Pindar and Anacreon/Pindar/Pythian Odes/8
THE EIGHTH PYTHIAN ODE.
TO ARISTOMENES OF ÆGINA, ON HIS VICTORY WITH THE CÆSTUS, GAINED IN THE THIRTY-FIFTH PYTHIAD.
ARGUMENT.
Pindar begins this ode with a beautiful invocation to Tranquillity; then expatiates on the might of Apollo, by whose favour Aristomenes, the son of Xenarces, gained his Pythian conquest.—Then follow the praises of Ægina, the mother of heroes, especially from the descendants of Æacus.—He then resumes the commendation of Aristomenes, applying to him the saying of Amphiaraus, that innate valour is hereditary, and interweaves that seer's prediction respecting the Epigoni, descendants of Adrastus and the Argive chiefs, who should besiege Thebes.—To these he subjoins the expression of his affection for Alcmæon, and the esteem with which he regards him.—Returning to the victory, he supplicates Apollo to crown him with success in future, reminding him that he is indebted to the favour of the gods for his past glory, the several instances of which he proceeds to enumerate.—Expatiates on the felicity of those who conquer in the games, which is sufficient to counterbalance the miseries of short-lived mortality.—And concludes with an address to Ægina.
Bland Quiet! who preserv'st the state [1]
In tranquil peace serene and great,
Daughter of Justice, whose high sway
Council and war alike obey, [2]
The Pythian hymn that now I weave 5
For Aristomenes receive;
Since well thou know'st thine active aid to lend,
Or mildly to the fit occasion bend. 9
When ruthless anger fills the breast,
Severe and hostile to the foe, 10
Thy power soon lays the storm to rest,
And plunges in the wave below.
Thee, ere he felt the deadly stroke,
Reckless Porphyrion dared provoke;
But learn'd at length the dearest gain 15
From willing owners to obtain. 18
And she by her superior strength
The boaster's pride o'ercame at length.
Her nor Cilician Typho fled,
That dire and monstrous hundred-head. 20
Nor he who ruled the giant brood: [3]
For by the lightning's deadly blow,
And arrows of Apollo's bow,
Were the rebellious tribe subdued.
'Twas he that with propitious mind 25
Received Xenarces' son,
From Cirrha's walls, his brows entwined
With the Parnassian bays in Doric triumph won. 29
And not, as by the Graces scorn'd,
Have Æacus' bright race adorn'd 30
In vain with virtuous deeds the isle
Where cities ruled in justice smile;
Since from old time her glorious name
Excites her sons to deeds of fame:
Great heroes nourish'd to the fight 35
Of swiftness and victorious might;
And tribes of meaner mortals round
Throughout the earth her praises sound.
But all my vacant hours will fail;
Ere to the lyre and dulcet strain 40
I can commit the lengthen'd tale
Satiety the mind will pain. 46
Thy triumphs now, heroic boy,
The labours of my muse employ,
Who shall convey with winged speed 45
The record of thy latest deed;
For in th' Olympic wrestler's game
Tracking thy noble uncle's fame,
Thine efforts Theognotus not disgrace:
And in the strong-limb'd Isthmian fray 50
The wreaths thy vigour bore away
The glories of Clitomachus efface.
Thy deeds, the tribe of Midylus that raise,
Deserve Oïcleus son's prophetic praise; [4]
Who erst in Thebes beheld with prescient sight 55
The martial youth still constant in the fight,
When having now twice left their Argive home,
To the seven-portall'd town th' Epigoni were come.
When thus he spoke: "Of those whose heart
Nature with generous ardour fires, 60
I see th' impetuous youth depart,
Warm'd with the spirit of their sires.
Alcman on his refulgent shield
Whirling the dragon's varied form
Clearly I view, while in the field 65
Foremost at Cadmus' gates he bides the battle storm.
And he who in the former fray
Fatigued and vanquish'd urged his way,
Adrastus of heroic might
Now views a better omen's flight; 70
Howe'er in his domestic state
Vex'd by the storms of adverse fate.
To him alone of all the Grecian band
With his uninjured host by equal heaven,
His dead son's bones, collected through the land, 75
To bring to Abas' spacious streets 'tis given." [5]
'Twas thus Amphiaraus said:
And I around Alcmæon's head
The verdant chaplet joy to place,
Sprinkled with hymns' mellifluous grace. 80
He, guarded by whose neighboring fane, [6]
All my possessions safe remain,
To earth's prophetic centre as I went,
By his paternal art convey'd
The answer in night's gloomy shade, 85
Which to my charmed ear Apollo sent. 87
Far-darting god, whose glorious dome
Within the Pythian hollow stands,
Receiving from all distant lands
Whatever suppliants thither roam, 90
'Twas there thou deignedst to bestow
The greatest joy of man below,
And gav'st him at thy feast, oh king,
Snatch'd with an eager hand, to bring
The high pentathlic guerdon home. 95
With willing mind accept my prayer,
And view the numbers which declare
In honey'd pomp, but words of truth,
The deeds of this victorious youth.
Your fate, Xenarcidæ, to bless 100
I ask the gods' perpetual love. 103
For should a hero's might success
With no laborious effort prove,
His prosperous life the witless tribe
To his own prudent aims ascribe. 105
The vigour of a mortal hand
Such happiness can ne'er command.
For by the gods' superior power
To hope and joy the vanquish'd rise,
While he whose boundless wishes tower, 110
Beneath their arm defended lies.
Thy valiant deeds unknown to fail,
Delighted Megara proclaims,
And Marathon's sequester'd vale;
Thee too in Juno's kindred games [7] 115
Thrice crown'd th' applauding circle sees,
Victorious Aristomenes! 116
Triumphant in the wrestler's hardy toil
Thy frame upon four prostrate bodies lay—
No wish'd return from the dire Pythian fray 120
The gods decreed to their loved native soil. [8]
No mother's smile of joyful praise
Could their desponding spirits raise;
But as their steps in coward flight
Shunn'd the proud adversaries' sight, 125
Harass'd by shame and grief they trod the darkest ways.
But he who has obtain'd the meed
That crowns each fair and noble deed,
With hope and joy transported glows.
Him swift-wing'd valour gives to rise, 130
And a superior good supplies
To all the bliss that wealth bestows. 131
Full often with increasing light
Glitters each mortal pleasure bright,
And shortly dash'd upon the ground 135
By some unhappy stroke 'tis found.
Man, the frail being of a day,
Uncertain shadow of a dream,
Illumined by the heavenly beam,
Flutters his easy life away. 140
Ægina! guardian of the land
Peopled by freedom's generous band,
Preserve this city with a mother's love.
Thee may King Æacus behold,
Peleus and Telamon the bold, 145
With bless'd Achilles and immortal Jove. 145
- ↑ This metaphor, denoting the well-ordered tranquillity which distinguishes Ægina, is highly poetical, and is in many other passages applied by Pindar to the same state, the origin of which he traces to Æacus. (See particularly Ol., viii., 28; Nem., iv., 19; Isth., v., 24, &c.)
- ↑ In v. 4, how scriptural is the expression— Εχοισα κλαϊδας Ὑπερτατας, to denote the height of power! (Matt., xvi., 19) Και δωσω σοι τας κλεις της βασιλειας των ουρανων. Again, in Apocal., ix., 1, Και εδοθη αυτῳ ἡ κλεις του φρεατος της αβυσσου. See also cap. i., 18.
- ↑ The chief of these are briefly enumerated by Horace: (Od., III., iv., 53:)—
"Sed quid Typhœus, et validus Mimas,
Aut quid minaci Porphyrion statu,
Quid Rhœcus, evulsisque truncis
Enceladus jaculator audax?"The scholiast informs us that verse 15 alludes to an attempt made by Porphyrion to take away the oxen of Hercules against the will of that hero.
- ↑ Amphiaraus, the Theban prophet, whose son Alcmæon, called by Pindar Alcman, bears on his shield the insigne of a dragon, prefiguring, according to the scholiast, the death of his father, who was to descend alive into the grave, as that animal goes into the holes and caverns of the earth.
- ↑ Argos is thus denominated by Pindar, as having been built by Abas, son of Lynceus, and father of Adrastus, whose son Ægialeus was the only one of the Epigoni, i. e., the descendants of the seven Argive chiefs, who did not return safe to their native land after the Theban war.
- ↑ The house of Pindar stood near the temple or shrine of Alcmæon; and as the poet went to consult the oracle of the Pythian Apollo, the answer was conveyed to him in a dream by that hero, who appears to have been worshipped with great reverence—συγγονοισι τεχναις, i. e., by the art of vaticination, practised by his father.
- ↑ Alluding, probably, to the Heræan contests, established in Ægina, by imitation of those at Argos, the favoured city of the queen of gods. The Æginetæ were a colony from the Argives; hence the epithet kindred. Didymus, as the scholiast informs as, says that the Hecatombæan contests are here alluded to.
- ↑ I think there can be little doubt that the right reading here is κριθη, (pro εκριθη,) was decreed, although some commentators prefer εν Πυθιαδι κριθῃ: founding the interpretation on a notion, which I believe to be quite gratuitous, of the victors in the Pythian games being sent home, crowned with a barley chaplet. Besides that the first syllable in the Homeric word κριθη, hordeum, is long; (Il., xi., 69; Od., ix., 110; xix., 112, &c. ;) whereas the correspondmg verse in the antistrophe requires a short one:—
ανο-
ρεαις, εχων κρεσσονα πλουτου.