Of that promise the Eleventh Ode was the fulfilment, but it had been so long delayed as to suggest the need of an apology. "Forgive me! I had forgotten my debt, but now it shall be paid with usury."
Then the poet affects a hesitation. So many themes crowd in upon his fancy: which shall he choose? Shall he dwell on the culture and prowess of the Locrians? or on their national legends—the hero Cycnus who had dared to encounter Heracles? or on the merits of Agesidamus's trainer Ilas, the Achilles to this young Patroclus, whose instruction had developed natural gifts without which all teaching would have been vain? At last a theme is chosen, on which Pindar had doubtless resolved from the first, the legend of the first Olympian festival.
Rapidly the war of Heracles against the Epeian monarch Augeas is sketched. The king was slain; his city sacked; and from its spoils, collected in Pisa, the cost of the first "Olympia" was defrayed. Then it was that the "Hill of Cronus," a nameless snowy summit in the olden days of Œnomaüs and Pelops, received its well-known name. The lists were set, and the first Olympian victors received their prizes. And who were these? A catalogue is given, with all due detail:—
"In the stadium best, to the goal that pressed,
Thy son, Licymnius! showed his speed,
Œonus, leader of Midea's host: Tegea of Echemus made her boast
In wrestling famed: and the boxer's meed
To Tiryns town Doryclus bore:
