V 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVSRStTVOfi 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO
 
 BREVIARY TREASURES 
 
 The Olympic and 
 Pythian Odes of * 
 Pindar * * * * 
 
 Translated into English Verse 
 by Abraham Moore *$? ijt 
 
 * 
 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED BY 
 
 NATHAN HASKELL DOLE 
 
 BOSTON
 
 Copyright, 
 BY NATHAN HASKELL DOLE
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 PINDAR, the most illustrious of the 
 lyric poets of Greece, was born at Ky- 
 noskephale, near Thebes, in Bosotia, 
 about 520 B. c. The pretty legend of 
 the prophetic bees settling on his infant 
 lips and leaving their honey there, hints 
 at his early inclination for music and 
 poetry. His mother, Myrto or Myrtis, 
 herself a lyric poet, first taught him to 
 combine simplicity and elegance in his 
 verse. Later the beautiful Corinna be- 
 came his instructor. He was taught to 
 play the lyre by Lasos of Hermione, 
 famous as a musician and dithyrambic 
 poet. When very young he went to the 
 court of Alexander, son of Amyntas, 
 King of Macedon, and there overcame 
 v
 
 Myrtis in a musical contest, but was 
 five times defeated by Corinna. 
 
 That was a golden day for poets. 
 Not only the people but also the kings 
 and tyrants appreciated their art, and 
 Pindar soon won a reputation that spread 
 over the whole civilized world. 
 
 King Hiero of Syracuse was his 
 munificent patron when he celebrated 
 Athens as the chief support of Greece, 
 and Thebes out of resentment heavily 
 fined him. The Athenians presented 
 him with a sum double the amount of 
 the fine and erected a brazen statue in 
 his honour, representing him with a dia- 
 dem and a lyre and a scroll folded on 
 his knees. 
 
 The date of his death is not cer- 
 tainly known. He was either fifty-six 
 or eighty-six when he passed away, sit- 
 ting in a public assembly. 
 
 Quintilian said of him : " Of the nine 
 Greek lyric poets, Pindar is the chief, 
 in spirit, in magnificence, in moral sen- 
 timents, and in metaphor; most happy 
 both in the abundance of his matter and 
 of his diction ; and, as it were, with a 
 vi
 
 certain torrent of eloquence, so that 
 Horace believes no man can imitate 
 him." This expressed the common 
 opinion of antiquity. He was almost 
 worshipped in his own day. His odes 
 and hymns were chanted in the temples 
 on solemn occasions, and the priestess at 
 Delphi declared it was the will of Apollo 
 that the poet should receive half of the 
 first fruits annually offered at his shrine. 
 When the Lacedaemonians took Thebes 
 they spared Pindar's house and family, 
 and the same consideration was shown 
 by Alexander the Great. 
 
 Most of Pindar's works have perished, 
 and unfortunately the remains do not 
 represent him at his best. He wrote 
 hymns and paeans in honour of the 
 gods ; songs with dance accompaniment 
 in praise of Apollo ; dithyrambic verses 
 to Bacchus ; odes for processions, songs 
 for maidens, drinking songs, dirges, and 
 panegyrics on princes, and the odes on 
 the Olympic, Nemean, Isthmian, and 
 Pythian games. Forty-five of these odes 
 are extant, and with a few fragments 
 enable us to judge of Pindar's genius, 
 vii
 
 It has been said of these odes : " No 
 subjects, at first sight, could seem more 
 unfitted for sublime poetry than those of 
 the Pindaric remains ; but the poet has, 
 with characteristic impetuosity, over- 
 come this difficulty by the practice of 
 abandoning the professed objects of his 
 panegyric, and bursting into celebrations 
 of the heroes of former days, the mighty 
 exploits of demigods, and the gorgeous 
 fables of oldest time. In the transition 
 he uses little art, but seems to rely, as 
 he safely might, on the change being, in 
 itself, most welcome. He is chiefly re- 
 markable for the gigantic boldness of his 
 conceptions, and the daring sublimity 
 of his metaphors, which stamp him the 
 ^Eschylus of lyric poetry. The flights 
 of his imagination are not, however, like 
 those of the great tragedian, mingled 
 with the intensity of human passion, 
 which, while they carry us beyond our- 
 selves, still come home to the heart. 
 
 " He has the light without the heat ; 
 
 his splendours dazzle, but do not warm 
 
 us. There is little of human feeling in 
 
 his works ; they are little more than ex- 
 
 viii
 
 hibitions which excite our surprise, but 
 not our sympathy. His compositions 
 have something hard and stony about 
 them the sublimity and nakedness of 
 the rock. The sunshine glitters on the 
 top, but no foliage adorns the declivity. 
 All the interest, such as it is, arises from 
 the earnestness of the poet himself, and 
 the intense ardour with which he is im- 
 pelled in his lofty career. 
 
 " Hence we think more of him than 
 of his work ; while in Homer and the 
 Greek tragedians the author is forgotten. 
 His conception is so ardent that he can- 
 not wait to develop his metaphors ; he 
 often but half unfolds them, and suffers 
 them to blend with the literal descrip- 
 tions, and form part of the subject ; and 
 hence, it appears to us, the obscurities 
 so frequently complained of in Pindar 
 have, in a great degree, arisen. 
 
 " In the mechanical composition of 
 his odes, however, Pindar is by no 
 means so irregular as some have been 
 disposed to imagine. He commonly 
 preserves the arrangement of strophe, 
 antistrophe, and epode ; and though the 
 ix
 
 construction of these varies in different 
 odes, all the strophes and antistrophes 
 in the same ode are framed on the same 
 principles, and all the epodes are com- 
 posed in similar measures to each other." 
 
 Miiller in his " Literature of Ancient 
 Greece" asserts that the very fact that 
 these triumphal odes were more fre- 
 quently transcribed than the other poems 
 and were thus saved for posterity proves 
 that there must have been some decided 
 superiority in them, and he is consoled 
 for the loss of the other kinds by the 
 vast variety of their subject and style 
 and their refined and elaborate structure. 
 
 These odes commemorate victories 
 won at the four great Greek games, 
 either by speed of horses, strength and 
 dexterity in running, wrestling or boxing, 
 or skill in music. Such a victory shed 
 lustre not only on the victor and his 
 family but also on his native city, and 
 demanded a celebration. " This cele- 
 bration," says Miiller, " might be per- 
 formed by the victor's friends on the 
 spot where the victory was gained ; as, 
 for example, at Olympia, when in the 
 x
 
 evening after the termination of the con- 
 tests, by the light of the moon, the whole 
 sanctuary resounded with joyful songs 
 after the manner of the encomia. Or it 
 might be deferred until after the victor's 
 solemn return to his native city, where 
 it was sometimes repeated, in following 
 years, in commemoration of his success. 
 A celebration of this kind always had a 
 religious character, it often began with a 
 procession to an altar or temple, in the 
 place of the games or in the native city ; 
 a sacrifice, followed by a banquet, was 
 then offered at the temple, or in the 
 house of the victor; and the whole so- 
 lemnity concluded with the merry and 
 boisterous revel called by the Greeks 
 KW/U.OS. At this sacred and, at the same 
 time, joyous solemnity (a mingled char- 
 acter frequent among the Greeks), ap- 
 peared the chorus, trained by the poet, 
 or some other skilled person, for the 
 purpose of reciting the triumphal hymn, 
 which was considered the fairest orna- 
 ment of the festival. It was during 
 either the procession or the banquet 
 that the hymn was recited ; as it was 
 xi
 
 not properly a religious hymn which 
 could be combined with the sacrifice." 
 
 The translation here presented is by 
 Mr. Abraham Moore, whose two pri- 
 vately printed volumes at one time be- 
 longed to the critic Hazlitt and, enriched 
 with his notes, formed a part of the rare 
 library of the late Thomas Wales of 
 Boston, and were for a time in my pos- 
 session. It is justly regarded as one of 
 the ablest versions ever made from a 
 classic author, and the pathetic story of 
 the translator's life with its tragic ending 
 gives it a peculiar interest and value. 
 
 N. H. D. 
 
 xn
 
 OLYMPIC ODES
 
 ODE I. 
 
 TO HIERO THE SYRACUSIAN 
 
 in the Horse-race 
 
 STROPHE I. 
 
 WATER the first of elements we hold ; 
 And, as the flaming fire at night 
 Glows with its own conspicuous light, 
 Above proud treasure shines transcendant 
 gold:
 
 But if, my soul, 't is thy desire 
 
 For the Great Games to strike thy lyre, 
 
 Look not within the range of day 
 
 A star more genial to descry 
 
 Than yon warm sun, whose glittering ray 
 
 Dims all the spheres that gild the sky ; 
 
 Nor loftier theme to raise thy strain 
 
 Than famed Olympia's crowded plain : 
 
 From whence, by gifted minstrels richly 
 
 wove, 
 
 The illustrious hymn, at glory's call, 
 Goes forth to Micro's affluent hall, 
 To hail his prosperous throne and sing 
 
 Saturnian Jove. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE I. 
 
 Hiero the just, that rules the fertile field, 
 Where fair Sicilia's pastures feed 
 Unnumbered flocks, and for his meed 
 Culls the sweet flowers that all the vir- 
 tues yield. 
 
 Nor less renowned his hand essays 
 To wake the Muse's choicest lays, 
 Such as the social feast around 
 Full oft our tuneful band inspire 
 But wherefore sleeps the thrilling sound ? 
 2
 
 Pluck from the peg thy Dorian lyre, 
 If Pisa's palms have charms for thee, 
 If Pherenicus' victory 
 Hath roused thee to the rapturous cares 
 
 of song ; 
 
 Tell us how swift the ungoaded steed 
 By Alpheus urged his furious speed, 
 And bore the distant prize from all the 
 
 panting throng. 
 
 EPODE I. 
 
 Proud of his stud, the Syracusian king 
 
 Partook the courser's triumph. Through 
 the plain 
 
 By Lydian Pelops won his praises ring 
 
 Pelops of Neptune loved (whose watery 
 reign 
 
 Bounds the wide earth, that trembles at 
 his might), 
 
 Pelops, whose form the plastic Fate 
 replaced, 
 
 And from the caldron bright 
 
 Drew forth with ivory shoulder graced. 
 
 Life teems with wonders : yet, in Rea- 
 son's spite, 
 
 O'er the fond fascinating fiction, warm 
 3
 
 From Fancy's pencil, hangs a charm 
 That more than Nature's self her painted 
 dreams delight. 
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 For Taste, whose softening hand hath 
 
 power to give 
 
 Sweetness and grace to rudest things, 
 And trifles to distinction brings, 
 Makes us full oft the enchanting tale 
 
 receive 
 In Truth's disguise as Truth. The 
 
 day 
 
 Yet comes, Time's test, that tears away 
 The veil each flattering falsehood wears. 
 Beseems us then (for less the blame) 
 Of those that heed us from the spheres 
 Becoming marvels to proclaim. 
 Great son of Tantalus, thy fate 
 Not as the fablers I relate. 
 Thee with the Gods thy Sire's Sipylian 
 
 guest, 
 
 When they in turn beneath his bower 
 Purest repast partook, the Power 
 That wields the Trident seized, and 
 
 ravished from the feast.
 
 ANTISTROPHE II. 
 
 Desire his breast had conquered. Up he 
 
 drove 
 
 His trembling prize of mortal mould 
 In radiant car with steeds of gold 
 To the highest mansion of all-honoured 
 
 Jove; 
 With whom the Boy, from wondering 
 
 Ide 
 
 Rapt long before, like place supplied. 
 Her Pelops lost, her vanished son 
 Soon roused the frantic mother's care; 
 No tidings came ; the search begun 
 In mystery ended in despair. 
 Forthwith some envious foe was found 
 Whispering the unseemly slander round, 
 " How all into the bubbling caldron cast 
 Thy mangled limbs were seethed, and 
 
 shred 
 
 In fragments on the table spread, 
 While circling Gods looked on and 
 
 shared the abhorred repast."
 
 EPODE II. 
 
 Far be from me and mine the thought 
 profane, 
 
 That in foul feast celestials could de- 
 light ! 
 
 Blasphemous tale ! Detraction finds its 
 bane 
 
 E'en in the wrong it works If mortal 
 wight 
 
 Heaven e'er hath honoured, 't was this 
 Tantalus ; 
 
 But soon from ill-digested greatness 
 sprung 
 
 Presumption and abuse : 
 
 Thence from his towering fortunes 
 flung 
 
 (Frightful reverse !) he fell. A ponder- 
 ous rock 
 
 High o'er his head hung threatening 
 (angry Jove 
 
 So judged him for his crimes above) : 
 
 Where day and night he waits, dreading 
 the expected shock.
 
 STROPHE III. 
 
 Thus doomed is he life's hopeless load 
 
 to bear, 
 
 Torment unceasing ! Three beside, 
 Delinquents there, like pains abide. 
 He from the Immortals their ambrosial 
 
 fare, 
 The nectarous flood that crowned their 
 
 bowl, 
 To feast his earth-born comrades, 
 
 stole j 
 
 Food, that, by their celestial grace, 
 Eternal youth to him had given. 
 Vain hope, that guilt by time or place 
 Can 'scape the searching glance of 
 
 heaven ! 
 
 For this the blameless Son once more 
 Back to man's short-lived race they 
 
 bore; 
 There, when fresh youth its blooming 
 
 flower had blown, 
 And round his chin the umbrageous 
 
 beard 
 
 Mature its manlier growth had reared, 
 From Pisa's Prince he sought, his 
 
 nuptial couch to crown, 
 7
 
 ANTISTROPHE III. 
 
 The famed Hippodame j whose charms 
 
 to gain, 
 
 The fond and furious father's pride, 
 At night's dark hour alone he hied 
 To the rough shore of the loud-bellow- 
 ing main, 
 
 And called the Trident-sceptred God, 
 Whose form forthwith beside him 
 
 stood : 
 
 " Oh ! if the endearing gifts," said he, 
 " The Cyprian sea-born Queen bestows, 
 Have still, great Neptune, grace with 
 
 thee, 
 
 Propitiate now thy suppliant's vows. 
 Arrest CEnomaus' brazen spear, 
 To Elis guide my prompt career, 
 And bear me on thy swiftest chariot's 
 
 wheel 
 
 Victorious to the goal ; for he, 
 Slayer of suitors ten and three, 
 Still from his daughter's hope withholds 
 the bridal seal.
 
 EPODE III. 
 
 " Majestic Danger calls but for the brave, 
 Trusts not the dastard's arm : then why 
 
 should man, 
 
 By life's hard lot predestined to the grave, 
 Waste in the dark the unprofitable span, 
 And crouch in Age's corner unrenowned, 
 Heaven's noblest gifts untasted ? Power 
 
 divine ! 
 
 Grant thou the event be crowned, 
 This peril shall at least be mine." 
 Thus he, with zeal not unregarded, 
 
 speeds 
 His ardent prayer. The God his prayer 
 
 embraced, 
 
 Gave him his car with gold enchaced, 
 And roused the unwearied plumes that 
 
 winged the immortal steeds. 
 
 STROPHE IV. 
 
 CEnomaus' power the exulting youth 
 
 o'erthrows : 
 
 The virgin spouse his arms entwine ; 
 From whose soft intercourse, a line 
 By all the virtues nurst, six warriors rose. 
 9
 
 Now in rich pomp and solemn state 
 His dust heroic honours wait. 
 Where Alpheus laves the hallowed glade, 
 His tomb its ample range displays, 
 And gifts by many a stranger laid 
 High on his crowded altar blaze; 
 But most from proud Olympia's drome, 
 On distant realms, on times to come, 
 Shines Pelops' fame. There Speed de- 
 mands his crown, 
 Toil-mastering Strength the muscle 
 
 strains, 
 
 And conquerors pass life's proud remains 
 On Virtue's tranquil couch, the slumber 
 of renown. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE IV. 
 
 Such is the Champion's meed : the con- 
 stant good, 
 
 That lives beyond the transient hour, 
 Of all that Heaven on man can shower, 
 Most fires his hope, most wakes his 
 
 gratitude : 
 
 But now 't is mine, the strain to raise, 
 And swell the Equestrian Hero's praise, 
 To crown with loud JEolizn song 
 10
 
 A Prince, whose peer the spacious earth 
 Holds not its noblest chiefs among, 
 Boasts not in wisdom, power and worth, 
 A host more gifted, to display, 
 Through all the mazes of the lay. 
 Hiero, some guardian god thy fame sus- 
 tains, 
 
 And makes thee his peculiar care ; 
 If long thy deeds his smiles shall share, 
 A loftier flight I '11 soar, and warble 
 sweeter strains. 
 
 EPODE IV. 
 
 Then high on Cronium's peak my post 
 shall be ; 
 
 There, as a poet's glance informs my 
 soul, 
 
 First in the burning race thy steeds to see, 
 
 Thy bounding chariot whirl thee to the 
 goal. 
 
 Then shall the Muse her strongest jave- 
 lin fling; 
 
 'Bove all the ranks of greatness at the 
 top 
 
 Shines the consummate king 
 
 Beyond that height lift not thy hope. 
 II
 
 Be thine in that bright station long to 
 
 bear 
 Thy upright course; mine, with the 
 
 conquering band, 
 To take my honourable stand, 
 And 'mong the bards of Greece the palm 
 
 of genius wear. 
 
 12
 
 ODE II. 
 
 TO THERON OF AGRIGENTUM 
 
 Victor in the Chariot-race 
 
 STROPHE I. 
 
 HYMNS, that rule the living lyre, 
 What god, what hero shall we sing ? 
 What mortal's praise the strain in- 
 spire ? 
 
 Jove is Pisa's guardian king : 
 Hercules the Olympiad planned, 
 Trophy of his conquering hand : 
 13
 
 But Theron, whose bright axle won, 
 With four swift steeds, the chariot 
 
 crown, 
 
 Noblest of hosts, our song shall grace, 
 The prop of Agrigentum's fame, 
 Flower of an old illustrious race, 
 Whose upright rule his prospering states 
 
 proclaim. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE I. 
 
 Prest with ills, yon sacred pile, 
 
 Yon stream his fathers held, and shone 
 
 The eyes of all Sicilia's isle. 
 
 Inborn virtue was their own : 
 
 Public favour, wealth and power 
 
 Reached them in their destined hour. 
 
 But thou, that rulest the Olympian 
 
 dome, 
 
 Saturnian son of Rhea's womb, 
 God of the noblest games divine, 
 And Alpheus' stream that wanders 
 
 near, 
 
 Soothed with our song, to all his line 
 Vouchsafe their Sire's dominion long 
 
 to bear. 
 
 14
 
 EPODE I. 
 
 Virtue's achievement, Folly's crime, 
 Whate'er of guilt or good the past has 
 
 known, 
 Not e'en the Sire of all things, mighty 
 
 Time, 
 .Hath power to change, or make the 
 
 deed undone. 
 
 But, when the prosperous hour returns, 
 O'er woes long wept Oblivion softly lays 
 Her shadowy veil; and from the heart 
 
 that mourns, 
 By goodlier joys subdued, the inveterate 
 
 bane decays. 
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 Thus rewarding Heaven and Fate 
 Exalted bliss at length bestow ; 
 As Cadmus' daughters, throned in state, 
 Teach the moral strain to show. 
 Great their ills ; but heaviest woe 
 Mightier good can soon o'erthrow : 
 For Semele, once to vengeance given, 
 Now waves her flowing locks in 
 Heaven ; 
 
 15
 
 She, by the rattling thunder slain, 
 To Pallas dear, carest by Jove, 
 Among the Olympians lives again, 
 And meets her Ivied Boy's requited love. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE II. 
 
 Bosomed in the briny deep, 
 'Mong Nereids green, as story tells, 
 While Time his circling course shall 
 
 keep, 
 
 Aye immortal Ino dwells. 
 *T is not given for man to know 
 When pale Death shall strike the blow, 
 Nor e'en if one serener Day, 
 The Sun's brief child, shall pass away 
 Unclouded as it rose. The waves 
 Of life with ceaseless changes flow, 
 And, as the tempest sleeps or raves, 
 Bring triumph or disaster, weal or woe. 
 
 EPODE II. 
 
 The Genius, thus, whose power upholds 
 The prosperous destiny of Theron's race, 
 And sends them wealth from heaven, a 
 scene unfolds, 
 
 16
 
 In times long past, of vengeance and 
 
 disgrace 
 
 Vengeance from that ill-omened hour 
 When son and sire in foul encounter 
 
 met; 
 And all, that Pythian threat denounced 
 
 of yore, 
 In Lams' murder mixt, consistent and 
 
 complete. 
 
 STROPHE III. 
 
 Quick the sharp-eyed Fury flew, 
 
 And, as the strife she stirred, apace 
 
 Kindred their warlike kindred slew ; 
 
 Social bloodshed thinned the race. 
 
 Polynices bit the ground ; 
 
 Sole Thersander lived, renowned 
 
 In youthful game or martial fray, 
 
 Of brave Adrastus* house the stay. 
 
 Sprung from that old heroic sire, 
 
 jEnesidamus bids us raise 
 
 The applauding lay, and sweep the 
 
 lyre 
 Through all its thrilling chords in 
 
 Theron's praise. 
 17
 
 ANTISTROPHE III. 
 
 'Midst Olympia's shouting bands 
 With the proud prize himself was 
 
 crowned ; 
 While rival wreaths from Isthmian 
 
 hands 
 
 Waved his brother's temples round ; 
 Fortune's favourite ! o'er his brow 
 Blended hung the Pythian bough. 
 With fourfold team in rapid race 
 Twelve times he scoured the circling 
 
 space : 
 
 Before Success the Sorrows fly. 
 And Wealth more bright with Virtue 
 
 joined, 
 
 Brings golden Opportunity, 
 The sparkling star, the sun-beam of 
 
 mankind ; 
 
 EPODE III. 
 
 Brings to the rich man's restless heart 
 Ambition's splendid cares. No less he 
 
 knows 
 The day fast comes when all men must 
 
 depart, 
 
 18
 
 And pay for present pride in future 
 woes. 
 
 The deeds that frantic mortals do 
 
 In this disordered nook of Jove's 
 domain, 
 
 All meet their meed; and there's a 
 Judge below 
 
 Whose hateful doom inflicts the inevi- 
 table pain. 
 
 STROPHE IV. 
 
 O'er the Good soft suns the while 
 Through the mild day, the night serene, 
 Alike with cloudless lustre smile, 
 Tempering all the tranquil scene. 
 Theirs is leisure ; vex not they 
 Stubborn soil or watery way, 
 To wring from toil want's worthless 
 
 bread : 
 
 No ills they know, no tears they shed, 
 But with the glorious Gods below 
 Ages of peace contented share. 
 Meanwhile the Bad with bitterest woe 
 Eye-startling tasks, and endless tortures 
 
 wear. 
 
 19
 
 ANTISTROPHE IV. 
 
 All, whose stedfast virtue thrice 
 Each side the grave unchanged hath stood 
 Still unseduced, unstained with vice, 
 They by Jove's mysterious road 
 Pass to Saturn's realm of rest, 
 Happy isle that holds the blest ; 
 Where sea-born breezes gently blow 
 O'er blooms of gold that round them 
 
 glow, 
 Which Nature boon from stream or 
 
 strand 
 
 Or goodly tree profusely pours ; 
 Whence pluck they many a fragrant 
 
 band, 
 And braid their locks with never-fading 
 
 flowers. 
 
 EPODE IV. 
 
 Such Rhadamanthus' mandate wise : 
 
 He on the judgment-bench, associate 
 
 meet, 
 
 By ancient Saturn sits, prompt to advise, 
 The spouse of Rhea, whose high throne 
 
 is set 
 
 20
 
 Above all powers in Earth or Heaven. 
 
 Peleus and Cadmus there high honours 
 crown ; 
 
 The like to great Achilles largely 
 given 
 
 With prayers from yielding Jove persua- 
 sive Thetis won. 
 
 STROPHE V. 
 
 Hector he, the pillar of Troy 
 By mightiest arms unmoved, o'erthrew, 
 And bright Aurora's ^Ethiop boy : 
 He the godlike Cycnus slew 
 On my quivered arm I bear 
 Many an arrow swift and rare; 
 Dealt to the wise delight they bring, 
 To vulgar ears unmeaning ring. 
 Genius his stores from nature draws ; 
 In words not wit the learned shine ; 
 Clamorous in vain, like croaking daws, 
 They rail against the bird of Jove divine. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE V. 
 
 Heed not thou their envious tongue, 
 Straight to the mark advance thy bow ; 
 21
 
 Whither, brave spirit, shall thy song 
 
 Throw the shaft of glory now ? 
 
 Lo it flies, by Justice sent, 
 
 Full at famous Agrigent ; 
 
 While truth inspires me thus to 
 
 swear, 
 That Time shall waste his hundredth 
 
 year 
 
 Ere race or realm a King shall raise, 
 Whose liberal heart, whose loaded 
 
 hand 
 
 Shall paragon with Theron's praise, 
 Or strew, like his, its blessings through 
 
 the land. 
 
 EPODE V. 
 
 Yet e'en his virtues to assail 
 
 Hath headstrong Envy spurred injus- 
 tice forth. 
 
 Plotting with hostile arm, and slanderous 
 tale, 
 
 To hide in mischiefs shade the lamp 
 of worth. 
 
 But, if the numberer toils in vain 
 
 To count the sands that heap the wave- 
 worn beach ; 
 
 22
 
 The joys, the graces of his bounteous 
 reign 
 
 What memory can record ? What soar- 
 ing song can reach ?
 
 ODE III. 
 
 TO THE SAME THERON 
 
 STROPHE I. 
 
 To please the bright-haired Helen, and 
 
 the Twins 
 
 Of Tyndarus, gods of hospitable love, 
 With Agrigent's renown my boast be- 
 gins ; 
 
 24
 
 While wreaths for Theron from the 
 
 Olympian grove, 
 
 Borne by the unwearied steeds away, 
 I twine. For this beside me stood 
 The inspiring Muse, and to the 
 
 Dorian mood 
 Tuned for her glorious choir my new- 
 
 embellisht lay. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE I. 
 
 Those high-tost heads, with glittering 
 
 chaplets bound, 
 
 Challenge my spirit to this task divine, 
 The shrill-toned pipe, the varying lyre to 
 
 sound 
 In full concordance to the swelling 
 
 line, 
 
 Which thus, ^Enesidamus, throws 
 On thy brave son its mingled praise 
 Applauding Pisa too demands my 
 
 lays, 
 Whence many a heaven-taught hymn 
 
 for conquering champions flows :
 
 EPODE I. 
 
 Champions, whose brows the /Etolian 
 
 seer, 
 
 That gives the Herculean mandates old, 
 The Game's unerring arbiter, 
 Bids Victory's graceful prize enfold : 
 He round their locks the silvery olive 
 
 flings j 
 
 Whose leaves of yore Amphitryon's son, 
 To frame Olympia's matchless crown, 
 From freezing regions brought, and 
 
 Ister's shadowy springs. 
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 He the Hyperborean tribes and chief- 
 tains wild, 
 
 That bend the knee before Apollo's 
 shrine, 
 
 Peaceful besought; and with persuasion 
 mild, 
 
 To form his Sire's capacious grove 
 divine, 
 
 The conqueror's wreath, the stranger's 
 shade, 
 
 Won the fair plant : for on the plain 
 26
 
 Jove's altar smoked, and from her golden 
 
 wain 
 The Moon with rounded orb, Eve's 
 
 radiant eye displayed. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE II. 
 
 Then too, the pure Tribunal to preside 
 At his Great Games, the proud Quin- 
 quennial Feast 
 'Stablisht had he by Alpheus' sacred 
 
 tide; 
 Yet not, as now, then waved the Cro- 
 
 nian waste 
 
 With woods umbrageous j but on high, 
 When Pelops held his ruder reign, 
 The dazzling sun-beam smote the un- 
 sheltered plain ; 
 
 'T was then the tracts he sought, that 
 skirt the Arctoic sky. 
 
 EPODE II. 
 
 Him there Latona's huntress-child 
 From fair Arcadia's vales received, 
 Deep winding vales and mountains 
 wild; 
 
 27
 
 What time by stern Eurystheus grieved 
 Necessity, that bound his Sire in 
 
 heaven, 
 Tasked him in that bleak waste to 
 
 find 
 
 The golden-horned and sacred hind, 
 To chaste Orthosia's shrine by fair 
 
 Atlantis given. 
 
 STROPHE III. 
 
 Bent on the search, beyond where 
 Boreas brewed 
 
 His wintry blast, wondrous the realm 
 he found, 
 
 Their groves with fond desire admir- 
 ing viewed, 
 
 And thence, his Hippodrome's twelve- 
 circled round 
 
 To shade, the adopted plant removed. 
 
 Still with the godlike Twins, of yore 
 
 Whom Leda's ample zone prolific 
 bore, 
 
 Oft to that feast he comes, and cheers 
 the toils he loved. 
 
 28
 
 ANTISTROPHE III. 
 
 Them, when the Hero mounted to the 
 spheres, 
 
 To guard his Games, where might for 
 mastery strives 
 
 With might, and skill the raging chariot 
 steers, 
 
 He charged : to them my soul for 
 Theron gives 
 
 The glory of the dazzling prize : 
 
 Them, lords and lovers of the race, 
 
 The Emmenian Tribe salutes, their 
 favouring grace 
 
 With costliest banquets won, and fre- 
 quent sacrifice. 
 
 EPODE III. 
 
 Such their rewards, whose customs 
 
 most, 
 Whose hearts the Gods in reverence 
 
 hold. 
 
 As water still is Nature's boast, 
 And all Earth's treasures yield to 
 
 gold, 
 
 Theron hath reached the limitary main, 
 29
 
 And touched with virtues all his own, 
 The Herculean pillars of renown, 
 Wit's, Folly's farthest bound, where song 
 pursues in vain.
 
 ODE IV. 
 
 TO PSAUMIS OF CAMARINA 
 
 Victor in the Chariot-race 
 
 STROPHE 
 
 O THOU, that drivest in clouds above 
 The impetuous thunder, mighty Jove ! 
 Me with my lyre and varying strain 
 Thy circling Hours have sent again 
 Their tuneful witness, to proclaim 
 31
 
 The glories of thy matchless Game. 
 At Virtue's weal the just rejoice, and bless 
 The tidings of a friend's success. 
 But thou, Saturnian King, that dost dis- 
 play 
 
 Through ./Etna's range thy partial sway ; 
 Beneath whose huge tempestuous cone 
 The hundred heads of Typhon groan, 
 O hear the advancing choir prolong, 
 Moved by the Graces, their triumphal 
 song: 
 
 ANTISTROPHE 
 
 'T is Virtue's lamp, whose living rays, 
 Wide as her rule, for ever blaze ; 
 Lo where it beams in Psaumis' car 
 That bears the Olympian braid from 
 
 far, 
 
 In haste the blooming glory now 
 To bind on Camarina's brow. 
 Heaven speed his future vows, as now 
 
 my lays 
 
 With note sincere his virtues praise. 
 His boast to rear, to rule the panting 
 
 steed : 
 
 All guests his plenteous banquets feed : 
 32
 
 While with pure heart he wooes the 
 
 hand 
 
 Of genial Peace to bless the land. 
 Ne'er shall untruth these lips profane j 
 Trial's the only test, that proves the 
 
 man. 
 
 EPODE 
 
 This from the Lemnian dames' abuse 
 
 Redeemed the son of Clymenus : 
 
 At his gray locks their taunts they 
 
 played ; 
 
 But when in brazen arms arrayed 
 The incumbered race with ease he won, 
 And calmly claimed the unquestioned 
 
 crown, 
 
 To much abashed Hypsipyle, " Even me 
 First of the swift, behold," said he, 
 " Nor less in strength and prowess : age's 
 
 snow 
 On youth's fair front will sometimes 
 
 grow; 
 But he, that does the deeds of manhood's 
 
 prime, 
 May without blame look old before his 
 
 time." 
 
 33
 
 ODE V. 
 
 TO THE SAME PSAUMIS OF CAMARINA 
 
 Victor in the Race of Chariots drawn by 
 Mules 
 
 STROPHE I. 
 
 THE flower of all the Olympian boughs, 
 That bind exalted Virtue's brows, 
 Take, Camarina, with delight ; 
 Take, shining Daughter of the Sea, 
 34
 
 What the swift mules, the chariot bright, 
 The conquering Psaumis brings to thee. 
 Destined thy peopled state to raise 
 He, at the Gods' high Festival, 
 On six joint hearths his offering lays, 
 While incense fumes and victims fall. 
 There five bright days, renown to 
 
 gain, 
 Skill, Bravery, Strength, the strife 
 
 maintain : 
 There yoked or mounted, mule and 
 
 steed 
 
 Through all the swift career 
 Contest the panting prize of speed. 
 Thee Acron's son proclaiming there, 
 Hath proudly given to everlasting fame 
 His country's rising towers, his Sire's 
 
 ennobled name. 
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 Returned from that delightful plain 
 CEnomaus' once and Pelops' reign, 
 Minerva's shrine, whose fostering 
 
 power 
 Guards his young state, he hallows 
 
 now, 
 
 35
 
 Oanus* stream and many a bower 
 That shades the glittering lake below ; 
 Hallows the banks and solemn clifts, 
 Where Hipparis' wholesome waters 
 
 rove, 
 
 Laving his peopled realm. He lifts 
 The pillared pile, the marble grove, 
 Whereon his princely chambers rise 
 In swelling domes, that crown the 
 
 skies. 
 Thus his rude tribes, untrained, 
 
 unformed 
 
 He rears to life and light : 
 For Toil and Wealth by Virtue 
 
 warmed 
 
 Ever with Difficulty fight ; 
 While Enterprise no threatening danger 
 
 scares, 
 And all-adored Success the palm of 
 
 Wisdom wears. 
 
 STROPHE III. 
 
 O Thou, that dwellest in clouds above 
 The Cronian Mount, Preserver Jove, 
 Whose favour still pursues the wave 
 That wandering Alpheus pours along, 
 36
 
 Still beams on Ida's awful cave, 
 To thee thy suppliant rears his song; 
 In Lydian strain implores thy grace 
 Long on this rising realm to wait, 
 And send a sound adventurous race 
 To guard and signalize their state. 
 Thee, too, by victory taught to breed 
 And cherish the Neptunian steed, 
 Thee, Psaumis, grant the indulgent 
 
 Power 
 
 A calm old age to bear, 
 And meet unmoved the parting hour, 
 With all thy children standing near. 
 If Wealth and Worth and Happiness and 
 
 Fame 
 Be thine, among the Gods seek not to 
 
 inscribe thy name. 
 
 37
 
 ODE VI. 
 
 TO AGESIAS THE SYRACUSIAN 
 
 Victor in the Race of Chariots drawn 
 by Mules 
 
 STROPHE I. 
 
 PILLARS of gold our portal to sustain, 
 As for some proud and princely Place, 
 We '11 rear : the founder of the strain 
 With far-refulgent front his opening 
 
 work should grace. 
 And if there be, who boasts the 
 
 Olympian braid, 
 38
 
 Whose priestly lips prophetic truths 
 
 diffuse 
 
 At Jove's Pisasan altar; one, whose aid 
 Hath helpt to raise illustrious Syracuse ; 
 Where are the high-wrought hymns, the 
 
 glowing lays 
 His country's lavish love shall swell not 
 
 with his praise ? 
 
 ANTISTROPHE I. 
 
 Know, son of Sostratus, that Heaven 
 hath made 
 
 This sandal for thy foot divine. 
 
 Virtue, by peril unassayed, 
 
 On land or tranquil wave in honour 
 ne'er can shine. 
 
 The adventurous deed a thousand hearts 
 record. 
 
 To thee the praise, Agesias, all shall 
 yield, 
 
 On GEcleus' son Amphiaraus poured 
 
 By just Adrastus in the fatal field, 
 
 When in Earth's yawning gulf the as- 
 tounded seer 
 
 Sunk with his snorting steeds, chariot 
 and charioteer. 
 
 39
 
 EPODE I. 
 
 'T was there, when round the heroic 
 
 dead 
 Seven Theban pyres were seen to 
 
 burn, 
 
 Sorrowing the son of Talaus said, 
 " The eye of all my host I mourn : 
 His searching soul the future knew ; 
 His spear controlled the raging fray " 
 Such is the Syracusian too, 
 The master of my lay. 
 Nor brawl, nor paradox I love ; 
 I hate with cavillers to contend ; 
 But this my surest oath I 've pledged to 
 
 prove 
 And the mellifluous Muse her lasting aid 
 
 shall lend. 
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 Bring forth thy mules, O Phintis, and 
 
 behind 
 
 In haste the glittering harness join, 
 With me thy chariot mount and find 
 Along yon spacious road the cradle of 
 
 his line. 
 
 40
 
 Full well, I ween, the illustrious track 
 
 they know, 
 Learnt from the plaudits of the Olympian 
 
 throng 
 That crowned their necks with glory. 
 
 Open throw 
 To their careering speed the gates of 
 
 song. 
 
 To-day we press for Pitana, and lave 
 Ere night our burning team in cool 
 
 Eurotas' wave. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE II. 
 
 Fair Pitana, by Neptune's amorous 
 prayer 
 
 Pressed, as they tell, her charms to yield, 
 
 The violet-tressed Evadne bare. 
 
 She in her anxious breast the virgin pang 
 concealed 
 
 Till, past the painful hour, a trusty train 
 
 Charged with the pledge of her ce- 
 lestial love 
 
 To jEpytus she sent, who ruled the 
 plain, 
 
 Where Alpheus' waves by famed 
 Phaesana rove. 
 
 41
 
 There nurtured, with Apollo tasted 
 
 she 
 The tempting fruit that grows on Love's 
 
 forbidden tree. 
 
 EPODE II. 
 
 Escaped not long the guardian King 
 Her altering form, the stolen em- 
 brace : 
 
 Rage and regret his bosom wring ; 
 Where, burying still the unknown dis- 
 grace, 
 Forthwith the Delphian Fane he 
 
 sought. 
 
 Meanwhile to shadiest covert lone 
 Her silver urn the damsel brought ; 
 There loosed her purple zone, 
 And bore the godlike babe unseen 
 Filled with the spirit of his Sire ; 
 Who with his golden locks and grace- 
 ful mien 
 
 The assistant Fates had won, and 
 soothed Eleutho's ire. 
 
 42
 
 STROPHE III. 
 
 Forth from her arms with short and 
 grateful throe 
 
 Came lamus to light : her child 
 
 On the Earth she left o'erwhelmed 
 with woe : 
 
 Him there two Serpent forms with eyes 
 of azure mild, 
 
 Mysterious ministers of love divine, 
 
 Fed with the baneless beverage of the 
 bee: 
 
 When now from rocky Pytho's warn- 
 ing shrine 
 
 In haste the King returned, and ear- 
 nestly 
 
 From all his questioned household 'gan 
 require 
 
 Evadne's new-born son, " For Phoe- 
 bus is his sire, 
 
 ANTISTROPHE III. 
 
 " Destined before all mortals to prevail 
 The peerless prophet of mankind ; 
 Whose race, whose name shall never 
 fail." 
 
 43
 
 Thus represented he : they with one 
 voice combined 
 
 All vowed their ignorance : nor sight 
 had seen, 
 
 Nor infant sound had heard : for he 
 five days 
 
 'Mong shrubs and pathless briars and 
 rushes green 
 
 Had lain, the dewy violet's mingled rays 
 
 Sprinkling with purple and gold his ten- 
 der frame : 
 
 Whence fond Evadne's joy proclaimed 
 his deathless name. 
 
 EPODE III. 
 
 Now when fresh youth its golden 
 
 flower 
 Full o'er his blooming cheeks had 
 
 strewed, 
 
 Alone at night's tempestuous hour 
 In Alpheus' midmost stream he stood. 
 He called his grandsire Neptune's name, 
 Wide Ruler of the boisterous deep ; 
 Called on that Archer God whose flame 
 Beams on the Delian steep ; 
 For patriot fame he poured his prayer 
 44
 
 Beneath the vault of heaven : " My 
 
 son," 
 Replied his Sire's unerring speech, 
 
 " repair 
 To yon frequented tract, my Word shall 
 
 lead thee on." 
 
 STROPHE IV. 
 
 Forthwith they stood on Cronium's 
 
 topmost stone, 
 
 High as the sun's meridian road ; 
 There paused the God, and on his 
 
 son 
 The rich and twofold boon of prophecy 
 
 bestowed : 
 
 Gave him to hear the voice that can- 
 not liej 
 
 Bade him, when Hercules in after-days, 
 Flower of the great Alcaean progeny, 
 His Sire's frequented Festival should 
 
 raise 
 And proud Olympian Game, by gift 
 
 divine 
 On Jove's high altar plant his oracle and 
 
 shrine. 
 
 45
 
 ANTISTROPHE IV. 
 
 Thence through all Greece the seed of 
 limns 
 
 Bright Honour followed ; in its train 
 Came potent Wealth; the virtuous 
 
 thus 
 To Fame's conspicuous path by action 
 
 proved attain. 
 Yet envious hearts there are no worth 
 
 can warm ; 
 Which e'en the chariot-crown with 
 
 rancour fills 
 'Gainst modest Merit; o'er whose 
 
 brightening form 
 
 Victory her own ingenuous grace dis- 
 tils. 
 
 If yet, Agesias, thy maternal race, 
 Whose affluent dwellings rose by old 
 
 Cyllene's base, 
 
 EPODE IV. 
 
 Have knelt at Mercury's sacred shrine 
 The swift-winged herald of the skies, 
 With soothing prayers and gifts divine ; 
 (He guards the games, allots the prize, 
 46
 
 And loves Arcadia's youth) ; 't was he, 
 
 Aided by thundering Jove's regard, 
 
 Gave, son of Sostratus, to thee 
 
 Thy conquest and reward 
 
 A prompting power, methinks, I feel 
 
 A sharpening whetstone on my tongue ; 
 
 That stirs my flowing numbers to 
 
 reveal 
 Our old Arcadian root, and leads the 
 
 willing song. 
 
 STROPHE V. 
 
 'T was fair Metope's love, Stympha- 
 
 lian spouse, 
 
 To Thebes equestrian Thebe gave ; 
 In whose sweet fount, for warriors' 
 
 brows 
 Weaving the various hymn, my tuneful 
 
 lips I lave. 
 Rise, jEne'as, and enjoin thy swelling 
 
 choirs 
 
 To sing Parthenian Juno, then declare, 
 If the stale stigma that belied our 
 
 Sires, 
 (Boeotian boars, forsooth !) we still shall 
 
 bear. 
 
 47
 
 Thou art Truth's harbinger, the Muse's 
 
 tongue, 
 Her mystic staff, the cup that pours her 
 
 potent song. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE V. 
 
 Bid them remember Syracuse, and 
 
 sing 
 
 Of proud Ortygia's throne, secure 
 In Hiero's rule, her upright king. 
 With frequent prayer he serves and 
 
 worship pure 
 The rosy-sandalled Ceres, and her 
 
 fair 
 Daughter, whose car the milk-white 
 
 steeds impel, 
 And Jove, whose might the ^Etnaean 
 
 fires declare. 
 The lay, the sweet-toned lyre his praises 
 
 tell; 
 
 Time, mar not his success ! with wel- 
 come sweet 
 Agesias' choral pomp his liberal smile 
 
 shall greet.
 
 EPODE V. 
 
 Lo from Arcadia's parent seat, 
 
 Her old Stymphalian walls, they come, 
 
 From fields with flocks o'erspread, to 
 
 meet 
 
 Sicilia's swains, from home to home. 
 O'er the swift prow, when night-storms 
 
 lour, 
 
 Two anchors oft 't is well to cast 
 Heaven on them both its blessings pour, 
 And bid their glories last. 
 Lord of the main ! direct aright, 
 With toils unvext their prosperous 
 
 way; 
 Spouse of the golden-wanded Amphi- 
 
 trite, 
 With lovelier hues enrich the flowers 
 
 that crown my lay. 
 
 49
 
 ODE VII. 
 
 TO DIAGORAS OF RHODES 
 
 Victor in the Game of Boxing 
 
 STROPHE I. 
 
 As one, whose wealthy hands enfold 
 The sparkling cup of massy gold 
 Frothed with the vineyard's purple tide, 
 His Banquet's grace, his Treasure's 
 
 pride, 
 
 Presents it to the youthful spouse 
 Pledged in full draught from house to 
 
 house j 
 
 50
 
 And thus affection's honours fondly paid, 
 While on the soft connubial hour 
 Encircling friends their blessings pour, 
 Gives to his envied arms the coy con- 
 senting maid. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE I. 
 
 Thus to the Youth, whose conquering 
 
 brow 
 
 The Olympian wears or Pythian bough, 
 Lord of his hope, inspired I pay 
 The tribute of my liquid lay, 
 The nectar of the Muse's bowl, 
 Prest from the clusters of the soul. 
 Blest they, whose deeds applauding 
 
 worlds admire ! 
 
 For them, as each her glance par- 
 takes, 
 
 The life-enlightening Grace awakes 
 The various vocal flute, the sweet 
 melodious lyre. 
 
 EPODE I. 
 
 To-day the lyre and flute and song, 
 Roused by Diagoras, I move,
 
 Hymning fair Rhode from Venus 
 sprung, 
 
 The Sun's own Nymph and watery 
 love: 
 
 With her the giant boxer's praise to 
 sound, 
 
 The champion's noblest hire, 
 
 By Alpheus' stream, Castalia's foun- 
 tain crowned ; 
 
 And Damagete his old and upright Sire, 
 
 Pride of the beauteous Isle, whose Argive 
 host 
 
 By Asia's beaked shore three Sovereign 
 Cities boast. 
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 Fain would my lay their legends trace, 
 
 Divine Alcides' powerful race 
 
 From old Tlepolemus, and prove 
 
 Their boasted Sire's descent from Jove, 
 
 Amyntor's fair Astydame 
 
 The root of their maternal tree. 
 
 But o'er men's hearts unnumbered errors 
 
 hang; 
 Nor can dim Reason's glimmering 
 
 show 
 
 52
 
 The flowery path untrod by woe, 
 Or find the day's delight, that brings no 
 morrow's pang. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE II. 
 
 For even the founder chief, that 
 
 planned 
 
 The fortunes of this prosperous land, 
 With olive club by rage impelled, 
 Alcmena's spurious brother felled : 
 Midst Tiryns' walls by Midea's side 
 In her own porch Licymnius died. 
 Alas ! not Wisdom's self has power to 
 
 quell 
 
 The furious passions, when they meet 
 To tear her from her judgment-seat ! 
 Distracted at the deed he sought the 
 
 Delphian cell. 
 
 EPODE II. 
 
 Apollo waved his golden locks, 
 
 And warned him from his fragrant 
 
 fane, 
 
 Forthwith to steer from Lerna's rocks 
 For the rich realm amidst the main, 
 53
 
 Where erst with golden shower im- 
 perial Jove 
 
 Bedewed the wondering town ; 
 
 What time his brazen axe stout 
 Vulcan drove, 
 
 And Pallas from the Thunderer's rifted 
 crown 
 
 With outcry loud and long impetuous 
 broke ; 
 
 Heaven shuddered, and old Earth with 
 dread maternal shook. 
 
 STROPHE III. 
 
 *T was then Hyperion's son divine, 
 Lamp of the world, his Rhodian line 
 In haste enjoined with duteous eye 
 To watch the expected prodigy ; 
 That first of mortal votaries they 
 Their shining altar might display, 
 Jove and the Virgin of the Thundering 
 
 Spear 
 
 The first with solemn rites to soothe. 
 Precaution thus the paths of Truth 
 To Virtue's footstep shows, and cheers 
 
 her rough career. 
 
 54
 
 ANTISTROPHE III. 
 
 Yet oft before the wariest eyes 
 
 Mists of forgetfulness arise, 
 
 And unexpectedly betray 
 
 The wandering purpose from its way. 
 
 'T was thus, the seeds of fire forgot, 
 
 Their high-built shrine the Rhodians 
 
 sought, 
 With unburnt offerings heaped; yet 
 
 showers of gold 
 Jove poured upon them from the 
 
 cloud ; 
 
 And Pallas' self their hands endowed 
 With more than mortal skill her rarest 
 
 works to mould. 
 
 EPODE III. 
 
 Spread far and wide their various 
 
 praise : 
 
 In all mysterious crafts they shone, 
 Strewed over their walls, their public 
 
 ways, 
 
 The sculptured life, the breathing stone. 
 'T was Genius strengthened by the 
 
 toils of Art. 
 
 55
 
 Yet once, as stories say, 
 
 When Jove Earth's ample field to part 
 
 'Mongst all the gods decreed, the Lord 
 
 of Day 
 Above the waves saw not the Rhodian 
 
 steep, 
 By fate still bound within the dungeon 
 
 of the deep. 
 
 STROPHE IV. 
 
 Absent on function high the lot 
 Of the bright Sun his peers forgot j 
 And he the purest of the skies 
 Shared not the rich terrestrial prize. 
 Warned of the wrong, high Jove 
 
 again 
 
 The partial lots proposed, in vain ; 
 " For that mine eye discerns," the Sun 
 
 replied, 
 
 " A region gathering from the ground, 
 For man's delight all planted round 
 With fruits and pastures fair beneath 
 
 the foaming tide."
 
 ANTISTROPHE IV. 
 
 Forthwith commanded he to rise 
 
 The golden-vested Lachesis, 
 
 With lifted hand and fatal nod 
 
 To give the sanction of a god, 
 
 Joined with Saturnian Jove, and swear, 
 
 When time that shoal to heaven should 
 
 rear, 
 Its realm his boon should be. The 
 
 pledge divine 
 
 On Truth's unfailing pinion flew; 
 Promise to Consummation grew ; 
 Up sprung the beauteous isle and budded 
 
 from the brine. 
 
 EPODE IV. 
 
 His blooming lot the genial Sire, 
 That frames the pointed beams of day, 
 That rules the steeds whose breath is fire, 
 Received. There oft with Rhode he 
 
 lay; 
 
 Till seven brave sons with match- 
 less wisdom fraught, 
 Their fruitful raptures crowned. 
 The first lalysus begot, 
 57
 
 And Lindus, and Cameirus : they, their 
 
 bound 
 
 Paternal into three partitions thrown, 
 Each chose his several realm, and 
 
 named it for his own. 
 
 STROPHE V. 
 
 Tlepolemus, whose high command 
 Once led the brave Tirynthian band, 
 There, as a god, due honours knows, 
 The rich rewards of all his woes, 
 Victims on fuming altars slain, 
 Umpires and Games to grace the plain. 
 There twice the stout Diagoras was 
 
 crowned ; 
 
 Four times from Isthmian lists he bore 
 The mantling wreath, and many more 
 From Nemea's crowded grove and rough 
 
 Athenae's mound. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE V. 
 
 Him Argos with her brazen shield 
 Endowed ; him fair Arcadia's field ; 
 Him Thebes, and all the heroic games 
 Which old Boeotia's custom claims ; 
 58
 
 ./Egina him her champion shows ; 
 Him six times crowned Pellene knows, 
 And Megara's stone, o'erblazoned with 
 
 his praise. 
 
 O thou, that rearest thy temple bleak 
 On Atabyrium's topmost peak, 
 Great Jove, with favour hear our loud 
 
 triumphal lays. 
 
 EPODE V. 
 
 Raise thou the man, whose arm hath 
 
 found 
 
 Renown in famed Olympia's vale; 
 Bid citizens his deeds resound, 
 Strangers his name with reverence hail. 
 Just, like his upright sires, unblamed 
 
 he walks 
 
 His unpresumptuous way. 
 Hide not his race from good Callianax, 
 His tribe Eratian tell : for him to-day 
 The whole state feasts but in a 
 
 moment's change 
 To every point the gusts of public 
 
 favour range. 
 
 59
 
 ODE VIII. 
 
 TO ALCIMEDON AND TIMOSTHENES HIS 
 BROTHER 
 
 Victors among the Youths In Wrestling, 
 the former at the Olympic, the latter 
 at the Nemean Games 
 
 STROPHE I. 
 
 OLYMPIA, mother of the Games, 
 Where Worth his golden chaplet claims ; 
 .60
 
 Mistress of Truth; whose fate-explor- 
 ing Priest 
 
 From the slain victim learns, if high- 
 est Jove, 
 Whose hand the dazzling thunder 
 
 throws, 
 
 Views with regard the dauntless breast, 
 That, fired with Virtue's noblest love, 
 Pants but for Fame and Victory's sweet 
 repose. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE I. 
 
 Such blazon gracious Heaven allows 
 To prophets' pure and pious vows. 
 But thou, Pisaean Grove, whose 
 
 branches wave 
 O'er Alpheus' stream, accept the 
 
 wreaths I bear, 
 
 Triumphal strains. A deathless name 
 Thy glorious guerdon gives the brave. 
 Not all the same distinctions share : 
 Various the paths divine, that lead to 
 
 fame. 
 
 61
 
 EPODE I. 
 
 You, valiant youths, kind Destiny 
 
 consigned 
 To Jove your natal genius : he thy 
 
 name, 
 Timosthenes, proclaimed in Nemea's 
 
 Game, 
 
 While Pisa's wreaths Alcimedon en- 
 twined : 
 
 Of beauty's manliest mould was he ; 
 Nor failed his act the warrant of his 
 
 face ; 
 
 Crowned with the Wrestler's victory 
 jEgina's isle he named his native place : 
 Where all to Themis bow, that sits 
 
 above, 
 Saviour at once and judge, by Hospitable 
 
 Jove, 
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 No where so reverenced. Hard it is 
 Where interests clash and contests 
 
 rise 
 
 To meet the occasion, yet with judg- 
 ment pure 
 
 62
 
 The scales of right sustain. By Heav- 
 en's decree 
 
 That sea-girt isle thus proudly stands 
 (Still strengthening Time its weal se- 
 cure), 
 
 Like some blest column in the sea, 
 To invite and guide all strangers from 
 all lands ; 
 
 ANTISTROPHE II. 
 
 Still ruling with her Dorian line 
 
 The realm of ^Eacus divine : 
 
 Whom fair Latona's son with Neptune 
 paired, 
 
 Toiling round Troy to rear the tow- 
 ering wall, 
 
 Leagued in her work : her fatal hour 
 
 By that portentous choice declared, 
 
 That her proud domes in fight should 
 fall, 
 
 And hostile fires her smouldering fanes 
 devour.
 
 EPODE II. 
 
 Scarce perfect was the pile, when up 
 the tower 
 
 Three azure serpents leapt ; and from 
 the side 
 
 Two, as with horror thrilled, recoiled, 
 and died : 
 
 Yelling the third rushed on with gath- 
 ered power 
 
 The portent strange Apollo views, 
 
 And pondering briefly thus : " Devoted 
 Troy, 
 
 Thy help, ill-omened Hero, rues; 
 
 Thy mortal work her empire shall 
 destroy : 
 
 Yet not without thy sons ; for 't is de- 
 creed 
 
 The first and fourth of thine must mingle 
 in that deed. 
 
 STROPHE III. 
 
 " Thus Saturn's seed, the thundering 
 
 Jove 
 
 In vision shows me from above." 
 64
 
 That warning given, Xanthus in haste 
 
 he reached, 
 The mounted Amazons and Ister's 
 
 stream 
 Surveyed. Towards Isthmus by the 
 
 main 
 
 As swift the Trident-bearer stretched; 
 But first he stayed his golden team, 
 While jEacus regained jEgina's plain. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE III. 
 
 Thence o'er proud Corinth, to inspect 
 Her glorious Feast, his chariot checked. 
 Not all with equal favour all things 
 
 see : 
 His beardless rivals conquered should 
 
 my string 
 
 Sound for Meilesias, Envy's hand 
 Fling not the pointed stone at me ; 
 For I his Nemean Feats will sing, 
 And rough Pancratian fray with men 
 
 maintained.
 
 EPODE III. 
 
 With ease from Wisdom's lips in- 
 struction flows ; 
 
 Which unprepared fools only will dis- 
 pense ; 
 
 For weak 's the wit of Inexperience. 
 Perfect beyond his peers Meilesias knows 
 The Athletic discipline and plan, 
 That, when the Game shall rouse him 
 
 to the fray, 
 
 Harden and frame the practised man, 
 To bear the adored and dangerous 
 
 prize away. 
 
 To-day his boast Alcimedon must be, 
 The thirtieth youth his art hath trained 
 for victory. 
 
 STROPHE IV. 
 
 He with the smiles of Fortune bright, 
 Nor wanting valour's manliest might, 
 Hath to four hapless youths victorious 
 
 doomed 
 The hateful return, the path obscure, the 
 
 tale 
 
 Of shame ; and in his grandsire's heart 
 66
 
 Youth's long-extinguished lamp relumed : 
 When Glory's cheering beams prevail, 
 Old age revives, and death forgets his 
 dart. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE IV. 
 
 Now let the loud-recording lay 
 
 Awaken Memory to display 
 
 What feats, what triumphs in the 
 
 manual war 
 The Blepsian tribe achieved Gained 
 
 from the Games 
 
 On their proud busts six chaplets bloom. 
 Their kindred's rite the dead shall share : 
 Its praise departed Virtue claims ; 
 The trump of Glory echoes in the tomb. 
 
 EPODE IV. 
 
 From Fame, the child of Hermes, 
 Iphion 
 
 Heard ere he died, and shall delighted tell 
 
 Callimachus the Olympian crown that 
 fell 
 
 By Jove's good gift to his distin- 
 guished son. 
 
 67
 
 Still may the god his blessings shower 
 On their fair deeds, and chase disease 
 
 away; 
 
 Nor Nemesis send with vengeful power 
 To thwart the promise of their pros- 
 perous day. 
 Grant them long life, to Fortune's ills 
 
 unknown, 
 
 Their country's weal enhance, and crown 
 it with their own. 
 
 68
 
 ODE IX. 
 
 TO EPHARMOSTUS, THE OPUNTIAN 
 
 Victor in the Game of Wrestling 
 
 STROPHE I. 
 
 ARCHILOCHUS' resounding strain 
 
 The victor's ancient lay, thrice chanted 
 
 loud, 
 
 Sufficed along the Olympian plain 
 By Cronium's mount to lead the exulting 
 
 crowd, 
 
 The friends by Epharmostus* side 
 That swelled the full triumphal tide. 
 69
 
 But from the distant-dealing bow 
 To-day 't is thine the shaft to throw, 
 The Muse's shaft, that mounts above 
 E'en to the purple-bolted Jove 
 And Elis' sacred Promontory ; 
 Whose realm, CEnomaus' power o'er- 
 
 thrown, 
 
 Pelops the Lydian hero won, 
 Hippodamia's fairest dowry. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE I. 
 
 Send now thy sweet, thy winged reed, 
 At Pytho's field : the bard, whose thrill- 
 ing string 
 
 Resounds the manly wrestler's deed 
 From glorious Opus, stoops not on the 
 
 wing, 
 
 No vulgar flight pursues, the praise 
 Of Opus and her son to raise : 
 Where Themis and her child sedate, 
 Eunomia, famed, preserve the state. 
 On Alpheus' banks her glories gleam 
 And bloom by pure Castalia's stream 
 From whence by minstrels plucked the 
 
 flowers 
 
 Of all their blended chaplets grace 
 70
 
 The mother of the Locrian race, 
 Midst her deep woods and waving 
 bowers. 
 
 EPODE I. 
 
 Thus while her favoured City glows 
 With the full radiance of my lay, 
 Swifter than generous steed, or bark 
 
 that throws 
 Her swelling wings along the watery 
 
 way, 
 
 I '11 spread the tale through every land, 
 If blest by Heaven this tuneful hand 
 Cultures the Graces' choicest field ; 
 For they all mortal transports yield, 
 And wit and valour wait on their divine 
 
 command. 
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 By them inspired Alcides dared 
 
 With club terrestrial brave the Trident's 
 
 might } 
 
 What time the Pylian towers to guard 
 Neptune his rage withstood. The Lord 
 
 of Light 
 
 71
 
 Advanced his silver-sounding bow, 
 And warred against the heroic foe. 
 Nor e'en in Hades' rueful hand 
 Unbrandished hung the infernal wand, 
 Wherewith men's mortal forms are 
 
 led 
 
 To the hollow city of the dead 
 Renounce, my lips, the verse profane ! 
 'T is hateful wit at gods to rail : 
 Vain-glory's impious ill-timed tale 
 Sounds but of Frenzy's thoughtless 
 
 strain. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE II. 
 
 Babble no more of themes like these, 
 Nor mix with fabled war the immortal 
 
 Powers : 
 
 Sing rather thou with blameless lays 
 Protogeneia's ancient towers j 
 Where by Jove's hest in thunder heard 
 Man's first abode Deucalion reared, 
 When from Parnassus' glittering crown 
 With Pyrrha paired the Seer came 
 
 down. 
 
 Behind them rose their unborn sons, 
 The new-named laity of stones, 
 72
 
 A homogeneous mortal throng : 
 
 For them thy sounding numbers raise, 
 
 Nor, when old wine inflames thy 
 
 praise, 
 Forget the flowers of modern song. 
 
 EPODE II. 
 
 Then, as they tell, a deluge raged 
 O'er the sunk Earth's opacous plain : 
 Till Jove's rebuke the wasteful waves 
 
 assuaged, 
 And pent them in their oozy gulf 
 
 again. 
 
 Sprung from that aged ancestor 
 Your brazen-bucklered sires of yore, 
 (Blood, that from old lapetus runs 
 And dames that mixt with Saturn's 
 
 sons) 
 A line of genuine kings their native 
 
 sceptre bore ; 
 
 STROPHE III. 
 
 E'er since the Olympian Leader's love 
 Snatched Opus' daughter from the 
 Epeian plain 
 
 73
 
 To dark Maenalia's conscious grove, 
 And gave her back to Locrus' arms 
 
 again ; 
 
 Lest age, that hastes our mortal doom, 
 Should bear him childless to the tomb. 
 By that celestial Power comprest 
 A nobler birth the matron blest. 
 The good old Hero hails beguiled 
 And dotes upon the imputed child ; 
 And gives him, as his years display 
 Youth's comeliest form and manhood's 
 
 fire, 
 The name, that graced his mother's 
 
 sire, 
 To boast, a peopled realm to sway. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE III. 
 
 Strangers unnumbered round his throne, 
 Argives, and Thebans, and Arcadians 
 
 prest, 
 
 Pisatians too ; but Actor's son 
 Menaetius most his high regard carest, 
 Patroclus' sire : on Mysia's plain 
 He with the Atridae leagued in vain, 
 When Telephus the Grecian throng 
 Back on their barks disordered flung, 
 
 74
 
 Alone with great Achilles stayed : 
 Heroes his act with shouts surveyed : 
 And Thetis' son, his brave compeer 
 Implored him from that glorious day 
 No more to meet the martial fray 
 Apart from his all-conquering spear. 
 
 EPODE III. 
 
 O ! for a spirit that could bid 
 
 New words and quickening thoughts 
 
 to rise, 
 
 Of skill the Muse's daring car to guide 
 In all the might of genius through the 
 
 skies ! 
 
 Then would I come with glory's bay, 
 While Fame and Friendship fired my lay, 
 To grace the brothers' Isthmian crown, 
 The prize Lampromachus had won, 
 The twin achievement proud of one 
 
 victorious day. 
 
 STROPHE IV. 
 
 Where Corinth's portal parts the main 
 Two triumphs more brave Epharmostus 
 gained ; 
 
 75
 
 Others on Nemea's sheltered plain : 
 He from the Athenian youths the prize 
 
 obtained ; 
 
 From men the Argolic shield he won : 
 Oh ! what a strife at Marathon, 
 With beardless foes no longer paired, 
 'Gainst sturdier age the stripling dared ! 
 Himself unfoiled with dexterous bound 
 He writhed and whirled them to the 
 
 ground. 
 
 Graced with the goblet's silver meed 
 What shouts, what plaudits from the 
 
 throng 
 
 Cheered, as the champion stalked along, 
 His manly port, his manlier deed. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE IV. 
 
 At Jove's Lycaean Feast the whole 
 Parrhasian host marvelling his might 
 
 surveyed ; 
 
 Marvelled Pellene, when the Stole, 
 Winter's warm antidote, his bulk dis- 
 played. 
 Witness the tomb, where Thebans 
 
 grace 
 
 The Games of godlike lolas ; 
 7 6
 
 Witness Eleusis' wave-born strand 
 The toils and triumphs of his hand. 
 From Nature all perfections flow : 
 And though from tasked attention slow 
 Taught excellence will sometimes strain 
 And struggle to renown ; if Heaven 
 Has not the inspiring impulse given, 
 'T is silence best rewards the pain. 
 
 EPODE IV 
 
 Life's walks are various : one concern 
 The crowded world can ne'er sustain : 
 To Fame's high path the steps of 
 
 Genius turn. 
 
 Thy gift aloud proclaim ; in daring strain 
 Tell, how of birth propitious sprung 
 The Oilcan Games robust and young 
 With dexterous arm and dauntless eye 
 Thy champion braved, and Victory 
 With all his glorious wreaths the shrine 
 
 of Ajax hung. 
 
 77
 
 ODE X. 
 
 TO AGESIDAMUS, OF LOCRIS EPIZEPHYRIA 
 
 Victorious in the Game of Boxing 
 
 STROPHE I. 
 
 WHERE stands Archestratus' trium- 
 phant son, 
 
 The Olympic victor, written on my 
 mind ? 
 
 My promise of sweet song for him 
 designed 
 
 Had from my faithless memory flown. 
 78
 
 But thou, O Muse, from whom no 
 treachery springs, 
 
 And Truth, fair daughter of high 
 Jove, 
 
 Lend me your upright efforts to re- 
 move 
 
 The slur that Slander on mine honour 
 flings. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE I. 
 
 5 T is true the distant dilatory day 
 Hath brought to shame the debtor and 
 
 the debt : 
 With amplest usury he '11 discharge it 
 
 yet, 
 
 And melt the keen reproach away. 
 Mark how the strong wave, as it sweeps 
 
 along, 
 Rolls the washed pebble from the 
 
 shore j 
 Mark how the arrear shall vanish as 
 
 we pour 
 Friendship's full tribute, our historic 
 
 song. 
 
 79
 
 EPODE I. 
 
 For Truth with the Zephyrian Loc- 
 rians dwells : 
 
 They love the heroic Muse and martial 
 field. 
 
 Cycnus with onset fierce, as story tells, 
 
 The o'erpowering might of Hercules 
 repelled. 
 
 As by Achilles roused Patroclus stood ; 
 
 So to stout Has on the Olympian sand 
 
 The boxer's palm Agesidamus owed. 
 
 Oft hath the cheering friend, when Na- 
 ture's hand 
 
 Has touched the warrior's heart with 
 Virtue's flame, 
 
 Gigantic deeds inspired, and Heaven 
 confirmed his fame. 
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 Conquests by toil unearned to few be- 
 long : 
 
 Action 's the sovereign good, the light 
 of life. 
 
 But me Jove's Hallowed Rites the ath- 
 letic strife 
 
 80
 
 And matchless Games in solemn song 
 Bid blazon ; which the potent Hercules 
 Stablisht by Pelops' ancient tomb ; 
 What time the godlike Cteatus to his 
 
 doom 
 He sent, though sprung from him that 
 
 rules the seas, 
 
 ANTISTROPHE II. 
 
 Him with bold Eurytus, the largess due 
 Thus from reluctant Augeas to compel. 
 Them on their journey in Cleonae's dell 
 The avenging chief from ambush 
 
 slew. 
 
 Just retribution ! his Tirynthian host, 
 Surprised in Elis' close defiles, 
 Molione's o'erweening sons by wiles 
 Had crushed ; and all his choicest chiefs 
 
 were lost. 
 
 EPODE II. 
 
 That guest-beguiling king the wrath 
 
 of Heaven 
 Soon reached. He saw the sceptre of 
 
 his sway, 
 
 81
 
 To sword and flame his wealth and 
 
 country given, 
 
 Saw his Epeian kingdom pass away, 
 Sunk in Destruction's gulf! 'T is hard 
 
 indeed 
 The conflict with a mightier foe to 
 
 close ; 
 And wit forsakes whom Fate hath 
 
 doomed to bleed. 
 Himself a captive thus, the last of 
 
 those 
 Whose loyalty his fault and fortune 
 
 shared, 
 'Scaped not the dire revenge Herculean 
 
 rage prepared. 
 
 STROPHE III. 
 
 That justice satisfied, the son of Jove 
 Mustered his conquering bands and 
 
 massy spoils 
 On Pisa's plain, the fruits of all their 
 
 toils. 
 
 To his great Sire the sacred Grove 
 He compassed out ; and in clear space 
 
 within 
 
 Paled all the severed Altis round ; 
 82
 
 For the free banquet smoothed the 
 
 circled ground ; 
 And crowned Alpheius' banks with 
 
 many a shrine 
 
 ANTISTROPHE III. 
 
 To the twelve Sovereign Gods. Yon 
 bordering peak 
 
 The Cronian Mount he called, a name- 
 less waste 
 
 When old ./Enomaus reigned, by song 
 ungraced, 
 
 And drenched with snows its turrets 
 bleak. 
 
 To that prime consecration and high rite 
 
 The Fates in stern attendance came; 
 
 And Time, whose sole probation can 
 proclaim 
 
 Truth to be true, that season stayed his 
 flight. 
 
 EPODE III. 
 
 He in his course advancing to this hour 
 Bears record where the Hero's altars 
 rose; 
 
 83
 
 The gifts of war how portioned he, the 
 flower 
 
 Of all the spoils he gained from all his 
 foes; 
 
 How solemnized his great Quinquen- 
 nial Feast. 
 
 Say now, what envied youth the new- 
 wrought crown 
 
 Earned in that first Olympiad, from 
 the crest 
 
 Of his foiled foe plucking his fresh 
 renown ? 
 
 Who quelled his rival in the manual war, 
 
 Flew on the bounding foot, or whirled 
 the madding car. 
 
 STROPHE IV. 
 
 ./fEonus first, Licymnius' youthful son, 
 Who ruled in Midea's walls his native 
 
 force, 
 With speed unmatched along the Stadian 
 
 course 
 
 The light pedestrian chaplet won. 
 First in the wrestler's ring from Tegea's 
 
 plain 
 
 Shone Echemus. To Tiryns shore 
 84
 
 The Boxer's manly prize Doryclus bore ; 
 While four fleet coursers with his mas- 
 tering rein 
 
 ANTISTROPHE IV. 
 
 To the bright goal Mantinean Semus 
 took. 
 
 Home to the mark the lance of Phras- 
 tor flew : 
 
 Farthest with circling hand and im- 
 pulse true 
 
 Enrikeus hurled the whirling rock ; 
 
 That all his peers the triumph of his 
 might 
 
 With shouts applauded. Rising now 
 
 The soft-eyed Moon on Evening's tran- 
 quil brow 
 
 Hung the full circle of her lovely light. 
 
 EPODE IV. 
 
 There in full choir the genial Feast 
 
 around 
 
 Encomiastic songs and joyful strains 
 Rung through the sacred Grove : such 
 
 cheering sound 
 
 85
 
 Swells for the crown our Locrian hero 
 
 gains. 
 True to the customed and constituent 
 
 rite, 
 Sing we the thunder and the dazzling 
 
 bolt 
 That arms Jove's fiery grasp, when in 
 
 his might 
 He hurls the bellowing vengeance thro* 
 
 the vault. 
 To the loud pipe respond the melting 
 
 lays 
 
 Which late from Dirce's fount her lin- 
 gering minstrel pays; 
 
 STROPHE V. 
 
 Dear, as the smiling infant, which 
 the wife 
 
 Almost past hope to its fond father 
 bears 
 
 Now far declined into the vale of 
 years, 
 
 And warms with love his waning life. 
 
 For who, that with long thrift and hon- 
 est toil 
 
 His patrimonial store hath swelled, 
 86
 
 Loathes not in childless age his gains to 
 
 yield, 
 
 And leave strange heirs to riot on the 
 spoil ? 
 
 ANTISTROPHE V. 
 
 So who with name unsung from 
 Glory's fray, 
 
 Agesidamus, sinks to Death's domain, 
 
 The slave of thankless care hath 
 breathed in vain, 
 
 And flung life's rapturous hour away. 
 
 For thee the sweet voice of the war- 
 bling lyre, 
 
 The soft mellifluous flutes diffuse 
 
 Their mixt harmonious graces, Fame 
 pursues 
 
 Where Jove's Pierian Maids the strain 
 inspire. 
 
 EPODE V. 
 
 By them inflamed have I with earnest 
 
 praise 
 The illustrious Locrians crowned ; 
 
 poured on their town, 
 
 87
 
 Home of the brave, the honey of my 
 
 lays, 
 And swelled, Archestratus, thy son's 
 
 renown. 
 
 Him by the Olympic altar I beheld 
 Quelling the mightiest with his vigor- 
 ous arm : 
 In beauty's flower his manly form 
 
 excelled, 
 Where Youth o'er Strength diffused her 
 
 early charm ; 
 Such Youth as erst by winning Cypria 
 
 led 
 Relentless death repelled from blooming 
 
 Ganymede. 
 
 88
 
 ODE XL 
 
 TO THE SAME AGESIDAMUS 
 
 For his Victory in the Game of Boxing 
 
 STROPHE 
 
 SOMETIMES we need the breathing gale, 
 Sometimes the soft celestial rain, 
 Child of the cloud, to bless the vale ; 
 But when Success Adventure crowns, 
 the lyre's mellifluous strain 
 89
 
 To spread the eternal blazon, and assever 
 On Fame's unfailing oath, that Virtue 
 lives for ever. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE 
 
 To those, that win the Olympian 
 prize 
 
 Such lavish eulogies belong ; 
 
 And such my willing tongue supplies : 
 
 For aye the flowers of genius bloom, 
 when Heaven inspires the song. 
 
 Son of Archestratus, thy proud re- 
 nown, 
 
 (Agesidamus hear!) thy olive's golden 
 crown, 
 
 EPODE 
 
 Won by thy matchless hand shall share 
 The sweet melodious lay, 
 The Western Locrians all my care : 
 There, Muses, join the festal choir, for 
 
 they 
 Chase not, I ween, the stranger from 
 
 their shore, 
 
 Nor live unlearned in Glory's lore. 
 90
 
 Science and warlike enterprise are theirs : 
 The Fox, the raging Lion, every 
 
 creature 
 
 Unchanged its inborn instinct bears, 
 Leaves not the cast of Nature.
 
 ODE XII. 
 
 TO ERGOTELES OF HIMERA 
 
 Victor in the Long Foot-race 
 
 STROPHE 
 
 DAUGHTER of Eleutherian Jove, 
 Protecting Fortune, to thy power I pray 
 To guard imperial Himera : 
 Guided by thee the winged gallies move 
 Thro' the wide sea : thine are the 
 
 impetuous wars, 
 
 The pondering councils : by thy change- 
 ful sway 
 
 92
 
 Now sunk below, now lifted to the 
 
 stars 
 Thro' life's illusions vain Hope steers 
 
 her wandering way. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE 
 
 But by sure presage to descry 
 
 The approaching day's event, mysteri- 
 ous Heaven 
 
 Hath not to helpless mortals given ; 
 
 And all is blind towards dim futurity. 
 
 Oft on the best in fond Opinion's 
 spite 
 
 Joy's sad reverse has fallen; others no 
 less 
 
 With Woe's distressful storms long 
 doomed to fight 
 
 Have changed in one short hour disaster 
 to success. 
 
 EPODE 
 
 Son of Philenor, thy renown 
 Had shed its faded flower, 
 Thy speed beyond thy native bower, 
 93
 
 Like the brave cock's domestic wars, 
 
 unknown : 
 
 Had not, Ergoteles, the civil fray, 
 That friend with friend embroils, 
 Forced thee from Cnossian fields 
 
 away; 
 Now in the Olympic grove for nobler 
 
 toils, 
 By Isthmians once, and twice in 
 
 Pytho crowned, 
 
 A worthier hearth thy Fame has found 
 By the warm waves of Himera, 
 Whose Nymphs by thee ennobled hail 
 
 thy stay. 
 
 94
 
 ODE XIII. 
 
 TO XENOPHON THE CORINTHIAN 
 
 Victor in the Single Foot-race and in the 
 Pentathlon 
 
 STROPHE I. 
 
 WHILE to the House thrice in Olympia 
 
 crowned, 
 
 The citizen's indulgent friend, 
 95
 
 The stranger's host, my praise I send j 
 Thee, prosperous Corinth, for thy race 
 
 renowned, 
 Portal of Isthmian Neptune, shall my 
 
 strain 
 Forget not. There the Golden Sisters 
 
 reign 
 
 From Themis sprung, Eunomia pure, 
 Safe Justice and congenial Peace, 
 Basis of states ; whose counsels sure 
 With wealth and wisdom bless the 
 
 world's increase, 
 
 ANTISTROPHE I. 
 
 And Insolence the child of bold- 
 
 tongued Pride 
 
 Far from the social haunt repel. 
 Many a fair tale have I to tell, 
 Which fearless Truth forbids my 
 
 song to hide, 
 If aught could hide what Nature's grace 
 
 bestows. 
 Sons of the famed Aletes, round your 
 
 brows 
 
 Oft have the blooming Hours displayed 
 At sacred game in Glory's field 
 96
 
 Triumphant Virtue's noblest braid i 
 Oft to your throbbing hearts by hints 
 revealed 
 
 EPODE I. 
 
 Discoveries old of Wisdom's ways, 
 
 And works still pregnant with the in- 
 ventor's praise. 
 
 Whence sprung the Dithyrambic choir ? 
 
 The bull by dancing Bacchants led ? 
 
 Who taught to curb the courser's fire ? 
 
 Who on the solemn Temples first out- 
 spread 
 
 The Sovereign Eagle's sculptured wings ? 
 
 Yours is the Muse's warbled lay, 
 
 And Mars, to panting youth that brings 
 
 The wreath that crowns the fatal fray. 
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 Thou, whose wide rule protects the 
 Olympian land, 
 
 Grudge not my song, Paternal Jove, 
 
 Thy boundless favour from above ! 
 
 Still o'er this people stretch thy shelter- 
 ing hand : 
 
 97
 
 Swell the fresh gale of Xenophon's 
 
 renown, 
 
 And for his powers in Pisa shown 
 Accept the ritual praise we pour. 
 Pedestrian speed, Pentathlian might, 
 Alike he conquered : man before 
 Ne'er joined the unequal palms of 
 
 strength and flight. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE II. 
 
 His trophied brows the parsley's crisped 
 
 tiar 
 Twice at the Feasts of Isthmus 
 
 bound : 
 
 His deeds the Nemean rocks resound : 
 The dazzling speed of Thessalus his 
 
 sire 
 Still famed on Alpheus' banks obtained 
 
 the crown : 
 He, ere one sun on Pytho's peaks went 
 
 down, 
 
 The single gained and double race : 
 Three wreaths on Athens' rugged strand 
 In one short month's triumphant space 
 Twined round his radiant locks their 
 
 blended band : 
 
 98
 
 EPODE II. 
 
 Seven times the Hellotian prize he bore. 
 And with his sire, the illustrious Ptaeo- 
 
 dore, 
 'Twixt the two gulfs in Neptune's 
 
 Game 
 Earned for his meed the minstrel's 
 
 chant, 
 
 The rapturous gift of deathless Fame. 
 How graced your matchless deeds the 
 
 Lion's haunt ? 
 How shone the Delphian steeps 
 
 below ? 
 
 The excess confounds me, while I teach 
 Your multiplied exploits ; for who 
 Shall count the sands that heap the 
 
 beach ? 
 
 STROPHE III. 
 
 But all things have their bounds, by 
 
 wisdom's sight, 
 
 When just Occasion warns, descried : 
 And I thus launched on Praise's tide 
 To hymn departed glory, and the fight 
 Where Virtue wins the heroic victory, 
 
 99
 
 Disdain to frame the laudatory lie 
 E'en for proud Corinth ; tho' she boast 
 The gifted god-like Sisyphus, 
 And her that rescued Argo's host 
 Spite of her sire to gain her Minyan 
 spouse. 
 
 TANTISTROPHE III. 
 
 Add what her sons before the Dardan wall 
 Of warlike hardiment displayed 
 Each side the combat ; these arrayed 
 With Atreus' race fair Helen to recall, 
 Those to retain conflicting. Glaucus 
 
 there 
 Lycia's bold captain taught e'en Greeks 
 
 to fear. 
 
 His boast was, that his sire of yore 
 By pure Pirene's fount his reign 
 O'er all her towering city bore 
 And called her walls his palace and do- 
 main; 
 
 EPODE III. 
 
 That sire, who toiled so long to lead 
 The grisly Gorgon's refractory seed 
 IOO
 
 Wild Pegasus ; ere Pallas made 
 For his rude hand the golden rein 
 In dazzling dream before him laid 
 " Sleep'st thou, ^Eolian king ? " with 
 
 wakening strain 
 
 She cried, " Yon fiery steed to rule 
 Take this bright spell, and bid thy 
 
 sire 
 
 The Equestrian God, with pastured bull 
 Heaping his shrine, thy gift admire." 
 
 STROPHE IV. 
 
 Thus in mid night with gleaming JEgis 
 
 graced, 
 
 The Virgin hailed him as he slept : 
 Roused on his feet at once he leapt 
 To clutch the glittering wonder, which 
 
 in haste 
 To Polyide the neighbouring Seer he 
 
 brought, 
 And told the event his foresight sage 
 
 had taught ; 
 " How while he dreamt the wondrous 
 
 dream 
 Couched on her shrine, the daughter 
 
 chaste 
 
 101
 
 Of Jove, whose spear 's the lightning's 
 
 beam, 
 Herself the potent gold beside him 
 
 laid." 
 
 ANTISTROPHE IV. 
 
 Paused not the Prophet, but with prest 
 
 advice 
 
 Urged him the vision to obey j 
 " First offering him, whose watery sway 
 Bounds the vast Earth, his sturdy 
 
 sacrifice, 
 
 To Hippian Pallas next a shrine to build : 
 For gods 'gainst oaths and hopes with 
 
 ease can yield 
 
 To trembling mortals good or harm." 
 Forth sprung the stout Bellerophon, 
 Stretcht on his mouth the thrilling 
 
 charm, 
 And made the winged fugitive his own, 
 
 EPODE IV. 
 
 And leapt in brazen arms arrayed 
 On his proud back and with his fury 
 played. 
 
 I O2
 
 With him the Amazons from the cold 
 And desert bosom of the sky, 
 A female host of archers bold, 
 He smote j with him the warlike Solymi, 
 And fierce Chimaera breathing fire 
 Pass we his downfall from above, 
 But mark the ascending steed retire 
 Within the Olympian stalls of Jove. 
 
 STROPHE V. 
 
 But while direct the lance of song we 
 
 send, 
 
 What boots it from the tuneful string 
 Far from the mark our shafts to fling ? 
 For to the tribe of Oligaethe a friend 
 With all the bright-throned Muses, 
 
 Nemean plain 
 And Isthmian shore I '11 visit with my 
 
 strain. 
 
 A word the copious tale shall tell 
 Pledged on mine oath : the Herald's 
 
 tongue 
 Hath at those games with cheering 
 
 swell 
 Full sixty glorious times their triumph 
 
 rung. 
 
 103
 
 ANTISTROPHE V. 
 
 Their past Olympic feats have graced 
 
 my song; 
 
 The future in their joyous day, 
 Hope's promise, shall the Muse display : 
 But fortunes and events to heaven be- 
 long. 
 
 Smile but their natal genius from above, 
 The rest to Mars we '11 trust, and 
 
 ruling Jove. 
 
 Yet must I name their Pythian boughs, 
 Their wreaths from Thebes, from Argos 
 
 brought : 
 
 And Jove's Lycaean altar knows 
 Their countless wonders in Arcadia 
 wrought : 
 
 EPODE V. 
 
 Pellene, too, and Sicyon, 
 And Megara, and illustrious Marathon, 
 Eleusis, and the fenced Grove 
 Of jEacus, and Euboea's Isle, 
 And all the prosperous states, above 
 Whose walls huge ./Etna lifts her tower- 
 ing pile, 
 
 104
 
 All Greece their boundless praise pro- 
 claim. 
 
 Teach them, Great Jove, with meekness 
 graced 
 
 To tread the dazzling paths of Fame, 
 
 And Fortune's choicest gifts to taste. 
 
 105
 
 ODE XIV. 
 
 TO ASOPICHUS THE ORCHOMENIAN 
 
 Victor in the Single Foot-race run 
 by Boys 
 
 STROPHE I. 
 
 O YE, that by Cephisis' waves profuse 
 Dwell on the banks with steeds and 
 
 pastures fair, 
 
 Illustrious queens of proud Orchomenus, 
 Listen, ye Graces, to my prayer 
 Ye, whose protecting eyes 
 The Minyans' ancient tribes defend ; 
 1 06
 
 From you life's sweets and purest 
 
 ecstasies 
 
 On man's delighted race descend. 
 Genius, and Beauty, and Immortal 
 
 Fame, 
 Are yours : without the soft majestic 
 
 Graces 
 
 Not e'en the gods in their celestial places 
 Or feast or dance proclaim. 
 Raised are their thrones on high 
 Beside the Pythian lord of day, 
 That bends the golden bow ; where they 
 All pastimes and solemnities above 
 Blissful dispense, and sanctify 
 The eternal honours of Olympian Jove. 
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 August Aglaia, blithe Euphrosyne, 
 Daughters of Heaven's resistless king, 
 And thou, that lovest the liquid lay, 
 Thalia, hear my call, and see 
 The choiring minstrels on their way, 
 By favouring fortune wooed, 
 With festive steps advancing : I to sing 
 Asopichus in Lydian mood 
 And laboured measures come ; 
 107
 
 For Minya from the Olympian shrine 
 Bright victory bears thy gift divine 
 Go now, sweet Echo of my lyre, 
 To pale Proserpine's melancholy dome 
 With thy proud tidings to the Sire ; 
 Tell Cleodamus, that his youthful son 
 In Pisa's glorious vale the braid 
 From Jove's illustrious games hath won 
 And twined the plumes of conquest 
 round his head. 
 
 1 08
 
 PYTHIAN ODES
 
 ODE I. 
 
 TO HIERO THE /ETNJEAN 
 
 Victor in the Chariot-race 
 
 STROPHE I. 
 
 GOLDEN Lyre, Apollo's care, 
 Thy aid with violet tresses crowned, 
 Their emblem thee, the Muses share : 
 The bounding dance obeys, and joy pur- 
 sues the sound. 
 
 Ill
 
 Thy signal wakes the vocal choir, 
 When with the sweet preamble's linger- 
 ing lay 
 
 Thy frame resumes its thrilling sway. 
 The lanced lightning's everlasting fire 
 Thou hast extinguish!, while by thee 
 On Jove's own sceptre lulled the 
 
 Feathered King 
 Forgets his awful ministry, 
 And hangs from either flank the droop- 
 ing wing : 
 
 ANTISTROPHE I. 
 
 Thou his beaked crest around 
 Hast poured the cloud of darkness soft, 
 And o'er his beaming eyeballs bound 
 The lock of thy sweet spell : slumbering 
 
 he sits aloft 
 
 With ruffling plumes and heaving spine 
 Quelled by thy potent strain. The 
 
 furious Mars 
 
 Aloof hath left the bristling spears, 
 And with thy soft mellifluous anodyne 
 Soothed his relentless heart ; for even 
 The gods themselves thy searching shaft 
 
 subdues 
 
 112
 
 By skilled Latoldes aimed in heaven, 
 Framed in the bosom of the swelling 
 Muse. 
 
 EPODE I. 
 
 But those, whom all-discerning Jove 
 
 Abides not, shudder at the sound 
 
 The chaste Pierian Damsels move, 
 
 On earth or in the restless wave, 
 
 Or where in durance underground 
 
 The god's presumptuous foe 
 
 Lies, hundred-headed Typhon ; whom 
 
 the cave 
 Far-famed by Tarsus bred, now stretcht 
 
 below 
 
 Where Cuma's beetling sea-cliffs frown ; 
 While on his broad and shaggy breast 
 Sicilia's regions rest, 
 And hoary ./Etna, pillar of the sphere, 
 With her bleak snows through all the 
 
 year 
 Nursed in her angry arms, presses the 
 
 monster down :
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 Bursting from whose caverned side 
 The living fountains waste their way 
 Of unapproachable fire ; whose tide 
 With clouds of smouldering fume be- 
 dims the sultry day ; 
 Reddening at night the inflamed flood 
 Rolls off the lifted rocks, and down the 
 
 steep 
 
 Plunges beneath the bellowing deep. 
 Meanwhile that Serpent from his dungeon 
 
 rude 
 
 Sends his dread fire-spouts to the air, 
 Vulcanian streams portentous to behold ! 
 Strange e'en the traveller's tongue to 
 
 hear 
 
 Of sights and sounds so dire the tale 
 unfold ; 
 
 ANTISTROPHE II. 
 
 How on ^Etna's burning base 
 Beneath her dark umbrageous head 
 Chained and immured the rugged place 
 Gores all his writhing bulk, that rues 
 that restless bed. 
 114
 
 Grant me, Great Jove, thy smiles to 
 
 know, 
 Lord of this mountain, whose high 
 
 front commands 
 
 In circuit wide the abundant lands ; 
 Graced with whose name the bordering 
 
 state below 
 
 Shares its great founder's large renown, 
 By herald's voice at Pytho's listening 
 
 games 
 
 Declared ; while Hiero's chariot-crown, 
 A monarch's meed, the inspiring note 
 
 proclaims. 
 
 EPODE II. 
 
 From heaven a fresh propitious gale 
 
 With ardent prayer the seaman craves, 
 
 To wing with speed his parting sail ; 
 
 While Hope a prosperous course fore- 
 tells 
 
 From that good presage o'er the waves : 
 
 Thus blest with omen fair 
 
 Of earliest fame, while ./Etna's realm 
 excels, 
 
 The Muse her future glories shall de- 
 clare ; 
 
 "5
 
 Her gorgeous feasts, her coursers proud, 
 Her choirs to chant the victor's lay 
 O thou, whose radiant sway 
 Delos and Lycia rules; whose haunt is 
 
 still 
 
 The mount that pours Castalia's rill ; 
 Accept thy suppliant's prayer ; her streets 
 
 with heroes crowd. 
 
 STROPHE III. 
 
 Good the gods alone dispense ; 
 All arts, all worth from them we trace ; 
 And Wit, and Might, and Eloquence 
 Are but the gifts divine of bounteous 
 
 Nature's grace. 
 
 But thou this prince's praise to sing 
 Intent, as some the brazen javelin wield, 
 Urge not thy song beside the field, 
 But forward far, where rivals ne'er can 
 
 fling- 
 Unchanging Fortune's golden shower, 
 With Virtue's goodlier boon, the cloud- 
 less mind, 
 
 Time on his state benignant pour, 
 And calm Oblivion shade the toils 
 behind. 
 
 116
 
 ANTISTROPHE III. 
 
 Still shall Memory's rolls attest 
 
 The wars he waged, the fields he won, 
 
 While patient bravery nerved his 
 
 breast ; 
 What honours sent from heaven around 
 
 their temples shone, 
 By Grecian hand ne'er pluckt before, 
 To crown their wealth a glorious dia- 
 dem. 
 
 His dauntless mind with pangs extreme, 
 Though rackt, war's toil, like Philoctetes, 
 
 bore : 
 
 Princes his aid with flattery sought, 
 And wooed, by Fortune prest, his 
 
 saving power. 
 
 'T was thus the Hellenian heroes brought 
 From Lemnian rocks, in Troy's dis- 
 astrous hour, 
 
 EPODE III. 
 
 Paean's brave son, with wasting wound, 
 Though weak and worn, whose fatal 
 
 bow 
 
 Razed Priam's Dion to the ground. 
 117
 
 He closed the lingering toils of Greece, 
 
 With powerless frame advancing slow; 
 
 For such was Fate's decree. 
 
 Thus may some healing god henceforth 
 increase 
 
 Great Hiero's weal, and Opportunity 
 
 Wait on his wish ! For young Di- 
 nomenes 
 
 Wake now, my Muse, thy cheering 
 lyre, 
 
 And sing the conquering sire ; 
 
 By sire like him quadrigal chaplets won 
 
 Grieve not, I ween, the aspiring son ; 
 
 Wake, then, for Etna's king thy grate- 
 ful minstrelsies. 
 
 STROPHE IV. 
 
 Blest with freedom, heaven bestowed, 
 For him sage Hiero planned the place, 
 And building on the Hyllaean code 
 Founded their polity. The free Pam- 
 
 phylian race, 
 
 From great Alcides sprung, that dwell 
 On the green skirts of high Taygetus, 
 Still hold the ./Egimian law, the Dorian 
 
 use. 
 
 IiS
 
 They from the cliffs of Pindus issuing 
 
 fell 
 
 On sackt Amyclae's prosperous plain, 
 By whose famed border the Tyndarean 
 
 host 
 
 Their milk-white steeds illustrious train ; 
 Such martial sires the tribes of ./Etna 
 
 boast. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE IV. 
 
 Mighty Jove, to those, that live 
 By fruitful Amena's murmuring tide, 
 Subjects and prince, like freedom give, 
 By Truth's unerring rule their faultless 
 
 course to guide. 
 
 Inspired by thee, by practice sage, 
 His son's, his people's steps the sire 
 
 shall lead 
 
 The tranquil paths of Peace to tread. 
 Bid, son of Saturn, the Phoenicians' rage 
 In calm domestic arts subside, 
 Yon Tuscan rout remember in retreat 
 Their comrades' groans on Cumae's 
 
 tide, 
 With tarnished ensigns strewed and 
 
 foundering fleet. 
 
 119
 
 EPODE IV. 
 
 Such was the wild promiscuous wreck 
 Wrought by the Syracusian stroke, 
 Whose captain from the towering deck 
 Dasht to the deep their vanquish! 
 
 throng, 
 And knapt in twain the barbarous 
 
 yoke. 
 
 When Athens asks my praise, 
 From Salamis I '11 date the swelling 
 
 song; 
 Cithaeron's field the Spartan's fame shall 
 
 raise, 
 
 Where Persia's boasted archery fell : 
 But when, Dinomenes, the lyre 
 Thy conquering sons inspire, 
 Oh, then, from Himera's banks the 
 
 glittering bough 
 
 I '11 pluck to plant on Virtue's brow, 
 And bid those echoing shores their foes' 
 
 disasters tell. 
 
 STROPHE V. 
 
 Wouldst thou foil the censurer's sneer, 
 Thy copious theme in narrowest pale 
 1 2O
 
 Confine ; nor pall the impatient ear 
 That throbs for fresh delights, and 
 
 loathes the lengthening tale. 
 With forced applause, with grief pro- 
 found, 
 
 The vulgar audience listens to the lays 
 That swell the prosperous stranger's 
 
 praise : 
 Yet since the flatterer Envy's deadliest 
 
 wound 
 
 Pains not the brave like Pity's tear, 
 Cling thou to Good ; thy vessel's mar- 
 tial throng 
 
 With the sure helm of Justice steer 
 And on Truth's anvil steel thy guarded 
 tongue j 
 
 ANTISTROPHE V. 
 
 Sparks of mischief struck from thee 
 Spread far and wide the authentic flame : 
 Thousands observe thy sovereignty ; 
 A thousand listening ears bear witness 
 
 to thy shame. 
 
 If yet Fame's dulcet voice to hear 
 Thou long'st, still crowned to stand at 
 
 Virtue's post, 
 
 121
 
 Oh ! shrink not from the worthless cost ; 
 
 But, like a brave and liberal captain, 
 spare 
 
 Thy spreading canvass to the wind. 
 
 Trust not, my friend, to Flattery's ill- 
 bought breath : 
 
 Glory, whose living lamp behind 
 
 Departed mortals gilds the shrine of 
 death, 
 
 EPODE V. 
 
 Bids History's pomp on Goodness 
 
 wait ; 
 
 And rouses the rewarding strain 
 To sound the triumphs of the great. 
 Still Croesus lives for kindness blest : 
 On Phalaris, whose remorseless reign 
 The bull and torturing fire 
 Upheld, the curses of all ages rest : 
 Him nor the festive band, nor cheering 
 
 lyre, 
 
 Nor youths in sweet communion joined 
 With fond remembrance hail! Above 
 The goodliest gifts of Jove 
 Fortune the first, Fame claims the sec- 
 ond, place j 
 
 122
 
 The man whose grasp, whose filled em- 
 brace 
 
 Both Fame and Fortune holds, life's 
 noblest crown has twined. 
 
 123
 
 ODE II. 
 
 TO THE SAME HIERO 
 
 Victor in the Chariot-race 
 
 STROPHE I. 
 
 GREAT Syracuse, the splendid shrine 
 Of battle-breathing Mars, 
 Nurse of illustrious chiefs divine, 
 And steeds that pant for iron wars ! 
 To thee, from glorious Thebes, my 
 
 strain I bear. 
 
 The conquering chariot's harbinger; 
 124
 
 Wherein with fourfold team, that shook 
 
 the thundering plain, 
 Thy Hiero won the dazzling braid, 
 And crowned Ortygia in her humid fane, 
 Seat of the watery Dian ; by whose 
 
 aid 
 With glittering rein and lenient hand he 
 
 broke 
 His youthful coursers to the yoke. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE I. 
 
 For oft the virgin Queen, that aims 
 
 The silver shafts of light, 
 
 Oft Mercury guardian of the games 
 
 Plies with prompt hands the trappings 
 bright ; 
 
 When to the burnisht car he joins the 
 speed, 
 
 The vigour of the rein-led steed, 
 
 And calls the wide-domained and trident- 
 sceptred god. 
 
 The tuneful strain, fair Virtue's meed 
 
 Others on other monarchs have be- 
 stowed j 
 
 As oft the Cyprian minstrels wake the 
 reed 
 
 125
 
 For Cinyras (whom Phoebus golden- 
 tressed 
 With pure celestial love caressed, 
 
 EPODE I. 
 
 And Venus made her priest and para- 
 mour) ; 
 
 Such strain to thee for favour found 
 Each grateful heart shall pour, 
 Son of Dinomenes ! mark how, thy 
 
 praise to sound, 
 Seated before her peaceful cot, 
 The Locrian damsel trolls her lay, 
 With looks secure, her fears forgot, 
 And foes, thy power hath frowned away. 
 That moral to mankind, 
 As story tells, by heaven enjoined, 
 Round on his restless wheel for ever rolled 
 With warning voice Ixion told, 
 "With warm returns of gratitude 
 Requite the bounties of the good." 
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 Fatally learnt ! A life of bliss 
 With Saturn's sons he led ; 
 126
 
 Whose heavenly friendship used amiss 
 To madness fired his impious head : 
 What time the matchless consort of high 
 
 Jove 
 
 He tried, by blind presumptuous love 
 To that wild outrage moved. Full soon 
 
 the just return 
 
 A strange unpractised pain he bore, 
 Two bold misdeeds condemned at once 
 
 to mourn : 
 For he, a hero deemed, with kindred 
 
 gore 
 His hands had stained, and first by fraud 
 
 designed 
 The foulest murder of his kind ; 
 
 ANTISTROPHE II. 
 
 He to the secret bower unseen, 
 Jove's genial chamber, stole, 
 And tempted there the eternal Queen 
 O, could man's wit his wish control, 
 His true dimensions learn ! A host of 
 
 woes 
 
 Unlicensed Lust's indulgence knows ! 
 Witness this thoughtless dupe, that 
 
 wooed a shadowy cloud, 
 127
 
 And made the enchanting cheat his 
 bride : 
 
 Fair, heavenly fair, like Saturn's daughter 
 proud, 
 
 Lookt the bright form his baseness to 
 deride ; 
 
 So well Jove's art had wrought the flat- 
 tering bane. 
 
 Now in his quadri-radiate chain, 
 
 EPODE II. 
 
 (Rack self-devised) inextricably bound 
 
 He with stretcht limbs and doleful cry, 
 
 Deals his sad precept round. 
 
 Meanwhile with love unblest that air- 
 drawn effigy 
 
 In solitude her single birth 
 
 Monstrous produced : the graceless 
 child 
 
 No reverence found in heaven or earth. 
 
 Now " Centaur " named, with passion 
 wild 
 
 The mateless male assails 
 
 Magnesian mares in Pelion's vales : 
 
 Whence sprung the unnatural breed, 
 whose wondrous kin 
 128
 
 Their parents' twofold form combined ; 
 The dam their baser parts confest, 
 The statelier father crowned the crest. 
 
 STROPHE III. 
 
 Thus to perfection God could bring 
 Whate'er his will designed 
 God, that o'ertakes the eagle's wing 
 And leaves the dolphin's haste behind 
 In the mid sea ; whose chastening hand 
 
 hath bowed 
 
 The lofty spirit of the proud, 
 And given to modest worth the imper- 
 ishable crown 
 
 But here the unseemly tale we close, 
 Warned by the example past and ill re- 
 nown 
 Of starved Archilochus, whose verse 
 
 morose, 
 Whose malice was his feast. The 
 
 stores be mine 
 Of wealth and genius to combine. 
 
 129
 
 ANTISTROPHE III. 
 
 The first kind Fortune's gifts afford 
 
 Thy liberal hand around 
 
 Largely to lavish, sovereign Lord 
 
 Of states and hosts with glory crowned : 
 
 He that from ages past assumes to name, 
 
 From all the flower of Greece, in fame, 
 
 Honours, possessions, power, a prince 
 
 surpassing thee, 
 Vaunts with false heart and idle 
 
 tongue. 
 
 O ! for a bark upon the boundless sea 
 To range at large, when Virtue swells 
 
 my song, 
 And spread, if bravery be the boast of 
 
 youth, 
 Thy glory from the strain of Truth : 
 
 EPODE III. 
 
 She saw the band to thee, the squadron 
 
 yield, 
 
 And thy green arm from manhood tear 
 The trophies of the field. 
 Unrisked, unbounded praise thy sager 
 
 counsels share : 
 
 130
 
 All forms of fame thy deeds attend ; 
 Hail to thy greatness ! o'er the sea 
 Like rich Phoenician stores I send 
 My freight of eulogies for thee. 
 Accept with favouring eye 
 Our rich Castorean minstrelsy : 
 Touched on the ./Eolian chord its notes 
 
 will fire 
 With raptures high the seven-toned 
 
 lyre. 
 
 But praise on Apes let boys bestow, 
 Keep thou the course thy virtues know : 
 
 STROPHE IV. 
 
 Thus wisest Rhadamanthus won 
 
 The reverence of mankind ; 
 
 The fruits of conscience all his own ; 
 
 No flattering falsehood lured his mind ; 
 
 Wherewith, the sufferer's and the listen- 
 er's bane, 
 
 Weak ears intriguing whisperers gain, 
 
 Detraction's pilfering priests, that live on 
 calumnies, 
 
 Filching like foxes in the dark 
 
 Yet what the gain their treacherous trade 
 supplies ?
 
 Like the dull net flung from the seaman's 
 
 bark, 
 They drudge beneath the deep, while 
 
 o'er the tide 
 My buoyant corks untarnisht ride. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE IV. 
 
 No hold the slanderer's word can take 
 
 On Virtue's generous heart : 
 
 Yet fawning, flattering all, they make 
 
 The mischief, that sustains their art. 
 
 Boldness like theirs I boast not, to my 
 friend 
 
 Most friendly ; to my foes constrained 
 
 I am a foe, a wolf, that hunt them ev- 
 erywhere, 
 
 And by blind paths my prey surprise. 
 
 Truth in all states her fearless front may 
 rear; 
 
 Whether proud kings, or fierce democ- 
 racies, 
 
 Or sapient peers the public weal main- 
 tain. 
 
 Strive not with God ; thy rage is vain j 
 
 132
 
 EPODE IV. 
 
 He for wise ends the virtuous magnifies, 
 Or deigns the worthless head to raise 
 With glory to the skies. 
 Still Envy rests not here : in faithless 
 
 scale she weighs 
 
 Her weak pretence 'gainst Merit's claim, 
 And in the struggle to be blest 
 Oft guides the wandering poniard's aim, 
 E'en to her own unguarded breast. 
 'Tis temperate Wisdom's care 
 With light contented heart to bear 
 Life's galling yoke. To kick the 
 
 pointed goad, 
 
 And wound the heel, yet keep the load, 
 Is the fool's cure. Be mine to use 
 Virtue's sweet converse and the Muse. 
 
 133
 
 ODE III. 
 
 TO THE SAME HIERO 
 
 Victor In the Horse-race 
 
 STROPHE I. 
 
 O ! THAT good Phillyra's benignant son, 
 Old Chiron, from Uranian Saturn sprung 
 (If without blame a minstrel's tongue 
 With the world's prayer may blend his 
 
 own), 
 
 Could from the dead return, to reign 
 O'er Pelion's peaceful vales again, 
 And bear once more the generous mind, 
 134
 
 Brute though in form, to bless man- 
 kind ! 
 
 Such, as when erst his fostering care 
 
 The hero ^Esculapius bred ; 
 
 Who first taught pain the writhing 
 wretch to spare, 
 
 Touched by whose healing hand the pale 
 diseases fled. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE I. 
 
 Him Phlegyas* daughter bore ; who 
 
 midst the throe^ 
 
 While Ilithyia watcht her matron cries, 
 Pierced with the thrilling dart that flies 
 From stern Lucina's golden bow, 
 Changed by Apollo's power o'ercome 
 Her painful chamber for the tomb. 
 So fearful 't is for man to move 
 The vengeance of the sons of Jove 
 She in her frailty's wanton mood 
 The bright-haired God's approach re- 
 pelled 
 (Whose love so late her wavering heart 
 
 subdued) 
 
 E'en while his heavenly seed her genial 
 bosom swelled : 
 
 135
 
 EPODE I. 
 
 She to her sire unknown a prince adored. 
 No more the bridal feast or damsel train 
 She recked ; she stayed not till they 
 
 poured 
 
 In melting choir their hymeneal strain, 
 Or to soft airs for maiden meet 
 Warbled their wonted vesper sweet. 
 Her thoughts on absent raptures rove, 
 The torturing dream of all that love. 
 Fond mortals thus the gifts refuse 
 Of tendering Fortune with disdain ; 
 While Hope some distant trifle views 
 And hunts the flying prize in vain. 
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 That fatal fault within her altered breast 
 The fair Coronis nursed : away she 
 
 threw 
 
 Her virgin robes, and madly flew 
 To clasp her loved Arcadian guest : 
 Unmark'd not of the Seer divine, 
 Whose victims heap the Pythian shrine : 
 There throned within his temple pale 
 Sage Loxias knew the unseemly tale, 
 136
 
 By sure direct communion taught 
 The glance of his omniscient mind : 
 Falsehood beguiles not him j nor act, 
 
 nor thought, 
 Nor man, nor potent God his searching 
 
 sight can blind. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE II. 
 
 Thus, while on love Eilatian Ischys 
 
 bent 
 He viewed, his feigned pretence and 
 
 deed unchaste, 
 
 To Lacereia's towers in haste 
 The god his vengeful sister sent, 
 Where rose by Boebias' distant flood 
 The afflicted maid's forlorn abode, 
 Now by the Power, whose baleful sway 
 Lured her from Virtue's paths to stray, 
 Shamed and destroyed. The demon's 
 
 ire 
 E'en 'mongst her friends the o'erwhelm- 
 
 ing ill 
 
 Diffused ; as from one spark the gather- 
 ing fire 
 
 Spreads through the distant woods, and 
 strips the umbrageous hill. 
 137
 
 EPODE II. 
 
 Now when by kindred hands the damsel 
 
 lay 
 Stretcht on the pile sepulchral, and the 
 
 flames 
 Ran round ; " Mine offspring thus to 
 
 slay 
 My soul shall ne'er endure," the god 
 
 exclaims, 
 
 41 Nor leave its parent's pangs to share." 
 Thus briefly, from the lifeless fair, 
 Whom with one pace he reacht (the pyre 
 Self-opening to the saving sire), 
 Away the struggling child he bare, 
 And bade the Pelian Centaur sage 
 Store its young mind with precepts rare 
 Disease and mortal pain to 'suage. 
 
 STROPHE III. 
 
 All those, whose sickly temperaments 
 betrayed 
 
 The natural sore ; all whom the grid- 
 ing sword, 
 
 The whirling rock, had crusht or gored ; 
 
 All whom the blistering flames had flayed; 
 138
 
 All through whose limbs keen winter's 
 breath 
 
 Had blown the drowsy chill of death ; 
 
 (Whate'er the pang their frames en- 
 dured) 
 
 Each of his several bane he cured. 
 
 This felt the charm's enchanting sound j 
 
 That drank the elixir's soothing cup ; 
 
 Some with soft hand in sheltering bands 
 he bound, 
 
 Or plied the searching steel and bade 
 the lame leap up. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE III. 
 
 Yet Wisdom's self the lust of gain be- 
 trays : 
 
 Him too Corruption with her rich 
 reward, 
 
 Her glittering gilded hand, ensnared 
 
 With impious art the dead to raise. 
 
 Roused at the deed indignant Jove 
 
 Thro' both at once his lightning drove ; 
 
 At whose dread shock and instant 
 blast 
 
 From both their breasts the spirit 
 past; 
 
 139
 
 So quick the flaming courier speeds. 
 Pour we to Heaven our humble prayer, 
 And beg the boon our mortal misery 
 
 needs, 
 By sad experience taught of what frail 
 
 race we are. 
 
 EPODE III. 
 
 Dare not, my soul, immortal life to 
 
 crave ; 
 The practicable good strive thou to 
 
 gain 
 
 But O ! that still yon mountain cave 
 Sage Chiron held, where this mellifluous 
 
 strain 
 With tuneful charm his heart might 
 
 move 
 Some healing power to send, from 
 
 Jove 
 
 Or Phoebus sprung, with spells endued. 
 To still the pangs that rack the good, 
 With him the bounding bark I 'd 
 
 mount, 
 
 And ride the rough Ionian wave, 
 By Arethusa's bubbling fount 
 My kind ./Etnean host to save : 
 140
 
 STROPHE IV. 
 
 Him Syracuse reveres, her lenient king 
 Whose pride ne'er pined at Virtue's 
 
 just success ; 
 Whose love the unfriended strangers 
 
 bless 
 
 O ! could I reach thy realm, and bring 
 Health, golden Health, with Song to 
 
 grace 
 The wreath that crowned thy Pythian 
 
 race, 
 
 (Which late from Cirrha to thy shore 
 The matchless Pherenicus bore), 
 Then should thy glorious minstrel shine 
 From far with beams of goodlier light, 
 With two such gifts advancing o'er the 
 
 brine, 
 Than yon celestial star to thy rejoicing 
 
 sight. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE IV. 
 
 But to the Matron Goddess, in whose 
 
 praise 
 
 Oft near my portal at the midnight hour 
 
 With Pan their hymns the damsels pour, 
 
 141
 
 For thee my distant voice I '11 raise. 
 
 If, Hiero, thy discernment knows 
 
 The flower on wisdom's word that 
 
 grows ; 
 
 Oft hast thou learnt from sapient age, 
 Guide of thy youth, this precept sage, 
 That " with each boon kind Fate be- 
 stows 
 
 Two banes the chastening gods com- 
 bine," 
 Banes to the fool, but blessings to the 
 
 wise, 
 
 Who clear the incrusting coil, and bid 
 the diamond shine. 
 
 EPODE IV. 
 
 Thee Heaven hath prospered; for if 
 Fortune's eye 
 
 E'er beams on mortal, 't is the con- 
 queror King: 
 
 Yet with unchanged, uncloudy sky 
 
 Not e'en for Peleus shone the eternal 
 spring, 
 
 Nor godlike Cadmus ; tho' they heard, 
 
 To that surpassing bliss preferred, 
 
 The golden-vested Muses fill 
 142
 
 With songs of joy their echoing hill, 
 Seven-portalled Thebes repeat the strain ; 
 When this Harmonia's hand endowed, 
 On that sage Nereus from the main 
 Thetis, his glorious child, bestowed. 
 
 STROPHE V. 
 
 Gods from the spheres came down their 
 
 feast to grace, 
 
 Where they their nuptial gifts from Sat- 
 urn's sons, 
 
 Ethereal kings on golden thrones, 
 Took, and beheld them face to face. 
 Thus, for past cares and toils forgot, 
 Their hearts corrected with their lot, 
 The smiles of favouring Heaven they 
 
 found ; 
 
 Sorrow unseen yet hovered round : 
 Cadmus, at life's distressful close, 
 His frenzied children's furies prest ; 
 Tho' genial Jove one for his consort 
 
 chose, 
 
 And soothed his power divine on fair 
 Thyone's breast. 
 
 143
 
 ANTISTROPHE V. 
 
 Pelcus, to whom immortal Thetis gave 
 One matchless son, on Phrygia's fatal 
 
 plain 
 
 By shaft obscure untimely slain, 
 Mourned with all Greece his early grave. 
 If there be one, whose wisdom crowned 
 The unerring paths of Truth has found, 
 'T is his with heart uplift to Heaven 
 To improve the gift its grace has given. 
 The winds that sweep the vaulted sky 
 Shift every hour their changeful way ; 
 And when on man swelling Prosperity 
 In all its fulness comes, it will not, 
 
 must not stay. 
 
 EPODE V. 
 
 Humble in want, in greatness I '11 be 
 
 great, 
 Still to my fortune's form F 11 shape my 
 
 will, 
 
 My wit the follower of my fate. 
 Should some kind god my lap with 
 
 affluence fill, 
 
 To Fame's high peak my hopes aspire : 
 144
 
 Sarpedon and the Pylian sire 
 
 All ages know, to all proclaimed 
 
 In sounding song by Genius framed. 
 
 Her title to the breathing lyre 
 
 Virtue in charge securely gives ; 
 
 But rare the hand, whose touch can fire 
 
 The immortal strain, by which she lives. 
 
 145
 
 ODE IV. 
 
 TO ARCESILAUS THE CYRENJEAN 
 
 Victor in the Chariot-race 
 
 STROPHE I. 
 
 TO-DAY beside thy friend Arcesilas, 
 The steed-renowned Gyrene's bounteous 
 
 king, 
 Stand, heavenly Muse, his minstrel choir 
 
 to grace ; 
 
 146
 
 And swell the gale of triumph, as they 
 
 sing 
 
 Latona's twins and Pytho's plain ; 
 Where, while Apollo filled the fane, 
 His priestess, from her shrine above 
 Between the golden birds of Jove, 
 Decreed, that on yon fruitful coast 
 Battus should plant his alien host 
 Embarking from the sacred Isle, and 
 
 found 
 The town for chariots famed on Libya's 
 
 glittering mound ; 
 
 ANTISTROPHE I. 
 
 Battus the tenth and seventh of his 
 line 
 
 Thus destined to fulfil the eventful 
 word, 
 
 Which erst at Thera from her lips di- 
 vine 
 
 The raging daughter of jfEetes poured. 
 
 'T was thus to Jason's godlike train 
 
 The Colchian queen addrest her strain : 
 
 " Hear, what my labouring soul fore- 
 bodes, 
 
 Ye sons of heroes and of gods ; 
 147
 
 How Epaphus' child in after-days 
 From this wave-wandered isle shall raise 
 Within the precincts of the Ammonian 
 
 king 
 A root, whence cities proud, and peopled 
 
 realms shall spring. 
 
 EPODE I. 
 
 " They from the Dolphin's puny chase 
 Shall turn the generous steed to train, 
 And urge for oars the chariot's race 
 With tempest speed and flowing rein. 
 Great parent thus shall Thera shine 
 Of mighty states ; so doomed by pledge 
 
 divine, 
 
 When in man's form the social god, 
 Where cool Tritonis pours her issuing 
 
 lake, 
 
 His country's symbolled soil bestowed ; 
 From the high prow, that sacred gift to 
 
 take, 
 Down slept Euphemus ; and consenting 
 
 Jove 
 Clanged the loud thunder from above. 
 
 148
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 " 'T was when the parting crew on 
 
 Argo's side 
 Their anchor brazen-fanged, her steady 
 
 rein, 
 Were fastening (we thro* deserts waste 
 
 and wide 
 Twelve tedious days proceeding from 
 
 the main 
 
 Our lifted bark laborious bore, 
 Hauled by my counsels to the shore ) 
 At that portentous hour alone 
 The God came forth : his aspect 
 
 shone 
 
 Gracious, as of a reverend man ; 
 And frank and kind his accents ran ; 
 As when some generous lord his enter- 
 ing guest 
 With cheerful welcome greets, and bids 
 
 him to the feast : 
 
 ANTISTROPHE II. 
 
 "Yet briefly (for the excuse of sweet 
 
 return 
 
 Prest us), c bis name Eurypylus,' he said, 
 149
 
 4 Sprung from the immortal Sire whose 
 billowy bourne 
 
 Shakes the loud shore ; ' nor more our 
 haste delayed, 
 
 But without parley from the ground 
 
 Snatcht the first pledge his friendship 
 found : 
 
 Forth leapt our hero to the strand, 
 
 With hand extended graspt his hand, 
 
 And gladly from the tendering god 
 
 Accepted the propitious clod j 
 
 Which late at eve washt from the ves- 
 sel's side 
 
 Sunk in the brine, they say, beneath the 
 weltering tide. 
 
 EPODE II. 
 
 " Full oft I charged the attendant band, 
 Now freed from heavier toil or thought, 
 To guard it well ; my vain command 
 Full soon their heedless hearts forgot. 
 Thus on this isle the immortal seed 
 Of Libya's fortune ere its hour is shed ; 
 For if to Taenarus' sacred shade 
 Euphemus hence returned, that mystic 
 boon 
 
 ISO
 
 By Hell's terrestrial gates had laid 
 (Yon godlike prince, steed-mastering 
 
 Neptune's son, 
 Whom Tityus' daughter by Cephisus' 
 
 shore 
 Erewhile the famed Europa bore), 
 
 STROPHE III. 
 
 " Then, when the Greeks went forth, as 
 
 go they shall, 
 
 From Lacedaemon, in the fourth descent, 
 And Argos and Mycenae's swarming 
 
 wall, 
 
 His blood had ruled that boundless con- 
 tinent. 
 
 Now must he raise in strange embrace 
 With barbarous dames his chosen race ; 
 That led by Heaven with fortune's 
 
 smile 
 
 Shall reach this rude sequestered isle, 
 And rear a mortal doomed to reign 
 The lord of Libya's cloud-black plain. 
 Him with abstruse response and hint 
 
 divine 
 
 Heard from the Pythian domes and gold- 
 encumbered shrine,
 
 ANTISTROPHE IV. 
 
 " Phoebus with fleets and hosts in happier 
 
 days 
 Shall warn the clime to seek, where o'er 
 
 the land 
 Saturnian Nile his fattening moisture 
 
 lays." 
 
 Such was Medea's lore : the heroic band 
 Speechless in fixt amazement stood 
 Thrilled at the marvellous truths she 
 
 showed. 
 
 Blest son of Polymnestus, thee 
 Portrayed in that proud prophecy, 
 Thee with her sweet spontaneous strain 
 The Delphian maid proclaimed again : 
 Three times thy state she hailed, and 
 
 gave the word 
 That sent thee crowned away, Gyrene's 
 
 destined lord, 
 
 EPODE III. 
 
 Thee to that shrine a suppliant sent 
 With prayers thy faltering speech to 
 
 cure 
 
 Now prospering in the eighth descent 
 Still on the throne thy sons endure j 
 152
 
 Where in youth's prime Arcesilas 
 Fresh as the spring his purple flower dis- 
 plays. 
 On him with crowns the Amphictyons 
 
 wait 
 
 Given by Apollo for his Pythian race : 
 Him to the Muse I '11 consecrate j 
 Him and the all-golden fleece, whose 
 
 distant place 
 When erst thro' many a wave the Min- 
 
 yans found 
 
 Glories from heaven their temples 
 crowned. 
 
 STROPHE IV. 
 
 But whence that voyage ? what neces- 
 sity 
 
 Bound on their hearts its adamantine 
 chain ? 
 
 'Twas Pelias' doom by fraud or force 
 to die 
 
 By jEolus' renowned descendants slain. 
 
 For e'en his soul with wisdom filled 
 
 The threatening Oracle had chilled ; 
 
 That, breathed from Delphi's central 
 cave, 
 
 153
 
 The wood-crowned Earth's mysterious 
 
 nave, 
 
 Bade him with all his kingly care 
 The single-sandalled wight beware, 
 Come when he should, stranger or citizen, 
 Down from his mountain hold to famed 
 
 lolcus' glen. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE IV. 
 
 All at the appointed time, with ported 
 
 spears 
 In either hand appeared the dreadful 
 
 man : 
 Shaped in Magnesian guise a garb he 
 
 wears, 
 That round his glorious limbs compacted 
 
 ran ; 
 
 O'er which a pard-skin from the storm 
 Sheltered his stout unshuddering form. 
 His mantling locks unshorn, unbound, 
 In nature's wildness waving round, 
 Down his broad back illustrious shook : 
 Forward all bent on speed he broke, 
 Till in the forum halting, calm unmoved 
 Amidst the inquiring crowd his dauntless 
 
 heart he proved. 
 
 154
 
 EPODE IV. 
 
 Unknown he stood " Apollo's mien 
 Is this ? " some gazing wonderer cried, 
 " Or his, that wooed the Cyprian queen, 
 Whose reins the brazen chariot guide ? 
 In flowery Naxos ages since 
 Otus and Ephialtes, daring prince, 
 Iphimedia's offspring died : 
 Tityus, gigantic form, Diana slew, 
 When from her chaste and quivered side 
 Her huntress-bolt the unconquered virgin 
 
 drew; 
 That warned from joys forbidden men 
 
 might haste 
 The practicable bliss to taste." 
 
 STROPHE V. 
 
 Thus they with vague surmise in crowds 
 
 discoursed 
 Listening and whispering ; when in bur- 
 
 nisht car 
 Pelias with mules all panting thither 
 
 forced 
 
 His urgent speed. Astounded from afar 
 The stripling's dexter ankle round 
 155
 
 He spied a single sandal bound ; 
 
 Yet with disguised alarm, " Proclaim, 
 
 Stranger," said he, " thy country's 
 
 name; 
 
 Tell me what matron born on earth 
 From her fair bosom gave thee birth ? 
 Let not the loathed lie thy lips disgrace, 
 But meet my just demand, and frankly 
 
 tell thy race." 
 
 ANTISTROPHE V. 
 
 Him with undaunted Virtue's accents 
 
 mild 
 Answered the youth, " From Chiron's 
 
 school I come ; 
 The Centaur's daughters nursed me 
 
 from a child, 
 And good Chariclo made her cave my 
 
 home. 
 
 Now, when by their kind care sustained 
 My strength its twentieth year has 
 
 gained, 
 
 For no foul deed, no phrase unchaste 
 From that sage intercourse displaced, 
 My home I visit, to require 
 The ancient honours of my sire ; 
 I 5 6
 
 Which erst to ruling ^Eolus and his heirs 
 Jove in his bounty gave, and now the 
 Usurper wears. 
 
 EPODE V. 
 
 " He by perverse ambition stung 
 The traitor Pelias, as 't is said, 
 Their sceptre from my parents wrung, 
 Which they by right with justice swayed. 
 They on my birth's eventful day 
 Dreading that lawless ruler, in dismay 
 My death pretended, and prepared 
 Domestic semblance of sepulchral rite ; 
 And female moans and sighs were heard : 
 Me swathed in purple, to the secret 
 
 night 
 Trusting their silent path, in Chiron's 
 
 care 
 They placed, the nurturer of their heir. 
 
 STROPHE VI. 
 
 " Such is my tale Good people, tell 
 
 me true 
 My fathers rode the milk-white steed 
 
 where stand 
 
 157
 
 Their stately towers ? 't is JEson's son 
 
 ye view ; 
 
 I come no alien to a stranger's land : 
 My godlike host, the centaur Seer, 
 The name of Jason bade me bear." 
 
 Thus spake the youth : his father's 
 
 glance 
 
 Discerned far off the son's advance, 
 And the big tears of ecstasy 
 Came bubbling from his aged eye, 
 So swelled his bursting heart with joy to 
 
 find 
 His lost illustrious boy the comeliest of 
 
 mankind. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE VI. 
 
 Thither in haste, allured by Jason's fame, 
 His reverend uncles, from the neigh- 
 bouring bowers 
 
 By Hypereia's fountain, Pheres came, 
 Came Amythaon from Messene's towers. 
 Admetus and Melampus too 
 To greet their glorious kinsman flew. 
 With welcome warm and sumptuous 
 feasts 
 
 158
 
 Jason regaled his honoured guests, 
 And freely without change or check 
 Threw loose the reins on Pleasure's 
 
 neck : 
 Five days and nights in sympathy of 
 
 soul 
 Plucked they the laughing flowers, that 
 
 crown the social bowl. 
 
 EPODE VI. 
 
 On the sixth morn his plan proposed, 
 Its cause, importance, means, and bent 
 To all his kin the youth disclosed. 
 Forthwith they sallied from their tent, 
 In haste for Pelias' mansion bore, 
 And now already stood within the 
 
 door. 
 
 The soft-haired Tyro's artful son 
 Spontaneous rose to meet the martial 
 
 throng ; 
 
 When with mild air and soothing tone, 
 Dropping sweet words that melted from 
 
 his tongue, 
 Jason the conference raised on Wisdom's 
 
 base : 
 " Hear thou, Petrsean Neptune's race, 
 
 '59
 
 STROPHE VII. 
 
 " Prone is man's mind from Honour's 
 
 arduous way 
 To verge into the tempting paths of 
 
 gain, 
 Rough in the advance and leading far 
 
 astray : 
 
 But thine and mine it must be to re- 
 strain 
 
 Our wrath, and weave our future weal. 
 I speak to ears, that heed and feel. 
 One parent's womb, thou knowest, of 
 
 yore 
 
 Cretheus and bold Salmoneus bore ; 
 And we their grandsons thus look on 
 The glory of the golden Sun. 
 But when affection cools, and hateful 
 
 ire 
 Rankles in kinsmen's hearts the decent 
 
 Fates retire. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE VII. 
 
 " Oh ! 't is not seemly thus with lance and 
 
 shield 
 
 That thou and I for honours ancestral 
 160
 
 Base war should wage. Take all my 
 
 spacious field, 
 My flocks and brindled herds, I cede 
 
 them all, 
 
 Which from my sire thy daring stealth 
 Forced and yet feeds, thy pampered 
 
 wealth. 
 
 I grudge thee not, and view with ease 
 Thy house enhanced with spoils like 
 
 these. 
 
 But what I challenge for my own, 
 My sovereign sceptre, and the throne 
 Whereon sat ./Eson, when the law 
 
 divine 
 His horsemen hosts received, these, 
 
 Pelias, must be mine : 
 
 EPODE VII. 
 
 " These without conflict from thy hand, 
 Lest ill betide thee, yield us back." 
 
 Thus urged the prince his just demand ; 
 And thus e'en Pelias calmly spake : 
 " Thy will be mine : but me the late 
 Remains of life's declining hour await ; 
 Thy youth now wantons in the bloom : 
 161
 
 Thou canst appease the subterranean 
 
 powers ; 
 
 The soul of Phrixus from the tomb 
 Calls me, to bear him from Petes' towers 
 And seize the ponderous ram's reful- 
 gent hide, 
 That saved him from the raging tide, 
 
 STROPHE VIII. 
 
 "Saved from the incestuous stepdame's 
 
 angrier dart. 
 
 This to mine ear a dream miraculous 
 Hath told : for this have I with anxious 
 
 heart 
 
 Castalia's counsels askt, that urge me thus 
 Thither with bark and band to speed 
 Dare thou for me the adventurous deed, 
 And I will leave thee lord and king : 
 Jove, from whom all our races spring, 
 Be Jove himself our binding oath, 
 Witness, and warrant of our troth." 
 
 This compact to the chiefs propounded 
 
 they 
 With full consent approved, and parting 
 
 went their way. 
 
 162
 
 ANTISTROPHE VIII. 
 
 His heralds loud now Jason bade pro- 
 claim 
 
 The perilous enterprise. Three sons of 
 Jove 
 
 Unmatcht in combat at that bidding 
 came, 
 
 The fruits of Leda's, and Alcmena's, 
 love. 
 
 With these two lofty crested chiefs 
 
 From Pylus' towers and Taenarus' cliffs, 
 
 Enthusiasts of renown, and held 
 
 Men of tried heart in valour's field ; 
 
 Euphemus this, from Neptune sprung, 
 
 That Periclymenus the strong. 
 
 Illustrious Orpheus too, the minstrel's 
 sire, 
 
 Apollo's offspring, came, and smote the 
 inflaming lyre. 
 
 EPODE VIII. 
 
 Hermes, that waves the golden wand, 
 His youthful sons, Echion fair 
 And Erytus, with the venturous band 
 Despatcht, the rough exploit to share. 
 163
 
 Down came the youths, that dwelt 
 
 below 
 Pangaeum's wintry base : for Boreas 
 
 now 
 
 Pleased with such service, king of storms, 
 Sent forth in haste his wondrous progeny 
 Zetas and Calais, mortal forms, 
 With plume-rough backs and purple 
 
 wings to fly. 
 Juno their hearts with sweet persuasive 
 
 zeal 
 Inspired to bound on Argo's keel, 
 
 STROPHE IX. 
 
 To court the tempting toil : that none 
 
 might long 
 To waste undangered on his mother's 
 
 arm 
 Youth without glory ; but his peers 
 
 among 
 
 Find e'en in death the inestimable charm 
 That cheers the close of Valour. Now 
 lolcus reacht in godlike row 
 Stood the choice crew : Jason their 
 
 look 
 
 Heroic praised, their numbers took. 
 164
 
 By auguries watcht, by chances cast 
 Mopsus assured of heaven, in haste 
 The panting band embarkt, and from 
 
 below 
 
 The lifted anchor hung upon the danc- 
 ing prow. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE IX. 
 
 High on the stern a golden goblet 
 
 reared 
 The chief, and to the sire of all the 
 
 gods, 
 The lightning-lanced Jove, his prayer 
 
 preferred ; 
 Invoked the powers, that sway the winds 
 
 and floods, 
 
 The sea's wild ways, the nights forlorn, 
 And smiling days, and sweet return. 
 Heaven's prompt assent in accents loud 
 Spake the big thunder from the cloud, 
 And playful poured in volleys bright 
 Its fractured beams of harmless light. 
 Paused those rude heroes, by that gleam 
 
 divine 
 And sound ambiguous awed Mopsus, 
 
 that hailed the sign, 
 165
 
 EPODE IX. 
 
 Cheered to their oars the rallied crew, 
 And with sweet hopes their hearts in- 
 spired : 
 
 At their stout stroke the galley flew ; 
 Tost from their blades the surge retired. 
 Soon by the breathing South impelled 
 To Axine's stormy mouth their course 
 
 they held ; 
 
 There to the billowy Neptune reared 
 A sacred shrine and altar marbled o'er, 
 And made their offering from the herd 
 Of Thracian bulls, that pastured on the 
 
 shore ; 
 
 Then, as the danger deepened, all adored 
 Of ships and seas the mighty lord ; 
 
 STROPHE X. 
 
 So their frail bark the justling rocks 
 might shun, 
 
 Frightful collision ! Twain, self- 
 moved, they were, 
 
 Alive, with wild rotation whirling on 
 
 Swift as the roaring winds In mid 
 career 
 
 1 66
 
 The passing demigods before 
 Awe-struck they stopt and raged no 
 
 more. 
 
 Now, Phasis reacht, in converse sweet 
 The Greeks and dusky Colchians meet : 
 ./Eetes ruled the barbarous land. 
 Then first the Cyprian queen, whose 
 
 hand 
 
 Points the resistless arrow, from above 
 Her mystic lynx brought, the madden- 
 ing Bird of Love, 
 
 ANTISTROPHE X. 
 
 Fast in his quadri-radiate circlet bound, 
 Charm of mankind : and incantations 
 
 strange 
 JEson's sage son she taught, and spells 
 
 profound ; 
 Spells, that Medea's filial faith might 
 
 change, 
 
 And for fair Greece her feverish heart 
 Seduce from that wild beach to part. 
 Toucht by Persuasion's gentle goad, 
 All her sire's arts and toils she showed : 
 Soft oils and antidotes she gave 
 Her Jason's beauteous form to save ; 
 167
 
 Till all prepared to Hymen's sweet con- 
 trol 
 
 Their mutual loves they pledged and 
 mingled soul with soul. 
 
 EPODE X. 
 
 But when ./Eetes full in sight 
 His adamantine plough produced 
 His furious bulls, whose nostrils bright 
 Flames of consuming fire diffused, 
 Battering the ground with brazen tread ; 
 These single-handed to their yokes he ledj 
 And steadfast drove his furrowed line 
 Straight thro' the smoking glebe, sever- 
 ing in twain 
 
 An acre's breadth Earth's sturdy spine. 
 " Let him that ruled your vessel o'er the 
 
 main 
 Do me this deed," the vaunting chieftain 
 
 cries, 
 " And be the immortal Felt his prize, 
 
 STROPHE XI. 
 
 " His the rich fleece, that glows with 
 flakes of gold." 
 
 1 68
 
 OfF, at that challenge roused, his saffron 
 
 vest 
 
 Flung Jason, and in Love's assurance bold 
 Closed on the task : charmed by his 
 
 bride's behest 
 
 Singed not his frame the raging fire, 
 Forward he drags the team and tire ; 
 Their necks in close constraint he joins, 
 Stirs with sharp goad their struggling loins, 
 And with stout arm and manly grace 
 Works out with ease the appointed space. 
 In speechless pang, yet muttering at 
 
 the sight, 
 Aghast ./Eetes stood and marvelled at 
 
 his might. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE XI. 
 
 Forth to their gallant chief the heroic 
 
 throng 
 Stretcht their glad hands, crowned him 
 
 with chaplets green, 
 And gratulations poured from every 
 
 tongue. 
 Now to the secret haunt, where hung 
 
 unseen 
 
 The glittering skin by Phrixus spread, 
 169
 
 Sol's wondrous son the strangers led ; 
 
 Nor weened that mortal enterprise 
 
 Could from that toil triumphant rise. 
 
 Deep in a dark defile it lay : 
 
 A ravening dragon watcht the way, 
 
 In bulk like some huge galley, thick and 
 
 long, 
 With iron compact, and workt by fifty 
 
 rowmen strong. 
 
 EPODE XL 
 
 But the time urges, and 't were long 
 
 The vulgar tedious path to tread j 
 
 I know the readier route of song ; 
 
 And Wisdom follows where I lead. 
 
 Arcesilas, by art beguiled 
 
 The blue-eyed motley serpent Jason 
 
 foiled ; 
 
 With stolen Medea, Pelias' bane, 
 The boisterous Ocean crost, and Red- 
 sea flood 
 
 To shores, where now the heroic train 
 'Mong Lemnian wives, stained with their 
 
 husbands' blood, 
 
 Vied for the mantle prize in naked grace, 
 
 And claspt them in their warm embrace. 
 
 I/O
 
 STROPHE XII. 
 
 On that famed day or night, by Fate's 
 
 decree 
 'Mong tribes barbarian on a distant 
 
 strand 
 
 Dawned the first beam of thy great des- 
 tiny. 
 There first the race that shall for ages 
 
 stand, 
 
 Of proud Euphemus hailed the day 
 With Spartan dames and customs they 
 Mingling and swarming forth erewhile 
 Peopled Callista's beauteous isle : 
 From whence thy sires o'er Libya's 
 
 waste 
 
 Honoured as gods Apollo placed, 
 And gave with counsels just and laws 
 
 unknown 
 Gyrene's realms to rule, and grace her 
 
 golden throne. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE XII. 
 
 Use now the wit of CEdipus profound 
 If one with sharpened axe and reckless 
 stroke 
 
 171
 
 Lops as he lists the sightly branches 
 
 round 
 And shames the honours of the spreading 
 
 oak : 
 
 Tho* fruit thereon no longer glows, 
 Still her proud bulk and strength she 
 
 shows, 
 
 What time in winter's hour of need 
 The crackling hearth her fragments feed ; 
 Or stretcht along the lengthening row 
 Of stateliest columns reared below 
 Some stranger's pressing palace she sus- 
 tains 
 
 With firm unfailing trunk, forced from 
 the unsheltered plains. 
 
 EPODE XII. 
 
 Thou art the leech, the times require, 
 And Paean speeds thy skill profound j 
 With lenient hand, relenting sire, 
 Soften and heal thy subjects' wound. 
 The worst, the weakest from its base 
 A state with ease may shake ; but to re- 
 place 
 
 The accomplisht pile is power indeed, 
 Unless some guardian spirit in his love 
 172
 
 Seize the loose helm, the leaders lead. 
 For thee that grace the favouring Fates 
 
 have wove. 
 Oh ! dare then for thy loved Gyrene's 
 
 weal 
 Strain all thy strength, use all thy zeal. 
 
 STROPHE XIII. 
 
 A goodly messenger, as Homer sings 
 (Heed thou the tuneful sage), acceptance 
 
 gives 
 
 And estimation to the charge he brings. 
 So from her virtuous theme the Muse 
 
 derives 
 Honour and grace. The illustrious 
 
 house 
 
 Of Battus, all thy realm allows 
 Damophilus unmatcht in truth, 
 Generous and just; 'mong boys a 
 
 youth, 
 
 In counsel provident and sage 
 As one that boasts a century's age. 
 He of its sparkling jest the slanderous 
 
 tongue 
 Bereaves : with honest hate he meets the 
 
 oppressor's wrong. 
 173
 
 ANTISTROPHE XIII. 
 
 Thus with the wise and good no strife 
 
 hath he, 
 
 Ardent and urgent of his upright plan ; 
 For well he knows, that Opportunity 
 (Which he observes, not serves) rests not 
 
 with man 
 
 A moment's pause. 'T is bitterest pain 
 To know, yet need, and crave in vain 
 The sweets that friends and freedom 
 
 give: 
 
 Thus doth this suffering Atlas strive, 
 From wealth and kin and country driven, 
 Against thy weight, his pressing heaven. 
 Yet Jove the Titans loosed, and when 
 
 the gale 
 Vexes the deep no more, we furl the 
 
 useless sail. 
 
 EPODE XIII. 
 
 Worn out with lingering ills, his prayer 
 Is still to greet his native plain, 
 By Gyre's fount the feast to share 
 And yield to youth his soul again. 
 There ranked among the minstrel choir 
 174
 
 To touch with gifted hand the burnisht 
 
 lyre, 
 
 Warbling in peace his harmless lay, 
 Nor offering to his foes nor suffering 
 
 wrong. 
 
 Oh ! that his lips had power to say 
 What recent fountains of ambrosial song 
 Flowing for great Arcesilas he found, 
 Illustrious guest on Theban ground. 
 
 175
 
 ODE V. 
 
 TO ARCESILAUS THE CYRENJEAN 
 
 Victor in the Chariot-race 
 
 STROPHE I. 
 
 WEALTH is wide-extended power, 
 Whene'er with genuine worth combined 
 Man leads it forth in Fortune's favouring 
 
 hour 
 
 And friendships throng behind. 
 176
 
 Thee, heaven-enhanced Arcesilas, 
 These gifts thro' all thy glorious days 
 From life's first step, by Castor's grace, 
 Have blest ; who now with Pythian bays 
 Given from his golden car thy brows 
 
 hath crowned : 
 
 'T was he the threatening storm allayed 
 That shook thy prosperous house and 
 
 spread 
 The cheering calm, that brightens round. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE I. 
 
 Wisdom still with temperate hand 
 Improves the boon by Heaven bestowed ; 
 And thee, that walkest with Justice 
 
 through the land, 
 A thousand blessings crowd. 
 First as thou art the sceptred lord 
 Of mighty realms, and bearest combined 
 By Nature for that proud reward, 
 The ruler's eye, the sage's mind : 
 Next as thy coursers from the Pythian 
 
 plain 
 
 Have born the glorious prize away, 
 While Phoebus gives thee to display 
 The exulting pomp and choral strain. 
 177
 
 EPODE I. 
 
 O cease not, while the song, that swells 
 
 thy fame, 
 
 Sounds through Gyrene's echoing towers, 
 Where Venus spreads her sweetest bow- 
 ers, 
 
 God the great cause of all things to pro- 
 claim. 
 First of thy peers be great Carrhotus 
 
 styled ; 
 
 He brought not to the applauding plain, 
 Where Battus' just descendants reign, 
 Excuse, repentant Epimethes' child ; 
 But foremost in the chariot-course 
 By pleased Castalia's sacred source 
 The accepted stranger past, and round 
 Thy kingly locks his wreath of glory 
 bound. 
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 Twelve times round the measured bourn 
 With heel unmatcht, uninjured rein, 
 Flew the swift steeds, nor tire nor trap- 
 ping torn 
 
 Lo ! where by Delphi's fane 
 178
 
 Hangs the fair chariot (sound and bright 
 As from the sculptor's hand it wheeled 
 Beneath the steep Crisaean height 
 To the hollow plain and sacred field), 
 Slung from the cypress beam, the God 
 
 beside ; 
 
 Where by the Cretan archers' hands 
 Hewn from one trunk his statue stands, 
 The rich Parnassian temple's pride. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE II. 
 
 Him with grateful heart we praise, 
 Whose deeds exalt his country's king : 
 On thee, Alexibiades, their rays 
 The bright-haired Graces fling ; 
 Blest in the minstrel's mindful strain, 
 Thy rare exploit's reward, to live : 
 Twice twenty chariots strewed the plain, 
 Thy wheels ungrazed, thy steeds sur- 
 vive : 
 Skill hath no place but in the brave 
 
 man's breast ; 
 Now from the glorious games once 
 
 more 
 
 His Libyan plains, his native shore, 
 The youth's triumphant steps have prest. 
 179
 
 EPODE II. 
 
 Thus labour still, man's painful part, 
 remains. 
 
 Yet mark ! the same propitious Power 
 
 (The stranger's light, the nation's tower) 
 
 That beamed on ancient Battus, still 
 sustains 
 
 The throne he stablisht, and with gifts 
 profuse 
 
 Blesses his people. Him, 't is said, 
 
 The stately lions roaring fled : 
 
 His alien speech their awe-struck ire 
 subdues. 
 
 Phoebus himself, that led the way, 
 
 Gave their fierce natures to dismay ; 
 
 That no rude chance might stay Gyrene's 
 lord 
 
 In his great course, or thwart the unerr- 
 ing word. 
 
 STROPHE III. 
 
 Phoebus dire disease's cure 
 To seers and sapient matrons shows : 
 He gave the lyre ; and on his favourites 
 pure 
 
 1 80
 
 The inspiring Muse bestows 
 
 (The Muse, that wins from ruthless war 
 
 The softened soul to love and peace) : 
 
 He rules the shrine oracular ; 
 
 Where warned by him the Herculean 
 
 race 
 Sought with the ^Egimians on Laconian 
 
 ground, 
 
 In Pyle and Argos their abode. 
 The praise, from Sparta's deeds that 
 
 flowed, 
 Be mine in partial strain to sound. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE III. 
 
 Spartans born my favoured sires 
 From ./Egeus sprung to Thera came : 
 Fate led them to the land, whose sacred 
 
 fires 
 
 With many a victim flame. 
 Thence, Phoebus, thy Carneian rites 
 To proud Gyrene's mount we bore, 
 Still hallowing as the feast invites, 
 Her fair-built fanes and echoing shore. 
 Thither Antenor's sons, Troy's brave re- 
 mains, 
 
 By hostile flames in ruin laid, 
 181
 
 With Helen's Grecian wanderers fled, 
 And left their sons the adopted plains. 
 
 EPODE III. 
 
 There dwelt that race of warlike chari- 
 oteers, 
 
 To whose heroic shades the band, 
 That led by Battus rules the land, 
 Still slays the sacrifice, the altar rears ; 
 Battus, whose winged galleys thro' the 
 
 brine 
 
 Oped their deep passage. For the gods 
 High groves he raised, their dark abodes : 
 He the Scyrotan to Apollo's shrine, 
 Where the full pomp with prancing steed 
 Imploring blessings might proceed, 
 His spacious causeway planned. The 
 
 Forum nigh 
 Aloof the vulgar tombs his reliques lie. 
 
 STROPHE IV. 
 
 Blest his mortal part he bore ; 
 In death a hero's rites he knows : 
 Their sacred kings far ofF, the walls be- 
 fore, 
 
 182
 
 In humbler rest repose. 
 Still in the shades beyond the grave 
 Our liquid lays their spirits hear, 
 Shedding soft dews and streams that 
 
 lave 
 
 The living flower their virtues bear ; 
 Lays, that with them Arcesilas record 
 Their glorious son j whose choral train 
 Now sing for him in sounding strain 
 Phrebus who waves the flaming sword, 
 
 ANTISTROPHE IV. 
 
 Him, who sends from Pytho's hills 
 The graceful song, that far o'erbuys 
 The cost of conquest, to the prince that 
 
 fills 
 
 The praises of the wise. 
 'T is but the general tale : in wit, 
 In words, with age his youth may vie ; 
 Bold as the Sovereign bird, whose might 
 With wings expanded awes the sky. 
 His strength in contest, like the tower 
 
 in war : 
 
 A child the Muses' haunts he knew, 
 Still on their pinion soars : and who 
 Shall guide with him the glowing car ? 
 183
 
 EPODE IV. 
 
 All the domestic paths that lead to fame, 
 His enterprising steps have tried j 
 And well the approving gods supplied 
 His purposes with power. Thro' life 
 
 the same 
 Grant him, in act resolved, in counsel 
 
 sage, 
 
 Blest sons of Saturn, long to know ; 
 Nor let the autumnal tempest blow 
 To blast the ripe abundance of his age : 
 Jove, whose high will exalts and moves 
 The destiny of those he loves, 
 Vouchsafe the sons of Battus to obtain 
 Like wreaths of glory from the Olympian 
 
 plain. 
 
 184
 
 ODE VI. 
 
 TO XENOCRATES OF AGRIGENTUM 
 
 Victor in the Chariot-race 
 
 STROPHE I. 
 
 O LISTEN, while we till the flowery 
 
 field, 
 Where soft-eyed Venus and the Graces 
 
 reign, 
 
 185
 
 Hastening with duteous step our vows 
 to yield 
 
 Within Earth's murmuring nave and 
 central fane : 
 
 Where for the Emmenian tribe re- 
 nowned, 
 
 And watery Agrigent, and great 
 
 Xenocrates with Pythian conquest 
 crowned, 
 
 Apollo's proud retreat 
 
 Enshrines, its golden stores among, 
 
 The treasure of our rich triumphal 
 song. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE I. 
 
 Song, that nor wintry shower nor driv- 
 ing hail, 
 
 Keen squadrons of the pitiless thunder- 
 cloud, 
 
 Nor weltering sands shall beat, nor 
 sweeping gale 
 
 Sink in the caverns of the all-whelming 
 flood: 
 
 But with fair front, that courts the 
 day, 
 
 Thine and thy sire's commingled praise, 
 1 86
 
 Wherewith the world rings loudly, shall 
 display, 
 
 And tell in glory's lays 
 
 How bravely, Thrasybule, ye won 
 
 In Crisa's echoing vale the chariot- 
 crown. 
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 There, while thine hand thy father's 
 
 fame sustained, 
 Well didst thou keep the precept, which 
 
 of old 
 
 Far from paternal care Pelides gained 
 From Wisdom's lips in Chiron's moun- 
 tain-hold ; 
 
 u Before all powers to fear and love 
 The god that wields the lightning's 
 
 fire, 
 The deep-mouthed thunder's lord, Sa- 
 
 turnian Jove ; 
 Next, to thy reverend sire, 
 Thro' all his life's appointed day, 
 With her that gave thee thine, like 
 honours pay." 
 
 18;
 
 ANTISTROPHE II. 
 
 Warmed with such thoughts Antilochus 
 the brave 
 
 Single withstood the furious Memnon's 
 force 
 
 Backed by his /Ethiop host, and nobly 
 gave 
 
 Himself to save his sire ; whose fainting 
 horse 
 
 Paris with many a shaft had maimed, 
 
 And checkt his chariot's fierce career : 
 
 Whereat his ponderous lance the chief- 
 tain aimed 
 
 Full at the Pylian seer : 
 
 Moved at the danger, not appalled, 
 
 " Help, help, my son," the weak old 
 warrior called. 
 
 STROPHE III. 
 
 That voice unheeded fell not to the 
 ground ; 
 
 Firm stood the godlike youth, and with 
 his own 
 
 Ransomed his father's life. Thence- 
 forth renowned 
 
 1 88
 
 'Mong youths of earlier times he shines 
 
 alone. 
 
 All hearts his generous virtues move ; 
 All tongues the egregious deed extolled, 
 And crowned it with the palm of filial 
 
 love. 
 
 Such things were fame of old : 
 Of all the living, Thrasybule 
 Most shapes his progress by his father's 
 
 rule, 
 
 ANTISTROPHE III. 
 
 Nor shines not by his glorious uncle's side. 
 Wisely his wealth he uses ; nurses well 
 Youth's flower, nor shrunk with vice 
 
 nor flushed with pride, 
 Gathering fresh wisdom in the Muses' 
 
 dell. 
 
 Thee, founder of the equestrian race, 
 Neptune, that shakest the billowy strand, 
 Thee and thy toils his fond pursuits em- 
 brace : 
 
 Yet with the social band 
 In converse mingling, sweet is he 
 As the stored cell-work of the mountain 
 bee. 
 
 189
 
 ODE VII. 
 
 TO MEGACLES THE ATHENIAN 
 
 Victor in the Race of Chariots drawn by 
 Four Horses 
 
 STROPHE 
 
 TAKE, Minstrel, when thy glowing lyre 
 displays 
 
 The equestrian triumphs of Alcmaeon's 
 race, 
 
 Great Athens for thy theme, the proud- 
 est base 
 
 190
 
 Whereon the structure of thy strain to 
 
 raise. 
 
 What country's native can we name 
 Sprung from what nobler house, the 
 
 applause of Greece to claim ? 
 
 ANTISTROPHE 
 
 Thro* all our streets the talk, the gen- 
 eral tale 
 
 Dwells on Erechtheus' people ; by whose 
 hands 
 
 Reared on thy Pythian rocks, Apollo, 
 stands 
 
 Yon gorgeous temple. Thither borne I 
 hail 
 
 From Isthmus five, from Cirrha twain, 
 
 And one distinguisht wreath from Jove's 
 Olympian plain, 
 
 EPODE 
 
 Won by thy matchless ancestry, 
 Illustrious Megacles, and thee. 
 Thy fresh success with joy we greet ; 
 Yet sorrowing mark, how Envy's pace 
 191
 
 Still runs by Virtue in the race, 
 Ill-paid Desert disasters meet, 
 And Fortune's wintry gales destroy 
 The fairest blossoms of our joy. 
 
 192
 
 ODE VIII. 
 
 TO ARISTOMENES OF JEGINA 
 
 Victor in the Game of Wrestling 
 
 STROPHE I. 
 
 O PEACE, by whom all hearts one friend- 
 ship share, 
 
 And mightiest empires stand ; 
 Daughter of Justice, in whose hand 
 Hang the great keys of council and of 
 
 war : 
 
 For conquering Aristomenes 
 Accept the Pythian crown we weave : 
 193
 
 Thou knowest the season of soft courte- 
 sies, 
 The grace to take or give. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE I. 
 
 But when the aggressor's wrong thy 
 
 friends sustain, 
 And foes thy power engage, 
 Then dost thou roughen into rage, 
 And plunge presumptuous insult in the 
 
 main. 
 
 Too late the rash Porphyrion taught 
 Thy sharp rebuke, thy vengeance tries ; 
 Taught, how secure the gain by Justice 
 
 bought, 
 How dear the plunderer's prize. 
 
 EPODE I. 
 
 Thou in his hour each vaunter has sub- 
 dued : 
 
 Not Typhon's hundred heads thy watch- 
 ful power 
 
 Eluded or repelled, 
 
 Nor he that led the giant brood : 
 
 Their feud the volleying thunder quelled, 
 194
 
 With fierce Apollo's arrowy shower; 
 Who now with favouring look receives 
 Xenarces' son from Cirrha's plain, 
 Crowned with his own Parnassian leaves, 
 The shouting choir and Dorian strain. 
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 Nor lies that beauteous isle, where Jus- 
 tice sways, 
 
 Where Virtue's touch divine 
 Still warms the great ./Eacean line, 
 Far from the Graces thrown. From 
 
 earliest days 
 
 A proud illustrious name she boasts : 
 The chiefs her teeming cities yield 
 First in the games, among conflicting hosts 
 The heroes of the field. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE II. 
 
 Such are her glories but the time 
 
 would fail, 
 
 The exhausted ear would tire, 
 From voice and soft enchanting lyre 
 Of all her deeds to hear the lengthened 
 
 tale. 
 
 195
 
 But to my task aloft the song, 
 Due to thy young exploit, shall spring, 
 Plumed by mine heart to bear thy fame 
 
 along 
 High on her sounding wing. 
 
 EPODE II. 
 
 Thou in the wrestler's field the steps 
 
 hast traced 
 Of thy stout uncles : thou nor Theog- 
 
 nete, 
 
 With braid Olympian crowned, 
 Hast with thy Pythian proof disgraced ; 
 Nor stanch Cleitomachus, renowned 
 For his huge frame and Isthmian feat. 
 Thus thy Midylian tribe enhanced, 
 Thy praise GEclides well displayed, 
 When to seven-portalled Thebes ad- 
 vanced 
 The warlike sons his strain portrayed : 
 
 STROPHE III. 
 
 'T was when from Argos' walls their sec- 
 ond train 
 
 The Seven Descendants led : 
 196
 
 " The soul by nature bold," he said, 
 " That warms the generous father, glows 
 
 again 
 
 In the brave son. Behold, behold, 
 At Cadmus' gates Alcmaeon wield, 
 First in the fight, the dragon's motley 
 
 mould 
 That fires his blazoned shield. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE III. 
 
 " Adrastus too, by past disasters prest, 
 Now, with fresh heart upheld 
 By happier omen, fronts the field, 
 For future woes yet markt, at home un- 
 
 blest. 
 
 He of the Danaan chiefs alone 
 Shall come with whole unvanquisht pow- 
 ers, 
 
 Yet gathering sad the relics of his son, 
 To Abas' massy towers." 
 
 EPODE III. 
 
 Thus sage Amphiaraus taught the throng : 
 Nor with less rapture round Alcmaeon's 
 brows 
 
 197
 
 Will I the wreath entwine, 
 Less bathe him with the dews of song : 
 For he my neighbour is ; his shrine 
 Guards with its shade my hallowed 
 
 house : 
 
 As to Earth's central dome I came, 
 His spirit crost my startled way, 
 Toucht with his sire's prophetic flame, 
 And told the triumphs of the day. 
 
 STROPHE IV. 
 
 God of the radiant bow, by Pytho's cliffs, 
 Where thy proud rites sustain 
 The glorious all-frequented fane, 
 Thou on this youth the noblest of thy gifts 
 Hast lavisht : at thy feast before 
 The prompt Pentathlet's hasty prize 
 He snatcht, thy bounty, on his native 
 
 shore 
 Once more with favouring eyes 
 
 ANTISTROPHE IV. 
 
 Beam, I beseech thee, on the harmonious 
 
 lyre, 
 
 Which for the brave this hand 
 198
 
 Awakens : Justice takes her stand 
 Beside, and guides the sweet triumphal 
 
 choir. 
 May Heaven's regard thy prosperous 
 
 lot, 
 
 Son of Xenarces, long sustain ! 
 Tho' wise the weak account him that 
 
 hath got 
 Great fame with little pain, 
 
 EPODE IV. 
 
 His life with wisdom armed, his counsels 
 just; 
 
 'T is not for man the blessing to com- 
 mand ; 
 
 From God all bounties flow : 
 
 This man he raises from the dust 
 
 Aloft ; he lays another low, 
 
 And metes him with his chastening 
 hand. 
 
 Three times thy brow the crown has 
 won: 
 
 At home in Juno's Games decreed, 
 
 At Megara, and in Marathon, 
 
 Where might, not chance, achieved the 
 deed. 
 
 199
 
 STROPHE V. 
 
 Hurled by thy fierce encounter from 
 
 above, 
 
 Four champions prest the ground 
 To them the Pythian judge profound 
 Doomed not the sweet return, nor smile 
 
 of love 
 
 From fond maternal grace to meet ; 
 Pierced with their sad mischance, alone, 
 By path forlorn they slink and secret 
 
 street, 
 The taunting foe to shun. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE V. 
 
 But he, that hath some recent glory 
 gained, 
 
 On Exultation's wings, 
 
 Lord of his hope, triumphant springs 
 
 To heights which Wealth's low cares 
 can ne'er ascend. 
 
 Yet ah ! how short the vernal hour 
 
 Allowed for mortal bliss to blow ! 
 
 Fate from the stem soon shakes the flut- 
 tering flower, 
 
 That droops and dies below. 
 2OO
 
 EPODE V. 
 
 Child of a day, what 's man ? what is he 
 
 not? 
 His life a shadow's dream ! yet when 
 
 from Jove 
 
 The gladdening gleam appears, 
 Then bright and brilliant is his lot, 
 And calms unclouded gild his years 
 Still, great /Egina, join thy love 
 With Jove's ; thy realm in freedom hold ; 
 And jEacus with sceptred hand, 
 Peleus and Telamon the bold, 
 And great Achilles guard the land ! 
 
 201
 
 ODE IX. 
 
 TO TELESICRATES OF CYRENE 
 
 Victor in the Race with Heavy Armour 
 
 STROPHE I 
 
 I PANT the Pythian triumph to resound 
 Of brazen-bucklered Telesicrates, 
 Whom all the deep-zoned Graces throng 
 
 to please, 
 
 The flower of proud Cyrene, steed-re- 
 nowned. 
 
 Her, once a huntress mountain maid, 
 From Pelion's tempest-bellowing shade, 
 2O2
 
 Trest with the radiant locks of light 
 Thy son, Latona, lured away, 
 Rapt in his golden chariot bright, 
 To realms where flocks unnumbered 
 
 stray. 
 
 Where trees with fruits perennial stand : 
 He made her mistress of the land, 
 And gave the world's third continent to 
 
 bloom 
 With nature's loveliest works for fair 
 
 Gyrene's home. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE I. 
 
 Forth from his heavenly car her Delian 
 
 guest 
 Love's silver-sandalled Queen, with 
 
 courteous touch 
 And soft reception, handed : she their 
 
 couch 
 
 In modesty's becoming drapery drest ; 
 She bade the nuptial rite prepare, 
 Such as became a god to share 
 With powerful Hypseus' matchless 
 
 maid 
 
 Hypseus, whose throne the Lapithae, 
 Haughty and brave in arms, obeyed : 
 203
 
 His race from Ocean boasted he, 
 A hero's offspring, whom of yore 
 The nymph divine Creiisa bore, 
 Earth's glittering daughter, when to 
 
 Peneus' love 
 Her watery charms she gave in Pindus' 
 
 warbled grove. 
 
 EPODE 1. 
 
 Reared by her father's hand, a damsel 
 
 fair 
 
 Of comeliest form Cyrene grew ; 
 She loved not the dull loom, nor e'er 
 The task-retracting shuttle threw ; 
 Joined not the soft domestic train 
 In tame delights of feast or dance, 
 But with keen sword and brazen lance 
 Rusht on the ruthless savage of the 
 
 plain. 
 So watcht, her father's flocks securely 
 
 fed; 
 When the first streaks of morning 
 
 broke, 
 
 The slumbers from her lids she shook, 
 Nor lost the precious prime on Sloth's 
 bewitching bed. 
 
 204
 
 STROPHE II. 
 
 Her once the quivered distant-darting 
 
 God 
 With a fierce lion's rage unarmed, 
 
 alone 
 
 Struggling descried : whereat with cheer- 
 ing tone 
 He roused old Chiron from his rude 
 
 abode : 
 " Haste from thy sombrous cave," he 
 
 said, 
 
 " And marvel at this martial maid : 
 Mark with what strength her spirit 
 
 strains, 
 
 With what fell foe the unequal fight 
 Her fair unpractised arm sustains ; 
 Tires not the toil her virgin might, 
 Nor freezing fear with danger prest 
 Ruffles her bold unshrinking breast. 
 Tell me what sire begot the generous 
 
 child 
 Sprung from what wondrous womb, 
 
 among the mountains wild, 
 
 205
 
 ANTISTROPHE II. 
 
 " Holds she her shadowy haunt, tasting of 
 
 power 
 E'en beyond manhood's license ? Tell 
 
 me, Sire, 
 Doth aught forbid the hand of chaste 
 
 desire 
 From that sweet plant to pluck the 
 
 tempting flower ? " 
 
 Moved at the warm request, with mild 
 Relaxing brow and glistening eyes, 
 The greatly gifted Centaur smiled, 
 Then thus with counsel pure replies : 
 " 'T is soft persuasion's secret key 
 Unlocks the gates of ecstasy. 
 Phoebus, with men, with gods above, 
 Prevails the same reserve of love, 
 That with concealed approach in vir- 
 tue's guise 
 
 Ascends without repulse the bed where 
 beauty lies. 
 
 206
 
 EPODE II. 
 
 " But since with thee no falsehood can 
 
 remain, 
 
 Some playful freak thy tongue divine 
 Impels this nescient mood to feign : 
 Thou learn from me a mortal's line ! 
 Thou, who the ends of nature know'st, 
 Know'st all her means ; the leaves that 
 
 swell 
 Earth's vernal bloom with ease canst 
 
 tell; 
 Number the boundless sands that on the 
 
 coast 
 Of stream or sea the winds or waters 
 
 beat; 
 
 That with distinct regard canst see 
 All things that are, have been, shall be ; 
 If yet the weak must teach, thy wis- 
 dom's want I meet. 
 
 STROPHE III. 
 
 " Thou 'mongst these glades hast sought 
 this maid's embrace ; 
 
 Hence shalt thou bear her o'er the swell- 
 ing brine 
 
 207
 
 To Jove's delightful garden, there to 
 
 shine 
 A kingdom's mistress, while the Island 
 
 race 
 
 Her state by thee collected round 
 People the plain-encompassed mound. 
 Meanwhile to greet the illustrious maid 
 For thee the reverend Libya comes, 
 Her fields with spacious pastures spread ; 
 Thrones her within her golden domes, 
 And portions from her vast domain 
 An empire for Gyrene's reign, 
 Wanting nor fruit nor flower, the beau- 
 teous place 
 
 Profuse, nor beast to rouse the raptures 
 of the chase. 
 
 ANTI STROPHE III. 
 
 " There shall she bear a son, thence far 
 
 away 
 On Herme's pinions wafted from the 
 
 birth, 
 To where the bright-throned Hours and 
 
 teeming Earth 
 On their soft laps the illustrious babe 
 
 shall lay. 
 
 208
 
 Blest Aristaeus ; they his lip 
 
 Shall teach the ambrosial food to sip, 
 
 And crown with immortality, 
 
 In nectar quaft, the gifted boy : 
 
 Guardian of flocks and folds is he, 
 
 Thence Nomius named, the herdsman's 
 
 jy; 
 
 Agreus by swains the chase that love, 
 
 And Phoebus and eternal Jove." 
 
 Thus Chiron spoke. The God his 
 
 words inspire 
 The nuptial rite to speed, and crown his 
 
 great desire. 
 
 EPODE III. 
 
 Swift are the movements of celestial 
 minds, 
 
 And short the path their wills descry ; 
 
 That hour the bond of rapture binds ; 
 
 In Libya's golden bower they lie. 
 
 There the bright walls for games re- 
 nowned 
 
 Still prospering boast her guardian 
 love : 
 
 Conquering the while in Pytho's grove 
 
 The son of proud Carneades hath bound 
 209
 
 Her brows with glory's wreath, aloud 
 
 her name 
 
 Proclaimed : him then in all her streets 
 With all her beauteous dames she greets, 
 Bearing from Delphi's peak the raptur- 
 ous prize of fame. 
 
 STROPHE IV. 
 
 Boundless is virtue's praise : yet he that 
 
 wooes 
 
 The wise, with sparing blazon will supply 
 The abundant theme, while opportunity, 
 That perfects all things, curbs the excur- 
 sive Muse. 
 
 This lolaus practised well, 
 As oft seven-portalled Thebes shall tell : 
 He for one day from death returned, 
 With his choice blade's dispatchful thrust 
 Eurystheus pierced ; again inurned, 
 Slept with his godlike grandsire's dust, 
 The charioteer Amphitryon ; 
 Who, on Cadmean friendships thrown, 
 Within the adopted walls where The- 
 
 bans ride 
 
 The milk-white warrior horse, illustrious 
 stranger, died. 
 
 210
 
 ANTISTROPHE IV. 
 
 Mingling in dalliance high with him and 
 
 Jove, 
 At one great birth two mighty sons of 
 
 yore, 
 Matchless in fight, the sage Alcmena 
 
 bore. 
 Cold is the tardy tongue that will not 
 
 move 
 
 Not burn for Hercules to sing, 
 Nor that beloved Dircean spring 
 Remember, from whose bubbling stream, 
 With Iphicles, he drank. For vows, 
 With many a trophy crowned, to them 
 The loud triumphal choir I '11 rouse. 
 Ye warbling Graces, on this head 
 Cease not your beams of song to shed, 
 That tells what chaplets from ./Egina's 
 
 shore, 
 And thrice from Nisus' mount Cyrene's 
 
 champion bore. 
 
 EPODE IV. 
 
 Thus to renown, from mute obscurity, 
 Struggling he rose. Let friends proclaim, 
 211
 
 And rivals too, if such there be, 
 
 His labours for his country's fame ! 
 
 Still keep the watery seer's behest, 
 
 That bids our veriest praises flow 
 
 E'en for the virtues of a foe. 
 
 Oft at the great Pentathlian feast 
 
 The fair beheld thee crowned with vic- 
 tory; 
 
 And each her wish in silence gave 
 
 That Telesicrates the brave 
 
 Were but her darling son, or noble spouse 
 might be; 
 
 STROPHE V. 
 
 Crowned in the Olympic sports, the 
 
 heroic shows 
 Of ample-bosomed earth, and every 
 
 game 
 Known in Cyrene, thy forefather's 
 
 name 
 Yet claims some brief memorial ere we 
 
 close 
 (Tho' almost quencht our thirst of 
 
 song), 
 
 To tell how erst the suitor throng, 
 Lured by the Libyan damsel's fame, 
 212
 
 Antaeus' daughter, beauteous-haired, 
 With brave pretence and various claim, 
 To fair Irasa's towers repaired. 
 Her with vain vows her courteous kin 
 Chiefs of high note had wooed to win ; 
 Her many a fond aspiring stranger 
 
 sought, 
 For nature in her form its loveliest work 
 
 had wrought. 
 
 ANTISTROPHE V. 
 
 Fain would they pluck the blooming 
 
 fruit that crowned 
 Her golden youth's sweet blossom : but 
 
 her sire 
 Ties more august, and loftier hopes 
 
 inspire. 
 He from sage lips and time-voucht 
 
 tales had found 
 
 How erst in Argos, ere the sun 
 Half his diurnal race had run, 
 For eight and forty virgins each 
 Danaus a youthful spouse embraced ; 
 Within the Stadium's listed reach 
 How all the blushing train he placed, 
 While heralds loud to all proclaim 
 213
 
 The plan and prizes of the game, 
 Wherein each panting hero might decide, 
 As each in speed excelled, the fortune 
 of his bride. 
 
 EPODE V. 
 
 Thus for his daughter fair the Libyan sire 
 Fit spousal found. Her envied place 
 Fast by the goal, in rich attire, 
 He fixt, to close and crown the race. 
 " To him whose passing speed," he said, 
 " Her veil first gains, the prize be due." 
 Foremost Alexidamus flew, 
 And by her yielded hand in triumph led 
 Through troops of Nomads his accom- 
 plish! spouse : 
 They from their steeds with transport 
 
 new 
 
 Fresh leaves and flowers upon him threw, 
 While plumes of conquest past hung 
 graceful round his brows. 
 
 214
 
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