Page:Essays and Addresses.djvu/86

 the poet returns to Battus (v. 59). "Thee, happy son of Polymnestus, loyal to Medea's word, the oracle of the Delphic bee lifted to honour by a summons which thou hadst not sought,—who bade thee thrice hail, and declared thee Gyrene's destined king";—and from Battus the eighth in descent is Arcesilas, "on whom Apollo' and Pytho have bestowed glory of the chariot-race among all who dwell around. To the Muses will I give him for their theme, and the golden fleece of the ram; for 'twas in quest thereof that the Minyae had sailed, when heaven-sent honours were planted for his house": |  |  |  [i.e. for the Battiadae]. Note the bold simplicity of the transition here from Arcesilas, the immediate theme of the ode, to the myth of the Argonauts. Now, from v. 70 to v. 246, that myth is presented in a series of splendid pictures; the coming of Jason to Iolcus; the scene between Jason and Pelias; the sailing of the Argo; the ploughing with the brazen bulls of Aeetes. The slaying of the dragon which guarded the fleece, the flight of Medea with Jason, and his triumphant return, were subjects which Pindar could have treated with equal splendour, and which a less daring poet might even have regarded as forming the indispensable climax. But at this point a constraining sense of makes Pindar feel that he must return from myth to theme,—from Jason to Arcesilas; and observe how he manages