"the Dancers were returned to the place whence they "fet out, before they renewed the dance they stood «fill while the Epode was fung.

"If the fame perfons both danced and fung, when "we confider how much breath is required for a full Song, perhaps one may incline to think, that the "Strophé and Antiftrophé partook fomething of the Recitative manner, and that the Epode was the 66 more compleat Air.

"There is a paffage in the ancient Grammarian, "Marius Victorinus, which is much to the fame purpofe as this above, though he does not diftinctly Ipeak of dancing. The paffage is this:

66

Pleraque Lyricorum carminum, quæ verfu, coifque & commatibus componuntur, ex Strophé, Antistrophé, & Epodo, ut Græci appellant, ordinata "fubllitunt. Quorum ratio talis eft. Antiqui Deo"rum laudes carminibus comprehenfas, circum aras "corum euntes canebant. Cujus primum ambitum,

<6

quem ingrediebantur ex parte dextrâ, Strophen "vocabant; reverfionem autem finiftrofum factam, "completo priore orbe, Antiftrophen appellabant. "Deinde in confpe&u Deorum foliti confiftere cantici, "reliqua confequebantur, appellantes id Epodon.

"The Writers I have quoted fpeak only of Odes, fung in the temples: but Demetrius Triclinius, upon the measures of Sophocles, fays the fame "thing upon the Odes of the Tragick Chorus. "What the Scholiaft upon Hephaeftion, cited above, "adds about the Heavenly Motions, &c, is alfo faid

by

"by Victorinus, and by Demetrius Triclinius, and "likewife by the Scholiaft on Pindar. Yet I confider "this in no other light, than I do the fantastical con"ceits with which the Writers on Mufic abound. "Ptolemy, out of his three Books of Harmonics, " employs one almost entirely upon comparing the principles of Music with the motions of the Planets, "the faculties of the mind, and other fuch ridiculous "imaginations. And Ariftides Quintilianus, fup"pofed an older Author, is full of the fame fooleries. "Marius Victorinus has another fcheme alfo, viz. "that the dancing forwards and backwards was in"vented by Thefeus, in memory of the labyrinth "out of which he efcaped. But all this is taking "much unneceffary pains to account why, when "Dancers have gone as far as they can one way, "they should return back again; or at least not dance "in the fame circle till they are giddy."

Such was the ftructure of the Greek Ode, in which the Strophé and the Antiftrophe, i. e. the first and second stanzas, contained always the fame number and the fame kind of verfes. The Epode was of a different length and meafure; and if the Ode ran out into any length, it was always divided into Triplets of ftanzas, the two firft being conftantly of the fame length and measure, and all the Epodes in like manner correfponding exactly with each other: from all which the regularity of this kind of compofitions is fufficiently evident. There are indeed fome Odes, which confift of Strophés, and Antiftrophés without any Epode;

1 4

and

and others which are made up of Strophes only, of different lengths and mcafures. But the greateft number of Pindar's Odes are of the firft kind.

I have in the tranflation retained the names of Strophé and Antiftrophé, on purpofe 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 tranfitions, which leads me to confider the fecond point, viz. the connection of his thoughts. Upon which I fhall fay but little in this place, having endeavoured to point out the connexion, and account for many of the digreffions, 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 himself mistaken. Thefe victories indeed gave occasion 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 these reasons, 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 tranfitions; which it is no wonder should appear to us at this distance 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 cuftoms 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 reafon to cenfure Pindar for want of order and regularity in the plans of his compofitions. On 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, fo great a flame from a fingle spark, and with fo little fuel.

There

There is still 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 * on the Olympick Games: in which the reader will see 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 subject of the Gymnastick Exercises, 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 History of the Olympick Games: of which kind

there

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