Page:Odes of Pindar (Myers).djvu/113

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V.]
ARKESILAS OF KYRENE.
83

seed of Antenor. For with Helen they came thither after they had seen their native city smoking in the fires of war.

And now to that chivalrous race do the men whom Aristoteles[1] brought, opening with swift ships a track through the deep sea, give greeting piously, and draw nigh to them with sacrifice and gifts.

He also planted greater groves of gods, and made a paved road[2] cut straight over the plain, to be smitten with horsehoofs in processions that beseech Apollo's guardianship for men; and there at the end of the market-place he lieth apart in death. Blessed was he while he dwelt among men, and since his death the people worship him as their hero.

And apart from him before their palace lie other sacred kings that have their lot with Hades; and even now perchance they hear, with such heed as remaineth to the dead, of this great deed sprinkled with kindly dew of outpoured song triumphal, whence have they bliss in common with their son Arkesilas unto whom it falleth due.

Him it behoveth by the song of the young men to celebrate Phoibos of the golden sword, seeing that from Pytho he hath won a recompense of his cost in this glad strain of glorious victory.

Of him the wise speak well: I but repeat their words saying


  1. Battos.
  2. The sacred street of Apollo, along which the procession moved, which sang this ode. The pavement, and the tombs cut in the rock on each side are still to be seen, or at least were in 1817, when the Italian traveller Delia Cella visited the place. Böckh quotes from his Viaggio da Tripoli di Barberia alle frontiere occedentali dell' Egitto, p. 139: 'Oggi ho passeggiato in una delle strade (di Cirene) che serba ancora l'apparenza di essere stata fra le più cospicue. Non solo è tutta intagliata nel vivo sasso, ma a due lati è fiancheggiata da lunga fila di tombe quadrate di dieci circa piedi di altezza, anch' esse tutte d'un pezzo scavate nella roccia.'