OLYMPIC ODES.

then implores Jupiter to continue his bleffings on them, and to remain propitious to Xenophon; whofe exploits he enumerates, together with thofe of Theffalus and Piodorus, his father, and grandfather. He then, launches out again in praife of Corinth and her citizens, and relates the tory of Bellerophon. He then, checking himself for digreffing fo far, returns to his hero, relates his various fuccefs in the inferior games of Greece, and concludes with a prayer to Jupiter.

STROPHE I.

WHILST I rehearse the illuftrious houfe's praife,
Thrice victor in Olympia's fportive war;
To friends and ftrangers open; let my lays
The fame of happy Corinth bear afar:
Which as a gate to Neptune's Ifthmus ftands,
Proud of her blooming youth and manly bands;
There, fair Eunomia, with her fifter train

Bleft peace and juftice, hold their facred reign;
Who wealth and smiling ease on mortals fhower,
From Themis' genial care, drawing their natal

hour.

ANTISTROPHE I.

ΙΟ

But bloated infolence and fell difdain
Far from their peaceful feats they drive away.
Now lovely deeds infpire my founding ftrain,
And honeft boldnefs fwells my rifing lay;
When native worth the generous bofoms feel,
'Tis hard the flining virtues to conceal.
Corinth, on thee the blooming hours beftow
The envied wreaths from manly deeds that flow,
And teach thy dædal fons with careful heart,
First to explore the way of many a ufeful art. 20
EPODE I.

Who bade the bullock facred bleed
To Bacchus in the Dityhrambic rite?
Who first with reins the generous steed
Directed in his rapid flight?

And bade the fculptured bird of Jove
The temple's mafly roofs above,
For ever fixed on either end,

His ornamental wings extend?

While the sweet mufe her filver founds infpires, And Mars with glorious flame the warriors bofom fires.

STROPHE II.

30

Olympia's honour'd patron! potent Jove!
Whofe fovereign mandates o'er the world extend,
O with propitious ear my ftrain approve,
And, to fair Corinth's virtuous fons a friend,
On Xenophon let gales propitious breathe,
And take with hand benign the victor wreath
He won furpaffing, when on Pifa's fhore,
What mortal valor had perform'd before;
The Stadic courfe re-echoed his renown,
And with knit limbs he gained the Pentathletic
40

crown.

ANTISTROPHE II.
And twice confpicuous on the trophied courfe
The Ifthmian parley graced his victor brow;
Nor did Nemea's cirque contemn his force.-
And where the facred waves of Alpheus flow
His father Theffalus the olive wore
"By fwiftnefs gain'd, and fince on Pythia's fhore,
One fun beheld his might, 'midft wondering eyes
Obtain the Stadic, and Diaulic prize;
And the fame month, to grace his honour'd brow,
The third triumphal wreath did Attica beftow.
EPODE II.

Seven times with reflets force

Did Theffalus the Hellotian trophies gain,

Some medium though will every praise befeem-
STROPHE III.
Which 'tis the first of wisdom ftill to know.-
While, with no alien voice, the much-lov'd theme
The fame of Corinth from my lips thall flow;
And I her chiefs, and prudent fires reheate,
No founds fallacious fhall difgrace my verle:
There Sifyphus arofe, whofe wiles could thine
With matchlefs force and luftre near divine;
Medea there, whom Venus' flames infpire
The Grecian fhip to fave, and cheat her cruel fire.
ANTISTROPHE III.

69

On either fide her fons embattled itood, [trand,
When warred the Greeks on Phrygia's hotfile
Though to bear Helen from the ill-fated land,
Her warriors with the Attride croffed the flood;
Yet fome, who thofe with vengeful ipears repell
From Corinth's race their honour'd lineage held,
For Lycian Glaucus to the Achaian hot
Trembling before his lance, would often boaft
His fires' abode, and wealth, and wide domain,
Where fair Pirene's waves enrich the fertile plan.
EPODE III.

Who by the filver fountain's fide
Much labour found, and much affliction knew,
While winged Pegasus he tried,
Medufa's offspring to fubdue;
Minerva gave the golden reins;
Till, fleeping on his native plains,
awake!

66

Awake, Æolian king

"This facred gift with transport take;
"Show it to Neptune, potent god of steeds,
"While at his hallowed urine the votive bullock
"bleeds."

STROPHE IV.

دو

While midnight flumbers clos'd his heavy eyes;
The Egis-bearing maid Minerva spoke,
Straight from the dull embrace of ileep be broke,
And feiz'd with eager hand the glittering prize:
Caranus' fon he fought, the neighbouring leer,
And pour'd the wonderous tidings in his ear;
That, as in awful Pallas' holy fane,
Sleep o'er his temples fpread her leaden reign;
Before him ftood confeis'd the warlike maid.
And by his fide at once the golden bridle laid.
ANTISTROPHE IV.

102

Each myftic mandate of the dream divine;
The wondering augur bade him straight obey
To Neptune first the votive bullock pay;
Then to equeftrian Pallas rear a thrine:
51 Beyond his hopes the gods with favouring will
The object of his wishes foon fulfil;

perfection in any one of the Gymnaftic exercifes; which care the Pentathlete was obliged to divide amongst fo many. Plato confirms this in his 'Egara; where he makes Secrates anfwer to a perion who affirms philofophy to confit in a general knowledge: Δοκεῖς γάρ μοι λέγειν οἷον ἐν τῇ ἀγωνίᾳ εἰσὶν οἱ Πέπαθλοι πρὸς τὸς δρομέας, ἤ τὲς πελλαςὰς, καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖναι τέτων μὲν λείπονται κατὰ τὰ τέτων ἄλλα, καὶ δεύτεροι εἰσί, πρὸς τά τις τῶν δ ̓ ἄλλων ἀθλητῶν, πρῶτοι, καὶ νικῶσιν αυτός. "You feem to fpeak of a perfon like the Pentathlete; who, when matched with a runner, or darter in their own particular exercises, "is always inferior, though he may be the first among the other Athlets (i. e. thofe of his own profeffion), and overcome them." Longinus has alfo a paffage much to the fame purpose; when, comparing Hyperides with Demofthenes, he mentions the various merits of the former, and fays, "He bears the fecond rank in almost every thing, like a Pentathlete, who, though he may "be inferior to those who hold the firft eftima"tion in their feveral particular exercises, yet "excels all others of the fame clafs with himfelf:" “Ως ὁ Πένταθλος, ὥσε τῶν μὲν πρωτείων ἐν ἅπασιτων ἄλλων ἀγωνισῶν λείπεσθαι, πρωτεύειν δὲ τῶν ἰδιωτῶν. Ver. 48. The Ifthmian parley crown'd his victor brow.

The prizes in the four facred games are enumeiated in the following line:

Αθλα δὲ τῶν Κότινος, Μῆλα, Σέλινα, Πίτυς.

The latter of which, i. e. a garland made of the leaves of the wild pine, was the reward given in the Ifthmian games. But Pindar's Scholiaft informs us, that lawa, the parfley, was alfo fometimes given at the Ifthmian games, as well as the Nemean; only with this difference, that the Ifthmian parley was dried, and the Nemean green. The third queftion of the fifth book of Plutarch's Sympofiacs affigns the reafons for changing the pine branch for the pardey, and afterwards reftoring the pine again.

Ver. 48. Diaulic prize.] The Dialus was 1 foot-race, twice the length of the Stadic, conftit. ing of two Stadiums, as that did of one.

Ver. 77. For Lycian Glaucus to the Achaian ho
Trembling before his lance, would often boast
His fire's abode, and wealth, and wide domain.
Where fair Pirene's waves enrich the fertile
plain.

Glaucus was king of Lycia, great great grandion
to Bellerophon; though Pindar fays I

2. 5. 2.

He was an ally of Priam's at the fiege of whole lineage, and the ftory of Bellerophon, at Troy. In Homer, he gives an account of his large, in his fpeech to Diomedes, in the fixth Iliad. It is too long to infert here.

Ver. 121. While thus the fhafts of harmony I throw.

This is another instance of that manner of expres fion I have taken notice of in the note upon the fifth line of the ninth ode.

Ver. 124. To Oligætbide's triumphant band) The Oligthida, were a trib?, or divifion of the people at Corinth, to which Xenophon belonged. The Scholiaft fays, the number of their prizes was equal in each of the games, viz. Thirty in the 14hmian, and Thirty in the Nemean. Exoje κις γὰρ ἀμφότεροι τοῖς ἀγῶσιν Ἰσθμίοις καὶ Νε μέοις ανεκυρήχθησαν οἱ Ὀλιγαιθίδαι, τειάκονα ἐν ἑκάτῳ ἀγῶνι.

Ver. 137. Oft from Parnaffus' heights, &c.] The poet here, as in feveral of his other odes, enumerates the exploits of his patron and his family, in thofe inferior feftivals which were held in almost every city throughout Greece; and where the fame exercises were performed, though the prizes were not fo honourable as in the four principal.ones, viz. the Olympic, Pythian, Nemean, and Ifthmian; which were called, by way of eminence, facred. A lift of these festivals, with the occafion of them, and the places where they were held, may be found in the twentieth chapter of the firft volume of Potter's Grecian Antiquities.