and others which are made up of Strophes only, of different lengths and measures. But the greatest num, ber of Pindar's Odes are of the firft kind.

I have in the tranflation retained the names of Strophé and Antistrophé, on purpose to imprint the more ftrongly on the Mind of the English reader, the exact regularity obferved by Pindar in the ftructure of his Odes; and have even followed his example in one, which in the original confifts only of two Strophes.

Another charge against Pindar relates to the fuppofed wildness of his imagination, his extravagant digreffions, and fudden transitions, which leads me to confider the fecond point, viz. the connection of his thoughts. Upon which I fhall fa but little in this place, having endeavoured to point out the connexion, and account for many of the digressions, in my Arguments and Notes to the feveral Odes which I have tranflated. Here therefore I fhall only obferve in general, that whoever imagines the victories and praises of the Conquerors are the proper fubjects of the Odes infcribed to them, will find himfelf miftaken. Thefe victories indeed gave occafion to these fongs of triumph, and are therefore conftantly taken notice of by the Poet, as are alfo any particular and remarkable circumftances relating to them, or to the lives and characters of the Conquerors themselves but, as fuch circumftances could rarely furnish out matter fufficient for an Ode of any length, fo would it have been an indecency unknown to the civil

:

* See p. 122.

civil equality and freedom, as well as to the fimplicity of the age in which Pindar lived, to have filled a poem intended to be fung in public, and even at the altars of the gods, with the praises of one man only; who, befides, was often no otherwife confiderable, but as the victory which gave occafion to the Ode had made him. For thefe reafons, the Poet, in order to give his poem its due extent, was obliged to have recourfe to other circumstances, arifing either from the family or country of the Conqueror, from the Games in which he had come off victorious, or from the particular deities who had any relation to the occafion, or in whofe temples the Ode was intended to be fung. All thefe, and many other particulars, which the reading the Odes of Pindar may fuggeft to an attentive obferver, gave hints to the Poet, and led him into thofe frequent digreffions, and quick transitions; which it is no wonder should appear to us at this diftance of time and place both extravagant and unaccountable.

Upon the whole, I am perfuaded that whoever will confider the Odes of Pindar with regard to the manners and customs of the age in which they were written, the occafions which gave birth to them, and the places in which they were intended to be recited, will find little reason to cenfure Pindar for want of order and regularity in the plans of his compofitions. the contrary, perhaps, he will be inclined to admire him, for raising fo many beauties from fuch trivial hints, and for kindling, as he fometimes does, so great a flame from a fingle spark, and with fo little fuel.

On

There

on

There is ftill another prejudice against Pindar, which may arife in the minds of thofe people who are not thoroughly acquainted with ancient Hiftory, and who may therefore be apt to think meanly of Odes, infcribed to a fet of Conquerors, whom poffibly they may look upon only as fo many Prize-fighters and Jockeys. To obviate this prejudice, I have prefixed to my tranflation of Pindar's Odes a Differtation the Olympick Games: in which the reader will fee what kind of perfons thefe Conquerors were, and what was the nature of thofe famous Games; of which every one, who has but just looked into the hiftory of Greece, must know enough to defire to be better acquainted with them. The collection is as full as I have been able to make it, affifted by the labours of a learned Frenchman, Pierre du Faur, who, in his Book intituled Agonisticon, hath gathered almost every thing that is mentioned in any of the Greek or Latin Writers relating to the Grecian Games, which he has thrown together in no very clear order; as is obferved by his Countryman Monf. Burette, who hath written several pieces on the fubject of the Gymnaftick Exercifes, inferted in the Second Volume of "Memoires de l'Aca"demie Royale, &c." printed at Amsterdam, 1719. In this Differtation I have endeavoured to give a complete Hiftory of the Olympick Games: of which kind there

For this Differtation, and the learned Author's copious notes in the following Odes, we must refer curious reader to the work at large, N.

there is not, that I knc of, any treatife now extant; thofe written upon this subject by fome of the Ancients being all loft, and not being fupplied by any learned Modern, at least not fo fully as might have been done, and as fo confiderable an article of the Grecian Antiquities feemed to demand. As I flatter myself that even the learned Reader will in this Differtation meet with many points which have hitherto efcaped his notice, and much light reflected from thence upon the Odes of Pindar in particular, as well as upon many paffages in other Greek Writers, I fhall rather defire him to excufe thofe errors and defects which he may happen to discover in it, than apologize for the length of it.

Having now removed the chief prejudices and objections which have been too long and too generally entertained against the Writings of Pindar, I need say but little of his real character, as the principal parts of it may be collected from the very faults imputed to him; which are indeed no other than the exceffes of great and acknowledged beauties, such as a poetical imagination, a warm and enthusiastic genius, a bold and figurative expreffion, and a concife and fententious ftile. These are the characteristical beauties of Pindar; and to these his greatest blemishes, generally fpeaking, are fo near allied, that they have fometimes been mistaken for each other. I cannot however help obferving, that he is fo entirely free from any thing like the far-fetched thoughts, the witty extravagances,

and

and puerile concetti of Mr. Cowley and the reft of his Imitators, that I cannot recollect fo much as even a fingle antithefis in all his Odes.

Longinus indeed confeffes, that Pindar's flame is fometimes extinguished, and that he now and then Tinks unexpectedly and unaccountably; but he prefers him, with all his faults, to a Poet who keeps on in one constant tenour of mediocrity, and who, though he feldom falls very low, yet never rifes to those astonishing heights, which fometimes make the head even of a great Poet giddy, and occafion thofe flips which they at the fame time excufe.

But, notwithstanding all that has or can be said in favour of Pindar, he must still appear, as I before obferved, under great difadvantages, especially to the English Reader. Much of this fire, which formerly warmed and dazzled all Greece, muft neceffarily be loft even in the beft Tranflation. Befides, to fay nothing of many Beauties peculiar to the Greek, which cannot be expreffed in English, and perhaps not in any other language, there are in thefe Odes fo many references to fecret hiftory, so many allufions to perfons, things, and places, now altogether unknown, and which, were they known, would very little intereft or affect the Reader, and withal fuch a mixture of Mythology and Antiquity, that I almoft defpair of their being relifhed by any, but thofe who have, if not a great deal of claffical learning, yet somewhat at least of an antique and claffical tafte.