THE FIFTH NEMEAN ODE. [1]
TO PYTHEAS OF ÆGINA, VICTOR WITH THE CÆSTUS.
ARGUMENT.
The poet charges his song with the celebration of the victory which Pytheas, son of Lampo, has achieved in the Nemean games.—Hence he digresses to the heroes of Ægina, descendants of Æacus, especially Peleus, Euthymenes, Pytheas, the Athenian Menander his alipta, and Themistius.—Concludes with an address to his muse, exhorting her boldly to sing the triumphs of Pytheas at Nemea and in the festivals which were held at Epidaurus in honour of Æsculapius.
Mine is no statuary's fame,
Whose art constructs the mimic frame,
Forever standing on the selfsame base.
But leave, sweet song, Ægina's port,
On long-deck'd ships and cutters short, 5
To tell that Lampo's mighty son
Pytheas the Nemean crown hath won,
Whose honours the pancratium's victor grace.
Incipient manhood's tender flower
Not yet his downy cheek array'd 10
When his triumphant deeds display'd
Th' Æacidæ's victorious power—
- ↑ The opening of this ode contains an indirect reproach of the kindred of Pytheas, who wished to procure from Pindar an ode to commemorate his victory for a less sum than three drachmæ, (about ten pounds,) asserting that it would be preferable to purchase a statue for that sum: but afterward, sensible of their error, they request the bard to furnish them with an ode. He therefore begins very appropriately by instituting a comparison between the immobility of a statue and the universal celebrity which verses would obtain for the victor, by penetrating the most distant regions of the habitable world.
