bias towards Sparta,—the state, with whose early fortunes the legends of his own ancestors, the Ægids, were so intimately associated. The sympathy, which he hails, and longs to strengthen, between Thebes and Sparta, is shadowed forth in his description of the legendary brotherhood-in-arms between the Spartan Castor and the Theban Iolaus. He describes their friendly rivalry in feats of strength, and represents them as standing out side by side in proud preeminence above the other champions of Greece, each the charioteer of a demigod, each victorious in all athletic contests:—
"Numberless they bound
With conquering wreaths their temples round.
This,—my own native Dirce's boast of pride:
That,—the heroic chief from famed Eurotas' side."—(S.)
This description occurs in the First Isthmian. Similarly, and doubtless for the same reason, these heroes are associated together in the Eleventh Pythian—
"To greatness Iolaus grew, and Castor strong."
In the Sixth Isthmian, he enumerates among the legendary glories of Thebes, the assistance furnished by the Ægids to the founders of the Spartan kingdom. But, when this Ode was written, a cloud of disappointment seems to have overshadowed the bright hopes which he had once formed from the prospect of Spartan friendship. He hints that Sparta has forgotten the old claims of Thebes upon her love—
"But ah! the grace of days of yore
Falleth on sleep, and none remembereth more."—(S.)
