Alcman on his refulgent shield
Whirling the dragon's varied form
Clearly I view, while in the field 65
Foremost at Cadmus' gates he bides the battle storm.
And he who in the former fray
Fatigued and vanquish'd urged his way,
Adrastus of heroic might
Now views a better omen's flight; 70
Howe'er in his domestic state
Vex'd by the storms of adverse fate.
To him alone of all the Grecian band
With his uninjured host by equal heaven,
His dead son's bones, collected through the land, 75
To bring to Abas' spacious streets 'tis given." [1]
'Twas thus Amphiaraus said:
And I around Alcmæon's head
The verdant chaplet joy to place,
Sprinkled with hymns' mellifluous grace. 80
He, guarded by whose neighboring fane, [2]
All my possessions safe remain,
To earth's prophetic centre as I went,
By his paternal art convey'd
The answer in night's gloomy shade, 85
Which to my charmed ear Apollo sent. 87
Far-darting god, whose glorious dome
Within the Pythian hollow stands,
Receiving from all distant lands
- ↑ Argos is thus denominated by Pindar, as having been built by Abas, son of Lynceus, and father of Adrastus, whose son Ægialeus was the only one of the Epigoni, i. e., the descendants of the seven Argive chiefs, who did not return safe to their native land after the Theban war.
- ↑ The house of Pindar stood near the temple or shrine of Alcmæon; and as the poet went to consult the oracle of the Pythian Apollo, the answer was conveyed to him in a dream by that hero, who appears to have been worshipped with great reverence—συγγονοισι τεχναις, i. e., by the art of vaticination, practised by his father.
