# Pindar and Anacreon/Pindar/Isthmian Odes/4

* related portals: Odes of Pindar.
* sister projects: Wikidata item.
Celebrating the victory of Melissus of Thebes in the Isthmian Games of 474 or 473 B. C. (?), and incorporating the myth of Heracles and Antaeus.
"The inner number, placed at the end of the several paragraphs, shows the corresponding line of the original." [ note on p. 17 ]
Layout 2
THE FOURTH ISTHMIAN ODE.
TO THE SAME MELISSUS.
ARGUMENT.
This ode begins with the praises of Melissus' ancestors, and relates the melancholy consequences of a defeat sustained by his family; whose good fortune, however, again shone forth in this triumph gained by Melissus.—The panegyric of his ancestors and of himself is resumed, and continued with digression to the story of Ajax and Ulysses, Hercules and Antæus, &c.—Apotheosis of Hercules, and divine honours paid him by the yearly sacrifices of the Thebans.—The ode concludes with the praise of Melissus and his charioteer Orseas.
Bless'd by the gods, to me belong A thousand avenues of song; Thy triumphs in the Isthmian field, Melissus, fair occasion yield The hymn of victory to frame 5 That all thy virtues shall proclaim; With which the god delights to grace Through life Cleonymus' high race; While by the ever-varying blast Mankind are still at random cast. 10 10
For they at Thebes with honour crown'd, From times of ancient date were said To be the hosts of all around, And free from strife's discordant sound, By every deed to make their own 15 What tests of glory wide had flown Among the living or the dead. Brave in the valour of their race, They touch'd at the remotest land, Where the Herculean pillars stand: 20 Nor let ambition ask an ampler space. 22
​They loved to train the generous steeds, While brazen Mars approved their deeds. But in the course of one short day The rough and sanguine cloud of war 25 Four heroes had impell'd away From their deserted hearth afar: And now, the wintry darkness o'er, Soon as the vernal months succeed, Serene they flourish as before; 30 Thus crimson roses cover o'er, At Heaven's behest, the altered mead. 32
While he, the earth-disturbing god, Who makes Onchestus his abode, And the sea bridge that bids the tide 35 From Corinth's walls at distance glide— Granting this hymn their noble race With wondrous potency to grace, Sings their high deeds, whose loud acclaim Wakes from her couch primeval fame. 40 Aroused, her fair form glows with splendour bright, As mid the other stars shines Phosphor's nobler light. 41
She who in Athens' verdant field Proclaim'd the triumphs of his car, And bade the bards of Sicyon wield 45 Their vocal lyres, to tell afar What wreaths the Adrastean contests yield. ​They when the whole assembly strove, Like them their crooked chariot drove; Contending with the Grecian train 50 Whose costly steeds the palm should gain. 50
While they in contest never shown, Are pass'd with silence and unknown. Obscure their fate, too, who contend Ere they attain the wish'd-for end, 55 And this their glorious toils bestow. Oft the superior in the fray Has seen his guerdon snatched away By fraud of some inferior foe. Ye know that Ajax' deadly might 60 By his own sword at dead of night Cut off untimely, reprehension bore To Hellas' sons, who sought the Trojan shore. 62
But Homer's songs with honour grace Him among men of warlike race; 65 Those strains divine his valour raise, Heralds of after ages' praise: For this immortal sound proceeds When bards proclaim triumphant deeds; While through the fruitful earth and main 70 This beam its deathless splendour shall maintain.
Propitious be the muses' care! As we the torch of song illume, And to Telesia's offspring bear, Melissus brave, the chaplet fair, 75 Worthy upon the victor's brow to bloom. ​His mind, by labour unsubdued, Rivals the roaring lion's might, Or like the fox in crafty mood, That stays the whirling eagle's flight. 80 'Tis just the foe's imperious will By force to conquer or to foil by skill. 81
For not to him Orion's fame Had been assign'd by partial fate. 84 Though mean to view, with ponderous weight Fell from his arm the massive spear. Erst to Antæus' mansion came From Thebes to fertile Libya's land, Of stature short, but dauntless soul, He that should struggle to control 90 The bloody monster's fierce career, Who could delight with savage hand The fane of Neptune to adorn With scalps from hapless strangers torn, Alcmena's son—who took his flight 95 Up to Olympus' sacred height, Exploring earth, and through the hoary wave To mariners a tranquil passage gave. 98
Now by the ægis-bearing god In bliss he holds his fair abode 100 With Hebe his celestial bride, Honour'd and graced by love divine, King of the domes with gold that shine, And to heaven's queen in filial bonds allied. To him above th' Electran gates 105 The new-constructed altars rise; On him the genial banquet waits, With all the pomp of sacrifice. His shrine we citizens surround With the eight lifeless bodies crown'd, 110 Who by the sword there slaughter'd lie, Alcides hapless progeny, Whom Megara, great Creon's daughter, bore. 109
​To them, when sets the solar beam, The rising fire's continual gleam 115 Is given night's darkness to explore; While lambent smoke's thick volumes rear Its fumes of incense through the air. 113
The deed of strength, the second day Still terminates the annual fray: 120 Where round this victor's honour'd brow Chaplets of pallid myrtle glow; Rewarding past and present fame, Which boyhood's threefold triumphs claim. In his skill'd driver he confides, 125 Who, steersman-like, the chariot guides. Him, then, with Orseas will I praise, Distilling grace from my mellifluous lays. 124
* ↑ See note on ode i., 53. By the sea bridge in the next verse is to be understood the isthmus of Corinth, which Claudian describes in similar terms: (de Bel. Get. 188:)— "Vallata mari Scironia rupes, Et duo continuo connectens æquora muro Isthmus." So Ovid: (Med. Jasoni, 104:)— "Quique maris gemini distinet isthmos aquas?" (See Nem., vi., 65)
* ↑ I have adopted Heyne's conjectural emendation of τουτο and κλεος instead of the common reading τωνδε and τελος, from which I think none but a weak sense can be elicited.
* ↑ The remarkable expression of the original, κατα ῥαβδον εφρασεν, probably means nothing more than that Homer delivered his rhapsodies in a consecutive series of lines. See the opening of the second Nemean ode. Sudorius' paraphrase is opere expolitor.