TRANSLATIONS

OF

PINDAR.

THE FIRST OLYMPIC ODE.

TO HIERO OF SYRACUSE, VICTOR IN THE HORSE

RACE.

CAN earth, or fire, or liquid air,

With water's sacred stream compare? ·
Can aught that wealthy tyrants hold
Surpass the lordly blaze of gold?-
Or lives there one, whose restless eye
Would seek along the empty sky,
Beneath the sun's meridian ray,

A warmer star, a purer day ?—

O thou, my soul, whose choral song

Would tell of contests sharp and strong,

Extol not other lists above

The circus of Olympian Jove;

Whence borne on many a tuneful tongue,

To Saturn's seed the anthem sung,

With harp, and flute and trumpet's call,
Hath sped to Hiero's festival.-

Over sheep-clad Sicily

Who the righteous sceptre beareth,
Every flower of virtue's tree

Wove in various wreath he weareth.—

Strew round Hiero's wealthy ha.

The harp on yonder pin suspended,

Seize it, boy, for Pisa's sake;

And that good steed's, whose thought w

wake

A joy with anxious fondness blended :-
No sounding lash his sleek side rended :—
By Alpheus' brink, with feet of flame,
Self-driven, to the goal he tended:

And earn'd the olive wreath of fame

For that dear lord, whose righteous name

The sons of Syracusa tell :

Who loves the generous courser well:

Belov'd himself by all who dwell

In Pelop's Lydian colony.—

-Of earth-embracing Neptune, he
The darling, when, in days of yore,
All lovely from the caldron red
By Clotho's spell delivered,

The youth an ivory shoulder bore.

-Well!-these are tales of mystery!-
And many a darkly-woven lie

With men will easy credence gain;
While truth, calm truth, may speak in vain ;
For eloquence, whose honey'd sway

Our frailer mortal wits obey,

Can honour give to actions ill,
And faith to deeds incredible ;-

And bitter blame, and praises high,

Fall truest from posterity.

But, if we dare the deeds rehearse

Of those that aye endure,

'Twere meet that in such dangerous verse Our every word were pure.—

Then, son of Tantalus, receive
A plain unvarnish'd lay!--