THE SECOND OLYMPIC ODE

O F

PINDAR.

Written in praife of Theron, prince of Agrigentum (a famous city in Sicily, built by his ancestors) who, in the feventy-feventh Olympic, won the chariot-prize. He is commended from the nobility of his race (whofe story is often toucht on); from his great riches (an ordinary common-place in Pindar); from his hofpitality, munificence, and other virtues. The Ode (according to the conftant custom of the Poct) confifts more in digreffions, than in the main fubject: and the Reader must not be choqued to hear him fpeak fo often of his own Mufe; for that is a liberty which this kind of poetry can hardly live without.

UEEN of all harmonious things,
Dancing words, and speaking ftrings!

What God, what Hero, wilt thou fing?
What happy man to equal glories bring?
Begin, begin thy noble choice,

And let the hills around reflect the image of thy voice,
Pifa does to Jove belong;

Jove and Pifa claim thy fong.

The fair first-fruits of war, th' Olympic games,

Alcides offer'd-up to Jove;

Alcides too thy ftrings may move ;

But, oh what man to join with thefe can worthy prove!

Join Theron boldly to their facred names;
Theron the next honour claims;

Theron to no man gives place,
Is first in Pifa's and in Virtue's race;

Theron there, and he alone,

Ev'n his own swift forefathers has outgone.

They through rough ways, o'er many ftops they paft,

Till on the fatal bank at last

They Agrigentum built, the beauteous eye

Of fair-fac'd Sicily;
Which does itself i' th' river by

With pride and joy espy.

Then chearful notes their painted years did fing,
And Wealth was one, and Honour th' other, wing;
Their genuine virtues did more fweet and clear,
In Fortune's graceful dress, appear.
To which, great fon of Rhea! fay

The firm word which forbids things to decay!
If in Olympus' top, where thou
Sitt'ft to behold thy facred show;
If in Alpheus' filver flight;
If in my verfe, thou doft delight,
My verfe, O Rhea's fon! which is
Lofty as that, and fmooth as this.

For the paft fufferings of this noble race (Since things once paft, and fled out of thine hand, Hearken no more to thy command)

Let prefent joys fill up their place,

And

And with Oblivion's filent stroke deface

Of foregone ills the very trace.

In no illuftrious line

Do thefe happy changes fhine

More brightly, Theron! than in thine.

So, in the cryftal palaces
Of the blue-ey'd Nereides,
Ino her endless youth does please,
And thanks her fall into the seas.
Beauteous Semele does no less

Her cruel midwife, Thunder, blefs;
Whilft, sporting with the Gods on high,
She' enjoys fecure their company;
Plays with lightnings as they fly,

Nor trembles at the bright embraces of the Deity.

But death did them from future dangers free;
What God, alas! will caution be

For living man's fecurity,

Or will enfure our veffel in this faithlefs fea?
Never did the fun as yet

So healthful a fair-day beget,
That travelling mortals might rely on it.
But Fortune's favour and her spite

Roll with alternate waves like day and night:

Viciffitudes which thy great race pursue,

E'er fince the fatal fon his father flew,

And did old oracles fulfil

Of Gods that cannot lye, for they foretell but their own

will.

Erynnis

Erynnis faw 't, and made in her own feed

The innocent Parricide to bleed;

She flew his wrathful fons with mutual blows:

But better things did then fucceed,

And brave Therfander, in amends for what was past,

arofe.

Brave Therfander was by none,

In war, or warlike sports, out-done. Thou, Theron, his great virtues dost revive; He in my verfe and thee again does live.

Loud Olympus happy thee,

Ifthmus and Nemea does twice happy fee;
For the well-natur'd honour there,
Which with thy brother thou didst share,
Was to thee double grown

By not being all thine own;

And those kind pious glories do deface
The old fraternal quarrel of thy race.

Greatnefs of mind and fortune too
Th' Olympic trophies fhew:
Both their feveral parts must do

In the noble chace of fame;

This without that is blind, that without this is lame.. Nor is fair Virtue's picture feen aright

But in Fortune's golden light.

Riches alone are of uncertain date,

And on short man long cannot wait; The virtuous make of them the best, And put them out to Fame for intereft;

With a frail good they wifely buy

The folid purchase of eternity:

They, whilft life's air they breathe, confider well, and know

Th' account they must hereafter give below
Whereas th' unjust and covetous above,
In deep unlovely vaults,

By the just decrees of Jove,

Unrelenting torments prove,

The heavy neceffary effects of voluntary faults..

Whilft in the lands of unexhausted light,
O'er which the god-like fun's unwearied fight
Ne'er winks in clouds, or fleeps in night,
An endless spring of age the good enjoy,
Where neither Want does pinch, nor Plenty cloy
There neither earth nor fea they plow,

Nor aught to labour owe

For food, that whilft it nourishes does decay,
And in the lamp of life confumes away.

Thrice had these men through mortal bodies paft
Did thrice the trial undergo,

Till all their little drofs was purg'd at last,
The furnace had no more to do.

Then in rich Saturn's peaceful state

Were they for facred treasures plac'd,

The Mufe-difcovered world of Iflands Fortunate.

Soft-footed winds with tuneful voices there

Dance through the perfum'd air:

There