By diverse paths men upward aspire:
Earth's highest summit by kings is attained.
Thou therefore look to attain no higher
Than earth. Be it thine on the height thou hast gained
To pace mid splendour of royal achieving
Thy life through : mine be it no less long
To consort with victors, from Hellas receiving
The world o'er praise for my song.
Olympian II.
For Theron, ruler of Akragas in Sicily, on a victory won in the chariot-race, in 476 B.C.
Songs, lords of the lyre ! what God shall we hymn? — what hero's praises?
What man's fame publish afar?
Pisa doth Zeus own ; Herakles stablished Olympia's races
With the regal spoils of his war;
Theron, who honours the guest, whose four steeds raced victorious,
Akragas' stay, let us chant, full flower of an ancestry glorious.
His city's saviour-star.
Toils bravely his fathers endured, and a hallowed home by the river
They reared : they were Sicily's eye.
And to crown their inborn worth. Fair Fortune attended them, giver 10
Of wealth and of dignity.
Son of Kronos and Rhea, enthroned in Olympus, thou lord of the choicest
Of contests by Alpheus' ford, guard, since in our song thou rejoicest,
For their sons ever graciously
Their fatherland-soil! When for right or for wrong hath been woven the tissue
Of our deeds, not Time the father of all can reverse the issue.
Yet oblivion may come of the past
