THE SECOND OLYMPIC ODE.
TO THERON OF AGRIGENTUM, (IN GREEK ACRAGAS,) ON HIS VICTORY IN THE CHARIOT RACE, GAINED IN THE SEVENTY-SEVENTH OLYMPIAD.
ARGUMENT.
The poet congratulates Theron, sprung from ancestors who had experienced much adversity, though sometimes attended with better fortune—extols him for his skill in the contests, his unsparing expense in bringing them to a happy issue, and the right use to which he applies his great wealth, assuring him that the recompense of his virtuous dispositions will attend him after death: this leads to a most noble description of the infernal and Elysian abodes. Returning from this digression, which he defends from the carping malignity of his detractors, Pindar concludes with the praises of Theron.
Ye hymns that rule the vocal lyre,
What god, what hero shall we sing?
What mortal shall the strain inspire?
Jove is fair Pisa's guardian king;
And Hercules Olympia's glorious toil5
Ordain'd the first fruits of the battle spoil.
Theron too demands my strain,
Whose four-yoked steeds in triumph sweep the plain. 9
The hospitable, just, and great,
Bulwark of Agrigentum's state,10
Of his high stem the flower of fairest pride. 14
Who by their long afflictions toss'd,
Regain'd their sacred mansion lost,
Upon the kindred tide.[1]
- ↑ The river Acragas, on which the city of Agrigentum is situated. (See the opening of the [[../../Pythian Odes/12|twelfth Pythian ode]].)
