And so the success at the Isthmus of the Theban Melissus is described as compensating for a terrible military reverse which had swept off four members of his family, and as opening a new era of glory for the house which had ever since lain, as it were, under a cloud.[1]
'Twas theirs the gallant steed to rear
And Ares of the brazen spear
Their warlike might did bless;
But on their home in wrath the tempest leapt,
And from their hearth four hero-brethren swept:
Then from the sky once more the storm-cloud wild
Passed! and the earth again with blushing roses smiled.
Such was the will of Heaven. The earth-shaking king
Who loves Onchestus, and the ridge
That towers o'er Corinth's Ocean-bridge,
Bids us once more in triumph sing,
Tuning for their high race the echoing string.
For wrapt in slumber still and deep
Long had their glory lain asleep.
'Awake!' he cried;—at once she woke:
From all her form, as sparks of fire,
Beams of divinest beauty broke,
Bright as when Phosphor leads the starry choir!"—(S.)
And, addressing Aristagoras of Tenedos,[2] the poet exclaims that a descendant of the mail-clad warriors whom Orestes led from Amyclæ might well be expected to achieve a foremost place among athletes. Thus athletic prowess was regarded by the Greeks of Pindar's day not as a mere useless accomplishment, but as a real measure of a man's worth to his country.
