Philosopher Pindar: The Complete Odes #9/71

Archilochus’ song,the loud high triple hymn of victory, chanted at Olympia,

was good enough to conduct Epharmostus past Cronus’ hill,

when he revelled in triumph with his close companions.

But scatternow from the Muses’ far-shooting bow

a shower of arrows towards Zeus of the crimson lightning

and towards the holy hill of Elis,

which once the Lydian hero Pelops won as Hippodameia’s splendid dowry.

Shoot too a sweet feathered shaft towards Pytho.

10

Your words will not fall to the ground when you make the lyre vibrate

in honour of the wrestling skill of a man from famous Opus,

as you praise the city and her son. For fate has allotted Opus to Themis

and to her renowned daughter Eunomia,preserver of cities,

and it thrives on the strength of its people’s deeds

by your waters, Castalia,and by the streams of Alpheus.

And so the finest of crowns won in that place

glorify the Locrians’ mother-city, famed for its beautiful trees.

20

As for me, when I shed lustre on that dear city with my blazing songs,

faster than a thoroughbred horse or a winged ship

I shall spread this news far and wide,

if only by some fortune-driven skill I can cultivate

choice flowers in the garden of the Graces;

it is they who allot pleasures, but only by divine agency

do men become noble and wise.

How else could Heracleshave shaken his club against Poseidon’s trident

30

when the god stood before Pylos and pressed him hard? Or when Phoebus with his silver bow fought him and pressed him equally hard?

Nor did Hades hold back from brandishing his staff at him,

the staff with which he escorts the mortal bodies of the dead to his hollow streets below.

But, my mouth, fling this story from me,

for to speak ill of the gods is a depraved art,

and loud untimely boasting sounds in harmony with madness.

Do not babble of such things;

keep war and fighting completely separate from the immortal gods.

40

Rather lend your tongue to Protogeneia’s city,

where by a decree of Zeus of the flashing thunderbolt

Pyrrha and Deucalion came down from Parnassus and built their first home,

and without intercourse created a single race from stones,

and therefore they are called a people.

Awake for them a clear-sounding path of poetry.

Praise wine that is old, but for songs pick flowers that are new.

Now, men say that once a mass of water deluged the dark earth,

50

but by Zeus’ artifice a backwash suddenly drained the flood away;

and from these people first came your bronze-shielded forebears,

sons of the daughters of Iapetus’race and of Cronus’ powerful sons,

kings for ever in their own land—until the lord of Olympus

carried off Opus’ daughter from the land of the Epeians,

and coupled with her in a secret place in Maenalus’dales.

Later he gave her to Locrus, so that time should not ruin him

by awarding him a childless fate.

60

Locrus’ wife was carrying a mighty seed in her,

and the hero’s heart was gladdened to see his counterfeit son;

he gave him the name of his mother’s father,

and he grew to be a man beyond telling in beauty and great deeds,*

and Locrus gave him his city and people to rule over.