The harden'd soul await.
By Jove's command what judges there
From stern necessity declare
The fix'd decrees of fate. 108
Where beams of everlasting day [1]105
Through night's unclouded season play,
Free from mortality's alloy,
The good shall perfect bliss enjoy.
They nor with daring hands molest
Earth's torn and violated breast,110
Nor search the caverns of the main
An empty being to sustain;
But with the honour'd gods, whose ear
The faithful vow delights to hear,
Shall be their tearless age of rest;115
While pangs of aspect dire distract the impious train. 122
But they whose spirit thrice refined [2]
Each arduous contest could endure,
And keep the firm and perfect mind
From all contagion pure;120
- ↑ One might almost imagine that Pindar had taken this sentiment from a passage in the book of Proverbs (iv. 18, 19)—
"The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
"The way of the wicked is as darkness." - ↑ According to the scholiast, Pindar in this passage follows the Pythagorean doctrine of the metempsychosis, and reserves the beautiful Elysium of the blessed islands to those who have passed with the divine approbation through the two conditions of mortality, on and beneath the earth. With this whole description of the Elysian and Tartarian abodes, compare Hesiod; (Op. et Dies. 225.;) where, however, the paradise of the just, as well as the opposite residence of those who delight in violence and wrong, is terrestrial.
Abdita, quam circum flumina nigra sonant.
Tisiphoneque impexa feros pro crinibus angues
Sævit, et huc illuc impia turba fugit," &c.
