Pindar and Anacreon/Pindar/Olympic Odes/3

by Pindar

Layout 2

 

THE THIRD OLYMPIC ODE.

TO THE SAME THERON, ON OCCASION OF A VICTORY OBTAINED BY HIM IN THE CHARIOT RACE: THE DATE IS NOT RECORDED.

ARGUMENT.

This ode was addressed to the King of Agrigentum, to whom the victory was announced as he was celebrating the Theoxenia: (a festival in honour af all the gods, instituted by the inhabitants of Pallene, or, according to the mythological story, by Castor and Pollux.) Pindar therefore begins by invoking the aid and approbation of the Dioscuræ and their sister Helen—thence on the mention of the olive wreath he digresses to the fable of Hercules transplanting the wild olive tree from the Hyperborean regions to Olympia. He concludes by congratulating Theron, who had attained the highest point of human glory, and attributes his success to the favour of the twin deities, influenced by his piety and the regularity with which he celebrated the festival of the gods: the attempt to proceed farther would be as vain as the endeavour to sail beyond the Pillars of Hercules, the supposed boundary of the old world.

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To please the hospitable pair ^[1]
From godlike Tyndarus who spring,
And Helen, nymph of lovely hair,
I would awake th' Olympic string,
And raise the lyric song, to crown 5
Bright Agrigentum with renown,
And Theron's glories sing,
Whose steeds' unwearied feet achieve the guerdon fair.
Then may the muse her bard inspire,
Who first upon the Dorian lyre 10
Raised the melodious strain on high
To swell the pomp of victory. 10

The verdant wreaths that proudly glow
Round the triumphant courser's mane,
Call on the shrill-toned flute to flow, 15
The varied lyre and well-connected strain.
Which may a due encomium raise
Ænesidamus' son to praise. ^[2] 16

And Pisa joins the general claim—
From her proceeds the song of fame, 20
To whom the umpire's just decree
Awards the meed of victory.
Prompt to fulfil Alcides' high command,
Who bade the verdant olive glow
Twined by th' Ætolian judge's hand 25
Around the conqueror's brow. 22
Which erst Amphitryo's godlike son
From Ister's shady fountains bore.
The fairest mark of triumph won
By victor on Olympia's shore. 30
Gift of the Hyperborean race, ^[3]
Who worship in Apollo's fane,
The plant which shades that hallow'd place
His voice persuasive could obtain;
Where Jupiter's tall grove a shelter gave 35
Common to all mankind, and chaplets to the brave.

For now to his great father's name
Perform'd was every sacred rite;
And when the full-orb'd lamp of night ^[4]
Pour'd from her golden car the severing flame, 40
He gave each fifth revolving year,
Where falls Alpheus' high career,
To judge the well-earn'd meed of fame. 39

But in Saturnian Pelops' vale
No trees waved beauteous to the gale— 45
No verdant grove, no depth of shade
The raging solar beam allay'd;
His mind impell'd him then to go
Where Ister's streams through Scythian regions flow;
Latona's huntress daughter there 50
Received the hero as he came
From Arcady's deep glens and summits fair.
When, as Eurystheus' will was told,
Necessity from Father Jove
To bring the hind with horns of gold 55
His persecuted offspring drove:
Which erst, in sacred pomp array'd,
Taygeta had given to please th' Orthosian maid. ^[5] 54

This as he urged in warm pursuit,
His eyes survey'd the region there 60
Which chilling Boreas render'd bare,
Admiring the tall olive's shoot;
Then sweet desire possess'd his soul
To plant the consecrated root
Around the twelve-times circled goal. 65
And now to crown the solemn feast,
The hero comes, propitious guest,
With deep-zoned Leda's twinborn pair.
To them the glorious charge he gave,
Ascending to Olympus' height, 70
To fix the contest's laws, and crown the brave
Who sped his victor car, or won the palm of might. 67

Then justly noble Theron's fame
My mind exhorts me to proclaim;
And sing th' Emmenidæs' high race, 75
Whom Jove's equestrian offspring grace
With honours and rewards divine,
So bright their virtuous actions shine.
By them the sacred rites are paid,
By them the liberal banquet laid 80
With more abundant plenty stored
Than often crowns a mortal board. 74

 

If water then and shining gold
The rank of highest glory hold,
Even thus has virtuous Theron gain'd 85
The farthest point by man attain'd.
His fame has reach'd that distant land
Where the Herculean pillars stand.
Beyond this point who strives to sail,
Wise or unwise, can ne'er prevail— 90
No farther I pursue—my course is here restrain'd. 81

 

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1. This epithet, as West observes, is very appropriately be stowed on the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux, on account of the establishment, by them, of the Theoxenia, a feast to which the gods were invited. With the opening of this ode compare Euripides, Orestes, sub fin.

   Ἑλενην Ζηνος μελαθροις πελασω, κ. τ. λ.

   We may observe that the praises of Agrigentum are a favorite theme of Pindar's grateful muse.

2. Thomson, in his Castle of Indolence, (ii. 13.,) says of his Knight of Arts and Industry, that

   With varied fire
   He roused the trumpet and the martial fife,
   Or bade the lute sweet tenderness inspire,
   Or verses framed that well might wake Apollo's lyre.

3. It would be tedious and not very edifying to the reader to detail the various opinions of the ancients respecting the geographical position of the Hyperboreans: some placing them in Europe and others in Asia; nay, they have been said to dwell within the polar circle, in a fruitful and temperate clime, free from all skyey influences of an adverse and malignant nature. In Olymp. viii. 70, Pindar says that the Ister flows through the land of Scythia. Hence this northern El Dorado would be situated in a latitude above the equator, as high as that of the modern Siberia. But nothing can be more vague and undefined than the notions of antiquity respecting the limits of the Ister and the territories of the Scythians. In the sixth Isthmian ode, v. 36, Pindar appears to consider the Nile and the Hyperborean regions as the northern and southern extremities of the habitable globe. It appears that the sacred olive which the Theban Hercules is fabled to have transplanted from their regions grew somewhere above the fountains of the Ister or Danube. The tenth Pythian ode contains a poetical description of the fertility and blessedness of these Utopian regions.
4. The Olympic games were celebrated on the day nearest to the full moon of that month, the new moon of which immediately followed the summer solstice.
5. I. e. Diana: so named from her salutary obstetrical influence, or from a mountain of Arcadia.

   The younger scholiast gives a long account of the reason why this stag with gilded horns was offered to Diana, who had benevolently metamorphosed into the form of that animal Taygeta, the daughter of Atlas.