by Cecil Bowra
The husband of Rhea on her all-highest throne.
Peleus and Kadmos are in that number;
Achilles too was brought by his mother,
[80] When she moved the heart of Zeus with prayers.
V
He overthrew Hektor, Troy’s
Unconquerable, unshaken pillar,
And Kyknos he gave to death,
And the Dawn’s Ethiopian son.
In the quiver under my elbow
[85] Are many swift arrows that speak to the wise,
But for the crowd they need interpreters.
He knows, whose blood tells him much;
Mere learners babble, the pair of them,
And like crows chatter vainly against
God’s holy bird.
Now keep the bow on the mark.
Come, my heart, at whom do we aim
[90] And shoot from a gentle heart our shafts of glory?
At Akragas I draw, and I shall speak
My words on oath with an honest mind: –
In a hundred years this city has borne
No man more lavish in heart to his friends,
More open of hand,
[95] Than Theron. Yet against my praise
Surfeit advances, not companioned
By right, but in gluttonous mouths,
And wishes to make its prattle
Cover up the fine doings of men.
– Since sand escapes all counting,
Of his gifts to others
[100] Who could recount the tale?
Olympian II was written at about the same time as Olympian III, also for Theron, but possibly for a more intimate occasion.
8–10 Theron’s ancestors came from Rhodes.
22 The daughters of Kadmos, Semela and Ino, are examples of ill fortune being turned to good.
25–7 Semela, mother of Dionysos, the ‘ivy-crowned boy’ (27), was killed by lightning.
38 The ‘doomed son of Laios’ is Oidipous, whose sons, Eteokles and Polyneikes (42), kill one another, but the family survives in Thersandros, who takes part in the War of the Successors after the failure of the Seven against Thebes, who included Adrastos.
49 The brother of Theron is Xenokrates, known from Pythian VI and Isthmian II.
56–83 Instead of a myth Pindar tells of life after death in language which suggests cults in Sicily and Theron’s own beliefs.
59 ‘One below earth’ is the judge of the dead, not named because he is not to be spoken of.
61–6 The abode of the good, with days and nights like ours.
68–80 The Isle of the Blest, with no clear geographical setting.
75 Rhadamanthys, the incarnation of justice, holds rule.
76 The ‘great father’ is Kronos, who has Rhea at his side.
83 Pindar breaks off his revelations and turns to personalities. Theron must be ‘the wise’, who will understand what Pindar says. The ancient commentators identify the ‘crows’ with the poets Simonides and Bacchylides, who were in Sicily at this time.
Pythian IX
For Telesikrates of Kyrene, winner in the race in armour
I
I wish to proclaim aloud
The bronze-shielded Pythian victor;
And the deep-zoned Graces shall help me cry his name
Telesikrates! fortunate man, crowning the brows
[5] Of Kyrene, the horse-taming maiden: her, whom once
Lato’s long-haired son
Snatched from the wind-swept glades of Pelion.
Carrying her off, wild girl,
In a golden chariot, he made her queen
Of a country of many flocks and all kinds of fruits,
To inhabit the third fixed continent of earth
And blossom in a lovely land.
Silver-footed Aphrodita
[10] Received her guest from Delos,
Laying a light hand
On his chariot built in heaven:
And throwing on their sweet bed
The shamefastness of love
She made one marriage
For the God alike and the daughter of mighty Hypseus.
(He was king in those days of the presumptuous Lapiths,
A hero, grandson of Ocean.
[15] In the storied valleys of Pindos
The Naiad Kreoisa, in joy at her love of Peneios,
The daughter of Earth,
Bore him; and he
Bred up the strong-armed child Kyrene.)
She loved not to walk to and fro before the loom
Nor the delight of feasting with her companions
Who kept the house:
[20] But with javelins of brass and a sword
She fought and slew wild beasts,
And gave great peace and quiet
To her father’s herds: niggard was she,
Letting her sweet bedfellow,
Sleep, brush her eyes but briefly, towards the dawn.
II
The God of the Broad Quiver found her:
Whilst she was wrestling once
Alone with a strong lion, without her spears,
Far-shooting Apollo came on her.
Thereat with a shout
He called Cheiron out of his dwelling,
[30] ‘Leave your dread cave, son of Philyra, and be amazed
At the courage and great strength of a woman.
Look what a fight she makes, her head unflinching,
Her maiden spirit high
Above the struggle:
Fear makes no storm in her heart.
What mortal begot her? From what stock was she torn
To dwell in the folds of the shadowy hills, and sound
[35] Her unplumbed depths of valour?
Were it no sin to lay my mighty hand on her
And take the delicious pasture of her love?’
With softened eyes, the huge Centaur
Dewily laughed: swift and wise was his answer:
‘They are secret keys
With which Persuasion knows how to unlock
The sanctuaries of love,
[40] Phoibos: Gods and men are alike
Shy of it being spoken of, when first they come
To some sweet maidenhead.
So you, whom untruth may not touch,
Were led in the honey-sweetness of your mood
To speak with guile.
You ask of what race the girl is –
You, Sir, who know
[45] The appointed end of all, and all paths:
How many leaves in April the earth puts forth,
How many grains of sand
In the sea and in the rivers
Are troubled by the waves and the swirling winds,
And what shall be, and whence it shall come,
You see with clear eyes.
[50] If I must match my own wisdom with that,
III
I will speak:
You came to this glade to wed her,
And you will carry her over the sea
To the chosen garden of Zeus.
You will make her there a queen of cities,
[55] Gathering an island people
To a hill amidst a plain, but now
Among wide meadows the Lady Libya
Shall welcome her, your glorious bride,
In gold palaces gladly.
She shall give her at once, that she may dwell beside her,
A portion of land
To yield her fruit of all that grows,
And wild beasts shall be found there.
There she shall bear her child:
And Hermes the great God shall carry him
[60] Away from his loving mother
To the high-throned Hours, and to Earth; and they,
Gazing at the fair infant on their knees,
Shall on his lips drop nectar and ambrosia
And make him undying.
His name shall be Zeus and holy Apollo,
The delight of them that lov
e him: close at hand
[65] To follow the flock, Hunter and Shepherd:
And others shall call him Aristaios.’
He spoke, and aroused Apollo
To reach the sweet fulfilment of his marriage.
When Gods are once in haste,
Their work is swift, their ways short:
That day, that day determined it.
In Libya’s rich golden room
They lay together; and there
[70] She is keeper of a city
Surpassing lovely, and famous in the Games.
And now in fair Pytho Karneiadas’ son
Has grafted on her a flowering fortune.
There he won and proclaimed Kyrene:
And she will be kind and welcome him
To his land of fair women
[75] From Delphoi, with his lovely spoil of glory.
IV
Great deeds give choice of many tales.
Choose a slight tale, enrich it at large, and then
Let wise men listen! Yet to all alike
The Moment gives the crown;
Whose favour was shown of old
In seven-gated Thebes
[80] To Iolaos, that with the edge of his sword
Cut off Eurystheus’ head; and then
Was hid deep in earth, in the grave
Of the chariot-driver Amphitryon
His father’s father: who lay, the Spartoi’s guest,
Where he came once to live
In the Kadmeians’ cavalcaded streets.
With him, and with Zeus, proud Alkmana lay,
[85] And at one travail
Bore twin sons, strong prevailers in war.
Dumb is that man who does not turn aside
For Herakles his tongue,
Or ever forgets the waters of Dirka
Which nursed him and Iphikles.
To them I will lead the procession:
I asked for a blessing, and they gave it me entire:
[90] ‘Let not the pure light
Of the singing Graces forsake me.’
In Aigina, I say,
And on the hill of Nisos,
Having three times brought glory to this city
I have escaped dumb helplessness indeed.
Therefore let friends in this city, and enemies too,
Not hide
This labour for the good of all well spent.
Let them maintain the word
Of the Old Man of the Sea:
[95] ‘Praise your enemy also
Who heartily, and in righteousness, does well.’
Often, too, you have won
At the returning mysteries of Pallas:
While maidens watched, and in silence each one wished
You, Telesikrates,
[100] Were her dearest husband, or her son;
V
And at the Olympia, and the Games
Of deep-bosomed Earth,
Yes all the Games of your country.
Here is one, whose thirst I am quenching with song,
Demands his due, bids me again awake
[105] The ancient fame of his fathers.
– For a Libyan woman’s sake
They came to the city of Irasa, – her suitors,
Antaios’ lovely-haired, far-famous child.
She was sought by many a paladin, her kinsmen
And many strangers besides:
For marvellous beauty
Was hers: and they longed to gather the blossoming fruit
[110] Of her maidenhood, its crown of gold.
But her father was planning for his daughter
A finer wedding: he heard
How Danaos once in Argos could achieve
For his eight and forty daughters,
Before midday, a wedding swift indeed.
For he stood them all, then and there,
At the end of the lists: and bade these heroes,
[115] Who had come to wed them,
Decide by foot-race which each man should have.
So too the Libyan offered, when he would choose
A bridegroom for his child,
He stood her on the line, arraying her
To be their far goal,
And made proclamation in their midst:
He who first leaped forward
[120] And touched the folds of her garments
Should lead her away for his own.
There did Alexidamos
Come clear of the swift race
And took the maiden princess, hand in his hand:
He led her through the host of the Nomad horsemen.
Many were the leaves and the garlands
They threw on him,
[125] And many the wings of victory
He had won before.
Pythian IX was written in 474 B.C. and performed at Thebes, where the victor, Telesikrates, seems to have stopped on his way back to Kyrene.
5–69 The myth of the eponymous nymph Kyrene.
10 The ‘guest from Delos’ is Apollo.
14–16 The ancestry of Kyrene.
30–37 Apollo’s questions about Kyrene are, as Cheiron shows, not needed, but made in a playful mood.
55 This refers to the later colonization of Kyrene by Greeks from Thera.
59 ff. Kyrene’s child, Aristaios, is a local god, who is identified with Zeus and Apollo and also has his own agricultural titles.
73 Telesikrates will go to Kyrene in due course, but at present he is in Thebes.
79 Iolaos and Amphitryon are buried in Thebes, near the Spartoi, who were sprung from the Dragon’s teeth sown by Jason.
89–96 Pindar defends himself against some not very specific charge, presumably that he has been too generous to Athens, whom he praised in a famous Dithyramb, and who was a traditional enemy of Thebes. For this he was said to have been heavily fined. The whole passage has little to do with Telesikrates and illustrates how Pindar uses a public occasion to speak about his own affairs.
91 For εὐκλέΐξαѕ read εὐκλέΐξαι.
105–25 A second myth, which tells how Alexidamos wins a wife by his swift running. The story seems to be of local Kyrenian origin, and Alexidamos to have been an ancestor of Telesikrates.
111–14 Danaos was compelled to marry his daughters to Egyptians who pursued them with violence. See Nemean X 6.
Since both myths speak of marriage, it seems possible that Telesikrates was about to be married.
Pythian III
For Hieron of Syracuse
I
I could wish
That Cheiron, Philyra’s son,
(If with my lips I should utter all men’s prayer)
Were alive, who is departed,
The lord of wide lands, the seed of Kronos Ouranidas,
– That he ruled in the glades of Pelion, the wild Centaur,
[5] With a heart friendly to man:
As he was when he nursed
The gentle worker of sound-limbed painlessness,
Asklapios the hero,
Healer of every sickness.
Him the daughter of Phlegyas the great horseman
Had not brought to birth
With Eleithyia to tend her,
When she was struck by the golden arrows
[10] Of Artemis: in her chamber she went down
To the house of Death
By the device of Apollo.
It is not idle, the anger of Zeus’ children –
But she,
Making light of it in the folly of her soul,
Must needs wed with another, cheating her sire,
She who had lain already with long-haired Phoibos
[15] And bore the God’s pure seed.
She would not wait the coming of the marriage-meal
Nor for the shout of many voices,
The Bride’s song, that her friends, the girls of her age,
As the night falls, will sing to their playmate.
[20] – Not she: she
was after what was not there,
As many have been; vain heads all the sort of them,
Who disdain home things and cast their glance afar,
Chasing the empty air, with hopes
Which they cannot attain.
II
Like that was the great blindness of the soul
[25] Of lovely-robed Koronis.
For a stranger came
From Arkadia, and she lay in his bed: but the Watcher saw her.
By the sheep-altar in Pytho, the temple’s King
Loxias, standing, was aware of her.
A most instant helper made him sure,
His All-knowing Mind:
Which holds no traffic with lies: no God, no man deceives it
[30] Either in word or in plan.
Yea, then he perceived
How with Ischys son of Elatos,
A stranger, she lay, sinning deceitfully,
He sent his sister storming in terrible strength
To Lakereia: for there
Where the hills slope down to Boibias Lake
The girl was dwelling. Changed now was the doom
[35] That turned her to evil and overcame her.
Many were they of her neighbours
Who felt that stroke and died with her:
(Much is the timber on the hillside
That fire destroys, leaping from a single seed).
But when her kinsmen set the girl
On the piled logs
40 And the hungry light of the Fire God ran around,
Then Apollo spoke:
‘No more can my spirit endure
To destroy my child by this most pitiful death
After his mother’s anguish.’
– He spoke, and with one stride came
And out of the dead body snatched the child:
The flaming pyre blazed either side of him.
He bore him away and gave him
[45] To the Magnesian Centaur: there he should learn
To heal the divers pains of the sicknesses of men.
III
All who came
Bound fast to sores which their own selves grew,
Or with limbs wounded, by grey bronze
[50] Or a far-flung stone, or wasting in body with summer fire, or with winter
He, loosing all from their several sorrows,
Delivered them. Some he tended with soft incantations,
Some had juleps to drink,
Or round about their limbs he laid his simples,
And for some the knife: so he set all up straight.
