THE NINTH OLYMPIC ODE.
TO EPHARMOSTUS, THE OPUNTIAN, ON HIS VICTORY IN THE PALÆSTRA, GAINED IN THE SEVENTY-THIRD OLYMPIAD.
ARGUMENT.
Beginning with the praises of the victor, Pindar digresses to those of his native city Opus.—Then, being led by the mention of the propitious power of the Graces, to speak of Hercules' contest with Neptune, Apollo, and Pluto, which was carried on by their assistance, he checks himself, considering it an act of impiety to relate tales that may be disparaging to any of the gods.—Then follows a digression relating to Deucalion's flood, and the reparation of the human race after the waters had subsided.—The poet addressing Epharmostus and the citizens of Opus, as being descended from Deucalion and Pyrrha, through their daughter Protogeneia, who had by Jupiter a son called Opus, from whom the city was named.—His hospitality is celebrated, and his reception, among his other guests, of Menætius, whose son Patroclus is mentioned with high commendation as having assisted Achilles in his attack on Telephus, who had put to flight the Grecian band.—He then aspires to the car of the muses, who would enable him to frame a song that might do justice to the several triumphs of Lampromachus and Epharmostus, which he enumerates; attributing the victor's excellence and various graces to the favour of the gods, and concluding with a compliment to his hero, who, after his victory in the Oilean games, offered sacrifices and funeral rites at the tomb of Ajax.
Archilochus' Olympic strain [1]
With triple harmony combined,
Might have sufficed the friendly trains,
- ↑ It appears to have been customary to sing at the Olympic
