Page:Pindar in English Verse (Way 1922).djvu/19

Rh By diverse paths men upward aspire: Earth's highest summit by kings is attained. Thou therefore look to attain no higher Than earth. Be it thine on the height thou hast gained To pace mid splendour of royal achieving Thy life through : mine be it no less long To consort with victors, from Hellas receiving The world o'er praise for my song.

For Theron, ruler of Akragas in Sicily, on a victory won in the chariot-race, in 476 B.C.

(Str. I) Songs, lords of the lyre ! what God shall we hymn? — what hero's praises? What man's fame publish afar? Pisa doth Zeus own ; Herakles stablished Olympia's races With the regal spoils of his war; Theron, who honours the guest, whose four steeds raced victorious, Akragas' stay, let us chant, full flower of an ancestry glorious. His city's saviour-star.

(Ant. I) Toils bravely his fathers endured, and a hallowed home by the river They reared : they were Sicily's eye. And to crown their inborn worth. Fair Fortune attended them, giver 10 Of wealth and of dignity. Son of Kronos and Rhea, enthroned in Olympus, thou lord of the choicest Of contests by Alpheus' ford, guard, since in our song thou rejoicest, For their sons ever graciously

(Ep. I) Their fatherland-soil! When for right or for wrong hath been woven the tissue Of our deeds, not Time the father of all can reverse the issue. Yet oblivion may come of the past