The Extant Odes of Pindar / Translated with Introduction and Short Notes by Ernest Myers

THE MULE-C

to Syracuse, and from him the present victor Agesias was descended. Thus the ode is chiefly concerned with the story of his ancestor Iamos. Ag

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song, as in a stately palace-hall; for it beseemeth that in the

ymns of praise, if his lot be among citizens who hear without envy the desired sounds of song? For in a sandal of such sort let the son of Sostratos know that his for

f Oikleus, when the earth had swallowed him and his shining steeds. For afterward, when on seven pyres dead men were burnt, the s

. I who am no friend of strife or wrongful quarrel will bear him this witness

o the far beginning of this race. For those mules know well to lead the way in this course as in others, who at Olympia have won c

y unwedded she hid by her robe's folds, and in the month of her delivery she sent her handmaids and bade them give the child to the

ured, and by Apollo's side she

in his heart struggling with bitter strain against a grief too great for speech

f God. By her side the gold-haired god set kindly Eleutho and the Fates, and from her womb in easy travail came forth Iamos to the light. Him in

he child whom Euadne had born; for he said that the sire whereof he was begotten was Phoibos, and that he sh

as hidden among rushes in an impenetrable brake, his tender body all suffused with golden and deep purple gleams of iris flo

led on wide-ruling Poseidon his grandsire, and on the guardian of god-built Delos, the bearer of the bow[8], prayin

id unto him: Arise, my son, and come hither, following

nnot lie; but when Herakles of valorous counsels, the sacred scion of the Alkeidai, should have come, and should have founded a multitudinous feast and the chief ordinance

t they know the worth of valour th

eth them on whom, as they drive foremost in the twelfth[10] round of t

sacrifice to Hermes, herald of the gods, who hath to his keeping the strife and appointment of games, and doeth honour to Arcadia

eth me nothing loth. Mother of my mother was Stymphalian Metope[11] of fair flowers, for she bare Thebe

whether we are escaped from the ancient reproach that spake truly of Boeotian swine. For thou art a tr

and to the feast of her daughter with white steeds, and to the might of Aetnaean Zeus. Also he is well known of the sweet voices of the song and lute. Let not the on-coming time break

oples[14] an illustrious lot: and thou O lord and ruler of the sea, husband of Amphitrite of the gold

amid ancestor of his had gone with Archias whe

te 2: A

intis was Agesi

he nymph who gave he

te 5: A

ote 6:

ek: ion]: the iris was consid

: His fathe

e 9: At

the chariot-race was twelve

mph of the lake Meto

ipped in her prenuptial as w

he writer wrote on a roll wrapt round his stick, and the receiver of the letter read it wrapt similarly on his. And thus Aineas the

use. Agesias was a citizen of both, and thu