Pindar and Anacreon/Pindar/Pythian Odes/3

by Pindar

Layout 2

 

THE THIRD PYTHIAN ODE.

TO THE SAME HIERO, ON HIS VICTORY IN THE SINGLE-HORSE RACE, GAINED IN THE TWENTY-SIXTH PYTHIAD.

ARGUMENT.

When the intelligence of Hiero's victory in the Pythian games was reported to him, that monarch laboured under a grievous disorder.—Hence the friendly poet takes occasion to express his wish that the centaur Chiron, the preceptor ot Æsculapius in the healing art, could return to life, in order to restore health to the afflicted Hiero.—This leads to the fabulous story of Apollo and Coronis, to whose clandestine love he owed his birth.—He then proceeds to the victor's praises, and prays to the gods for his continued prosperity.—Then follows a consolatory exhortation to bear adversity with an equal mind, derived from the uncertain condition of mortality, and the constant interruption to earthly happiness; which truth he illustrates by the examples of Cadmus' and Peleus; interweaving the mythological story of the nuptials of Peleus and Thetis.—He concludes by recommending equanimity from his own example.

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Oh! could to life my anxious care
Chiron Phillynides recall;
(If my weak tongue may form a prayer
Breathed for the common good of all;)
Celestial Saturn's potent child, 5
To rule o'er Pelion's valleys still,
Howe'er in form like monster wild,
Yet men approved his friendly will.
He nurtured once the hero kind,
Asclepias, whose assuaging art 10
For the rack'd limbs relief could find,
And bid each torturing pain depart. 13

Him e'er by Eilithyia's aid
Equestrian Phlegyas' daughter bore,
Transfix'd by Dian's shafts, the maid 15
Went down to Pluto's dreary shore;
A.nd lifeless in her chamber lay,
A victim to the god of day.
No slight or trivial wounds proceed
From wrath of Jove's immortal seed. 20
Her sire beguiled—her mind subdued
By folly—with contempt she view'd
The ties that charm'd her heart before;
Loved by the god, whose locks unshorn
His brow with youthful grace adorn, 25
The fruit of heavenly race she bore.
Her haughty soul could ne'er sustain
To see the marriage table spread,
Or listen to the nuptial strain
By the coeval virgins led; 30
Whose melody their raptured ear
At evening's hour delights to hear:
But sicken'd with desire to prove
The ardours of an absent love.
Full many share the damsel's pain— 35
What tribes of mortals, rash and vain,
Blind to the good that courts their view,
Eager some distant joy pursue!
And lured by hope's delusive gleam
Chase but an unsubstantial dream. 41 40

Fair-robed Coronis' scornful mind
Such fate was justly doom'd to find;
For in the stranger's couch she lay,
Who from Arcadia bent his way.
But Loxias, who on Pytho's shrine ^[1] 45
With kingly eye in act divine
Sees many a victim bleed,
He who by wisdom all his own
Makes to himself each action known,
Survey'd the impious deed. 50
No falsehood mocks his piercing sight,
Nor gods nor men elude the skill
Which judges in prophetic light
The open act, the secret will.
Then having known the fraud that led 55
The nymph to Ischys' foreign bed,
His sister fierce with dire intent
To Laceræa straight he sent.
The maid whose habitation rose
Where marshy Bœbias' fountain flows, ^[2] 60
Too soon her alter'd demon drove ^[3]
The ills that wait on crime to prove.
When by the cruel plague pursued
Her sin the guiltless neighbours rued— 65
Sad victims of a common tomb—
As from one fatal spark arise
The flames aspiring to the skies,
And all the crackling wood consume. 67

 

But when upon the funeral pyre
Her kindred placed the maid, 70
And curling round the greedy fire,
In vivid lustre play'd—
"My soul," thus spoke the god of day,
"Its own bright race abhors to slay;
O'erwhelm'd by that most wretched death 75
Which stopp'd the hapless mother's breath."
This said, with one short step he came,
And snatch'd his infant from the flame;
Through whose divided channel trod
The feet of the departing god. 80
The rescued child he gave to share
Magnesian centaur's fostering care;
And learn of him the soothing art
That wards from man disease's dart. 82

Of those whom nature made to feel 85
Corroding ulcers gnaw their frame;
Or stones far hurl'd, or glittering steel,
All to the great physician came.
By summer's heat or winter's cold
Oppress'd, of him they sought relief. 90
Each deadly pang his skill controll'd,
And found a balm for every grief.
On some the force of charmed strains he tried,
To some the medicated draught applied:
Some limbs he placed the amulets around; 95
Some from the trunk he cut, and made the patient sound. 95

But wisdom yields to sordid gain
Hands which the golden bribes contain
Are bound by them alone.
At their command the grasp of death 100
Restored the man whose forfeit breath ^[4]
Had from its mansion flown.
But quickly heaven's Saturnian lord
Snatch'd with each hand the life restored;
And wing'd his bolt of lurid flame 105
Once more to crush the mortal frame.
From him let all of human kind
Learn to acquire an humble mind:
Nor 'gainst the rulers of the sky
To vaunt their fleeting destiny. 108 110

Affect not then, beloved soul,
The life immortal of the bless'd:
Let prudence thy desires control,
In practicable schemes to rest.
If Chiron, of unerring skill, 115
Dwelt in his Pelion cavern still;
And if the sweet-toned hymns could find
Their wanton passage to his mind,
Then my persuasive tongue had pray'd
(Nor vainly) the physician's aid; 120
Who should some healing brother give,
Latona's son or Jove's, to gain
Respite from fever's burning pain,
And bid th' afflicted god revive.
In ships that cut th' Ionian sea 125
I come to my Ætnæan friend.
Mild king! whose cares, from envy free,
O'er Syracusa's sons extend.
Foster'd by him, e'en strangers prove
The blessings of a father's love. 126 130

If, crossing the Sicilian deep,
Her onward course my bark should keep,
To him my grateful hand would bear
Of twofold joys a garland fair.
Health's golden charm, the loud acclaim 135
That sings the Pythian victor's fame;
Such triumphs as in days of yore
At Cirrha Pherenicus bore:
And brighter than the airy star ^[5]
For him my splendour beams afar. 130 140

But to the mother would I pray,
Whose altar near my dwelling stands:
There oft the nymphs, who bend their way
To her and Pan, their vows to pay,
Assemble in nocturnal bands. 145
Thee, Hiero, whose exalted mind
Can to the heights of science rise;
True wisdom, with experience join'd,
And former ages render wise.
When gods or man one good bestow, 150
That blessing leads to double wo.
While fools can ne'er with decent pride
Sustain their adverse fate,
Calm patience, outwardly elate,
Shows but the brighter side. 155
In the first rank of fortune placed,
Monarch! such happiness is thine;
For kings, with power superior graced,
Must above all conspicuous shine.
Peleus nor godlike Cadmus led 160
A life exempt from every care;
Who, beyond mortals bless'd, were said
The height of happiness to share.
They heard when Pelion's woody hill
And the seven Theban portals rang 165
With strains which the melodious skill
Of the gold-netted muses sang.
One fair Harmonia to the nuptial bed,
One prudent Nereus' child, illustrious Thetis led. 164

To both the hymeneal feasts 170
Came Saturn's sons, heaven's kingly guests;
Whom, seated on their thrones of gold,
They saw the splendid gifts unfold.
Thus every care and labour past,
Rewarded by the fostering love 175
That guards the favour'd sons of Jove,
Their drooping hearts were raised at last.
But Cadmus, in a later age,
By his three daughters' wretched fate, ^[6]
Their awful death and frantic rage, 180
Fell from his bless'd paternal state;
When Father Jove, in radiant flame,
To thy sweet couch, fair-arm'd Thyone, came. 177

While Peleus' offspring, whom on Phthia's shore
Her only son, immortal Thetis bore, 185
Burn'd on the funeral pyre, in cries of grief
Compell'd the Greeks to mourn their slaughter'd chief. 182

Whoever then of mortal kind
To certain truth directs his mind,
Let him with grateful heart enjoy 190
What good the blessed gods bestow:
His shortlived pleasures to destroy
Soon will the adverse tempests blow. ^[7]
How great soe'er, it speeds away,
Though rushing with the tempest's sway. 195
Lowly when in a lot obscure,
But liberal if my fortunes rise;
These blessings I shall render sure,
Obtain'd with all my energies.
If wealth the favouring god should give, 200
I hope that not unknown to fame
My honoured and illustrious name
In ages yet to come may live.
We know that glorious powers belong
To the sweet poet's epic song; 205
What time he wakes the sounding lyre,
And bids departed worth aspire.
Such Nestor's lot. This charm could save
Lycian Sarpedon from the grave:
But few the lengthen'd age obtain 210
Whose virtue blooms in lyric strain. 205

 

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1. Apollo or the Sun, so named from his oblique course through the ecliptic.
2. Bœbias, so named from one of the nymphs, is a fountain near Laceræa, in Pelasgiotis. Catullus, (de Nupt. Pel. et Thet. 286, ed. Voss:)—

   "Xyniasi et linquens Doris celebrata choreis
   Bœbiados."

   in which passage some editions read Minosin and Nonatios for Xyniasi and Bœbiados. Doering reads Mnemonidum, and Nonvacuus instead of Bœbiados. Strabo (Geogr. lib. ix.) appears to confirm Vossius' reading.

3. It is perhaps unnecessary to refer the critical reader to Bentley's Dissertation on Phalaris (p. 216–218) for an excellent elucidation of the expression δαιμων ἑτερος, which the Examiner had denied to be poetical. The scholiast explains ἑτερος by ὁ κακοποιος; and quotes a choliambic of Callimachus to confirm his interpretation. To the remarks of our admirable critic, who, if not gifted with any great talent in metrical composition, had nevertheless a very accurate perception of the niceties of poetical expression, I would add the words of Euripides: (Med. 1106:)—

   ————————ειδε κυρησει
   δαιμων οὑτος:

   meaning death.

4. Alluding, perhaps, to the fable of the resuscitated Hippolytus, thence called Virbius; some suppose Tyndarus, others Glaucus, others Hymenæus, others Orion, or Capaneus.
5. I. e., the sun. See Ol. i. v. 9.
6. The fate of two of the daughters of Cadmus, Ino and Semele, has been mentioned before, (Ol. ii. 36.) To these Pindar now adds the third, Agave, who, in a fit of madness, slew her son Pentheus. (See Ovid. Met. lib. iii. ad fin.) The history of these three sisters, to whom may be added Autonoe, mother of the ili-fated Actæon, presents a striking instance of the uncertain tenure by which mortal prosperity is held. In v. 184 Semele is called Thyone; so named, says the scholiast, απο του περι τον Διονυσον παθους, ὁτι θυει και ενθουσιᾳ κατα τους χορους; as the name Semele was given, ὁτι σειει τα μελη των οινουργουντων (ὁ Διονυσος scil.)
7. The metaphor is here expressed in nearly the same words as in the last verse of the seventh Olympic ode.