[75] His head white with myrtle flowers,
This man has made known his two victories,
And a third before them among boys.
He has listened to the rich counsel and wisdom
Of the helmsman who guides the tiller.
With Orseas I shall sing of him in triumph
[80] And scatter my grace and delight.
Isthmian IV was written, probably in 476 B.C., to celebrate the victory of Melissos in the chariot-race at the Isthmos. Soon afterwards he won the chariot-race at Thebes, and Pindar wrote Isthmian III and prefixed it to the other poem. This would be just before Pindar’s departure for Sicily.
III. 9–10 Pindar refers to both victories won by Melissos.
12 The Nemean Games were held in the place where Herakles was thought to have killed the Nemean lion.
15 Kleonymos was an ancestor who won the chariot-race.
19 The sons of Gods may be wounded physically, but nothing affects their spirit.
IV. 12 The Pillars of Herakles, the present Straits of Gibraltar, marked the end of the known world and so, figuratively, of possible experience and effort.
16–18 Four members of the family have been killed in battle on a single day, presumably at Plataia, where the Thebans fought on the Persian side.
21 ‘The bridge of the sea’ is on the Isthmus of Korinth, where the Isthmian Games were held. Onchestos was on the south edge of Lake Kopais in Boiotia; the modern name is Dimini.
28 Adrastos was thought to have founded the Games at Sikyon.
37 ff. Aias, by killing himself, brings dishonour to the Greeks at Troy, but Homer, by his generous treatment of him in the Iliad, has done something to restore his name. The story was that he killed himself because he felt dishonoured at not being given the armour of the dead Achilles.
53 ff. Melissos is short and stocky, and Herakles, much against the usual accounts, is said to be the same.
56 ff. Antaios was a Giant, who derived his strength from contact with the earth. Herakles lifted him up and so defeated him. He was the son of Poseidon and decorated his father’s
temple with the heads of strangers.
62 After death Herakles was translated to Olympos.
67 ff. The song must have been sung at a festival by the Alektran Gates of Thebes, which were connected with the slaughter of his children by Herakles in a fit of madness.
79 Orseas is the trainer of Melissos.
Olympian XI
For Hagesidamos of Western Lokroi, winner in the boys’ boxing
There is a time when men’s strongest need
Is for the winds, and a time for the sky’s water,
The clouds’ showery children.
If anyone toils and succeeds,
Sweet voices of song
[5] Are paid on account for words to come
And a faithful pledge to surpassing actions.
Beyond grudging, this praise
Is laid up for Olympian victors. Such themes
My tongue loves to tend,
[10] But it is God who makes a man
To flower as his wise mind wishes.
Know now, son of Archestratos,
Hagesidamos, because of your boxing
I shall sing a sweet song
To be a jewel in your crown of golden olive,
[15] And honour the Western Lokrians’ race.
Join there in the revel! I shall give my word,
Muses, that he will not come
To a host that puts strangers to flight
Or knows not beautiful things;
They stand on wisdom’s height and are soldiers.
– Its inborn ways neither the tawny fox
[20] Shall change, nor loud-bellowing lions.
Olympian XI was composed in 476 B.C.and probably sung at Olympia soon after the victory.
5 This is Pindar’s promise that he will compose a full epinician later for Hagesidamos. This he does, a little later, in Olympian X.
17 Read μιν, not μέν.
Olympian I
For Hieron of Syracuse, winner in the horse-race
I
Water is the best thing of all, and gold
Shines like flaming fire at night,
More than all a great man’s wealth.
But if, my heart, you would speak
Of prizes won in the Games,
[5] Look no more for another bright star
By day in the empty sky
More warming than the sun,
Nor shall we name any gathering
Greater than the Olympian.
The glorious song of it is clothed by the wits of the wise:
[10] They sing aloud of Kronos’ son,
When they come to the rich and happy hearth of Hieron,
Who sways the sceptre of law
In Sicily’s rich sheep-pasture.
He gathers the buds of all perfections,
[15] And his splendour shines in the festal music,
Like our own merry songs
When we gather often around that table of friends.
But take down from its peg the Dorian lute,
If surely the beauty of Pisa, the beauty of Pherenikos,
Loaded our hearts with the sweetest thoughts,
[20] When by Alpheios he raced past,
Giving his strength in the course, not waiting for the spur,
And brought to triumph his master,
The King of Syracuse, the soldier-horseman.
His fame is bright in the great assembly of men
Which Lydian Pelops founded:
[25] – He, with whom the mighty Earth-Shaker Poseidon fell in love,
When Klotho lifted him out of the cleansing cauldron,
With his shoulder of ivory, white and fine.
There are many wonders, and it may be
Embroidered tales overpass the true account
And trick men’s talk
With their enrichment of lies.
II
[30] Beauty, who creates
All sweet delights for men,
Brings honour at will and makes the false seem true
Time and again; but the wisest witness of all
Are the days to come.
[35] Let a man speak good of the Gods,
And his blame shall be less.
Son of Tantalos, in my tale of you
I shall counter the poets before me.
When your father called his companions
To his most innocent banquet, and to Sipylos his home,
Making the Gods his guests, who had made him theirs,
[40] Then the bright Trident’s God
Lost his heart for love of you, and seized you,
And carried you on his golden mares
To the high house of wide-worshipped Zeus:
Where later in time Ganymedes came also
[45] For the same service to Zeus.
When you were no more seen and men searched long
But brought you not home to your mother,
Then some envious neighbour told the tale in secret,
That the water bubbled over the fire
And they sliced you into it
Limb by limb with a knife.
[50] Then at the second course of the feast
They portioned the meat of your body and ate.
I cannot say, not I,
That any Blessed God has a gluttonous belly –
I stand aside.
Those who speak evil have troubles thick upon them:
And if the watchers on Olympos
Ever showed honour to a mortal man,
[55] Tantalos was he. And yet
His stomach could not hold such mighty fortune:
He came to huge mischief,
– A mighty rock, which the Father hung over him,
And longing always to cast it from his head,
He is exiled from delight.
III
Without strength he lives, in eternal trouble,
[60] And has with three torments a fourth, because he stole
And gave to his companions who drank with him
The Gods’ nectar and ambrosia
With which they made him immortal.
The man who thinks that he will do anything
And God not see is wrong.
[65] Therefore the Immortals thrust back his son
Among men to whom death comes soon;
And when he came to the sweet flower of his growth
And down covered his darkening chin,
He lifted his thoughts to a bridal awaiting him,
[70] To have far-famed Hippodameia
From her Pisatan father.
He went down beside the grey sea
In the darkness alone,
And cried to the loud-bellowing Lord of the Trident.
And the God was with him
Close beside his feet: and Pelops said:
[75] ‘If the dear love you had of me, Poseidon,
Can turn, I pray, to good,
Keep fast now the brazen spear of Oinomaos,
And on the swiftest chariots carry me
To Elis and bring me to victory;
For he has slain thirteen men that wooed her,
[80] And puts back the bridal day
Of his daughter. The danger is great
And calls not the coward: but of us who must die,
Why should a man sit in darkness
And cherish to no end
An old age without a name,
Letting go all lovely things?
For me this ordeal waits: and you,
[85] Give me the issue I desire.’
So he spoke, and the prayer he made was not unanswered.
The God glorified him, and gave him a chariot of gold
And winged horses that never tired.
IV
So he brought down the strength of Oinomaos,
And the maiden to share his bed.
She bore him princes,
Six sons very eager in nobleness.
And now by the Ford of Alpheos
[90]
He is drenched in the glorious blood-offerings,
With a busy tomb beside that altar
Where strangers throng past number.
The fame of the Olympiads in the Games of Pelops
Overlooks the wide earth.
[95] There a man’s strong prime endures its toils,
And the victor all his remaining days
Breathes a delicious and serene air
When he remembers the Games.
And yet these good things
[100] That come with each day as it comes
Are still the best of all for all men.
I must crown the victor with the Horsemen’s Tune
In my Aeolian melody.
I know well there is no friend of strangers
Among men alive
Greater than he, whether in knowledge
Of all good things or in power,
[105] For me to enrich in the splendid folds of song.
God is your guardian, Hieron:
He charges himself with this, and watches over all your cares,
And if he desert you not soon,
I hope to find a sweeter path even
[110] And to join with a swift chariot in giving you glory,
When I come along the path that awakens speech,
To Kronos’ Hill standing in the sun.
The Muse is nursing for me a javelin
Marvellously valiant and strong.
One man is great in this way, another in that,
But at the peak of all
Are Kings. Look no farther than this.
[115] I pray you may walk exalted
All these days of your life,
And may I so long keep company with victors,
A beacon-light of song
Among the Hellenes everywhere.
Olympian I was written in 476 B.C. and performed at Syracuse at the court of Hieron in the presence of Pindar.
1 As water, gold, and the sun are each in their spheres supreme, so in athletics is a victory in the Olympian Games.
4 Pindar speaks to himself as ‘my heart’.
17 Pindar again addresses himself.
18 The horse Pherenikos, which has won the horse-race, had also won in the Pythian Games in 482 and 478 B.C.
18 Pisa is near Olympia and next to the actual racing-ground.
24 ff. Pindar prepares the way for his rejection of the myth that Tantalos served up his son Pelops as a dish for the gods, and that Damater ate the shoulder, for which afterwards, when the boy was brought back to life, an ivory shoulder was substituted. This was allegedly to be seen at Olympia. Pindar’s words are as yet ambiguous and fit both the old version and his own revision of it.
