with clear gaze, having done naught immoderate, and having put away all violence from before my feet. So let the life that remaineth unto me run cheerly on.
He who knoweth shall say if indeed I come with slanderous speech upon my lips to strike a jarring note. To thee, Sogenes of the house of the sons of Euxenos, I swear that without overstepping the bound I have sent forth the swift speech of my tongue as it were a bronze-headed javelin, such as saveth from the wrestling the strong neck sweatless yet, or ever the limbs be plunged in the sun's fire[1].
If toil there were, delight more abundant followeth after. Let be; if somewhat over far I soared when I cried aloud, yet am I not froward, that I should deny his glory unto one that conquereth.
The weaving of wreaths is an easy thing: tarry a little: behold the Muse fasteneth together gold and white ivory, and a lily flower withal, that she hath plucked from beneath the deep sea's dew[2].
Of Zeus be mindful when thou tellest of Nemea, and guide the multitudinous voices of our song with a quiet mind: meet is it that with gentle voice we celebrate in this land the king of
- ↑ The Pentathlon was composed of five contests, namely, the jump, the foot-race, throwing the disk, throwing the javelin, and wrestling. The prize was for the best man in three contests out of the five. We are not certain of the exact order, but this passage implies that the wrestling came fourth or fifth (we may suppose probably fifth), and throwing the javelin third or fourth: thus if the best javelin-thrower had already won two of the other matches he would not be challenged to wrestle, as the prize of the Pentathlon would be already his. Very probably this had been the case with Sogenes, so that it would naturally occur to Pindar thus allusively to expand his not unfrequent comparison of his own art of poetry to that of a javelin-thrower or archer. To form conjectures on which to press the comparison more minutely, as commentators have done, is, I think, a mistake.
- ↑ Coral.
