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Chromius, the son of Agesidamus, a young gentleman of Sicily, is celebrated for having won the prize of the chariot-race in the Nemæan games (a solemnity instituted first to celebrate the funeral of Opheltes, as is at large described by Statius; and afterwards continued every third year, with an extraordinary conflux of all Greece, and with incredible honour to the conquerors in all the exercises there practised), upon which occasion the poet begins with the commendation of his country, which I take to have been Ortygia (an island belonging to Sicily, and a part of Syracuse, being joined to it by a bridge), though the title of the Ode call him Ætnæan Chromius, perhaps because he was made governor of that town by Hieron. From thence he falls into the praise of Chromius's person, which he draws from his great endowments of mind and body, and most especially from his hospitality, and the worthy use of his riches. He likens his beginning to that of Hercules; and, according to his usual manner of being transported with any good hint that meets him in his way, passing into a digression of Hercules, and his slaying the two serpents in his cradle, concludes the Ode with that history.
Beauteous Ortygia! the first breathing-place
Of great Alpheus' close and amorous race!
Fair Delos' sister, the child-bed
Of bright Latona, where she bred
Th' original new-moon!
Who saw'st her tender forehead ere the horns were grown!
Of great Alpheus' close and amorous race!
Fair Delos' sister, the child-bed
Of bright Latona, where she bred
Th' original new-moon!
Who saw'st her tender forehead ere the horns were grown!
