Pindar and Anacreon/Anacreon/Ode 31

by Anacreon

ODE XXXI.—PLEASING PHRENSY.

Yes! let me—let me drain the bowl,
And pour its pleasures on my soul;
Let Bacchus now his reign employ,
Till reason reels, oppress'd with joy.
Orestes, by the furies led,^[1]
Barefooted to the mountains fled.
Alcmæon too, in frantic mood,
Like him was stain'd with mother's blood;
But I disclaim such dreadful deeds,
My madness from my joy proceeds.
Then bring the bowl, I cry again,
Who shall that maddening joy restrain?

When Hercules went mad of yore,
The Iphitean bow he bore;^[2]
His rattling quiver's dreadful sound
Spread awe and consternation round.
Great Ajax, too, when madness raged,^[3]
Whole hosts of fancied Greeks engaged;
When, grasping fierce his seven-fold shield,
With Hector's sword he sought the field.^[4]
But though with wine I mad should be,
May no such fury seize on me!
No dreadful bow or sword I bear,
A flowery garland decks my hair.
This brimming bowl shall crown my bliss,
Then welcome madness such as this!

1. Alcmæon's father had been put to death by his mother's contrivance, whom on chat account he slew. Orestes slew his mother Clytemnestra, to revenge the death of his father Agamemnon, who at his return from the Trojan war had been murdered by her and her lover Ægisthus.
2. Iphitus was slain by Hercules, who carried off his bow.
3. When the armour of Achilles was adjudged to Ulysses, Ajax was so enraged at the affront that he went mad; and falling on a flock of sheep, which he took for Grecians, he first slew them and then himself.
4. Hector and Ajax made an exchange of presents, which gave birth to a proverb, "that the presents of enemies are generally fatal;" for with this sword Ajax killed himself.