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TO THRASYDÆUS, THE THEBAN, ON HIS VICTORY IN THE STADIC COURSE, GAINED WHEN A BOY, IN THE TWENTY-EIGHTH PYTHIAD.

poet begins this ode with an invocation to the deities of his country—Semele, Ino, and Alcmena—entreating their presence when the pomp of triumph is to be brought to the temple of Ismenian Apollo, and naming the field of conquest the rich plain of Pylades, he digresses to the story of his friend Orestes, and the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra.—Returns to his subject, commending the victor and his father on account of his numerous triumphs.—Declares his preference of the moderate but secure fortune which they enjoy to the unstable pomp by which tyrants are surrounded.—Concludes by citing the examples of Iolaus, son of Iphiclus, Castor, and Pollux.

of Cadmus! Semele the fair,

Companion of th' Olympic train,

And Ino, now Leucothea, given to share

The couch of Nereids in the main;

Go with the mother of Alcides brave

To Melia's dark and sacred cave,

Where lies the golden tripod's store,

To which unerring Loxias bore