There is honour for them that be published the scions
Of princely houses: the tide
Of time never drowneth the story
Of fathers heroic: it flasheth defiance
To death from its deathless glory.
(Ant.)
But a victory stained—ah, best forego it,
If thy triumph must wrest to thy shame the right: 780
Yea, 'tis sweet at the first unto mortals, I know it;
But barren in time's long flight
Doth it wax: 'tis as infamy's cloud o'er thy towers.
Nay, this be my song, the delight
Of my days, and the prize worth winning,—
That I wield no dominion, in home's bride-bowers,
Nor o'er men, that I may not unsinning.
(Epode)
O ancient of Aiakus' line,[1] 790
Now know I, when Lapithans dashing on Centaurs charged victorious,
There did thy world-famed war-spear shine,—
That, on Argo riding the havenless brine,
Thou didst burst through the gates of the Clashing Rocks on the sea-quest glorious;
And when great Zeus' son in the days overpast
Round Ilium the meshes of slaughter had cast,
As ye sped unto Europe returning, there too was thy fame's star burning, 800
For the half of the glory was thine.
- ↑ The following lines refer to Peleus' share in (1) the victory of the Lapithæ over the Centaurs, (2) the Argonauts' quest of the Golden Fleece, (3) the expedition of Herakles against Troy.
