THE THIRD NEMEAN ODE.
TO ARISTOCLIDES OF ÆGINA. VICTOR IN THE PANCRATIUM.
ARGUMENT.
This ode opens with a beautiful address to the muse, whom the poet invites to pass at Ægina, which was a Doric colony, the sacred month in which the Nemean festival is held.—This leads to the praises of the island Ægina, which the victor, son of Aristophanes, has exalted by his triumphs, as much as if he had sailed to the Pillars of Hercules, and thus gained the extreme point attainable by human exertion.—The poet then checks himself, and enters on a theme more closely connected with his subject, the panegyric of the native heroes of Ægina, Peleus, Telamon, Achilles.—He then returns to the victor, declaring him to have fulfilled the various duties of boyhood, manhood, and more advanced age.—Concludes with bidding adieu to his friend, whom he pronounces worthy of the meed which the poet sends him, on account of his triumphs at Nemea, Epidaurus, and Megara.
Oh sacred muse!—on thee I call,
Mother of our poetic band,
Come to Ægina's Doric strand,
So throng'd at Nemea's festival;
For near Asopus' hallow'd wave 5
The youths who frame their choral lay,
And sweet-toned minstrelsy display,
Thy voice with eager fondness crave.
Each deed a different object claims—
While the proud victor in the games 10
To the sweet strain his wishes bends,
That still his virtues and his wreath attends. 13
Then grant this vocal boon to me
