by Cecil Bowra
[75] By the lovely light of the fair-faced moon.
All the holy place was loud with song
In the glad feasting like the music of banquets.
We follow the first beginnings
And in the namesake song of glorious triumph
We shall sing aloud of the thunderbolt
[80] And the fire-flung shaft of Zeus, the noise-awakener,
The flaming lightning, fitting in every victory;
The luxuriant music of songs
Shall answer the pipe.
V
[85] Late indeed have they appeared
By glorious Dirka;
But as the son of his wife, long desired,
Is to a father come to youth’s opposite,
And warms his heart exceedingly with love;
(For wealth that gets for shepherd
A stranger from an alien house
[90] Is most hateful to a dying man),
So when a man has done well unsung,
Hagesidamos, and comes to death’s threshold,
He has breathed to no purpose, and won
Small delight by his labour.
But on you delight is shed
By the sweet-voiced harp and the pleasant flute.
[95] Your far-flung glory is in the charge
Of the Pierian Maidens, daughters of Zeus.
I lend my hand to them eagerly. I have embraced
The Lokrians’ famous people;
I drench with my honey
Their city of noble men.
[100] I have praised the loved son of Archestratos,
Whom I saw winning with valour of hand
By the Olympian altar in those days,
Beautiful in body
And touched by the youthfulness
Which once kept shameless death away
[105] From Ganymedes, with help of the Kypros-born.
Olympian X was composed in fulfilment of a promise given in Olympian XI 4–5, but after some delay – about 474 B.C.
13 Lokroi was governed by laws given by the famous law-giver Zaleukos.
14 It has a local tradition of poetry, especially of love-songs.
15–16 In his fight with Kyknos Herakles was at first defeated, but returned to the attack and won. The abrupt allusion may hint that the victor here looked like losing but won all the same.
17 The victor should give thanks to his trainer Ilas.
24–57 The origin of the Olympian Games. Herakles cleansed the stables of Augeas, but Augeas refused to pay his fee. Herakles proceeded to lead an army against him, but was attacked by Poseidon’s sons, Kteatos and Eurytos.
34 The Epeians’ king is Augeas.
43 ff. Herakles marks out the ground for his new Games – called the Altis – and builds twelve altars for the chief Gods.
49 The Hill of Kronos is on the edge of the Altis.
51 It is not clear why in the time of Oinomaos (see Olympian I) there was snow at Olympia.
52 The Fates are present as at a birth-day.
64–75 The first Olympian Games. The winners are for the most part unknown, and Pindar seems to have followed some poem of local interest, possibly composed in Argos in the seventh century.
Nemean IV
For Timasarchos of Aigina, winner in the boys’ wrestling
I
Joy is the best healer
Of labours decided, and Songs,
The Muses’ wise daughters,
Charm her forth by their touch,
Nor does warm water so drench and soften the limbs
[5] As praise joined to the harp.
Longer than actions lives the word,
Whatsoever, with the Graces’ help,
The tongue picks out from the depths of the mind.
II
Such may it be mine to offer
To Zeus Kronidas and to Nemea
[10] And to Timasarchos’ wrestling
In prelude to my hymn.
May the tall-towered home of the Aiakids welcome it,
A beacon for all in its goodness to strangers.
If your father Timokritos
Were still warmed by the strength-giving sun,
He would often have swept the cunning harp
[15] With this song to support him,
And have renowned his son, the glorious victor,
III
Who has sent a necklace of wreaths from the games at Kleonai
And from glittering, fortunate Athens;
And because in seven-gated Thebes
By Amphiaraos’ famous tomb
[20] The Kadmeians were not sorry to cover him with flowers
For Aigina’s sake.
Loving he comes to those that love him,
And lets his eyes fall on a friendly city
Towards Herakles’ happy hall.
IV
[25] With him strong Telamon once spoiled Troy and the Meropes,
And the huge warrior, horrible Alkyoneus, –
But not before he had broken
Twelve four-horse-teams with a rock
And heroes, tamers of horses, riding upon them,
[30] Twice the number.
Ignorant of battle would that man be plainly
Who understands not my words;
What is done must be paid back in kind.
V
I am kept from telling the whole long tale
By the rules of song and the hurrying hours;
[35] But magic pulls at my heart
To touch on the new moon’s feast.
Nevertheless, though the deep salt sea
Holds you by the waist, strain against its stratagems.
When we come to the struggle in the light of day
We shall be seen far to outdo our enemies;
While another with envious eyes
[40] Rocks in the dark his unballasted thought
VI
And runs it aground. Whatever prowess
King Fate has given to me,
I know well that oncoming time
Will accomplish what has to be.
Weave, sweet harp, at once
[45] In Lydian melody
This song also, loved by the Vineland and Kypros,
Where Telamon’s son, Teukros, reigns apart,
While Aias keeps his father’s Salamis,
VII
And Achilles a shining island in the Friendly Sea.
[50] Thetis reigns in Phthia, and Neoptolemos
On the limitless mainland,
Where tall headlands of cow-pasture
Start from Dodona to slope to the Ionian Strait.
By the foot of Pelion Peleus assaulted Iolkos
With deadly thrust
[55] And gave it to the Haimonians in bondage;
VIII
He knew the crafty tricks
Of Akastos’ wife, Hippolyta.
With the dagger of Daidalos
[60] Pelias’ son was planting death for him from an ambush.
But Cheiron protected him
And carried out the predestined fate of Zeus.
Peleus baffled all-powerful fire,
Sharp claws of bold cunning lions
And the edge of their terrible teeth,
IX
[65] And wedded one of the high-throned Nereids.
He saw the fine seats in a circle
Where the Kings of Sky and of Earth
Took their places and showed favours
And power to his race.
To the darkness beyond Gadeira
No one may pass;
Turn back the ship’s tackle
[70] To the mainland of Europe.
I cannot go through the whole tale of Aiakos’ sons.
X
I have come from the Theandridai,
Prompt with news of the struggles
In which their thews were braced
[75] At Olympia and the Isthmos and Nemea;
I keep my bargain.
There they were put to the test
And came not home without garlands whose fruit is glory
To the land, Timasarchos, which your clan serves
With triumph-songs that ring in our ears.
[80] If you bid me set up to Kallikles, your mother’s brother,
XI
A monument whiter than Parian marble,
Gold in the testing shows all its brightnesses,
And song in praise of fine doings
Makes a man equal in fortune to kings.
[85] May he who dwells by Acheron hear my voice echo,
Where in the Games of the loud Trident-lifter
He was green with Korinthian parsley.
XII
Him gladly would Euphanes, his father’s old father,
[90] Have sung to his cronies.
Every age has its companions,
But each man believes that he can tell best
What he himself has encountered.
How, in his praise of Melesias,
He would twist in the fight, make his words come to grips,
Not to be thrown in his speech as he grapples,
[95] Gentle of heart to the noble
But grim as he lies in ambush for his foes.
Nemean IV was written about 473 B.C. for a victory won not at Nemea but in the Games of Adrastos at Sikyon.
12 ‘the tall-towered home’ is Aigina.
13 If the victor’s father were alive he would accompany this song with his harp.
16–20 Timasarchos has won prizes at the Nemean Games (Kleonai), Athens, and Thebes.
25–30 The first Trojan War.
36–8 Pindar suggests that his journey to Aigina has difficulties, notably among men who are envious of him, but he will surmount them.
46–54 Pindar names various Aiakidai and their realms.
56 ff. A short reference to Peleus and Hippolyta as in Nemean V.
62–5 Thetis took the form of various wild animals which Peleus had to subdue before he could marry her.
65 The Gods attended the wedding of Peleus and Thetis.
69 Gadeira (Gades) marks the end of the known world.
80 Kallikles is uncle of Timasarchos. Pindar’s song takes the place of a marble memorial to him.
89 Euphanes is grandfather of Timasarchos.
93 Melesias is a famous Athenian trainer.
Nemean IX
For Chromios of Aitna, winner in the chariot-race
I
Muses, our revel shall come from Apollo at Sikyon
To newly built Aitna,
Where guests have overwhelmed the wide-flung doors
Of Chromios’ happy home.
Come, shape words into a sweet melody.
For he mounts his team of victorious horses
And gives the sign for a song
In honour of the Mother and her twin children
[5] Who share and watch over precipitous Pytho.
II
There is a saying of men: ‘Hide not
On the ground in silence a noble thing done.’
Come, we shall wake the thundering harp and the flute
For the top of horse-races,
Which, in honour of Phoibos, Adrastos
First held by the streams of Asopos.
I shall name it
[10] And clothe with echoing glories the hero,
III
Who was king there in those days
And renowned and revealed his city
With new feasts and the struggles of men
In strength and carved chariots.
Once he fled from the bold plotter Amphiaraos,
From the fearful strife in his father’s house and from Argos.
Talaos’ sons no longer ruled;
Sedition had broken them;
[15]– The stronger man ends the right that was before.
IV
Eriphyla, breaker of men,
They gave as a pledge under oath to the son of Oikleës,
And were the mightiest of the fair-haired Danaoi.
Time was when to seven-gated Thebes
They led an army of soldiers
On a road where the portents were against them.
Kronos’ Son brandished his lightning
To urge them not to press their mad march from home
[20] But to hold back from the journey.
V
Into stark destruction
The host hurtled on its way,
With armour of bronze and horses’ accoutrements.
On the banks of Ismenos
They were robbed of their sweet home-coming
And with their bodies they fattened the white flowers of smoke.
Seven pyres feasted on young men’s limbs,
But Zeus with his all-powerful thunderbolt
Split the earth’s deep breast for Amphiaraos
[25] And hid him with his horses,
VI
Before he, a soldier, could be stabbed in the back
By Periklymenos’ spear to the shame of his heart;
For when fear conies from the Gods
Even their sons run away.
If it may be, son of Kronos,
I put away as far as I can
This fierce ordeal for life or death
Against spears flung by the Phoenicians,
And ask Thee to grant for long years
The gift of good government
[30] To the sons of Aitna’s men,
VII
Father Zeus, and to shed on the people
Glories that honour the city.
Men live there who are lovers of horses,
And have hearts above possessions.
I say what is past belief;
For Shamefastness who brings honour
Is secretly tricked by gain.
If you carried Chromios’ shield
Among fighters on foot and horses and battles at sea,
[35] You would have seen in the hazard of the shrill battle-cry
VIII
How that Goddess stiffened his warrior-spirit in fight
To keep off the War-God’s ruin.
Few have power and skill in hand and soul
To turn back from their feet the cloud of slaughter
Against the ranks of the foe.
Yet they say that the glory of Hektor flowers
By the floods of Skamandros;
[40] And above the sheer cliffs of Heloros’ coasts,
IX
At the place called Area’s Ford, for Hagesidamos’ son
This light shone in the beginning of manhood.
I shall tell of his doings on other days,
Many on dusty land, some on the neighbouring sea.
From labours done with youth and with right
Comes a life of calm until old age.
Let him know that he has won
[45] A wonderful fortune from the Gods.
X
For though a man has great riches
And wins an illustrious name,
He is mortal and may travel no further
To set his foot on another goal.
Peace loves the feast, and with soft song
Victory bursts into fresh flowers;
And the voice grows bold by the mixing-bowl.
[50] Mix it, the sweet inspirer of revelry,
XI
And deal out the vine’s strong child
In the silver cups
Which once his mares won for Chromios
And sent to him from holy Sikyon
With garlands woven by Right, from Lato’s Son.
Father Zeus, I pray to make loud this prowess
With the Graces to help me,
And may my words surpass many in honouring victory
[55] As I shoot straight at the Muses’ mark.
Nemean IX was composed about 473 B.C. for a victory won not at Nemea but at the Games of Adrastos at Sikyon.
2 Chromios had been app
ointed by Hieron to be governor of the new town of Aitna, where the song is to be sung.
4 The Mother and her twin children are Lato, Artemis, and Apollo.
9 The Games at Sikyon were believed to have been founded by Adrastos. That is why Pindar tells of the Seven against Thebes, of whom Adrastos was one.
13 Early in life Adrastos fled from Argos to Sikyon.
16 Eriphyla, sister of Adrastos, was given in marriage to Amphiaraos, son of Oikleës.
19 ff. The expedition failed completely. Five of the seven leaders were killed; Amphiaraos was swallowed up in the earth, and only Adrastos came home safely.
28 Pindar refers to the wars of the Akragantines against the Carthaginian invaders of Sicily, and perhaps suggests that the latter have been defeated because they have not respected the Gods.
34 Chromios has fought in these battles.
41 The Ford of Area has not been identified, but it is where Gelon, Hieron’s brother, won the victory which gave him the mastery of Syracuse.
Olympian VI
For Hagesias of Syracuse, winner with the mule-car
I
We shall set golden pillars
Under the chamber’s well-made porch
And build, as it were, a marvellous hall;
When work is begun,
The front must be made to shine afar.
If there were an Olympian victor,
[5] Steward at Pisa of God’s oracular altar,
And founder’s kin to glorious Syracuse,
What hymn would that man not have
If he found his townsmen
Unstinting in songs that he loves?
Let the son of Sostratos know
That to this sandal the Gods have fitted his foot.
Success without risk is not honoured
[10] Among men or in hollow ships;
But if a fine task is done,
Many remember it.
Hagesias, the praise waits for you,
