by Cecil Bowra
36 ff. The new version is that Poseidon fell in love with Pelops and spirited him off to Olympos.
46 ff. The current legend is explained as the invention of gossip.
52 Pindar refuses to admit that Damater could, out of greed, have eaten Pelops’ shoulder.
55 ff. The doom of Tantalos. He abuses the Gods’ kindness to him, and tries to make his companions immortal by giving them nectar and ambrosia.
60 His three punishments are hunger, thirst, and the stone over his head, and the fourth is that they last for ever.
65–93 In contrast with Tantalos, who is an example of how wrong a king can go, is his son Pelops, who is favoured by the Gods. He is sent back to earth after his father’s fall, but there Poseidon continues to help him, by giving him horses which defeat Oinomaos and win him Hippodameia for bride. The west pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olympia shows the situation just before the chariot-race, which Pelops won by bribing the charioteer of Oinomaos to loosen the lynch-pins in his master’s chariot.
90 Pelops was worshipped at Olympia with blood-offerings.
101 The Horsemen’s Tune was a traditional melody associated with Kastor and Polydeukes.
109–11 Pindar expresses a hope that in due course Hieron will win the chariot-race at Olympia-and ask Pindar to celebrate it in song. Hieron in fact won the race in 468 B.C., but did not ask Pindar to celebrate it. See Pythian II.
Nemean I
For Chromios of Aitna, winner in the horse-race
I
Holy place where Alpheos breathes again,
Green branch of glorious Syracuse,
Ortygia, in whom Artemis sleeps,
Sister of Delos,
From you the hymn’s sweet words set out
[5] To lift the strong praise of storm-footed horses
For the sake of Zeus of Aitna:
And Chromios’ car and Nemea press me
To yoke a triumphant tune
To his victorious doings.
My beginnings are laid in the Gods
With that man’s predestined prowess.
[10] In success is the top
Of world-wide glory, and the Muse
Loves to remember great Games.
Scatter then a brightness on the island
Which Zeus, master of Olympos,
Gave to Persephona,
And to her with his locks consented
To exalt on high, surpassing the fruitful earth,
[15] Sicily, teeming with wealthy peaks
Of cities.
The Son of Kronos gave her
A people of horsemen
To make love to bronze-armoured war –
And often indeed to have fastened on them
The Olympian olive’s golden leaves.
I have struck a chance to say much,
And I touch nothing with falsehood.
II
I have taken my stand at the courtyard-gate
[20] Of a man who welcomes strangers,
And sweet is my song.
Here a fitting feast is set; not often
Is the house without guests from over sea.
– He has found good men
To quench with water the smoke of cavil.
[25] Many are the arts of men,
But we must walk on straight ways
And fight by our own blood.
Action sets strength to work,
And counsel the mind
In those who by their breed foresee what is coming.
Son of Hagesidamos, in your nature lies
[30] The use of the one and the other.
I do not lust to hide great wealth
And keep it in a store-room,
But of my stock to live well
And win a good name to my friends’ delight.
For to all comes a share in the hopes
Of those who toil hard. Gladly I cling
To Herakles
On the tall peaks of prowess
And awake an ancient tale,
[35] How when the son of Zeus
Came straight from his mother’s womb
To the glittering daylight
And with his twin-brother escaped the pangs of birth,
III
From her golden throne Hera failed not to see him
When he was swaddled in his saffron baby-clothes.
[40] The Queen of the Gods was angry at heart
And at once sent snakes,
Which passed through the open doors
Into the chamber’s wide space,
Eager to writhe their quick jaws
Around the children. But he
Lifted his head on high and made first trial of battle.
In two unescapable hands
[45] He seized the two serpents by their necks:
He strangled them, and his grip
Squeezed the life out of their unspeakable frames.
Then unbearable terror smote the women,
All who were there to help Alkmana in childbed.
Unclothed as she was,
She jumped to her feet from her blankets
And would ward off the arrogant brutes.
[50] Quickly the Kadmeians’ princes,
One and all,
Raced up with bronze weapons;
Amphitryon came and shook
A naked sword from its sheath.
Piercing pangs struck him; for every man
Feels the burden of what is his own,
But for another’s trouble
The heart soon ceases to fret.
IV
[55] He stood dumbfounded in wonder
Hard to endure but delightful.
He saw the surpassing spirit and strength of his son.
The Undying Ones had turned
The messengers’ tale to falsehood.
[60] He called for his neighbour,
Chief interpreter of most high Zeus,
Teiresias, prophet of truth,
Who told him and all the company
With what fortunes the boy shall consort,
How many he shall slay on dry land,
How many wicked, wild beasts in the sea,
‘And one who sidles in surfeit
[65] And walks the most hateful of men,’
He said, ‘he shall give to his doom.
For when on Phlegra’s plain
The Gods meet the Giants in battle
Bright hair shall be fouled in the dust
Under the gale of his arrows,’
He told, ‘but he for the whole of time
Unending
[70] Shall win calm as the choice reward of his mighty labours
In the Halls of the Blest.
He shall have tender Youth for bride,
And feast at his wedding with Zeus Kronidas
And praise the ways of the Holy.’
Nemean I was written in 476 B.C. and performed at Syracuse soon after Pindar’s arrival (19 ff.). Chromios was a veteran soldier who had served Hieron in his wars.
1 The river Alpheos, which flows past Olympia, was believed to pass under the sea and reappear as the fountain Arethoisa at Syracuse.
2 Ortygia is the island part of Syracuse, which was early joined to the mainland.
4 Ortygia is sister of Delos because both have a cult of Artemis.
6 Hieron refounded Katana as Aitna and established a cult of Zeus of Aitna.
13 Sicily was the wedding-gift of Zeus to Persephona.
24 This means that Chromios has friends to protect him from slander.
33 Herakles is introduced as the subject for the myth. He was much honoured in Sicily. Pindar tells his story in the form of a prophecy made by Teiresias just after his birth.
39 Hera is jealous of Alkmana, Herakles’ mother, and sends snakes to kill the child.
63–5 It is not clear who this is. Alkyoneus is a possibility.
67–8 Herakles, fighting for the Gods against the Giants, is depicted on the frieze of the Siph
nian Treasury at Delphoi.
Olympian III
For Theron of Akragas, winner in the chariot-race
I
To please Tyndareos’ sons, the friends of strangers,
And lovely-haired Helen is my prayer,
And to honour famous Akragas,
While I set up for Theron
An Olympian victory-song, the choicest honour
For his horses whose hooves never weary.
For this the Muse has taken her stand at my side,
And I have found a new and glittering way
[5] To fit to a Dorian sandal the voice
Of the choir’s praises. For garlands
Bound on the hair exact from me
This holy debt,
To mingle in honour fit for Ainesidamos’ sons
The harp’s many notes,
The flute’s cry, and the patterned words,
And Pisa makes me cry his name aloud.
[10] Thence by God’s will songs come to men
In honour of him on whose hair
The strict Aetolian arbiter,
Fulfilling the ancient orders of Herakles,
Sets the olive’s pale-skinned ornament,
Which once Amphitryon’s son
Brought from Ister’s shadowy springs
To be the finest remembrance
[15] Of the Games at Olympia.
II
His words beguiled Apollo’s servants,
The People living beyond the North,
When with candid heart
He begged for the all-welcoming grove of Zeus
A shady tree for men to share
And to be the crown for prowess.
Already the Father’s altars were sanctified,
And at the middle of the month in the evening
The gold-charioted moon
[20] Kindled her round eye for him.
He had set up the holy trial
In the great Games
And the Feast of the Fourth Year also,
On Alpheos’ holy rocks.
But in the valleys of Kronos’ Hill
The acre of Pelops was not green with beautiful trees:
Naked of them, the garden seemed to him
At the mercy of the sun’s sharp rays.
[25] Then did his spirit stir him
To journey to the land
Of Ister. There he came
From Arkadia’s ridges and twisting valleys;
And Lato’s daughter, driver of horses,
Welcomed him, when on the command of Eurystheus
A doom laid by his father
Drove him in search of the doe with golden horns,
Which once Taÿgeta offered in her own stead
[30] Holy to the Orthian Maid.
III
In pursuit of it he saw that land
Behind the blasts of the cold north wind;
There he stood and marvelled at the trees.
Sweet desire for them seized him,
To plant them on the edge of the horses’ track
Where the chariots drive twelve times round.
And graciously now he comes
To this our feast
With low-girdled Leda’s children,
[35] Twins and peers of the Gods.
To them, when he went to Olympos,
He entrusted the rule
Of the splendid struggle
In men’s worth and fast chariot-driving.
My heart stirs me to say
That the glory come to Theron and to the Emmenidai
Is the gift of the horsemen, Tyndareos’ sons,
Because most of all mankind they welcome them
[40] At their table with entertainment,
And guard with humble hearts
The mysteries of the Blessed Ones.
Even as water is best
And gold the most honoured of treasures,
So now Theron has come to the verge by his prowess
And reaches from home
To the Pillars of Herakles.
What is beyond may not be trodden
By wise or unwise.
[45] I shall not chase it, – a fool’s game!
Olympian III was written in 476 B.C. and performed at Akragas, of which the victor, Theron, was tyrant, at a semi-religious feast at which the Dioskouroi and their sister, Helen, were believed to be present.
6 Garlands are worn to show the special nature of the occasion.
9 Theron was the son of Ainesidamos.
11–34 The myth concerns the olive-trees at Olympia. A crown of olive was the prize for victory, and Pindar tells how Herakles brought the trees from the Hyperboreans.
14 The river Ister has been identified with the Danube, but also with other rivers further north.
16 That Herakles got the trees by words seems unlikely, and we may suspect that Pindar has tempered a more vigorous story.
26 ff. Herakles reaches the Hyperboreans in his pursuit of the doe with golden horns, who was the Pleiad Taÿgeta after she was transformed by Artemis to escape the attentions of Zeus.
42 This looks like an echo from the opening lines of Olympian I and may well be deliberate.
Olympian II
For Theron of Akragas, winner in the chariot-race
I
Lords of the harp, my songs,
Of what God, of what Hero,
Of what Man shall our music be?
Pisa belongs to Zeus, the Olympian feast
Herakles founded, the loot of war,
[5] But of Theron let your voices ring,
For his victorious four-in-hand.
He is courteous and kind to guests,
The bulwark of Akragas;
In him his famous fathers
Flower, and the city stands.
They suffered much, in their hearts to win
A holy home on the river,
[10] And were the eye of Sicily;
The destined days
Came adding wealth and joy
To their trueborn nobleness.
Son of Kronos and Rhea,
Lord of a seat on Olympos and the Hill of the Games
And the Ford of Alpheos,
Rejoice in my songs, and in friendliness
Guide still their ancestral fields
[15] For the generations to come.
Of what has been done
In right or against right
Not even Time, father of everything,
Can undo the accomplishment;
In good luck and fortune
Forgetfulness will come;
For in noble delights sorrow perishes
[20] Angry but overwhelmed,
II
When God’s fete tips the scale of happiness high.
This word fits the high-throned daughters of Kadmos.
Greatly they suffered, but heavy grief
Falls under conquering blessings.
[25] Among the Olympians she lives who died
In the thunderbolt’s crash,
Long-haired Semela: Pallas
Loves her for ever, and father Zeus, and exceedingly
Her ivy-crowned boy loves her.
They say that in the sea also
Among the sea-maidens, the daughters of Nereus,
[30] Unperishing life has been ordained for Ino
For the whole of time.
Truly no mark is set for the death of men,
Nor when we shall close the quiet day, the Sun’s child,
With unfaltering joy.
Many are the streams that come to men,
Now with the heart’s delight, and now with sorrow.
[35] So Fate, who holds for them the friendly fortune
That their fathers had,
With heaven-born joy brings grief,
Itself to turn about with time;
Ever since his doomed son encountered Laios
And killed him, fulfilling the oracle
[40] Spoken in Pytho l
ong before.
III
The sharp-eyed Fury saw
And destroyed the warrior-race
In slaughter one of another.
Polyneikes fell, but he left Thersandros,
Honoured in young men’s games and in battles of war,
[45] A shoot from Adrastos’ stock, who succoured his house.
With his root from that seed
It is right that Ainesidamos’ son
Should find songs of praise and the harp.
For at Olympia he
Won the prize himself; at Pytho and the Isthmos
[50] The impartial Graces made his brother
Share his portion in the flowers
For the chariot racing twelve times round.
(To win the game by trying
Saves a man from the name of fool.)
Truly wealth patterned with prowess
Brings the moment for this or for that,
If it rouses deep ambition to range afar,
[55] A transcendent star, the truest light for a man.
If any man has it, and knows what shall come, –
That of those who die here
The lawless souls at once pay penalty,
And sins done in this kingdom of Zeus
Are judged by one below earth
[60] With harsh inexorable doom.
IV
But in nights like ours for ever,
With a like sun in their days,
The good win a life without labour,
Nor brace their hands to trouble earth
[65] Or the sea’s water for an empty livelihood.
Beside the most honoured of Gods
Those who delighted to keep their word
Pass unweeping days; the others
Support a burden not to be looked upon.
All who have endured three times
In a sojourn in either world,
[70] To keep their souls utterly clean of wrong,
Go by God’s road to the Tower of Kronos,
Where the Airs, daughters of Ocean,
Blow round the Island of the Blest,
And the flowers are of gold,
Some on land flaming from bright trees,
Others the water feeds;
They bind their hands with them and make garlands,
[75] In the straight rule of Rhadamanthys,
Whom the great Father keeps at his side in counsel,
