Is it easy to go over the untraveled sea,
Beyond the Pillars of Hercules.
THE YOUTH OF ACHILLES.
Nemea iii. 69–90.
One with native virtues
Greatly prevails; but he who
Possesses acquired talents, an obscure man,
Aspiring to various things, never with fearless
Foot advances, but tries
A myriad virtues with inefficient mind.
Yellow-haired Achilles, meanwhile, remaining in the house of Philyra,
Being a boy played
Great deeds; often brandishing
Iron-pointed javelins in his hands,
Swift as the winds, in fight he wrought death to savage lions;
And he slew boars, and brought their bodies
Palpitating to Kronian Centaurus,
As soon as six years old. And all the while
Artemis and bold Athene admired him,
Slaying stags without dogs or treacherous nets;
For he conquered them on foot.
Nemea iv. 66–70.
Whatever virtues sovereign destiny has given me,
I well know that time, creeping on,
Will fulfill what was fated.
