If any combatant success
And fair report united bless. 17
Then seek not Jove's immortal state,15
Since thine is all this prosperous fate.
Mortals in mortal thoughts should rest.
The Isthmian plain and Nemea's fray
To thee, Phylacides, convey
Their double wreaths, and Pytho's day,20
Whose heroes the pancratium's meed contest.
But hymns shall never touch my heart
If Æacus receive no part.
To this fair city have I come,
Which law and justice make their home,25
To Lampo's offspring, by the muses' aid.
Envy not him whose foot proceeds
In the pure path of heavenly deeds,
If by a mingled song his labours are repaid. 31
Brave warriors of heroic race30
Ere now have won the meed of fame,[1]
Whom harps and sounding flutes proclaim
Victors through lengthen'd ages' space;
Affording to the vocal train,
From Jove, high matter for their strain.35
Th' equestrian chaplet Iolaus gain'd
At Thebes, in Argos Perseus' skill obtain'd;
And where the waters of Eurotas flow
Castor and Pollux' spear dealt the triumphant blow. 43
But in Ænone's island bright40
Th' Æacidæ's high natures shone,
They by whose conquering arms in fight
- ↑ The metaphor in this line is repeated with greater amplification in the opening of the next ode, addressed to the same hero.
