# Pindar and Anacreon/Pindar/Pythian Odes/5

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Celebrating the victory of Arcesilaus IV of Cyrene in the Pythian Games of 462 B. C., and incorporating the tale of Battus I of Cyrene.
"The inner number, placed at the end of the several paragraphs, shows the corresponding line of the original." [ note on p. 17 ]
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THE FIFTH PYTHIAN ODE.
TO THE SAME ARCESILAUS ON HIS VICTORY IN THE CHARIOT RACE, GAINED IN THE THIRTY-FIRST OLYMPIAD.
ARGUMENT.
Pindar begins by proclaiming the happiness of Arcesilaus, especially in gaining the Pythian victory, for which he exhorts him, in his usual pious manner, to return thanks to the gods, and to his charioteer Carrhotus; at the same time cautioning the victor not to expect sincere and perpetual happiness, since no one is free from trouble.—The reader should bear in mind that this ode was written at a time of civil dissension between the king and people of Cyrene.—Nevertheless the ancient felicity of Battus will attend Arcesilaus, who is protected by the favour of Apollo.—The poet then makes a transition to the predictions of that god, which induced the Heraclidæ to return into Peloponnesus, A. C. 1104, eighty years after the Trojan war; at which time Pindar's ancestors, the Ægidæ, came with the colony to Thera, and thence to Cyrene.—Then follow the praises of Battus, and of his posterity, particularly of Arcesilaus.—The ode concludes with good wishes for their prosperity.
All-powerful is the wealth of kings, The golden store when Fortune brings, And Virtue her pure radiance blends. Around, to bless their mortal state, Attendant crowds obsequious wait 5 Of clients and expecting friends. Oh thou! to whom, by favouring heaven, Arcesilaus, wealth is given, Which Glory, from life's earliest day, Illumines with her brilliant ray; 10 Shining by Castor's aid afar, Refulgent in his golden car; ​Who, the tempestuous winter o'er, Returning quiet gives to reign, When the retreating clouds restore 15 Light to thy blessed house again. 13
The gifts that mark Heaven's favouring care, With brighter grace the prudent bear. Round thee wealth flows in copious tide; Whose feet the paths of justice tread; 20 Whose potent empire, far and wide, Is over numerous cities spread. The fairest charms of royal sway, Prudence and majesty combined, In thee their genuine marks display, 25 Whose eye declares a kindred mind. Now happy in thy recent fame, Won in th' equestrian Pytho's game; This pomp displaying hymn is thine, Which leads Apollo's sport divine. 29 30
Nor thou, great king, forget the lays That celebrate Cyrene's praise; Cyrene, round whose fertile soil The charms of lovely Venus smile. Ascribe the whole to God above, 35 And more than all Carrhotus' love! Who not to Battus' royal court, Where Justice and her train resort, Convey'd Excuse, with glozing tongue, From laggard Epimetheus sprung. 40 ​But in his victor chariot borne, Where pure Castalia's waters flow, He gain'd the envied wreath, thy brow With honour'd triumph to adorn: Urging his wheels' uninjured force 45 Twelve times around the sacred course. 44
For never by unskilful stroke His car's compacted strength he broke; But, the Crisæan hill o'ercome, This fabric of ingenious hands 50 Is hung aloft in Phœbus' dome That in the woody hollow stands, Upon the beam of cypress laid, Where the bright image is display'd; Which, fix'd by Cretan archers, stood, 55 A single offspring of the wood; Conspicuous on its lofty place, The proud Parnassian fane to grace. 'Tis then thy part, with willing mind, To meet thy benefactor kind. 60 Offspring of Alexibius, thee Extol the bright-hair'd graceful three. How bless'd to have thy labours past Long in the poet's record last! Of forty guides, whose skill would steer 65 'Gainst thine their chariot's rash career, Bringing with fearless mind thy car Alone unbroken in the war. And now, the strife of glory past, Thou art return'd once more 70 ​To thy paternal walls at last, On Libya's fertile shore. 70
But no one is, or e'er shall be From grief, the lot of mortals, free. Yet Battus' ancient fortunes wait 75 His prosperous and his adverse state. He forms the city's guardian pride, A shining light to all beside. Struck with deep awe and panic dread, From him the roaring lions fled; 80 When he to speak, divinely taught, A language o'er the ocean brought. Apollo struck the beasts with fear, Who led the colonizing train, Lest great Cyrene's lord should hear, 85 And find the high prediction vain. 84
He who to man with healing art Could blunt disease's heavy dart; Who gives the lyre's sweet notes to flow, And muse to still each mental wo; 90 Bidding within his favourites' breast The tranquil love of virtue rest, And ruling the prophetic sound That issues from his cave profound, This could in Lacedæmon place, 95 In Argos, Pylos the divine, The chiefs of brave Alcides' race, And old Ægimius' noble line. Let me the fair renown proclaim, Which from illustrious Sparta came. 98 100
My fathers hence to Thera's seat Th' Ægidæ moved their wandering feet. ​Heaven and the fates' supreme behest Impell'd them to the victim feast. Apollo, taking hence the hoard 105 Which thy Carnean rites afford, We raise the strain of fair renown To hymn Cyrene's well-built town. Where Trojans of Antenor's race, All sheathed in brass, have fix'd their place. 110 For they with Helen came, when they survey'd Their native soil by war in smoky ruin laid. 113
Approaching then th' equestrian band, The courteous natives of the land Receive with hospitable care, 115 And sacrifice with presents bear. These Battus led, when the deep wave To his swift ships a passage gave. He to th' inhabitants divine Rear'd the tall grove and ample shrine, 120 Making for steeds a smooth and stony way, That the great god whose potent art From mortals wards disease's dart, Might all his festal pomp display; Where at the forum's utmost bound 125 Now dead he lies apart in holy ground. 126
While among men, his life was bless'd; And when the hero sank to rest, ​A people's love was still his own; While other sacred monarchs laid 130 Apart to death's impervious shade Before the palace gates are flown. And now thy mighty valour's fame, Steep'd in the hymn's mellifluous dew, Piercing their ear with loud acclaim, 135 Earth's dark recess shall travel through. The common bliss of all the race, Whose wreaths Arcesilaus grace. His triumphs in the Pythian field Apollo with his sword of gold 140 In graceful numbers shall unfold; A recompense the lyric strain Recited by the youthful train, For all his toil and cost will yield. 'Tis said of old the prudent raise 145 Their voice in such a hero's praise. Superior to his tender years, He carries an unshaken mind, And bold of tongue and heart appears The eagle of the feather'd kind; 150 Whose wide-extended wings display His sheltering valour in the fray. He from his early youth sublime Was skill'd to raise the sudden rhyme, And foremost in th' equestrian war 155 Guide to the goal his rapid car. 154
Of native arts through each fair road His persevering steps have trod; And still to crown his efforts high May heaven its ready aid supply; 160 And grant him, bless'd Saturnian line,
In council as in act to shine! ​Let not the black tempestuous gale With hostile force his life assail, As when th' autumnal fruits are cast 165 On earth before the wintry blast. The sovereign majesty of Jove Guides the bless'd object of his love. And may Olympia's chaplet grace, Bestow'd by him, great Battus' race! 168 170
* ↑ Απολλωνιον Θυρμα. The Roman Ludi Apollinares.
* ↑ The charioteer of Arcesilaus.
* ↑ Epimetheus, the fabled brother of Prometheus, married Pandora, and_thus introduced all kinds of evil among mankind. Excuse or Negligence was the daughter of the former, as Prudence sprang-from the latter. This passage of Pindar will perhaps bring to the recollection of the reader a similar one in Milton: (Par. Lost, ix. 853:)— "In her face excuse Came prologue, and apology too prompt."
* ↑ The scholiast informs us that forty charioteers contended with Arcesilaus, and all had their cars broken in the course; but Carrhotus preserved uninjured that of his employer: in consequence of which the unbroken chariot was placed in the temple at Delphi, and consecrated to Apollo. This is one of the earliest recorded instances of the custom of suspending votive offerings in the temples of the gods, as testimonies of gratitude for favours received or calamities avoided.
* ↑ It is related by Herodotus that Battus, the founder of Cyrene, meeting a lion in Libya, uttered a cry so piercing as to scare the savage beast, and to restore to him the use of his voice, according to the prediction of Apollo.
* ↑ This is the epithet of Apollo mentioned by Callimachus, and which he prefers to that derived from Claros: (in Apol. 70.) See also v. 88, where he describes the festivities celebrated near the fountain of Cyre, where the men danced in solemn measure with the yellow-haired Libyan damsels.
* ↑ It appears that Aristotle, surnamed Battus, constructed a paved way, (σκυρωταν ὁδον,) by which the sacred pomps were brought to the temple of Apollo. On this passage the scholiast remarks: λεγεται δε σκυρωτη αντι του λιθοστρωτος; the word used by St. John (xix. 13) as denoting the same place which the Hebrews called Γαββαθα.