Philosopher Pindar: The Complete Odes #2/71

My hymns, commanders of the lyre,

which god, which hero—which man*shall we celebrate?

Zeus is indeed lord of Pisa, and Heracles

founded the Olympic games as the first-fruits of war;

but the man we must proclaim is Theron,

for his victory with the four-horsed chariot.

He is just in his regard for strangers,

a strong tower of defence for Acragas,

the crowning glory of a famous family line,

a man who guides his city on a straight path.

His forebears laboured hard*in their hearts

and so won a holy habitation beside the river.

They were the envy of Sicily,

and as time sped them on its destined road

it added wealth and popular favour to crown their inborn talents.

Son of Cronus and Rhea,*

you who rule over your home on Olympus,

and over this greatest of games and Alpheus’ stream;

be warmed by my songs and in your kindness

preserve their native land for generations to come.

But when some deed has been done, right or wrong,*

not even Time the father of all things can undo its outcome;

yet with the help of good fortune men may forget it.

Grief dies when confronted by noble joys,

and its enduring bitterness is beaten down

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when fortune sent from a god

lifts a man to prosperity’s heights.

This saying fits the royal-throned daughters of Cadmus,*

whose sufferings were great;

yet even so, heavy sorrow sinks back

in the face of mightier blessings.

Long-haired Semele died amid the roar of thunder, but she lives on among the Olympian gods,

loved for all time by Pallas and Father Zeus,

and especially loved by her ivy-wearing son.

Ino, too, men say, was granted an immortal’s life

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for all time in the depths, along with Nereus’*sea-nymph daughters.

But for mortals death’s final point has not been fixed,

nor even when we shall peacefully conclude our day,

child of the sun, in lasting good fortune.

Streams of pleasure and pain flood over men at different times;

and so it is that Fate, which controls the benevolent destiny

that this family has enjoyed, can bring some suffering

even into their heaven-sent prosperity,

which in time to come may be reversed—

from the time when Laius’ son*met his father

and, as had been foretold, killed him,

so fulfilling the oracle delivered long before at Pytho.

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The sharp-eyed Fury saw this act,

and slew his warlike sons, who died at each other’s hands.