Olympian

Pindar

Pindar. Arnson Svarlien, Diane, translator. Created for the Perseus Project, 1990.

  1. Battle with Cycnus set back even Heracles, strong and violent; let Hagesidamus, victorious as a boxer at Olympia, offer thanks to Ilas, just as Patroclus did to Achilles.
  2. With the help of a god, one man can sharpen another who is born for excellence, and encourage him to tremendous achievement.
  3. Without toil only a few have attained joy, a light of life above all labors. The laws of Zeus urge me to sing of that extraordinary contest-place which Heracles founded by the ancient tomb of Pelops
  4. with its six altars, after he killed Cteatus, the flawless son of Poseidon
  5. and Eurytus too, with a will to exact from the unwilling Augeas, strong and violent, the wages for his menial labor.
  6. Heracles lay in wait in the thicket below Cleonae, and in his turn overcame those men by the roadside; for once before those arrogant Moliones had destroyed his Tirynthian army, when it was encamped in the valley of Elis,
  7. And indeed it was not much later before the man who betrayed his friend,