Pindar and Anacreon/Pindar/Pythian Odes/1
THE FIRST PYTHIAN ODE.
TO HIERO, THE ÆTNÆAN, ON HIS VICTORY IN THE CHARIOT RACE, GAINED IN THE TWENTY-NINTH PYTHIAD.
ARGUMENT.
Pindar begins this ode with a beautiful and poetical invocation to the lyre, expatiating on its powerful effects on gods and men.—The impious alone are incapable of enjoying its sweetness: among which number is Typhœus, who is described with great sublimity, as struggling under the superincumbent weight of Ætna.—This digression leads to the mention of the town built by Hiero at the foot of the mountain, and named from it.—Of this city he had caused himself to be proclaimed a citizen by the herald, who declared him victorious in the Pythian chariot race. This the poet regards as a presage of future triumphs, and invokes Apollo to take the town, together with the surrounding country, under his especial protection: since, as his pious disposition leads him frequently to declare, all mortal advantages, as wisdom, strength, eloquence, are derived from the gods.—Then follow the praises of Hiero, and good wishes for his future prosperity, together with the mention of his son Dinomenes.—Calling to mind the ancient history of the family and the calamities which they had suffered, the poet invokes Jupiter to be propitious to them in future, and to avert the perils of war by which they were threatened.—Concludes with offering his advice and good wishes.
Oh golden lyre! to whose harmonious string
Apollo and the fair-hair'd muses sing,
Glad prelude which the choral train obey,
When moving in the mazy dance
To the sweet strains the band advance, 5
Their movements guided by thy sovereign sway—
Thine is the potent art to tame
The lightning's everlasting flame.
Jove's slumbering eagle on his sceptre laid, [1]
Rests with swift plume on either side display'd. 12
Thy melting sounds his eyelids close 11
In the dark shadows of repose.
While his curved head and quivering back declare
That even in sleep thy darts have entered there.
Mars, as he listens to thy lay, 15
Gives his impetuous spear to rest—
Thy numbers charm his rage away,
And lull to peace his stormy breast.
Nor less are all the inmates of the sky
Sooth'd by the shafts of harmony; 20
Whene'er Apollo's skilful hand
Conducts the muses' sacred band. 24
But wretches whom immortal Jove
Deigns not to honour with his love,
Hear in confusion the Pierian strain 25
On earth or on the mighty main.
As Typhon, he who dared all heaven to brave, [2]
And 'gainst the gods with hundred heads to rise,
Nurtured of old in famed Cilicia's cave,
Now whelm'd in black Tartarean darkness lies. 30
Cumæ's sea-girdled shores below,
And where Sicilia's waters flow,
Crush'd by the island's weight, impress'd
Upon the rebel's shaggy breast,
Ætna his giant form restrains, 35
Whose towering height the cloud sustains,
Nurse of the sharp perennial snow. [3] 39
Forth from her inmost caverns urge their way
Fountains of pure and unapproached fire,
Rivers of smoke that blot the face of day, 40
And from their source of lurid flame aspire.
But flashes of bright hue illume
The horrors of nocturnal gloom;
And hurl the rocks with thundering sound,
Whelm'd in the watery gulf profound. 45
The restless monster from his burning seat
Sends up to heaven the springs of direst heat;
And strikes with mute surprise their eye and ear
Who see the wondrous fire, and sounds prodigious hear. 50
So close his pinion'd form is bound 50
Beneath dark Ætna's leafy head;
Supported on the rugged ground,
While all his back is torn, reclining on that bed.
Oh! may thy power, protecting Jove,
My humble prayer and deeds approve; 55
This mountain's guard, whose lofty brow
O'erlooks the fruitful land below,
And to the neighb'ring city gives its name,
Rear'd by the builder of immortal fame, [4]
While the loud herald's shout declared afar 60
First in the Pythian course Ætnaean Hiero's car. 64
To men who o'er the ocean sail
'Tis sweet to launch before the gale,
And ere they leave the port, discern
The omen of a bless'd return; 65
So might th' encomiastic lay
Recording these triumphant deeds,
Foretel in many a future day
Of garlands won by conquering steeds;
Which shall th' illustrious city raise 70
In festal melodies of praise.
Oh Lycian Phœbus! Delian king,
Who lovest Castalia's pure Parnassian spring,
May these warm hopes acceptance find
With Ætna's valiant sons, in thine approving mind!
For by the ruling powers of heaven 76
All virtues are to mortals given.
Wisdom is theirs—from them are sprung
The active hand, the fluent tongue.
And when, the victor's might to sing, 80
Eager I wake the lyric string,
I fear not from an erring bow
The brazen-headed shaft to throw,
But scattering far the darts of song,
Hope to confound the rival throng. 85
Oh! thus may Hiero's happy state
Succeeding ages give to last,
And grant, to crown his prosperous fate,
Oblivion of the sorrows past! [5] 90
Her solace too Remembrance yields, 90
Recording in what numerous fields
His hand the noble chaplet gain'd;
While by the favouring powers of heaven
To him were brighter honours given
Than Grecian victor e'er obtain'd: 95
He still, though with enfeebled might,
Like Philoctetes, waged the fight.
Howe'er oppress'd, the brave contend
To sooth him with the name of friend. 100
'Tis said that erst the godlike band 100
Urged with inquiring haste their way
To Lemnos' solitary strand,
Where Pæan's tortured offspring lay;
Without whose bow the fated wall
Of Priam's city ne'er could fall. 105
Though sickness all his powers opposed,
Yet he the Grecian labours closed.
Thus from the deity may Hiero gain
All future joy and respite from his pain.
Then aid me, muse, the lay to raise, 110
Sung to Deinomenes' glad ear—
The pious youth a fathers praise
From conquering steeds will joy to hear. 115
Come, let us find a friendly hymn, to sing
The majesty of Ætna's future king: 115
To whom that city Hiero rear'd—
Subjected to the bonds of law
Which Doric states from Hyllus draw— [6]
Since heavenly freedom reigns where laws are fear'd.
The heroes who their noble race 120
From Pamphilus and great Alcides trace,
Who dwelt in distant times below
Taygetus' aspiring brow,
By true allegiance bound would still
Ægimius' high behests fulfil. 125
From Pindus rushing to the main
'Twas theirs Amyclæ's walls to gain.
In glory as in station near
The heavenly twins from Leda sprung, 129
Whose milk-white steeds and conquering spear
Throughout th' applauding world are sung. 129
Still o'er their fortune, Jove, preside,
And may the tongue of Truth proclaim
By Amena's Sicilian tide
Their citizens' and monarch's fame. 135
Still may the venerable king
Direct his son's obedient mind,
To harmony his subjects bring,
And in firm ties of concord bind.
Saturnian king!—if aught my prayers avail, 140
Soon will the shouts of hostile Tuscans cease,
Phœnicia's baffled sons from Cumæ sail, [7]
And all our naval contest end in peace. 141
By Syracusa's lord o'erthrown,
What sad reverses have they known! 145
From the swift ships their youth he hurl'd
Deep plunged beneath the watery world;
Setting the land of Hellas free
From the rude bonds of slavery.
To praise th' Athenian name, my muse 150
From Salamis her lay would choose;
While Sparta glorious in the fight
Waged near Cithæron's towering height;
When her brave progeny o'erthrew
The Median archers' bended yew. 155
E'en thus, Deinomenes, thy fame
Sounded in hymns of loud acclaim,
Near Himera's well-water'd shore,
Where thy strong arm in glory's field
Made the contending foeman yield, 160
Thy latest children shall explore. 156
If just, the brief and simple tale
O'er lengthen'd numbers shall prevail:
While loathes the breast and sated ear
Exaggerated strains to hear; 165
Strains which disgust and envy raise
By superfluity of praise;
And the dark jealous mind annoy
That hears with pain another's joy.
But unsubdued by envious hate, [8] 170
(For pity were a lower state,)
Still be thine honest actions sung;
With steady hand direct the helm,
Protector of the peopled realm,
And on truth's whetstone edge thy tongue. 168
For know, a fault of lightest blame [9] 176
Would brand a king with flagrant shame.
Since be thy bearing good or ill,
Unnumber'd eyes survey thee still.
Then tarnish not thy generous mind, 180
If thy delighted ear rejoice
In honest fame's applauding voice,
Be all thy bounties unconfined.
Like the skill'd pilot, spread thy sail
Before the free and liberal gale. 177 185
Nor, friend, let flattery's specious wile
Thy better judgment e'er beguile.
When life's brief span is past away,
And closed the transitory scene,
The storied page or poet's lay 190
Declares how bright that life has been.
Still Crœsus' philanthropic virtue lives;
While Phalaris, who made his victims flame
Within the brazen bull's ignited frame,
To everlasting infamy survives: 195
Nor is the hated tyrant sung
In festal chorus by the youthful tongue.
Success is mortals' chief reward below—
The next when hymns proclaim the glorious prize—
But he whose lot in both triumphant lies 200
Receives the highest crown that Fortune can bestow. 195
- ↑ Casimir appears to have imitated this splendid passage: (Lyric. Ep. ix. 15:)—
"tibi præpes alti
Civis Olympi
Hinc et hinc pressis reverenter alis
Attulit pacem."Homer (Il. xxiv. 361,) calls the eagle Jove's winged messenger, and the strong sovereign of the phimed race.—Pope. Apuleius (Metam. vi. 119,) gives almost a verbal translation of the words of Pindar: "Nam supremi Jovis regalis ales illa, repente, propansis utrimque pennis, affuit rapax aquila."
The English reader will probably call to mind a poetical paraphrase of the celebrated invocation with which this beautiful ode begins, by Akenside, in his hymn to the Naiads:—
"With emulation all the sounding choir,
And bright Apollo, leader of the song,
Their voices through the liquid air exalt," &c. - ↑ With this description of the hundred-headed Typhon or
Typhœus, who is also mentioned in the beginning of the fourth Olympic and the eighth Pythian, compare Callimachus, (in Del. 141,) who, like Pindar, appears anxious to clothe so vast an image with appropriate magnificence of language:—
Ὡς δ᾽ δποτ᾽ Αιτναιου ορεος πυρι τυφομενοιο
Σειονται μυχα παντα, κατουδαιοιο γιγαντος. - ↑ See Theocritus, (Id. xi. 47,) where the Cyclop, describing the delights of his Ætnaean residence, says,
There, from deep-shaded Ætna's melting snows
The cooling spring's ambrosial beverage flows.
Polwhele. - ↑ Hiero, to whom the first Olympic ode is addressed.
- ↑ An allusion is here made to Hiero's recovery from a very dangerous illness under which he had been labouring. The transition to the story of Philoctetes, and comparison of that hero with the Sicilian monarch, is highly poetical and just. The scholiast informs us that a covert allusion is here made to Anaxilaus, king of Rhegium; or, as others understand it, to Theron, king of Agrigentum.
- ↑ The colony of Ætna, as well as the Megarensians and Syracusaus, were of Doric origin; the latter of whom received their laws from Hyllus, son of Hercules.
- ↑ This naval victory, achieved by the brothers Hiero and Gelo over the Etruscans off the coast of Cumæ, is again mentioned in the ninth Nemean ode, v. 69, et sq., with nearly the same invocation to Saturnian Jupiter to grant continued peace and prosperity to the Sicilians, as well as to the Grecians in general. Pindar ascribes to it the most important consequences, no less than the liberation of Greece, and not merely of Sicily, from the heavy yoke of captivity. The second victory, recorded at v. 154, was that gained by the sons of Deinomenes over the Carthaginians at Himera on the same day with the victory by the Athenians at Salamis, (A. C. 480.) These were themes worthy of the patriotic poet's enthusiasm, and he appears to expatiate on them with peculiar delight. In v. 152 Pindar alludes to the battle of Platæa, gained by Pausanias with the united forces of Lacedæmon and Athens over an army of Persians vastly superior in number, (A. C. 479,) on the same day with that of Mycale. This great victory completed the liberation of Greece; and perhaps in the whole range of descriptive poetry we shall scarcely find a series of victorious actions more concisely yet more appropriately described.
- ↑ That is, as the scholiast explains the passage, you had better be praised for your virtues than pitied for your vices or bad actions.
- ↑ A similar sentiment occurs in Fletcher's Thierry and Theodoret, (act i., sc. 1.), where the Prince of Austracia says of royal delinquents,
"The sins we do people behold through optics,
Which show them ten times more than common vices,
And often multiply them."