kinsman Lampromachus, dwelling especially on one scene of triumph, which he seems himself to have witnessed.
"But oh, when now to manhood newly grown
He sought the silver prize in Marathon,
And there with footing true
And rapid feint o'erthrew
Each senior tried, what shouts rang round to greet
The fair young hero of so fair a feat!"
Lastly, Pindar enlarges on a favourite thesis of his philosophy of life, that glory is no external good to be grasped at by every chance aspirant, but the visible outcome of an innate capacity for greatness vouchsafed by Providence to certain favoured mortals. Ambition in inferior natures is presumption, a rash intrusion upon a sphere into which they have no right to enter. In contrast to such, Pindar describes the nature which may lawfully aspire to glory, and finds it exemplified in Epharmostus:—
"The victor, graced with blessings from on high,
Strong arm, lithe limb, and spirit-speaking eye,
Whose hand at Ajax' feast[1] the Ilian altar crowned."
We have now noticed all the extant Odes which Pindar has addressed to conquerors at the Four Great Games, and those also which—though really referring to successes in minor competitions—have been mistakenly included in the Pythian or Nemean group, and have thus by a happy accident escaped unmerited oblivion.
- ↑ The Ode was performed at a festival of the local hero Ajax, son of Ileus or Oileus.
