Array Anacreon - The Greatest Classics of Ancient Greece

But when the thick and manly down

His black'ning chin began to crown,

From Pisa's lord he seeks to prove

Highborn Hippodamia's love.⁠

Full often near the hoary flood

The solitary lover stray'd,

And shrouded in nocturnal shade,

Invoked the trident-bearing god;

Who, ready the loud call to greet,⁠

Stood near the youthful suppliant's feet—

When thus he spoke: "If fond desire,

Neptune, could e'er thy bosom fire,

Œnomaus' brazen spear restrain,

And whirl me on thy swiftest car⁠

Victorious to th' Elean plain,

Since conquer'd in the rival war

Thirteen ill-fated suitors lie, 7And still the sire delays his daughter's nuptial tie.

Nor think I bear a coward soul⁠

Which every danger can control;

Since all the common path must tread

That leads each mortal to the dead,

Say wherefore should inglorious age

Creep slow o'er youth's inactive bloom,⁠

And sinking in untimely gloom,

Should man desert life's busy stage

To lie unhonour'd in the tomb?

This strife be mine: and thou, whose might

Can bless the issue of the fight,⁠

Oh! grant me thy propitious aid."

'Twas thus the ardent lover pray'd;

Nor sued with supplication vain

The mighty ruler of the main;

Who, mounted on his golden car,⁠

⁠And steeds' unwearied wing,

Gave him to conquer in the war

⁠The force of Pisa's king.

Obtaining thus the virgin fair,

Her valiant hero's couch to share;⁠

From whom six noble chieftains born,

With warlike fame their stem adorn:

Now by Alpheus' stream he lies,

Bless'd with funereal obsequies,

⁠And every rite divine;⁠

Where strangers' feet innumerous tread

The precincts of the mighty dead,

⁠Is rear'd his hallow'd shrine.

At distance beams his glory's ray

Conspicuous in Olympia's fray,⁠

Where strength and swiftness join in arduous strife:

And round the victor's honour'd head

The verdant wreath of conquest spread,

Heightens with bliss the sweet remains of life.⁠

Such bliss as mortals call supreme,⁠

Which with its mild, perpetual beam

⁠Cheers every future day:

And such my happy lot to grace

His triumphs in the equestrian race

⁠With soft Æolian lay. 8⁠ Nor will the muse another find Among the bless'd of human kind More potent or in regal fame, Or arts that raise a monarch's name, For whom she rather would prolong⁠ The rich varieties of song. The god who makes thy cares his own, Thee, Hiero, still with favour crown. And soon, if his protecting love Not vain and transitory prove,⁠ I hope to find on Cronium's sunny height 9A sweeter vehicle of song To publish, as it rolls along, Thy rapid chariot's flight. For me the muse with vigorous art⁠ Prepares her most puissant dart.⁠

While men in various paths their efforts bend

The steep of glory to ascend,

Sublime above the rest on high

Glitters the orb of majesty.⁠

No further then thy wishes raise,

Supreme in glory as in praise,

⁠Long be it thine to tread:

Meanwhile my hymn's triumphant strain,

That celebrates the victor train,⁠

Exalts through Greece thy bard's illustrious head.

1In the Thalesian philosophy water was considered the most excellent of all the elements, as that to which all other things owed their origin. This opinion Plutarch (de Iside et Osiride) considers that Homer as well as Thales borrowed from the Egyptians. Juno, in the Iliad, b. xiv., v. 200, tells Venus, and afterward repeats it to Jupiter, that she came to visit the extremities of the earth, and Ocean, the progenitor of the gods, and their mother Tethys .

2A temple was erected to Pelops in the Altis, or sacred grove, which had been fenced from profane tread by Hercules, (see Ol. x, 62.) near to that of Jupiter at Olympia. Hence the story of Pelops is less episodical, and has a closer connection with the poet's subject than might at first appear.

Within the precincts of the Altis was planted the sacred olive tree, called callistephanos, from which victors in the Olympic games were crowned.

3It was on the top of this mountain that, in a later age, Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus, melted away into her shower of snowy tears. See the exquisite description of Sophocles—(Antig. 824—833. ;) also that of Ovid—(Met. vi. 301—312.)

4Hesiod (Theog. 638, et seq.) declares that the same effects of pride and insolence were wrught on the minds of the Titans after they had been allowed to partake of the divine aliments:—

"Their spirits nectar and ambrosia raise."

⁠ Cooke's Version .

Might not this fable, which is also related, almost in the words of Pindar, by the scholiast on the Odyssey, (iv. 58.,) owe its origin to some obscure tradition of the gathering of manna by the Israelites in the wilderness, when man did eat angels' food?

5Lucretius, in his magnificent description of infernal punishments (iii. 991, seq.,) appears to have had this passage in his mind, when he says,

"Nec miser impendens magnum timet, aëre, saxum

Tantalus, ut fama est, cassa formidine torpens;

Sed magis in vita Divom metus urguet."

Our own Spenser, too, has the same allusion, speaking of old Malbeceo, who lives

"In drery darkenes, and continuall feare

Of that rock's fall; which ever and anon

Threates with huge ruine him to fall upon,

That he dare never slepee."

⁠ Faery Queene .

6The other three being Sisiphus, Tityus, and Ixion.

7The same number of Trojans are related by Homer to have been slain by Diomed in his celebrated night expedition, (Il. x. 493, &c.,) the last of whom is Rhesus himself.

The scholiast on this passage gives us two catalogues of their names.

8I.e. Dorian; for the Dorians and Æolians were descended from a common origin: see v. 30.

9Pausanias (l. vi.) informs us that the Croman or Saturnian hill at Olympia rose above the Altis, so as to command a full view of the course.

Table of Contents

TO THERON OF AGRIGENTUM, (IN GREEK ACRAGAS,) ON HIS VICTORY IN THE CHARIOT RACE, GAINED IN THE SEVENTY-SEVENTH OLYMPIAD.

ARGUMENT.

The poet congratulates Theron, sprung from ancestors who had experienced much adversity, though sometimes attended with better fortune—extols him for his skill in the contests, his unsparing expense in bringing them to a happy issue, and the right use to which he applies his great wealth, assuring him that the recompense of his virtuous dispositions will attend him after death: this leads to a most noble description of the infernal and Elysian abodes. Returning from this digression, which he defends from the carping malignity of his detractors, Pindar concludes with the praises of Theron.

Ye hymns that rule the vocal lyre,

What god, what hero shall we sing?

What mortal shall the strain inspire?

Jove is fair Pisa's guardian king;

And Hercules Olympia's glorious toil

Ordain'd the first fruits of the battle spoil.

Theron too demands my strain,

Whose four-yoked steeds in triumph sweep the plain.

The hospitable, just, and great,

Bulwark of Agrigentum's state,

Of his high stem the flower of fairest pride.

Who by their long afflictions toss'd,

Regain'd their sacred mansion lost,

Upon the kindred tide. 1Of every care they found at last A sweet and tranquil close, A balm for every danger past, A haven of repose. And hence to fair Sicilia springs Her long illustrious line of kings, Whose happy life and wealth their native virtues wait.

Oh Rhea's son, Saturnian Jove,

Lord of th' Olympic seats above,