Page:Writings of Henry David Thoreau (1906) v5.djvu/428

386

The kindred of Pytheas, a victor in the Nemean games, had wished to procure an ode from Pindar for less than three drachmæ, asserting that they could purchase a statue for that sum. In the following lines he nobly reproves their meanness, and asserts the value of his labors, which, unlike those of the statuary, will bear the fame of the hero to the ends of the earth.

No image-maker am I, who being still make statues

Standing on the same base. But on every

Merchant-ship and in every boat, sweet song,

Go from Ægina to announce that Lampo's son,

Mighty Pytheas,

Has conquered the pancratian crown at the Nemean games.

One the race of men and of gods;

And from one mother

We all breathe.

But quite different power

Divides us, so that the one is nothing,

But the brazen heaven remains always

A secure abode. Yet in some respect we are related,

Either in mighty mind or form, to the Immortals;

Although not knowing

To what resting-place,

By day or night, Fate has written that we shall run.