Twine then, ye comrades of the victor, twine the tender greenness
Of myrtle for his brows! Alkathous’ contest hailed his keenness
Of courage with fair fortune. Yea, with welcoming acclaim
The sons of Epidaurus met him. Meet it is the fame
Of such be sung by good men; for he hid not from the light,
As in oblivion’s pit, the splendour of his youthful might.
Endnotes
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Cf. the speech of Brasidas to his soldiers: “You are not to be cowed by any numerical superiority of your foes, since you do not come from states in which such a lesson is learnt. You come from those in which the masses do not lord it over the select few, but where the minority rule the majority—a supremacy which they acquired by nothing save fighting superiority.” —Thucydides, IV, 126 ↩
-
Tityos, Sisyphus and Ixion. ↩
-
Perhaps based on the Pythagorean doctrine of Transmigration. The good after death enjoy, for a limited season, restful happiness in the underworld; then they pass through two reincarnations; and when they have passed unstained through their three periods of earthly probation, they are admitted to a life of endless felicity in the Islands of the Blest. ↩
-
Explained by scholiasts as a reference to Pindar’s rivals, the Cean poets, Simonides and his nephew Bacchylides. ↩
-
Erginus, one of the Argonauts. The occasion was the funeral games for Thoas, queen Hypsipyle’s father. ↩
-
Iamus, from ia, the pansies (Viola tricolor) among which he lay. ↩
-
“The Hill of Kronos.” The i is short, whereas in Kronion, “Son of Kronos,” it is long. ↩
-
The trainer of the choir that chanted this ode in Stymphalus, whither Aeneas bore it from Thebes. ↩
-
The first inhabitants of Rhodes were children of the Sun (Heliades). ↩
-
Implying that the Rhodians were the first who made statues in attitudes of movement. ↩
-
The most successful trainer of men and boys for athletic contests. ↩
-
The victor’s deceased father and uncle shall hear the tidings in Hades. ↩
-
An ancient hymn to Heracles, by Archilochus (fl. 650 BC), of which the first two lines were:
“Hail, O king Heracles, O victory-glorious!
Hail thou and lolaus, spear-victorious!”It was traditionally sung in honour of the victor, whenever no special ode was ready. Its refrain, in imitation of the sound of striking lyre-strings, τήνελλα καλλίνικε (“cling-clang, O glorious victor!”) was thrice repeated. ↩
-
“It is probably because the later of the two Odes is longer and more elaborate than the other that it is placed before it in the MSS.” —Sandys ↩
-
Cousins of Xenophon. ↩
-
Son of Hiero, and ruler of Etna. The Deinomenes of this line was the father of Hiero. ↩
-
Hyllus was son of Heracles, and forefather of a Dorian tribe. Pamphyhis was son of Aigimius the ally of Heracles, and forefather of another Dorian tribe which colonized Syracuse. ↩
-
The battle of Plataea, in 479 BC, the year after Salamis. ↩
-
Western Lokris, in the south of Italy, had been saved from invasion by the intervention of Hiero. ↩
-
Here begins Pindar’s intercession for the forgiveness and restoration to his country of Demophilus, an exiled Kyrenian noble living in Thebes, at whose instance the poet wrote this ode, which was designed as a peace-offering to king Arkesilas. ↩
-
Uncle of Pytheas. Themistius (this line) was his grandfather. ↩
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The three younger brothers of Sokleides. ↩
-
If, in the Pentathlum, a competitor broke the rules by overrunning the mark in distance-throwing of the dart (which came just before the wrestling), he was disqualified from further competition. ↩
-
Coral. The contrast is between the evanescent wreath oi flowers, and a coronal of gold, ivory and coral. ↩
-
This reference seems to be to Paean VI (in the Fragments), at which offence had been taken. There Apollo is said to have slain him for temple-desecration. In this Ode Pindar implies that it was not through his fault, but his fate, that he died. ↩
-
He entertained guests from as far east as the utmost limits of the Black Sea (which was closed to navigation in winter), and from as far south as Egypt. ↩
-
The best position for presenting a front all teeth and claws to an assailant from the air. ↩
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Theia was the Goddess of all brightness, of the heavenly bodies, of gold, the bright metal par excellence, and so of wealth in other forms. ↩
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I.e., May the Nemean and Isthmian victories be followed by one at Olympia. ↩
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Uncle of the victor Kleandros. ↩
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Like Achilles. ↩
Colophon
Victory Odes
was completed around 444 BC by
Pindar.
It was translated from ancient Greek in 1922 by
Arthur S. Way.
This ebook was transcribed and produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Emma Sweeney,
and is based on digital scans from
various sources.
The cover page is adapted from
The Wrestlers,
a painting completed in 1853 by
Gustave Courbet.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.
The first edition of this ebook was released on
January 29, 2024, 5:24 p.m.
You can check for updates to this ebook, view its revision history, or download it for different ereading systems at
standardebooks.org/ebooks/pindar/victory-odes/arthur-s-way.
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