As Typhon, he who dared all heaven to brave,
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.
Cumæ's sea-girdled shores below,

30

And where Sicilia's waters flow,

Crush'd by the island's weight, imprest
Upon the rebel's shaggy breast,
Ætna his giant form restrains,

Whose towering height the cloud sustains,
Nurse of the sharp perennial snow. 39

Forth from her inmost caverns urge their way
Fountains of pure and unapproached fire,
Rivers of smoke that blot the face of day,
And from their source of lurid flame aspire.
But flashes of bright hue illume
The horrors of nocturnal gloom;

40

And hurl the rocks with thundering sound,
Whelm'd in the watery gulf profound.

The restless monster from his burning seat
Sends up to heaven the springs of direst heat;

45

27 With this description of the hundred-headed Typhon or Typhous, 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 ̓ ὁποτ ̓ Αιτναιου ορεος πυρι τυφομένοιο
Σειονται μυχα παντα, κατουδαιοιο γιγαντος.

37 See Theocritus (Id. xi. 47), where the Cyclops, describing the delights of his Ætnæan residence, says,

There, from deep-shaded Ætna's melting snows
The cooling spring's ambrosial beverage flows.

Compare also Euripides (Phon. 815).

PIND.

POLWHELE.

F

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
Beneath dark Ætna's leafy head;
Supported on the rugged ground,

While all his back is torn, reclining on that bed.
O! may thy power, protecting Jove,
My humble prayer and deeds approve ;
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,
While the loud herald's shout declared afar
First in the Pythian course Ætnæan 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 blest return;
So might th' encomiastic lay
Recording these triumphant deeds,
Foretell in many a future day

Of garlands won by conquering steeds;
Which shall th' illustrious city raise
In festal melodies of praise.

O Lycian Phoebus! Delian king,

Who lovest Castalia's pure Parnassian spring,

May these warm hopes acceptance find

50

55

60

With Ætna's valiant sons, in thine approving mind! 78

For by the ruling powers of heaven

All virtues are to mortals given.

59 Hiero, to whom the first Olympic ode is addressed.

76

Wisdom is theirs-from them are sprung
The active hand, the fluent tongue.
And when, the victor's might to sing,
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.
O! thus may Hiero's happy state
Succeeding ages give to last,

And grant, to crown his prosperous fate,
Oblivion of the sorrows past! 90

Her solace too Remembrance yields,
Recording in what numerous fields
His hand the noble chaplet gain'd;
While by the favoring powers of heaven
To him were brighter honors given
Than Grecian victor e'er obtain'd:
He still, though with enfeebled might,
Like Philoctetes, wag'd the fight.
Howe'er oppress'd, the brave contend
To soothe him with the name of friend.

'Tis said that erst the godlike band
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 neʼer could fall.

100

100

105

89 An allusion is here made to Hiero's recovery from a very dangerous illness under which he had been laboring. 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.

Though sickness all his powers opposed,
Yet he the Grecian labors closed.

Thus from the deity may Hiero gain
All future joy and respite from his pain.
Then aid me, Muse, the lay to raise,
Sung to Deinomenes' glad ear—
The pious youth a father's praise
From conquering steeds will joy to hear.

115

110

Come, let us find a friendly hymn, to sing
The majesty of Ætna's future king:
To whom that city Hiero rear'd-

115

Subjected to the bonds of law

Which Doric states from Hyllus draw

Since heavenly freedom reigns where laws are fear'd.

The heroes who their noble race

From Pamphilus and great Alcides trace,

Who dwelt in distant times below

Taygetus' aspiring brow,

By true allegiance bound would still

120

Ægimius' high behests fulfil.

From Pindus rushing to the main

'Twas theirs Amycle's walls to gain.

In glory as in station near

The heavenly Twins from Leda sprung,

125

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

118 The colony of Etna, as well as the Megarensians and Syracusans, were of Doric origin; the latter of whom received their laws from Hyllus, son of Hercules.

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,
Soon will the shouts of hostile Tuscans cease,
Phoenicia's baffled sons from Cumæ sail,
And all our naval contest end in peace. 141

By Syracusa's lord o'erthrown,

What sad reverses have they known!
From the swift ships their youth he hurl'd
Deep plunged beneath the watery world ;
Setting the land of Hellas free

140

145

From the rude bonds of slavery.

To praise th' Athenian name, my Muse

150

From Salamis her lay would choose;
While Sparta glories in the fight

Waged near Citharon's towering height;

142 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 numbers (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.