of Pherenikos[1] at Pisa hath swayed thy soul unto glad thoughts, when by the banks of Alpheos he ran, and gave his body ungoaded in the course, and brought victory to his master, the Syracusans' king, who delighteth in horses.
Bright is his fame in Lydian Pelops' colony[2], inhabited of a goodly race, whose founder mighty earth-enfolding Poseidon loved, what time from the vessel of purifying[3] Klotho took him with the bright ivory furnishment of his shoulder.
Verily many things are wondrous, and haply tales decked out with cunning fables beyond the truth make false men's speech concerning them. For Charis[4], who maketh all sweet things for mortal men, by lending honour unto such maketh oft the unbelievable thing to be believed; but the days that follow after are the wisest witnesses.
Meet is it for a man that concerning gods he speak honourably; for the reproach is less. Of thee, son of Tantalos, I will speak contrariwise to them who have gone before me, and I will tell how when thy father had bidden thee to that most seemly feast at his beloved Sipylos, repaying to the gods their banquet, then did he of the Bright Trident[5], his heart vanquished by love, snatch thee and bear thee behind his golden steeds to the house of august
- ↑ The horse that won this race for Hieron.
- ↑ Peloponnesos.
- ↑ I.e. immediately on his birth. Pindar refuses to accept the legend which made Pelops' ivory shoulder a substitute for his fleshly one eaten at Tantalos' table by the gods; for thus the gods would have been guilty of an infamous act. Perhaps, as has been suggested, the story had root in some southern or eastern stranger's showing a white shoulder in contrast with a swarthier, because constantly exposed, face. These legends, current among the Hellenes as to the beginning of their race, are suggestive and valuable evidence, but it is difficult to interpret them with anything like certainty.
- ↑ Goddess of Grace or Beauty. Often there are three Charites or Graces. Pindar means here that men are prone to believe an untrue tale for the sake of the beauty of the form in which it is presented, but that such tales will not stand the test of time.
- ↑ Poseidon.
