Page:Pindar and Anacreon.djvu/76

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68
PINDAR.

Oh! could I in the muses' car
Soar, eloquent of speech, afar— 115
Since bold emprise and power belong
To the high-favour'd child of song.
Inspired with hospitable aim
I come the virtues to proclaim,
Which round thy honour'd temples twine, 120
Lampromachus, the Isthmian pine;
When both in one triumphant day
The victor's chaplet bore away.
Two other joys at Corinth's gate
His brow in after times await; 125
And victory twice in Nemea's grove
The wreath for Epharmostus wove.
In Argos' strife of men renown'd,
While yet a boy at Athens crown'd;
When in the Marathonian field, 130
Departing from the beardless train.
He made the veteran warriors yield, [1]
The cup of silver to obtain.
Oh! with what matchless swiftness there
He ran the circus' destined round, 135
While shouting myriads rend the air
With admiration's joyful sound.
His lonely form and deeds of might
Bursting upon the raptured sight.
Wondrous in the Parrhasian plain 140
Before contending hosts he strove,
When all the congregated train
Hallowed thy feast, Lycæan Jove. 145


And when Pallene's robe he bears,

Warm refuge from the chilling airs. 145
  1. I. e., in the Isthmus, where the games were celebrated. So Æschylus, describing the Cimmerian Bosphorus, says, (P. V. 754.:)—

    Ισθμον δ᾽ επ᾽ αυτις στενοποροις λιμνης πυλαις
    Κιμμερικον ἡξεις.