Page:Pindar (Morice).djvu/139

Rh plain, from the mere opening of this Ode, that Pindar designed it for a masterpiece: and it exhibits in a remarkable degree all the most characteristic features of his poetry—as well those which the severest criticism must admit to be beauties, as those which to a modern, though not to an ancient reader, must seem defects. The passage describing the infancy of Iamus is probably the most touching and beautiful in the whole range of Pindaric poetry. The profusion and originality of the poet's fancy are exhibited through the Ode to an extent which, even in Pindar, is truly amazing. But the rapidity of its transitions from theme to theme; the abundance of unexplained allusions; the mixture of myth, fact, and allegory throughout the poem; and the amazing audacity of expression—verging more than once on the grotesque, or even the ludicrous,—will excite in a modern reader sensations of astonishment rather than of pleasure.

Several of Pindar's longer Odes open with an elaborate metaphorical description of his poetry. He compares it to wine in a golden goblet presented by some rich lord to his daughter's spouse; to a bath prepared by a skilful physician to refresh the weary athlete; to a stingless arrow launched in love and not in hate. Elsewhere he contrasts his own art favourably with that of the sculptor, whose images remain motionless on the pedestal, while his fly far and wide through Greece. On this occasion it is architecture that supplies his metaphor:—