From Pisa's lord he seeks to prove 110 And shrouded in nocturnal shade, Invoked the trident-bearing god; Who, ready the loud call to greet, 115 Stood near the youthful suppliant's feet— When thus he spoke: If fond desire, Neptune, could e'er thy bosom fire, 120 And still the sire delays his daughter's nuptial tie. 129 Nor think I bear a coward soul 125 This strife be mine: and thou, whose might Can bless the issue of the fight, 135 Oh! grant me thy propitious aid.' 'Twas thus the ardent lover pray'd; 123 The 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. And every rite divine; Where strangers' feet innumerous tread At distance beams his glory's ray 150 155 Where strength and swiftness join in arduous strife: Heightens with bliss the sweet remains of life. Such bliss as mortals call supreme, And such my happy lot to grace With soft Æolian lay. Nor will the Muse another find More potent or in regal fame, Or arts that raise a monarch's name, 159 160 165 165 I. e. Dorian; for the Dorians and Æolians were descended from a common origin: see v. 30. For whom she rather would prolong The rich varieties of song. The god who makes thy cares his own, Not vain and transitory prove, I hope to find on Cronium's sunny height A sweeter vehicle of song 170 175 To publish, as it rolls along, Thy rapid chariot's flight. For me the Muse with vigorous art 180 Prepares her most puissant dart. 179 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. Long be it thine to tread : Meanwhile my hymn's triumphant strain, 185 190 Exalts thro' Greece thy bard's illustrious head. 188 176 Pausanias (1. vi.) informs us that the Cronian or Saturnian hill at Olympia rose above the Altis, so as to command a full view of the course. THE SECOND OLYMPIC ODE. TO THERON OF AGRIGENTUM, (IN GREEK ACRAGAS,) ON HIS VICTORY IN THE CHARIOT RACE, GAINED IN THE SEVENTYSEVENTH 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, 5 Whose four-yoked steeds in triumph sweep the plain. 9 The hospitable, just, and great, Of his high stem the flower of fairest pride. 14 Who by their long afflictions tost, Regain'd their sacred mansion lost, Upon the kindred tide. 10 14 The river Acragas, on which the city of Agrigentum is situated. (See the opening of the twelfth Pythian ode.) O Rhea's son, Saturnian Jove, 25 330 Bid the light heart its wonted ease resume, And Heaven's o'erruling lord emits his bliss again.38 Cadmus, thy daughters' wayward fate This moral truth can prove, Who changed their suffering mortal state 36 36 Cadmus was an ancestor of Theron, and therefore his daughters, Ino, who was married to Athamas, king of Thebes, and whose story is finely told by Ovid, in the fourth book of the Metamorphoses, and Semele, the concubine of Jove, are judiciously selected by the poet to illustrate the mutability of human fortune, while at the same time they show the antiquity and regal splendor of the monarch's descent. |