For in the contests as he tried his strength, 10
Amphictyon's host and the Parnassian cave
Pronounced him foremost of the youthful brave,
Contending in the double stadium's length.
Apollo! if thine aid befriend,
Sweet is man's onset and his end; 15
This deed the youth achieved through thee,
And thine auspicious deity.
Twice from the field, by kindred fire,
Urged in the footsteps of his sire,
Th' Olympic chaplet he convey'd, 20
In martial panoply array'd. 23
And where, upon her sheltering plain,
Beneath the rock fair Cirrha lies,
Swift-footed Phricias joy'd to gain
The Pythian contest's glorious prize. 25
In times to come may prosperous fate
Exalt, as now, their blissful state!
Nor, having gain'd an ample share
Of all that Greece esteems as fair,
May envious blasts from Heaven assail 30
The victims of a backward gale. 31
Still may the god with liberal heart
Unshaken happiness impart!
Hymn'd is that man in poets' lay
Who with strong hands or rapid feet 35
Has borne the noblest palms away;
In whom firm strength and valour meet.
Still living, by his youthful son
Who saw the Pythian garlands won.
Not yet to them the lot is given 40
To scale the brazen soil of heaven: [1]
- ↑ This epithet of Olympus is repeated in the [[../../Isthmian Odes/7|seventh Isthmian]]: (v. 72.) It will probably remind the reader of that ter-
denote one of the Heraclidæ, from whom Aleva derived his origin. The scholiast asserts the former.
