Olympian

Pindar

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

Each thing has its limit; knowing it is the best and most timely way. And I, sailing on my own course for the common good,
and singing of the wisdom and the battles of ancient men in their heroic excellence, shall not falsify the story of Corinth; I shall tell of Sisyphus, who, like a god, was very shrewd in his devising, and of Medea, who resolved on her own marriage against her father’s will, and thus saved the ship Argo and its seamen.
And again, in the fight long ago before the walls of Dardanus, Corinthians seemed to decide the issue of battles on either side: some of them attempting, with the dear race of Atreus, to recover Helen, and others doing everything they could
to oppose the attempt. And the Danaans trembled before Glaucus, when he came from Lycia ; he boasted to them that in the city of Peirene lay the rule and rich estate and hall of his ancestor, Bellerophon,
who once suffered greatly when beside the spring he wanted to harness Pegasus, the son of the snake-entwined Gorgon;
until the maiden Pallas brought to him a bridle with golden cheek-pieces. The dream suddenly became waking reality, and she spoke: “Are you sleeping, king, son of Aeolus? Come, take this charm for the horse; and, sacrificing a white bull, show it to your ancestor, Poseidon the Horse-Tamer.”
The goddess of the dark aegis seemed to say such words to him as he slumbered in the darkness, and he leapt straight up to his feet. He seized the marvellous thing that lay beside him, and gladly went to the seer of the land,
and he told the son of Coeranus the whole story: how, at the seer’s bidding, he had gone to sleep for the night on the altar of the goddess, and how the daughter herself of Zeus whose spear is the thunderbolt had given him
the spirit-subduing gold. The seer told him to obey the dream with all speed;
and, when he sacrificed a strong-footed bull to the widely powerful holder of the earth, straightaway to dedicate an altar to Athena, goddess of horses. The power of the gods accomplishes as a light achievement what is contrary to oaths and expectations. And so mighty Bellerophon eagerly
stretched the gentle charmed bridle around its jaws and caught
the winged horse. Mounted on its back and armored in bronze, at once he began to play with weapons. And with Pegasus, from the chilly bosom of the lonely air, [*](Reading with Snell and MSS ψυχρῶν and ἐρήμου for ψυχρᾶς and ἐρηήμων, ) he once attacked the Amazons, the female army of archers,
and he killed the fire-breathing Chimaera, and the Solymi. I shall pass over his death in silence; but Pegasus has found his shelter in the ancient stables of Zeus in Olympus,
But I, while casting the whirling javelins with straight aim, must not miss the mark
as I speed many shafts with the strength of my hands. I have come as a willing champion of the Muses on their splendid thrones and of the race of Oligaethus. I shall make their many victories at the Isthmus and at Nemea manifest in a few words; and, as a truthful witness under oath,
the sweet-tongued cry of the noble herald, who announced their victories sixty times at both places, will confirm my words.
Their victories at Olympia seem to have already been mentioned; and of those in the future I could tell clearly when the time comes. For now I am hopeful, although a god controls
the outcome. If the good fortune of their family continues, we shall leave this to Zeus and Enyalius to accomplish. They won six times beneath the brow of Parnassus ; and all their victories in Argos and in Thebes, and all that shall be witnessed by the royal Lycaean altar that rules over the Arcadians,
and by Pellana, and Sicyon, and Megara, the beautifully enclosed precinct of the Aeacidae,
and Eleusis and splendid Marathon, and the wealthy and beautiful cities beneath the high crest of Aetna, and Euboea—you may search through all Greece, and you will find that their victories are more than the eye can see. Come, swim away with agile feet!