One slight effort of Pindar's juvenile muse has also escaped the ravages of time, but not sufficiently considerable to have served like Pope's Ode on Solitude, or Cowley's Constantia and Philetus, as a presage of that future excellence, which placed him, when he had attained his fortieth year, in the first rank of the lyric poets of Greece. The encomiums which our poet often lavishes on the wealthy have sometimes been mentioned as a subject of reproach; but if Pindar's chaste and decorous muse delighted to panegyrise kings, demigods, and heroes, in common with the poets of his time, we shall not be able to find throughout his odes any instance of vice in high station flattered, or prosperous wickedness enriched by the golden dews of poetical adulation. In the sincere and judicious advice which he fearlessly bestows on Hiero or Arcesilaus, the reader will be reminded of our own Chaucer, who, in the independent spirit of true genius, concludes his Ballade sent to King Richard' by this grave admonition to the reigning monarch : 'Prince, desire to be honorable, Cherish thy folk, and hate extortion,' &c. It is to the bold and animated language of the Theban bard that we are in a great measure indebted for the feeling and interest that accompany the contemplation of those magnificent festivals which, being interwoven with the structure of the popular religion, hailed by the hopes of the religious and the aspirations of the devout, have no parallel in the history of modern solemnities. His hymns and pæans in honor of Apollo were frequently chanted in the temples of Greece by the poet seated in his iron chair, which was afterwards placed as a venerable relic in the temple at Delphi : and the priestess herself declared it to be the will of the presiding deity that Pindar should be rewarded with one half of the first fruits which were offered at his shrine.* We are not acquainted with many particulars of his early life, but may collect from the accounts of various authors that the character of the living bard was held in the highest degree of estimation, especially by King Hiero, and his memory after death contemplated with the deepest reverence. It is related of him that he had a particular devotion for the god Pan, and therefore took up his abode near the temple of that deity. He was ap * See the note on the tenth Olympic ode, v. 61. pointed to compose the hymns which were sung by the Theban virgins in honor of that mystic emblem of universal nature. It also appears, from Pyth. iii. 139, that near the dwelling of Pindar stood a shrine or chapel dedicated to the great goddess Rhea, where the nymphs were wont to assemble at the close of day for the purpose of performing their vows to her and to Pan. We farther learn from Aristodemus, quoted by the scholiast on this passage, that Pindar himself raised this shrine to the venerable Mother of the Gods. He likewise cites a fragment of an ode or choral hymn addressed to Pan by our poet, invoking that deity, as president of Arcadia, and companion of the nymphs in their dances, to smile propitiously on his songs. Indeed the piety of the Theban bard is every where conspicuous, and worthy of admiration. It is related by Plutarch, in his Life of Alexander, that when, after a most determined and vigorous defence, the city of Thebes was levelled to the ground by that conqueror, the posterity of Pindar were exempted from the hard fate which attended his captive fellow-townsmen. The same honor had on a former occasion been paid to the habitation of his descendants by the Lacedæmonians; and Pausanias, the Grecian tra veller, relates that he had seen the ruins of this house near the fountain Dirce. The manner of Pindar's death has been variously related by different authors. Pausanias gravely records as authentic the traditionary tale, that while our poet was living in the height of honor and glory, Proserpine appeared to him in a dream, and complained that she alone of all the deities had been neglected in his poems: this defect he promised to supply as soon as he should arrive in the kingdom of Pluto, when he would consecrate a hymn to her honor; and that he died either in the theatre or the gymnasium on the tenth day after his dream. Another account, by Valerius Maximus, (b. ix. c. 12.) is so far removed from all recorded instances of the departure of illustrious men from the world, as naturally to excite the scepticism of the reader -although it is mentioned by that author as a sign of the favorable regard of the gods, no less than the excellence of his poetic faculty. This event is said to have taken place when the poet had attained the advanced age of eighty-six years. A monument was erected to his memory in the hippodrome at Thebes, near the Protaan Gate, at the distance of a furlong from the city, and an inscrip tion engraved on it recording his candid and agreeable manners both to his fellow-townsmen and to strangers. The reader will perhaps not be displeased if to this short biographical sketch is added, from Heyne's excellent edition, a life of Pindar digested according to the order of years, together with a notice of the victors who are celebrated in his odes. Olymp. 65,1, A.C. 520, Pindar born. [Suidas says that he was forty years of age at the battle of Salamis, which account agrees with this.] Et. Olymp. Pyth. A.C. 22 70,3 22 498 Hippocleas victor-Pyth. x. 490 Xenocrates-Pyth. vi. Battle of Marathon. In the same, or in the 25th 488 Epharmostus—Ol. ix. 478 Hiero conquers in racing- 476 Asopichus—Ol. xiv. 474 Megacles-Pyth. vii.-Tele sicrates-Pyth. ix. |