Still oft as onward age proceeds,
And in the track paternal leads,
Adorning spacious Athens with renown,
Triumphant in the Isthmian fray, 10
Timonous' son shall bear away
Her brightest wreath, and oft the Pythian crown. 16
As where the mountain Pleiads burn, [1]
Not far they see Orion turn.
How potent, Salamis, thy might 15
To nourish heroes for the fight!
Hector perceived, in Troy's sad hour,
Thy son, intrepid Ajax' power;
And the sustain'd pancratium's praise
Shall thee, oh Timodemus, raise! 24 20
Acharnæ's glorious tribe of old
Have flourish'd with their heroes bold;
And foremost in each solemn game
The Timodemidæ proclaim.
They near Parnassus' height obtain'd, 25
Four times the victor's meed have borne,
And from Corinthian judges gain'd
In glades where valiant Pelops reign'd,
- ↑ The scholiast has a very long note on this passage, relating the mythological story of the Pleiades, whom Pmdar designates under the epithet ορειαν, as being the daughters of Atlas, who was metamorphosed into the famous African mountain. It appears that Orion, being violently enamoured of Pleione, who is sometimes understood as denoting the whole cluster of the Pleiades, and having pursued her for a considerable time, Jupiter recorded their history by converting them into neighbouring constellations; the former lying to the northwest, and the latter to the southeast of Taurus. The scholiast further informs us, that Crates read θερειαν instead of ορειαν, as the rising of the Pleiades was to Greece the indication of approaching harvest: in like manner the Nemean crown is the precursor of Isthmian and Pythian victories, to be achieved hereafter by Aristoclides.
