THE SEVENTH NEMEAN ODE.
TO SOGENES OF ÆGINA, VICTOR WHEN A BOY IN THE PENTATHLIC GAMES.
ARGUMENT.
This ode opens with an address to Eilithyia, the goddess who presided at parturition, declaring that Sogenes, the son of Thearion, was at his birth gifted with so robust a frame as should enable him while yet a boy to conquer in the pentathlum.—The muses, by celebrating in song the glorious actions of heroes, confer on them a celebrity more than commensurate with their importance; nor would Ulysses have acquired such fame but for the praises of Homer.—To them is owing the renown of Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, one of the heroes of Ægina, to whose history the poet digresses.—Then checking himself, from the fear of exciting satiety in his hearers, he returns to Ægina, Thearion, and the victor Sogenes; invoking the continued favour of Jupiter, to whom the Nemean games were sacred, of Æacus, and especially of Hercules, whom he entreats to become an intercessor with Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, that they may grant their protection to the conqueror and to his latest posterity.—Concludes with declaring his intention not to insult the memory of Neoptolemus by renewing the story of his death; but deprecates repeated apologies to his adversaries.
Oh thou, to whom a seat is given
The deep-revolving Parcæ near,
Child of the potent queen of heav'n,
Prolific Eilithyia, hear! [1]
Without thine aid we ne'er should claim 5
In the clear day or sable night
To gaze upon the genial light,
And view thy sister Hebe's hardy frame.
- ↑ The precise object of Pindar in this opening address to the goddess of parturition has been variously explained by different
