I N D E X O F P I N D A R' S I M A G E S O F P O E T, P O E T R Y, S O N G

(I) SONG LIKENED TO ELEMENTAL & NATURAL THINGS

(1) Light: O.3.4-5, O.4.8-10, O.9.21-2, O.14.13-15, P.1.1-2, P.3.74-7, P.5.45, P.9.89-90 , I.4.21-4, I.7. 23, fr. 18.5 (Sn.), fr. 75.6-9, fr. 148, fr. 199, fr. 214 Bo (227=250 Sa), (??) O.1.116, O.13.35f.

(2) Wind: O.9.47-49, P.4.2-3, P.11. 38-40, N.3.26-7, N.6.29-30

(3) Water = Mirror: N.7.11-15, I.7.16 ff. (these two closely cognate)

(4) Water = Torrent (= torrent of inspiration): O.6.82-88, O.10. 9-11, I.6.72-5

(5) Water = Rain or Dew: O.10. 93-98, P.5.98-100, P.8.56-7, N.8.40-2, I.6.19-21, I.6.62-6

(6) Water in general: P.4.299, P.9.103-5 , N.4.1-5, N.7.61-4 (cf. N.1.24, I.5.19-25, I.8.56-8)

(7) Nectar: O.7.7-9, fr. 84.56-8 (94b 76-8 Sn.) (cf. fr. 6b Sn.)

(8) Honey + Milk: O.6.21, N.3.76-82, N.10.18

(9) Plants in General (cf. section I.5): O.6.105, O.9.47-49, O.11.8-10 , N.7.30-3, N.8.40-2, Ι.4.25-7

(10) Plants, Cultivated (cf. section I.5): O.9.23-27, P.6.1 ff., N.6.32-5, N.10.26-7

(11) Bee: P.6.52-4, P.10. 53-4, fr. 139, Simonides, fr. 947

(12) Eagle: (see also Wings) O.2.86-88, N.3.76-82, N.5.19-21

(13) Wings (in general): O.14.24, P.8.32-4, P.8.88-92, P.9.125, N.7.22, I.1.64, I.5.62.

(14) Dolphin: fr. 140b Sn (125 Bo) 1-4b

(II) SONG LIKENED TO MAN-MADE THINGS: DECORATIVE

(1) Garland (See also II.2, where it may often be implied) O.1.100-2, P.8.56-7, P.9.1-4, N.7.77-79

(2) Embroidery; plaiting; fabric: O.1.8-10, O.1.129, O.1.100-5, O.3.8, O.4. 3, O.6. 86-7, P.9.76-8, P.12.6-7, N.4.14, Ν.44-6, N.8.13-16, N.11.18, fr. 169

(3) Mixing Bowl: O.6. 91, O.7.1-12, I.6.1-9

(4) Gravestone: N.4.79-86, N.8.44-8, I.8.61-3)

(III) SONG LIKENED TO MAN-MADE THINGS: USEFUL (see also IV)

(1) Buildings: O.6.1-4, P.3.112-114, P.6.5-18, N.3.1-10, fr. 184 (=194 Sn.)

(2) Ship: Ο. 6.100-105, O.13.49, P.2.62, P.10.51-2, P.11.39, N.3.20-9, N.4.69-71, N.5.50-1, N.6.56-9. (3) Merchandise: P.2.67-71, N.5.1-4, N.6.32-5

(4) Scrollwand: 0.6.91

(5) Whetstone: I.6.72, O.6.82 ff.

(IV) SONG LIKENED TO GAMES AND WAR

(1) Arrows: O.2.83-92, O.6.46, O.9.5-14, P.1.12, N.6.27-29, I.5.46-8

(2) Javelins: O.1.111-114, O. 13. 93-7, P.1. 41-5, N.7. 70-3, N.9.54-55

(3) Chariot: O.6.22-7, O.9.80-83, P.10.64-66, N.1.7, I.8.61-3, (fr. 125 = 140b Sn, 1-4b

(4) Long Jump: N.5.19-20 (5)? Hunting? N.5.23-24

(V) MISCELLANEOUS

(1) Herald: O.8.72-84, Ο.13.97-100, O.14.21-4, P.9.1, P.2.3-4, N.6.59-61, fr. 61 (70b Sn) 18-20

(2) Lyre = Instructor: P.1.2-4

(3) Noise, non-musical sound: O.3.4-9, O.5.19, O.9.40, O.9.109, Ο.13.97-100, O.14.21-4, P.1.113 f, P.3.112-114, , P.9.1-4, P.9.89-90, P.10.37-41, P.12.6-11; 19-21, N.3.65-8, Ν.4.85-6, N.5.38, N.6.37 ff, N.6.59-61, N.7.75, N.7.80-2, N.8.13-16, I.5.46-8, Paean 5.43-6, fr. 84 (150 Sn) 10-15

(4) "Lords of the lyre": O.2.1.

(5) "prophet": fr. 137 = 150 Sn (p. 8)

(6) Magic spell: N.4.33-5; N.8.48-50

(7) "Path" of song (see also Section VI): O.1.109-111, O.7.20-1, O.9.47-49, P.8.6-7-9, N.6.47-8, fr. 180 (191 Sn), fr. 61 (70b Sn): cf. Homeric Hymn Merc. 471. Also O.6.27 f., 73; O.9.105, P.2.85, P.3.104, P.8.67-9, N.2.56, N.7.51O.1.109-110 (476), N.6.47-8 (461), fr. 61 (70b Sn), fr. 180 (191 Sn)

(8) Debt: O.3.6-9, O.10.1-12, P.8.32-4, P.9.103-5, N.6.59-61)

(VI) POEM'S 'RIGHT PATH', 'EXACT MEASURE' (KAIROS), 'RULE' (TETHMOS). I.e. "bridge" passages specially dense with images of poetry, often betraying what a Pindaric ode aimed at: O.6.82 ff., O.13.43-52, P.1.81-2, P.10.50-54, P.9.76 ff, P.11.38-45, N.1. 18, N.4.33-45, N.6.55 -60, N.8.19-22.

(VII) "DORIAN" SONG VERSUS "AEOLIAN": O.1.100-2, O.3.4-5, P.2.62-71, fr. 180 (191 Sn)

This Index is half fomed, a work forever "in progress". I made the original rough draft during a spring break several yeas ago, for a course called "Poets on Poetry" at the University of Dallas, in order to help students trying to write papers on Pindar. It is now slowly expanding; also, I hope eventually to differentiate between the more and the less certain instances of each image, and to have discussion of all hard instances (as e.g. at III.3, V.2). Also, some distinctions are still tentative (e.g. various types of Water in I.3-6, Plants in I.9-10). So if anyone has additions or corrections, I would be very glad to hear of them.

Often Pindar only gestures at an image, by a single word (e.g. often in I.1, "Light"); sometimes he explores the same image in depth. I cannot hope to notice every image only gestured at; but I can hope at least to collect all those that are explored. This ought to clarify the less certain instances; and that is worth doing, because Pindar's implied images are often overlooked, or denied, or badly misinterpreted, by commentators and even by the authors of Greek dictionaries. (In fact, because of Pindar's density, and the often rather astounding boldness of his imagery, for him the best Greek dictionaries seem often wildly unreliable. Again and again a verse by him is quoted as showing that a word had some nonexistent "abstract" meaning which is attested only there, and which results simply from the lexicologist's having overlooked a laconic, daring image. Pindar, I think, suffers more from this than does any other ancient author. It should be one of the functions of this Index to prove this.)

Images of his art often come in clusters, at transitional places in an ode, where he needs a "bridge" because he is uneasy about leaping suddenly from one topic to another (e.g. from the myth to the victor, or vice versa). I have collected a few of those places in section VI, but there are very many others. Such places nearly always "mix" metaphors. Since this Index tries to discern every real image (i.e. every one that seems really, even if only briefly, indicated), I sometimes quote the same passage more than once, or give cross-references.

My translations are often terribly clumsy, because they cling tortuously to the Greek word order, so that each English line can correspond to a Greek. A single slash "/" means a line end; a double slash "//", the end of a strophe.

(I.1) LIGHT OF FIRE, STAR, SUN. Often implied by just one word, such as αἴγλη (on which see Mullen 222 ff.), but just as often magnificently explored, e.g. in (c), (f), (i), (p).

(a) O.3.4-5 Μοῖσα δ' οὕτω ποι παρέστα μοι νεοσίγαλον εὑρόντι τρόπον / Δωρίῳ φωνὰν ἐναρμόξαι πεδίλῳ // ἀγλαόκωμον. Thus, no doubt, the Muse was with me as I, finding a sparkling-new mode*, / fit to the Dorian sandal the voice // that gives radiance to the feast.

*"The novelty consists in the combination of honor to God and honor to man, of theoxenia [i.e. a festival at which the Dioscuroi and their sister Helen were felt to be present, entertaining the gods] and the epinikion [composed in dactylo-epitrite, i.e. Dorian, meter]" (Gildersleeve). O.3 celebrates the same victory as O.2; but perhaps O.2 was performed in Theron's palace, and O.3 in the Dioskourion.

(b) O.4.8-10 (O Zeus) Οὐλυμπιονίκαν δέκευ / Χαρίτων ἕκατι τόνδε κῶμον, // χρονιώτατον φάος εὐρυσθενέων ἀρετᾶν. (O Zeus) Receive an Olympic victor / and, for the Graces' sake, this revel, / (this) longest-lasting light of 'widely potent prowess'

(c) O.9.21-2 ἐγὼ δέ τοι φίλαν πόλιν / μαλεραῖς ἐπιφλέγων ἀοιδαῖς, I a dear city / am setting fire to with glowing songs. (cf. N.10.2-3 (464))

(d) O.14.13-15 ῞ὦ῞ πότνι' Ἀγλαΐα / φιλησίμολπέ τ' Εὐφροσύνα, θεῶν κρατίστου / παῖδες, ἐπακοοῖτε νῦν, Θαλία τε / ἐρασίμολπε, ἰδοῖσα τόνδε κῶμον ἐπ' εὐμενεῖ τύχᾳ / κοῦφα βιβῶντα: O lady Radiance / and song-loving Merriment, of the greatest of gods / the childeren, listen now, and Thalia, song-addicted, when you have seen this comos / lightly stepping (etc.)

(e) P.1.1-2 χρυσέα φόρμιγξ.../ ...τᾶς ἀκούει μὲν βάσις, ἀγλαΐας ἀρχά.

Golden lyre... / .... whom the footstep, beginning of splendor, hears...

(f) P.3.74-7 (if I had brought Hieron golden health, and...) ...κῶμόν τ' ἀέθλων Πυθίων αἴγλαν στεφάνοις. / τοὺς ἀριστεύων Φερένικος ἕλ' ἐν Κίρρᾳ ποτέ, / ἀστέρος οὐρανίου φαμὶ τηλαυγέστερον κείνῳ φάος / ἐξικόμαν κε βαθὺν πόντον περάσαις. //
(if I had brought Hieron golden health, and...) a komos for the Pythian victories, a radiance for their crowns, / which Pherenikos once took by excelling at Kirrha / "No star in heaven, I say, had then shone farther than I, / as I came from crossing the deep sea" (tr. Bowra)

(g) P.5.45 Ἀλεξιβιάδα, σὲ δ' ἠΰκομοι φλέγοντι Χάριτες.
Son of Alexibius, the fair-haired Graces light you up.

(h) P.9.89-90 ...Χαρίτων κελαδεννᾶν / μή με λίποι καθαρὸν φέγγος.

let the clear sunlight of the dinning Graces not desert me

(i) I.4.21-4 (Poseidon) τόνδε πορὼν γενεᾷ θαυμαστὸν ὕμνον / ἐκ λεχέων ἀνάγει φάμαν παλαιὰν / εὐκλέων ἔργων· ἐν ὕπνῳ γὰρ πέσεν· ἀλλ' ἀνεγειρομένα χρῶτα λάμπει, / ᾿Αωσφόρος θαητὸς ὣς ἄστροις ἐν ἄλλοις·

(Poseidon) by granting this hymn to the clan / leads up from its bed the ancient fame / of illustrious deeds: for it had fallen asleep. But roused, its body shines / like the Morning Star wondrous among the other stars"

(k) I.7. 23 φλέγεται δὲ ἰοπλόκοισι Μοίσαις, He is lighted up by the violet-tressed Muses

(l) fr. 18.5 (Sn.) ὕμνων σέλας, "flash of hymns"

(m) fr. 75.6-9 ἰοδέτων λάχετε στεφάνων τᾶν τ' ἐαριδρόπων ἀοιδᾶν, / Διόθεν τέ με σὺν ἀγλαίᾳ / ἴδετε πορευθέντ' ἀοιδᾶν δεύτερον / ἐπὶ τὸν κισσοδαῆ θεόν.

(5) / Take violet-twined wreaths and springtime-plucked songs, / and from Zeus me with radiance / of songs see sped secondly / to the ivy-crowned god

(n) fr. 148 ὀρχήστ' ἀγλαΐας ἀνάσσων, εὐρυφάρετρ' Ἄπολλον:

O dancer, lord of radiance, well-quivered Apollo...

(o) fr. 199 (about Sparta) ἔνθα βουλαὶ γερόντων / καὶ νέων ἀνδρῶν αὶχμαί, / καὶ χοροὶ καὶ Μοῖσα καὶ Ἀγλαΐα. There councils of elders / and spears of young men / and choirs and the Muse and Radiance.

(p) fr. 214 Bo (227=250 Sa) (this might refer rather to plants, q.v.) νέων δὲ μέριμναι σὺν πόνοις εἱλίσσομαι / δόξαν εὑρίσκοντι· λάμπει δὲ χρόνῳ / ἔργα μετ' αἰθέρ' <ἀε>ρθέντα· The ambitions of youths exercised with toils / find glory, and with time their deeds / shine out lifted into the ether

(q) O.1.116 f. (??) εἴη σέ τε τοῦτον ὑψοῦ χρόνον πατεῖν, ἐμέ τε τοσσάδε νικαφόροις / ὁμιλεῖν, πρόφαντον σοφίᾳ καθ' ῞Ελλανας ἐόντα παντᾷ, May it be your lot during this life to tread the heights, and mine like this to consort with victors, conspicuous in skill among Hellenes everywhere. (The image may be, as e.g. Bowra thinks, that of a beacon. )

(r) O.13.35 f. (??) πατρὸς δὲ Θεσσαλοῦ ἐπ' ᾿Αλφεοῦ / ῥεέθροισιν αἴγλα ποδῶν ἀνάκειται: by Alpheos' streams is stored the radiance of foot of his father Thessalos. (This 'radiance' might not be that of song; but it seems implied by the verb ἀνάκειται -- compare e.g. O.11.8.)

(I.2) WIND = inspiration; = fame (cf. IV.3, Ship).

O.9.47-49 (?) (Referring to Pyrrha and Deucalion) ἔγειρ' ἐπέων σφιν οἶμον* λιγύν, / αἴνει δὲ παλαιὸν μὲν οἶνον, ἄνθεα δ' ὕμνων // νεωτέρων. Stir up for them a stern-wind of stories! / But praise wine for age, flowers of songs / for newness.

*οἶμον codd.: ὅρμον Sn 72a: οὖρον Gedicke

P.4.2-3 ...ὄφρα κωμάζοντι σὺν ᾿Αρκεσίλᾳ, / Μοῖσα, Λατοίδαισιν ὀφειλόμενον Πυθῶνί τ' αὔξῃς οὖρον ὕμνων· ...so that with Arkesilaos as he triumphs, Muse, you may swell the stern-wind of songs due to the children of Leto and to Pytho

P.11. 38-40 ἦ ῥ', ὦ φίλοι, κατ' ἀμευσιπόρους τριόδους ἐδινήθην, / ὀρθὰν κέλευθον ἰὼν τὸ πρίν· ἤ μέ τις ἄνεμος ἔξω πλόου / ἔβαλεν, ὡς ὅτ' ἄκατον εἰναλίαν; O! -- friends, my head spins at a three-forked crossroads· / though before I had the right path. Or perhaps some wind or other has thrown me /off course, as it does a skiff at sea?

N.3.26-7 ...θυμέ, τίνα πρὸς ἀλλοδαπὰν / ἄκραν ἐμὸν πλόον παραμείβεαι;

...Heart, towards what foreign / headland are you turning my boat now?

N.6.29-30 εὔθυν' ἐπὶ τοῦτον, ἄγε, Μοῖσα, οὖρον ἐπέων / εὐκλέα.

Come, Muse, guide straight to him [the victor] a glorious stern-wind of song

(I.3) WATER = MIRROR: (these two passages closely akin)

N.7.11-16 εἰ δὲ τύχῃ τις ἔρδων, μελίφρον' αἰτίαν

ῥοαῖσι Μοισᾶν ἐνέβαλε· ταὶ μεγάλαι γὰρ ἀλκαὶ

σκότον πολὺν ὕμνων ἔχοντι δεόμεναι·

ἔργοις δὲ καλοῖς ἔσοπτρον ἴσαμεν ἑνὶ σὺν τρόπῳ,

εἰ Μ ν α μ ο σ ύ ν α ς ἕκατι λιπαράμπυκος

εὕρηται ἄποινα μόχθων κλυταῖς ἐπέων ἀοιδαῖς.

If anyone's actions prosper, a sweet-for-thought theme

he casts upon the Muses' stream. Great deeds of prowess

if lacking songs have much death-darkness.

For noble deeds a mirror we know (only) in one way,

if by grace of Memory of the shining tiara

recompense is found in glorious [or 'glory-making'] singing of verse.

I.7.16 ff. (cf. I.1.e) εὕδει χάρις, ἀ μ ν ά μ ο ν ε ς δὲ βροτοί, //

ὅ τι μὴ σοφίας ἄωτον ἄκρον /

κλυταῖς ἐπέων ῥοαῖσιν ἐξίκηται ζυγέν.

But the old / beauty [or 'grace' -- 'charis' ] sleeps; mortals have no memory //

save of what to the highest bloom of wisdom [or 'skill'] /

attains, by being yoked to [i.e. reflected in!] the glorious stream of verse.

(I.4) WATER = A FLOOD OR SPRING OF INSPIRATION: )

O.6.82-88 δόξαν ἔχω τιν' ἐπὶ γλώσσᾳ ἀκόνας λιγυρᾶς,
ἅ μ' ἐθέλοντα προσέρπει καλλιρόοισι πνοαῖς·
ματρομάτωρ ἐμὰ Στυμφαλίς, εὐανθὴς Μετώπα, //
πλάξιππον ἃ Θήβαν ἔτικτεν, τᾶς ἐρατεινὸν ὕδωρ
πίομαι, ἀνδράσιν αἰχματαῖσι πλέκων
ποικίλον ὕμνον. ὄτρυνον νῦν ἑταίρους,
"I have some feeling on my tongue of a shrill whetstone / drawing me [or creeps over me] willingly with sweet-flowing breaths. [see discussion in III.5] / My grandmother Stymphalian, Metopa of fair bloom, whom horse-driving Thebes bore, --Thebes, whose sweet water I drink as I weave the hymn's fine weft for spear-handling men. And now, Aineas, rouse your companions..." Mullen 36

O.10.9-11 (I owe you a song; now, payment with interest will put reproach to sleep) ...ὁρᾶτ' ὦν νῦν ψᾶφον ἑλισσομέναν / ὅπα κῦμα κατακλύσσει ῥέον, / ὅπα τε κοινὸν λόγον / φίλαν τίσομεν ἐς χάριν. See then how the pebbles rolling / are churned by the flowing wave, / and how our contracted debt / we shall pay, as a loving favor. (See discussion below in V.8)

I.6.72-5 (Mullen 35) (poem's last lines; 72-3 praise the victor's uncle Lampon, 74 f. praise both men): γλῶσσα δ' οὐκ ἔξω φρενῶν· φαίης κέ νιν ἀνδράσιν ἀθληταῖσιν ἔμμεν
Ναξίαν πέτραις ἐν ἄλλαις χαλκοδάμαντ' ἀκόναν.
πίσω σφε Δίρκας ἁγνὸν ὕδωρ, τὸ βαθύζωνοι κόραι
χρυσοπέπλου Μναμοσύνας ἀνέτειλαν παρ' εὐτειχέσιν Κάδμου πύλαις.

"And his tongue is not outside his heart. You might say that he is among athletic men /

among (i.e. compared with) other stones a bronze-taming Naxian whetstone. ./

I shall make them drink the pure water of Dirke, which the deep-zoned maidens /

of gold-robed Mnemosyne made gush near the well-made gates of Kadmos.

(1. 5) WATER = RAIN or DEW. It is often impossible to say which of the two is meant. In P.8 the 'sprinkling' could be, as some think, one of leaves or petals (see E. Borthwick 'Zoologica Pindarica', CQ 26, 1976, 198 ff.)--but this seems unlikely in the light of the other passages. Note that this image of water overlaps with another, which is that of the hero's renown, likened to a growing plant (below I.9, I.10; cf. Verdenius on O.12):

O.10. 93-98 (Those who go to Hades unsung toil in vain; but for you, Hagesidamos--)

...τὶν δ' ἁδυεπής τε λύρα / γλυκύς τ' αὐλὸς ἀναπάσσει χάριν· /
95] τρέφοντι δ' εὐρὺ κλέος / κόραι Πιερίδες Διός. //
ἐγὼ δὲ συνεφαπτόμενος σπουδᾷ, κλυτὸν ἔθνος /
Λοκρῶν ἀμφέπεσον μέλιτι / εὐάνορα πόλιν καταβρέχων·

But on you the lovely-voiced lyre / and sweet flute sprinkle grace, /

95] for you wide renown is nourished / by the Pierian daughters of Zeus. //

And I, helping (them) eagerly, the illustrious race /

of Locrians honor, and rain down honey on that city of heroes.

P.5.98-100 (re the dead kings of Cyrene in Hades; cf. V.1)

μεγάλαν δ' ἀρετὰν / δρόσῳ μαλθακᾷ / ῥανθεῖσαν κώμων ὑπὸ χεύμασιν,
ἀκούοντί που χθονίᾳ φρενί (φρονί)· And deeds of excellence, / in (the form of) soft dew / sprinkled in the outpourings of festivals, they hear with underground minds (i.e. 'with such mind as the dead possess', as Gildersleeve puts it).

P.8.56-7 ...χαίρων δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς / Ἀλκμᾶνα στεφάνοισι βάλλω, ῥαίνω δὲ καὶ ὕμνῳ· I too gladly fling my wreaths over Alkmaion and besprinkle him with song.

N.8.40-2 αὔξεται δ' ἀρετά, χλωραῖς ἐέρσαις ὡς ὅτε δένδρεον ᾄσσει, /
῞ἐν῞ σοφοῖς ἀνδρῶν ἀερθεῖσ' <ἐν> δικαίοις τε πρὸς ὑγρὸν / αἰθέρα.

(Partly apropos of the victor's dead kinsman Megas, whom P. is about to mention: see III.4.c)

But excellence grows, as when a tree under fresh green dews shoots up,

shooting up, among wise and just men, towards the liquid / ether

I.6.19-21 ὔμμε τ', ὦ χρυσάρματοι Αἰακίδαι,
τέθμιόν μοι φαμὶ σαφέστατον ἔμμεν
τάνδ' ἐπιστείχοντα νᾶσον ῥαινέμεν εὐλογίαις.
And as for you, O golden-charioted Aiakidai, / I say it is my clearest duty /

whenever I light upon this island to rain down praises on it.

I.6.62-6 (the two victorious brothers) ...ἀνὰ δ' ἄγαγον ἐς φάος οἵαν μοῖραν ὕμνων· /
τὰν Ψαλυχιδᾶν δὲ πάτραν Χαρίτων / ἄρδοντι καλλίστᾳ δρόσῳ, /
τόν τε Θεμιστίου ὀρθώσαντες οἶκον τάνδε πόλιν / θεοφιλῆ ναίοισι.

such a share of songs they have raised to the light /

and the clan of Themistius they water [i.e. foster]/ with the loveliest dew of the Graces /

and having set upright the house of Themistius they inhabit this / god-loved city.

(I.6) WATER IN GENERAL: for drinking, mixing with wine, bathing, quenching smoky envy:

P.4.299 (End of the poem) (The exile having returned to Cyrene will tell King Arkesliaos how)

εὗρε παγὰν ἀμβροσίων ἐπέων, πρόσφατον Θήβᾳ ξενωθείς.

...he found, while a guest at Thebes, a spring of ambrosial words.

P.9.103-5 ἐμὲ δ' ὦν τις ἀοιδᾶν / δίψαν ἀκειόμενον πράσσει χρέος αὖτις ἐγεῖραι / καὶ παλαιὰν δόξαν ἑῶν προγόνων· But someone, while for songs / I am quenching my thirst, exacts an unpaid debt, / to wake again / the old glory of his ancestors.

N.4.1-5 (cf. below V.5.b) ἄριστος εὐφροσύνα πόνων κεκριμένων / ἰατρός· αἱ δὲ σοφαὶ / Μοισᾶν θύγατρες ἀοιδαὶ θέλξαν νιν ἁπτόμεναι. / οὐδὲ θερμὸν ὕδωρ τόσον γε μαλθακὰ τέγγει / γυῖα, τόσσον εὐλογία φόρμιγγι συνάορος.

"Of toils that have been decided (judged), the best doctor is merriment; and songs, the knowing daughters of the Muses, massage them and soothe them! Not even warm water melts the limbs so much as does praise linked with the lyre." (Bowra more boldly, but beautifully: "Joy is the best healer / Of labours decided, and Songs, / The Muses' wise daughters, / Charm her forth by their touch, / Nor does warm water so drench and soften the limbs / As praise joined to the harp." )

N.7.61-4 (cf. N.1.24) ξεῖνός εἰμι· σκοτεινὸν ἀπέχων ψόγον,
ὕδατος ὥτε ῥοὰς φίλον ἐς ἄνδρ' ἄγων
κλέος ἐτήτυμον αἰνέσω· ποτίφορος δ' ἀγαθοῖσι μισθὸς οὗτος.
A guest am I. Holding off the murk of slander,

Like one bringing streams of water to a friend, (bringing)

true renown, I shall praise him: this is the wage suitable to good men.

(On this passage good discussion by D.S. Carne-Ross, Pindar, Yale Univ. 1985, p. 144)

I.5.19-25 ...τὸ δ' ἐμὸν / οὐκ ἄτερ Αἰακιδᾶν κέαρ ὕμνων γεύεται· /

σὺν Χάρισιν δ' ἔμολον Λάμπωνος υἱοῖς //
τάνδ' ἐς εὔνομον πόλιν. εἰ δὲ τέτραπται /
θεοδότων ἔργων κέλευθον ἂν καθαράν, /
μὴ φθόνει κόμπον τὸν ἐοικότ' ἀοιδᾷ / κιρνάμεν ἀντὶ πόνων.
Not without (telling of) the Aiakidai does the heart taste songs.

I went with the Graces for Lampon's sons

to this justly ruled city, and if it has entered

an open path of deeds inspired by gods,

then do not begrudge mixing [i.e. in a mixing bowl] by song a suitable / vaunt repaying toils.

I.8.56-8 (re Achilles) τὸν μὲν οὐδὲ θανόντ' ἀοιδαὶ ἔλιπον,
ἀλλά οἱ παρά τε πυρὰν τάφον θ' ῾Ελικώνιαι παρθένοι
στάν, ἐπὶ θρῆνόν τε πολύφαμον ἔχεαν·

Not even when he was dead did songs fail him (i.e.Achilles)

but at his pyre and tomb the maidens of Helicon

stood pouring out a many-voiced funeral song (478)

(I.7) NECTAR:

O.7.7-9 (for context see III.3.b) καὶ ἐγὼ νέκταρ χυτόν, Μοισᾶν δόσιν, ἀεθλοφόροις
ἀνδράσιν πέμπων, γλυκὺν καρπὸν φρενός, / ἱλάσκομαι, /

and I, by sending flowing nectar -- gift of the Muses, sweet

fruit of the mind -- to prize-winners in games, / ask blessings, /

fr. 84.56-8 (94b 76-8 Sn.) μὴ νῦν νέκτα[ρ ἔχοντ' ἀπὸ κράμ]νας ἐμᾶς / διψῶντ' ἀ[λλότριον ῥόον] παρ' ἁλμυρὸν / οἴχεσθον· ε [... · Let not the two (women), when they have nectar from my spring, / go in thirst to an alien stream of brine

(I.8) HONEY & MILK

O.6.21 μελίφθογγοι... Μοῖσαι· the honey-tongued Muses

N.3.76-82 ...χαῖρε, φίλος. ἐγὼ τόδε τοι
πέμπω μεμιγμένον μέλι λευκῷ
σὺν γάλακτι, κιρναμένα δ' ἔερσ' ἀμφέπει,
πόμ' ἀοίδιμον Αἰολῇσιν ἐν πνοαῖσιν αὐλῶν, //
ὀψέ περ. ἔστι δ' αἰετὸς ὠκὺς ἐν ποτανοῖς,
ὃς ἔλαβεν αἶψα, τηλόθε μεταμαιόμενος, δαφοινὸν ἄγραν ποσίν·
κραγέται δὲ κολοιοὶ ταπεινὰ νέμονται.
Farewell, friend. I here send you this / honey mixed with white / milk, and mingled dew [or - ? - 'its own foam'] is all over it, a song-drink in the breath of flutes, // late though it be! The eagle is swift among birds // and takes suddenly, from afar swooping, the bloody prey in his claws, / but the chattering daws range low.

N.10.18 καὶ μελιγδούποισι δαιδαλθέντα μελιζέμεν ἀοιδαῖς.
to sing (him) intricate things in honey-voiced songs

(I.9) PLANTS (GENERAL): (cf. above I.5)

O.6.105 (O Poseidon, grant a straight course over the sea--) ...ἐμῶν δ' ὕμνων ἄεξ' εὐτερπὲς ἄνθος. and make grow the delightful flower of my songs

O.9.47-49 (Referring to Pyrrha and Deucalion) ἔγειρ' ἐπέων σφιν οἶμον λιγύν,
αἴνει δὲ παλαιὸν μὲν οἶνον, ἄνθεα δ' ὕμνων // νεωτέρων·

Stir up a stern-wind of stories! / But praise wine for age, flowers of song / for newness

(The text and construing of lines 32 ff. is much disputed; I take it thus in the light of the other passages about posthumous fame. At any rate, the plant image here is quite clear.)

O.11.8-10 ἀφθόνητος δ' αἶνος ᾿Ολυμπιονίκαις / οὗτος ἄγκειται. τὰ μὲν ἁμετέρα / γλῶσσα ποιμαίνειν ἐθέλει· / ἐκ θεοῦ δ' ἀνὴρ σοφαῖς ἀνθεῖ πραπίδεσσιν ὁμοίως. As praise beyond envy for Olympic victory / this is stored away. These things our own / tongue likes to nourish: / but in knowing hearts the flowering is from god.

N.7.30-3 ...ἀλλὰ κοινὸν γὰρ ἔρχεται
κῦμ' ᾿Αΐδα, πέσε δ' ἀδόκητον ἐν καὶ δοκέοντα· τιμὰ δὲ γίνεται
ὧν θεὸς ἁβρὸν αὔξει λόγον τεθνακότων / βοαθόων (κ.τ.λ.)·

(Apropos of Ajax slandered after death by Homer & others) But over all alike comes

the wave of Hades; it falls unexpected even on the expecting. But the honor grows

of men whose tender story a god makes grow -- of those dead / helpers (etc.)

(The text and construing of lines 32 ff. is much disputed; I take it thus in the light of the other passages about postuhumous fame. At any rate, the plant image here is quite clear.)

N.8.40-2 αὔξεται δ' ἀρετά, χλωραῖς ἐέρσαις ὡς ὅτε δένδρεον ᾄσσει,
῞ἐν῞ σοφοῖς ἀνδρῶν ἀερθεῖσ' ἐν δικαίοις τε πρὸς ὑγρὸν / αἰθέρα.

(Partly apropos of the victor's dead kinsman Megas, whom P. is about to mention: see III.4.c)

But excellence grows, as when a tree under fresh green dews shoots up,

among wise (skilled) and just men lifted towards the liquid / ether

Ι.4.25-7 (see above I.1) ἅ τε κἀν γουνοῖς ᾿Αθανᾶν ἅρμα καρύξαισα νικᾶν /
ἔν τ' ᾿Αδραστείοις ἀέθλοις Σικυῶνος ὤπασεν / τοιάδε τῶν τότ' ἐόντων φύλλ' ἀοιδᾶν. (Radiant fame) which having heralded victory in the heights of Athens / and at Adrastos' games at Sicyon, granted / leaves of songs, like these, from the men of that time.

(I.10) PLANTS, CULTIVATED: (cf. above I.5; I.9)

O.9.23-27 (P.is "lighting up" with praise the dear city) καὶ ἀγάνορος ἵππου
θᾶσσον καὶ ναὸς ὑποπτέρου παντᾷ / ἀγγελίαν πέμψω ταύταν, /
εἰ σύν τινι μοιριδίῳ παλάμᾳ / ἐξαίρετον Χαρίτων νέμομαι κᾶπον·

And faster than thoroughbred horse / or winged ship I shall send this / message, if I by some destiny / am tilling the choice garden of the Graces

P.6.1 ff. ἀκούσατ'· ἦ γὰρ ἑλικώπιδος ᾿Αφροδίτας / ἄρουραν ἢ Χαρίτων /
ἀναπολίζομεν, ὀμφαλὸν ἐριβρόμου / χθονὸς ἐς νάϊον προσοιχόμενοι·

Listen! Is it bright-eyed Aphrodite's /or the Graces' field that now

we plow again as we near the shrine that is the navel of the loud-thundering earth?

N.6.32-5 ...παλαίφατος γενεά,
ἴδια ναυστολέοντες ἐπικώμια, Πιερίδων ἀρόταις
δυνατοὶ παρέχειν πολὺν ὕμνον ἀγερώχων ἑργμάτων // ἕνεκεν.

A clan of old fame, self-storing their own cargo of renown, to the Pierides' plowmen

able to supply many a song in honor of their deeds of prowess. (Cf. Ν.6.7-11 where the clan is likened to fields that now lie dormant, now bear fruit etc.; similarly Ι.11.37-43)

N.10.26-7 καὶ τὸν ᾿Ισθμοῖ καὶ Νεμέᾳ στέφανον, Μοίσαισί τ' ἔδωκ' ἀρόσαι,

(he won) at the Isthmus and at Nemea, and gave the Muses (a field) to plow

(I.11) BEE: (Implied again and again wherever P. uses a word like "honey-sweet", "honey-sounding" etc. But in particular:)

P.6.52-4 γλυκεῖα δὲ φρὴν / καὶ συμπόταισιν ὁμιλεῖν /

μελισσᾶν ἀμείβεται τρητὸν πόνον.
And his heart sweet / to mingle even with its friends-in-drink /

answers the perforated labor [i.e. the honeycomb] of the bees.

(Said of the addressee Thrasyboulos. He is thus implied to be a poet, or at least, to love poetry).

P.10. 53-4 ἐγκωμίων γὰρ ἄωτος ὕμνων
ἐπ' ἄλλοτ' ἄλλον ὥτε μέλισσα θύνει λόγον.

For the glory* of hymns of praise / from theme to theme darts like a bee.

fr. 139 μελισσοτεύκτων κηρίων / ἐμὰ γλυκώττερος ὄμφα·

my voice, sweeter than the bee-built honeycombs

Simonides, fr. 947 ἁ Μοῦσα γὰρ οὐκ ἀπόρως γεύει τὸ παρὸν μόνον, ἀλλ' ἀπέρχεται /

πάντα θεριζομένα· For the Muse does not, helplessly, taste only what lies before her, but goes about / harvesting everything.

(I.12) EAGLE:

O.2.86-88 (for context see V.1.a) ...σοφὸς ὁ πολλὰ εἰδὼς φυᾷ· μαθόντες δὲ λάβροι /
παγγλωσσίᾳ, κόρακες ὥς, ἄκραντα γαρύετον // Διὸς πρὸς ὄρνιχα θεῖον.
Talented is he who knows by nature; but the self-taught are boisterous

in their chattering, like daws, and in vain the pair of them babble

against the holy bird of Zeus.

Farewell, friend. I here send you this / honey mixed with white / milk, and mingled dew [= 'its own foam'?] is all over it, a song-drink in the breath of flutes, // late though it be! The eagle is swift among birds // and swooping from afar takes suddenly the bloody prey in his claws, / but the chattering daws range low.

N.5.19-21 εἰ δ' ὄλβον ἢ χειρῶν βίαν ἢ σιδαρίταν ἐπαινῆσαι πόλεμον δεδόκηται,/ μακρά μοι / αὐτόθεν ἅλμαθ' ὑποσκάπτοι τις· ἔχω γονάτων ἐλαφρὸν ὁρμάν· /
καὶ πέραν πόντοιο πάλλοντ' αἰετοί.
But if any see fit to praise wealth or strength of hands or iron-clad war, may someone

delve me a place for jumping: I have a light spring in my knees:

eagles soar even over the sea.

(I.13) WINGS IN GENERAL O.14.24 winged wreath (= the song! -- quoted below V.1.a), I.5.62 winged song, N.7.22 Homer's winged skill, P.9.125 (466) winged wreaths, I.1.64 victor winged with Muses' wings, P.8.32-4 (quoted below V.8) your debt, winged with my skill, P.8.88-92 victor soars on wings of hope.

(I.14) DOLPHIN: fr. 140b Sn (125 Bo) 1-4b

Ἰων[

ἀοιδ[ὰν κ]αὶ ἁρμονίαν

αὐλ[οῖς ἐ]πεφράσ[ατο

τῶ[ν γε Λὀ]κρῶν τις, οἵ τ' ἀργίλοφρον

πὰρ Ζεφυρίου κολώναν

ν[. . . ὑπὲ]ρ Αὐσονία[ς ἁλός

λι[. . . . . .]ις ἀνθ' . [

οἷον [ὄ ]χημα λιγ[υ

κες λό[γ]ον παιηο[να

Ἀπόλλωνί τε καὶ [

ἄρμενον. ἐγὼ μ[

παῦρα μελ[ι]ζομεν[

[γλώ]σσαργον ἀμφέπω[ν ἐρε-

θίζομαι πρὸς αυ . [

ἁλίου δελφῖνος ὑπόκρισιν,

τὸν μὲν ἀκύμονος ἐν πόντου πελάγει

αὐλῶν ἐκίνησ' ἐρατὸν μέλος.

Ion[ians

song and harmony

with flutes was devised

by one of the Lokrians, who the white-crested

hill of Zephyriοm

[inhabit,] above the Western [Sea]

[ . . .]

as a chariot [?of] cle[ar song

[ . . . (? to be)] a paean

to Apollo and [ . . . ]

suitable. I [for my part,]

(?while I hear him) playing (his) few notes,

since I follow a talkative (art), vie

excitedly with (his) cry,

like a dolphin of the sea,

whom in still waters of a waveless deep

the lovely music of flutes thrills

(II.1) GARLAND , a crown of leaves, "viz. of wild thyme (κότινος) at the Olympic games, laurel (δάφνη) at the Pythian, parsley (σέλινον) at the Nemean, ivy (κίσσος) at the Isthmian" (LSJ s.v.). See also II.2, where it may often be implied. Also, it is sometimes hard to know whether the garland = the song or whether it = a real wreath (thus esp. 5.54).

O.1.100-2 . ἐμὲ δὲ στεφανῶσαι / κεῖνον ἱππίῳ νόμῳ / Αἰοληΐδι μολπᾷ / χρή·

But I must crown him with the horseman's song, in Aeolian melody.

(See P.2.69 discussed in III.3; I.1.16, Burton 123)

P.8.56-7 χαίρων δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς / ᾿Αλκμᾶνα στεφάνοισι βάλλω, ῥαίνω δὲ καὶ ὕμνῳ· I too gladly fling my wreaths over Alkmaeon and besprinkle him with song.

P.9.1-4 ἐθέλω χαλκάσπιδα Πυθιονίκαν
σὺν βαθυζώνοισιν ἀγγέλλων
Τελεσικράτη Χαρίτεσσι γεγωνεῖν,
ὄλβιον ἄνδρα, διωξίππου στεφάνωμα Κυράνας·
For his being bronze-shielded Pythian victor I wish, /

announcing it with the help of the deep-bosomed /

Graces, to shout "Telesikrates", /

a fortunate man, (for this song to be) a garland for horse-driving Kyrene.

N.5.50-4 (??) εἰ δὲ Θεμίστιον ἵκεις, ὥστ' ἀείδειν, μηκέτι ῥίγει· δίδοι
φωνάν, ἀνὰ δ' ἱστία τεῖνον πρὸς ζυγὸν καρχασίου,
πύκταν τέ νιν καὶ παγκρατίῳ φθέγξαι ἑλεῖν ᾿Επιδαύρῳ διπλόαν
νικῶντ' ἀρετάν, προθύροισιν δ' Αἰακοῦ
ἀνθέων ποιάεντα φέρειν στεφανώματα σὺν ξανθαῖς Χάρισσιν.

But if (it is) Themistios you have come to sing, no longer shiver: give / voice; stretch the sails to the top of the mast, / proclaim that in the pancration and as a boxer he won at Epidaurus a double / victory, and at the gate of Aiakos carries leafy garlands of flowers in the company of the fair-haired Graces.

N.7.77-79 εἴρειν στεφάνους ἐλαφρόν· ἀναβάλεο· Μοῖσά τοι
κολλᾷ χρυσὸν ἔν τε λευκὸν ἐλέφανθ' ἁμᾷ
καὶ λείριον ἄνθεμον ποντίας ὑφελοῖσ' ἐέρσας.

To plait garlands is easy. Strike up! See? -- the Muse

is joining gold and white ivory, together with

the lily flower, snatching that from the dew of the sea

Carne-Ross, Pindar 150: "P. takes the most evanescent thing imaginable, the flower-shaped pattern momentarily formed by the ceaseless play of the waves... The flower is not coral, as the scholiast's mistaken note has led too many commentators and translators to understand it.".

(II.2) EMBROIDERY; PLAITING; FABRIC:

O.1.8-10 ὅθεν ὁ πολύφατος ὕμνος ἀμφιβάλλεται
σοφῶν μητίεσσι, κελαδεῖν / Κρόνου παῖδ' ...

Whence the many-voiced hymn is cast round

the wits of the wise, to sing the son of Kronos.

("cast round"--i.e. like a cloak. The verb is ambiguous and Gildersleeve thinks that a shower of arrows is meant. I think that a cloak is meant, because the same image recurs at 100 ff. -- see below.)

O.1.129 δεδαιδαλμένοι ψεύδεσι ποικίλοις ἐξαπατῶντι μῦθοι·

(Homer's) stories wrought with embroidered lies trick (men)

O.1.100-5 ... ἐμὲ δὲ στεφανῶσαι / κεῖνον ἱππίῳ νόμῳ / Αἰοληΐδι μολπᾷ
χρή· πέποιθα δὲ ξένον /
μή τιν', ἀμφότερα καλῶν τε ἴδριν ἁμᾷ καὶ δύναμιν κυριώτερον, /
τῶν γε νῦν κλυταῖσι δαιδαλωσέμεν ὕμνων πτυχαῖς.
But I must crown / him with the horseman's song, with the Aeolian tune; /

and I am persuaded /

that there is not any host more knowing of beautiful things and lordlier in power, /

of those today, (for me) to embroider in glory-making folds of songs.

O.3.8 φόρμιγγά τε ποικιλόγαρυν καὶ βοὰν αὐλῶν ἐπέων τε θέσιν... συμμῖξαι,

to mingle the word-embroidering phorminx and the cry of flutes and setting of words

(See V.3)

O.4. 3 ποικιλοφόρμιγγος ἀοιδᾶς· of the embroidering phorminx's song

O.6. 86-7 πλέκων / ποίκιλον ὕμνον· weaving the embroidered song

P.9.76-8 (see VI.c) ἀρεταὶ δ' αἰεὶ μεγάλαι πολύμυθοι·
βαιὰ δ' ἐν μακροῖσι ποικίλλειν, / ἀκοὰ σοφοῖς·

Much-storied are great excellences [i.e. great deeds of prowess are food for many stories],

but among lengthy things to embroider little ones / is for the hearing of knowing people

P.12.6-7 (quoted more fully at V.2.a) ...τέχνᾳ, τάν ποτε /
Παλλὰς ἐφεῦρε θρασειᾶν Γοργόνων / οὔλιον θρῆνον διαπλέξαισ' ᾿Αθάνα·
...in that craft (of flute-playing) that once Pallace Athena invented when she

wove together the deathly laments of the Gorgons

N.4.14 ποικίλον κιθαρίζων· embroidering on the kithara

Ν.44-6 ἐξύφαινε, γλυκεῖα, καὶ τόδ' αὐτίκα, φόρμιγξ,
Λυδίᾳ σὺν ἁρμονίᾳ μέλος πεφιλημένον / Οἰνώνᾳ τε καὶ Κύπρῳ,

Weave out -- and that at once! -- sweet phorminx,

the beloved (fabric of) melody / for Oenone [i.e. Aigina] and for Cyprus...

N.8.13-16 ἱκέτας Αἰακοῦ σεμνῶν γονάτων πόλιός θ' ὑπὲρ φίλας
ἀστῶν θ' ὑπὲρ τῶνδ' ἅπτομαι φέρων
Λυδίαν μίτραν καναχηδὰ πεποικιλμέναν,
Δείνιος δισσῶν σταδίων καὶ πατρὸς Μέγα Νεμεαῖον ἄγαλμα.
A suppliant, the holy knees of Aiakos, on behalf of his dear city

and these citizens, I embrace, bringing

a Lydian headband embroidered with ringing (flute-sounds)*, *see below V.2

a Nemean grace [also 'sacrificial offering'] for Deinias and his father Megas...

N.11.18 ...μελιγδούποισι δαιδαλθέντα μελιζέμεν ἀοιδαῖς.
to sing (him) intricately worked things in honey-voiced songs

fr. 169 ὑφαίνω δ' Ἀμυθαονίδαισιν ποικίλον / ἄνδημα·

I weave for the Amythaonidai an embroidered / headband

(II.3) MIXING BOWL (ΚΡΑΤΗΡ):

O.6. 91 (more of this quoted at IV.6) γλυκὺς κρατὴρ ἀγαφθέγκτων ἀοιδᾶν·

(re the chorus trainer) a sweet mixing-bowl of loud-sounding songs

O.7.1-12 φιάλαν ὡς εἴ τις ἀφνειᾶς ἀπὸ χειρὸς ἑλὼν /
ἔνδον ἀμπέλου καχλάζοισαν δρόσῳ / δωρήσεται /
νεανίᾳ γαμβρῷ προπίνων οἴκοθεν οἴκαδε, πάγχρυσον κορυφὰν κτεάνων, /
5] συμποσίου τε χάριν κᾶδός τε τιμάσαις νέον, ἐν δὲ φίλων
παρεόντων θῆκέ νιν ζαλωτὸν ὁμόφρονος εὐνᾶς· //
καὶ ἐγὼ νέκταρ χυτόν, Μοισᾶν δόσιν, ἀεθλοφόροις
ἀνδράσιν πέμπων, γλυκὺν καρπὸν φρενός, / ἱλάσκομαι, /
10] Οὐλυμπίᾳ Πυθοῖ τε νικώντεσσιν· ὁ δ' ὄλβιος, ὃν φᾶμαι κατέχοντ' ἀγαθαί.
ἄλλοτε δ' ἄλλον ἐποπτεύει Χάρις ζωθάλμιος ἁδυμελεῖ
θαμὰ μὲν φόρμιγγι παμφώνοισί τ' ἐν ἔντεσιν αὐλῶν.

As someone having taken from a rich (man's) hand a mixing-bowl

bubbling inside with the vine's dew / shall give it /

to a young bridegroom, toasting him from a home to a home --

(a bowl) pure gold, crown of possessions,

5] grace of the drinking party -- and so honors the new kinship, and before the friends

present makes him envied for his bridal bed's harmony,

so I, by sending flowing nectar -- gift of the Muses, sweet

fruit of the mind -- to prize-winners in games, / ask blessings, /

10] for victors at Olympia and Pytho. Happy is he who is held in good report!

Now at one man, now at another gazes Grace, giving life by the sweet-melodied

phorminx and the many-toned instruments of flutes. [With 11-12 cf. V.3.d]

I.6.1-9 θάλλοντος ἀνδρῶν ὡς ὅτε συμποσίου
δεύτερον κρητῆρα Μοισαίων μελέων
κίρναμεν Λάμπωνος εὐάθλου γενεᾶς ὕπερ, ἐν Νεμέᾳ μὲν πρῶτον, ὦ Ζεῦ,
τίν γ' ἄωτον δεξάμενοι στεφάνων,
5] νῦν αὖτε ᾿Ισθμοῦ δεσπότᾳ
Νηρεΐδεσσί τε πεντήκοντα, παίδων ὁπλοτάτου
Φυλακίδα νικῶντος. εἴη δὲ τρίτονσωτῆρι πορσαίνοντας ᾿Ολυμπίῳ Αἴγιναν κάτα
σπένδειν μελιφθόγγοις ἀοιδαῖς. //

Just as when men's revelry is in blossom,

so a second mixing-bowl of the Muses' songs

we mix, on behalf of Lampon's prize-winning clan: having first at Nemea, O Zeus,

obtained the choicest of crowns,

5] and now from the lord of the Isthmus

and the fifty Nereids, on the victory

of the youngest son Phylakides. And may we (some day), after having

readied yet a third (bowl), for the Olympian Savior, over Aigina

pour libations of honey-voiced song.

(II.4) GRAVESTONE (all 3 places concern dead kinsmen of the victor; see also .1 below):

N.4.79-86 ...εἰ δέ τοι / μάτρῳ μ' ἔτι Καλλικλεῖ κελεύεις //
στάλαν θέμεν Παρίου λίθου λευκοτέραν·
ὁ χρυσὸς ἑψόμενος
αὐγὰς ἔδειξεν ἁπάσας, ὕμνος δὲ τῶν ἀγαθῶν
ἑργμάτων βασιλεῦσιν ἰσοδαίμονα τεύχει
φῶτα· κεῖνος ἀμφ' ᾿Αχέροντι ναιετάων ἐμὰν
γλῶσσαν εὑρέτω κελαδῆτιν...

But if you bid me for your mother's brother Kallikles

set up a stele whiter than Parian stone [i.e. marble],

gold when tested

shows all of its shining, and song (that praises) good

actions makes a man equal to kings.

May he, who dwells near Acheron,

there hear my echoing speech

N.8.44-8 ...ὦ Μέγα, τὸ δ' αὖτις τεὰν ψυχὰν κομίξαι //

45] οὔ μοι δυνατόν· κενεᾶν δ' ἐλπίδων χαῦνον τέλος·
σεῦ δὲ πάτρᾳ Χαριάδαις τ' ἐλαφρὸν
ὑπερεῖσαι λίθον Μοισαῖον ἕκατι ποδῶν εὐωνύμων / δὶς δὴ δυοῖν.

O Megas, to bring back your life again

for me is impossible. Empty hopes end emptily.

But light it is to support, for your clan and the Chariadai,

a Muses' stone, for the sake of those illustrious two pairs of feet.

I.8.61-3 (After relating how Achilles' excellence was rewarded with song by the gods)

τὸ καὶ νῦν φέρει λόγον, ἔσσυταί τε
Μοισαῖον ἅρμα Νικοκλέος / μνᾶμα πυγμάχου κελαδῆσαι.

Even now this [i.e. a song for the great dead] is right and the Muses' chariot hurries to

sing a memorial for the boxer Nicocles [i.e. the victor's dead kinsman. As Bowra speculates, he may have been killed at the battle of Salamis, elsewhere alluded to in the poem].

(III.1) BUILDING:

O.6.1-4 χρυσέας ὑποστάσαντες εὐτειχεῖ προθύρῳ θαλάμου
κίονας, ὡς ὅτε θαητὸν μέγαρον
πάξομεν· ἀρχομένου δ' ἔργου πρόσωπον
χρὴ θέμεν τηλαυγές.

Even as by setting up pillars of gold for a well-built forecourt,

men make a courtyard wondrous, so, when beginning any work,

one must make its brow far-shining.

P.3.112-114 Νέστορα καὶ Λύκιον Σαρπηδόν', ἀνθρώπων φάτις,
ἐξ ἐπέων κελαδεννῶν, τέκτονες οἷα σοφοὶ
ἅρμοσαν, γιγνώσκομεν.

Of Nestor, of Lycian Sarpedon, famed among men,

we know from the resonant tales that knowing builders

fit together

P.6.5-18 Πυθιόνικος ἔνθ' ὀλβίοισιν ᾿Εμμενίδαις
ποταμίᾳ τ' ᾿Ακράγαντι καὶ μὰν Ξενοκράτει
ἑτοῖμος ὕμνων / θησαυρὸς ἐν πολυχρύσῳ
᾿Απολλωνίᾳ τετείχισται νάπᾳ· //
10] τὸν οὔτε χειμέριος ὄμβρος ἐπακτὸς ἐλθών, / ἐριβρόμου νεφέλας
στρατὸς ἀμείλιχος, οὔτ' ἄνεμος ἐς μυχοὺς
ἁλὸς ἄξοισι παμφόρῳ χεράδει
τυπτόμενον. φάει δὲ πρόσωπον ἐν καθαρῷ
15] πατρὶ τεῷ, Θρασύβουλε, κοινάν τε γενεᾷ
λόγοισι θνατῶν / εὔδοξον ἅρματι νίκαν
Κρισαίαισιν ἐν πτυχαῖς ἀπαγγελεῖ.
For the prosperous Emmenidae, for Akragas on her river, and above all for Xenocrates, a Pythian treasure-house of songs in Apollo's gold-filled glen has been walled in; which neither the beating of in-driven winter rain -- the deep-thundering clouds' pitiless army -- nor the wind will drive, struck and knocked by the all-bearing gravel, into the gulfs of the sea! Bright and pure, its brow [i.e. porch, forecourt] in Crisa's chasms anounces, Thrasyboulos, your father and his clan, (for them) to be in the speech of mortals renowned for a chariot victory.

N.3.1-10 ὦ πότνια Μοῖσα, μᾶτερ ἁμετέρα, λίσσομαι,
τὰν πολυξέναν ἐν ἱερομηνίᾳ Νεμεάδι
ἵκεο Δωρίδα νᾶσον Αἴγιναν· ὕδατι γὰρ
μένοντ' ἐπ' ᾿Ασωπίῳ μελιγαρύων τέκτονες
5] κώμων νεανίαι, σέθεν ὄπα μαιόμενοι.
διψῇ δὲ πρᾶγος ἄλλο μὲν ἄλλου·
ἀεθλονικία δὲ μάλιστ' ἀοιδὰν φιλεῖ,
στεφάνων ἀρετᾶν τε δεξιωτάταν ὀπαδόν· //
τᾶς ἀφθονίαν ὄπαζε μήτιος ἀμᾶς ἄπο·
10] ἄρχε δ' οὐρανοῦ πολυνεφέλα κρέοντι, θύγατερ, / δόκιμον ὕμνον

O queenly Muse, our mother, I beg you

on the festal day of Nemea come to the hospitable

Doric island, Aigina. For by the water

of Asopos wait the young builders of honey-tongued

revels, longing for a voice from you. /

Every deed thirsts for one reward or another,

but victory in the games loves song the most,

that most skilfull attendant of wreaths and of excellence.

Give plenty of it, out of my skill.

Begin -- thou, his daughter -- with a hymn to the ruler of the cloudy heavens...

fr. 184 (=194 Sn.) 1-3: κεκρότηται χρυσέα κρηπὶς ἱεραῖσιν ἀοιδαῖς·

εἶα τειχίζωμεν ἤδη ποικίλον

κόσμον αὐδάσομεν λόγων·

For holy songs a foundation of gold has been hammered out. / Come, let us now build a beauty / varied and vocal of stories. [or Bowra: "let us build a wall of words, / A cunning design that speaks"]

(III.2) SHIP (cf. I.2 Wind; III.3 Merchandise): (Also perhaps O.6.105. Other images of the sea, not applied to poetry, are at O.12.56, N.4.36-7, P.10.28-9, I.6.12)

O.6.100-5 ...ἀγαθαὶ δὲ πέλοντ' ἐν χειμερίᾳ
νυκτὶ θοᾶς ἐκ ναὸς ἀπεσκίμφθαι δύ' ἄγκυραι. θεὸς
τῶν τε κείνων τε κλυτὰν αἶσαν παρέχοι φιλέων.
δέσποτα ποντομέδων, εὐθὺν δὲ πλόον καμάτων
ἐκτὸς ἐόντα δίδοι, χρυσαλακάτοιο πόσις
Ἀμφιτρίτας, ἐμῶν δ' ὕμνων ἄεξ' εὐτερπὲς ἄνθος.
on a winter night / two anchors are good to have dropped from a swift ship. May god

to both dear (races) give an illustrious fate.

Master who rule the sea, straight sailing out of troubles

grant, spouse of golden-spindled

Amphitrite; and make blossom the delightful flower of my songs.

(The '2 anchors' refer to Stymphalia in Arcadia (where the song is performed) and Syracuse)

O.13.49 ἐγὼ δὲ ἴδιος ἐν κοινῷ σταλεὶς · But I, in the common fleet sailing my own course... (For context see IV.e. With words cf. N.6.32-3 παλαίφατος γενεά, / ἴδια ναυστολέοντες ἐπικώμια, "a clan of ancient renown, laden with their own cargo of praise")

P.2.62 (see 2.67 ff. at III.3; cf. 78-9) εὐανθέα δ' ἀναβάσομαι στόλον ἀμφ' ἀρετᾷ / κελαδέων. I shall mount a flower-wreathed prow / sounding praise of prowess

P.10.51-2 κώπαν σχάσον, ταχὺ δ' ἄγκυραν ἔρεισον χθονὶ
πρῴραθε, χοιράδος ἄλκαρ πέτρας.
Stay the oar! Quickly drop onto earth from the prow

the anchor, defense against the rocky reef! (For context see sect. VI)

P.11.39-40 ...ἤ μέ τις ἄνεμος ἔξω πλόου
ἔβαλεν, ὡς ὅτ' ἄκατον εἰναλίαν;
Or has some wind carried me off course like a skiff at sea? (For context see sect. VI)

N.3.20-29 ...οὐκέτι πρόσω / ἀβάταν ἅλα κιόνων ὑπὲρ ῾Ηρακλέος περᾶν εὐμαρές, // ἥρως θεὸς ἃς ἔθηκε ναυτιλίας ἐσχάτας
μάρτυρας κλυτάς· δάμασε δὲ θῆρας ἐν πελάγεσιν
ὑπέροχος, διά τ' ἐξερεύνασε τεναγέων
25] ῥοάς, ὅπα πόμπιμον κατέβαινε νόστου τέλος,
καὶ γᾶν φράδασσε. θυμέ, τίνα πρὸς ἀλλοδαπὰν
ἄκραν ἐμὸν πλόον παραμείβεαι;
...Heart, towards what foreign / headland are you turning my boat now?

N.4.69-72 Γαδείρων τὸ πρὸς ζόφον οὐ περατόν· ἀπότρεπε
αὖτις Εὐρώπαν ποτὶ χέρσον ἔντεα ναός·
ἄπορα γὰρ λόγον Αἰακοῦ
παίδων τὸν ἅπαντά μοι διελθεῖν.
Beyond Gadeira towards the gloom we must not pass: turn back

the ship's sails again toward Europe's mainland;

for it is impossible to tell the whole tale of the children of Aiakos.

N.5.50-1 δίδοι / φωνάν, ἀνὰ δ' ἱστία τεῖνον πρὸς ζυγὸν καρχασίου,
Raise your voice! Hoist the sail to the masthead!

Ν.6.55-9 ...καὶ ταύταν μὲν παλαιότεροι
ὁδὸν ἀμαξιτὸν εὗρον· ἕπομαι δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ἔχων μελέταν·
τὸ δὲ πὰρ ποδὶ ναὸς ἑλισσόμενον αἰεὶ κυμάτων
λέγεται παντὶ μάλιστα δονεῖν / θυμόν.

(III.3) MERCHANDISE (cf. IV. 2, Ship):

P.2.62-71 (To Hieron, winner in the chariot -- and as if the ode were nearly over:)

62] εὐανθέα δ' ἀναβάσομαι στόλον ἀμφ' ἀρετᾷ / κελαδέων.

67] ... χαῖρε. τόδε μὲν κατὰ Φοίνισσαν ἐμπολὰν
μέλος ὑπὲρ πολιᾶς ἁλὸς πέμπεται·
τὸ Καστόρειον δ' ἐν Αἰολίδεσσι χορδαῖς ἑκὼν
ἄθρησον χάριν ἑπτακτύπου / φόρμιγγος ἀντόμενος.
62] I shall mount a flower-wreathed prow / sounding praise of prowess....

67] ... Farewell! Like Phoenician merchandise this

song is sent over the foaming sea.

But the Castor (song) in Aeolian chords, please,

look out for and greet, for the sake of the seven-stringed phorminx.*

*"Comp. I.1.16: [ἐθέλω] ἢ Καστορείῳ ἢ ᾿Ιολάου ἐναρμόξαι νιν ὕμνῳ [but I wish to fit him to Castor's or Iolaos' song]. The Καστόρειον was an old Spartan battle song, the rhythm anapaestic, like the ἐμβατήρια, the mood Doric, the accompaniment the flute. P. uses it as a ἵππειος νόμος, in honor of victory with horse and chariot (Castor gaudet equis); the mood is Aiolian, and the accompaniment the φόρμινξ. Some suppose that the K. was another poem to be sent at a later time, hence ἄθρησον, as if the prince were bidden descry it coming in the distance: others that the K. is the last part of the poem, which P. made a present of to Hieron, together with a batch of good advice. [So Race ad loc.: "One implication may be that the first part is 'contractual', the second sent 'gratis'."] The figure of the Phoenician cargo runs into the antithesis. The Doric king might have expected a Doric lay, but this Kastoreion, with its Aiolian mood, is to be viewed kindly (θέλων ἄθρησον) for the sake of the Doric φόρμινξ--Apollo's own instrument. Comp. O.1, 100: ἐμὲ δὲ στεφανῶσαι / κεῖνον ἱππίῳ νόμῳ / Αἰοληΐδι μολπᾷ / χρή [But I must crown him with the horseman's song, in Aeolic melody] and P.1.17." -- so Gildersleeve ad loc.

But I follow Burton (122-3): "There can be little doubt ...that two distinct poems are referred to [i.e. Pythian 2; the Castor song] ... This is made certain by the placing of μέν and δέ at the beginning of each clause after a pronoun and a definite article respectively, each of which agrees with a word meaning song. ....It may be tentatively suggested that τὸ Καστόρειον is the poem that P. hoped to write but never did, the poem to celebrate the chariot victory which Hieron eventually won at Olympia in 468". This about μέν and δέ seems decisive (pace Gildersleeve: who says: "P.'s handling of μέν and δέ is so peculiar, not to say tricky, that Bockh has a right to set up the antithesis πέμπεται μὲν τόδε μέλος, ἄθρησον δὲ τὸ Καστόρειον"). Also, ἄθρησον seems better taken as "look out for" than as "view". Cf. also Isth. 1.16.

N.5.1-4 οὐκ ἀνδριαντοποιός εἰμ', ὥστ' ἐλινύσοντα ἐργάζεσθαι ἀγάλματ'

ἐπ' αὐτᾶς βαθμίδος
ἑσταότ'· ἀλλ' ἐπὶ πάσας ὁλκάδος ἔν τ' ἀκάτῳ, γλυκεῖ' ἀοιδά,
στεῖχ' ἀπ' Αἰγίνας, διαγγέλλοισ', ὅτι
Λάμπωνος υἱὸς Πυθέας (κ.τ.λ.)

I am no sculptor, to make statues that rest standing on the same base, --

no, but on every merchantman, in each skiff, sweet song,

go forth from Aigina, to announce that / Lampon's son Pytheas (etc.)

N.6.32-5 παλαίφατος γενεά, // ἴδια ναυστολέοντες ἐπικώμια, Πιερίδων ἀρόταις / δυνατοὶ παρέχειν πολὺν ὕμνον ἀγερώχων ἑργμάτων / ἕνεκεν. A family sung of old, // self-laden with its own cargo of renown, to the ploughmen of the Pierian Muses / able to supply many a song for their splendid deeds. See N. 6.33 Πιερίδων ἀρόταις , 'ploughmen of the Pierian Muses',

(III.4) SCROLL-WAND: (cf. the trainer as whetstone: III.5)

O.6.87-91 ... ὄτρυνον νῦν ἑταίρους,
Αἰνέα, πρῶτον μὲν ῞Ηραν Παρθενίαν κελαδῆσαι,
γνῶναί τ' ἔπειτ', ἀρχαῖον ὄνειδος ἀλαθέσιν
[o.6.90] λόγοις εἰ φεύγομεν, Βοιωτίαν ὗν. ἐσσὶ γὰρ ἄγγελος ὀρθός,
ἠϋκόμων σκυτάλα Μοισᾶν, γλυκὺς κρατὴρ ἀγαφθέγκτων ἀοιδᾶν·

Bid now your comrades,

Ainias, first to sing Hera the maidens' goddess,

then to know if, in very truth, we have escaped

the old reproach, 'Boiotian pig'. For you are an exact messenger,

a scroll wand of the fair-tressed Muses, a sweet mixing-bowl of loud-sounding songs.

(Aineas is the chorus trainer. A scroll wand, used by the Spartans for coded messages, had two matching scrolls, one possessed by the sender, the other by the recipient. Pindar means both [a] that the trainer transmits Pindar's intentions exactly and [b] that Pindar transmits the Muses' intentions exactly. "The skutalon, a Spartan device for sending secret messages, is a baton around which the commander winds slantwise a leather strip; the letters of the dispatch are then written vertically, so that only a commander with a baton of exactly the same thickness will be able to matche these letters up correctly and read the message. This is an intricate metaphor for an exarchon standing in the midst of a band of dancers that 'winds about' him; it is only because he is an exact equivalent for the poet himself that the audience can interpret the evolutions of the dance and 'read off' from them correctly the meaning of the poet's words" Mullen 36)

(III.5) WHETSTONE:

O.6.82 ff. δόξαν ἔχω τιν' ἐπὶ γλώσσᾳ ἀκόνας λιγυρᾶς,
ἅ μ' ἐθέλοντα προσέρπει καλλιρόοισι πνοαῖς·
ματρομάτωρ ἐμὰ Στυμφαλίς, εὐανθὴς Μετώπα, //
πλάξιππον ἃ Θήβαν ἔτικτεν, τᾶς ἐρατεινὸν ὕδωρ
πίομαι, ἀνδράσιν αἰχματαῖσι πλέκων / ποικίλον ὕμνον.

I have some feeling on my tongue of a shrill whetstone

drawing me [or creeps over me] willingly with sweet-flowing breaths.

On this notorious "mixed" image see Leonard Woodbury, "The Tongue and the Whetstone" in TAPA 86 (1955) 31-39, C.A.P.Ruck in Hermes 96 [1968] 132-142. Most think that Pindar here sharpens the javelin of his tongue! But the most plausible explanation seems to me Nisetich's, that "whetstone" refers to the shrill sound of flutes, which Pindar specially loved (see below s.v. V.2 "Noise"). ...

(IV. 1) ARROWS: (See also javelins: IV.2; it is often hard to know which is meant. Both images arose naturally out of the epic "winged words" regarded as missiles.)

O.2.83-92 πολλά μοι ὑπ' ἀγκῶνος ὠκέα βέλη
ἔνδον ἐντι φαρέτρας
85] φωνᾶντα συνετοῖσιν· ἐς δὲ τὸ πὰν ἑρμηνέων
χατίζει. σοφὸς ὁ πολλὰ εἰδὼς φυᾷ· μαθόντες δὲ λάβροι
παγγλωσσίᾳ, κόρακες ὥς, ἄκραντα γαρύετον //
Διὸς πρὸς ὄρνιχα θεῖον.
ἔπεχε νῦν σκοπῷ τόξον, ἄγε θυμέ, τίνα βάλλομεν
90] ἐκ μαλθακᾶς αὖτε φρενὸς εὐκλέας ὀϊστοὺς ἱέντες; ἐπί τοι
᾿Ακράγαντι τανύσαις / αὐδάσομαι

Many are the swift arrows beneath my arm

inside the quiver,

that speak to the knowing (sophoi): but for the crowd they need

interpreters. Knowing is he whom nature teaches much; the self-taught are boisterous

in their chattering, like daws, and in vain the pair of them babble

against the holy bird of Zeus.

Now at the mark aim the bow! Come, heart,-- whom are we hitting,

letting fly arrows from a kindly heart? We aim at Akragas (etc.)

O.9.5-14 ἀλλὰ νῦν ἑκαταβόλων Μοισᾶν ἀπὸ τόξων
Δία τε φοινικοστερόπαν σεμνόν τ' ἐπίνειμαι
ἀκρωτήριον ῎Αλιδος
τοιοῖσδε βέλεσσιν,
τὸ δή ποτε Λυδὸς ἥρως Πέλοψ
10] ἐξάρατο κάλλιστον ἕδνον ῾Ιπποδαμείας· //
πτερόεντα δ' ἵει γλυκὺν
Πυθώναδ' ὀϊστόν· οὔτοι χαμαιπετέων λόγων ἐφάψεαι
ἀνδρὸς ἀμφὶ παλαίσμασιν φόρμιγγ' ἐλελίζων
κλεινᾶς ἐξ ᾿Οπόεντος·

But now from the Muses' far-shooting bow

shower ruddy-lightning-wielding Zeus and the sacred

height of Elis

with arrows like these,

(Elis) which once the Lydian hero Pelops

10] won as the finest dowry of Hippodameia;

and let fly a winged sweet

arrow towards Pytho! For no mere words that fall short do you fit (to the string)

while trilling the lyre for the wrestling of a man

from illustrious Opous.

P.1.12 (addresing the phorminx):...κῆλα δὲ καὶ δαιμόνων θέλγει φρένας, ἀμφί τε Λατοίδα σοφίᾳ βαθυκόλπων τε Μοισᾶν. the shafts melt even hearts of gods, by skill of Leto's son and the deep-bosomed Muses

...ἔλπομαι / μέγα εἰπὼν σκοποῦ ἄντα τυχεῖν / ὥτ' ἀπὸ τόξου ἱείς·

I hope / by having spoken loudly to have hit the mark in the center / as by having shot from a bow

I.5.46-8 πολλὰ μὲν ἀρτιεπὴς / γλῶσσά μοι τοξεύματ' ἔχει περὶ κείνων / κελαδέσαι· My fluent tongue has many arrows to clang concerning them (the men of Aigina)

(IV. 2) JAVELIN:

O.1.111-114 ...ἐμοὶ μὲν ὦν / Μοῖσα καρτερώτατον βέλος ἀλκᾷ τρέφει·
ἐπ' ἄλλοισι δ' ἄλλοι μεγάλοι. τὸ δ' ἔσχατον / κορυφοῦται βασιλεῦσι.

But the Muse fosters for me, for (my) strength, a most mighty shaft:

Some are great in some things, some in others, but the highest peak is crowned by kings

O. 13. 93-7 ἐμὲ δ' εὐθὺν ἀκόντων / ἱέντα ῥόμβον παρὰ σκοπὸν οὐ χρὴ /
[[o.13.95]] τὰ πολλὰ βέλεα καρτύνειν χεροῖν. /
Μοίσαις γὰρ ἀγλαοθρόνοις ἑκὼν / ᾿Ολιγαιθίδαισίν τ' ἔβαν ἐπίκουρος.
But I, making straight whirls with many javelins, must not speed them

with strong hands beside the mark.

For I have come to the shining-throned Muses as a willing helper.

("P. was evidently embarrassed by the instructions he had received, & took care to distribute the masses by taking up the victor in the first part and the victor's phratry, the Oligaithidai, in the third" -- Gildersleeve ad loc.)

P.1. 41-5 ἐκ θεῶν γὰρ μαχαναὶ πᾶσαι βροτέαις ἀρεταῖς,
καὶ σοφοὶ καὶ χερσὶ βιαταὶ περίγλωσσοί τ' ἔφυν. ἄνδρα δ' ἐγὼ κεῖνον
αἰνῆσαι μενοινῶν ἔλπομαι
μὴ χαλκοπάρᾳον ἄκονθ' ὡσείτ' ἀγῶνος βαλεῖν ἔξω παλάμᾳ δονέων,
μακρὰ δὲ ῥίψαις ἀμεύσασθ' ἀντίους·
For from the gods (come) all devices to mortal men,

and the knowing, the strong of hand, the eloquent are born so. And though eager

to praise that man, I hope not to fling the bronze-cheeked javelin I brandish outside the

boundary, / but to surpass my rivals by flinging it far.

N.7. 70-3 Εὐξενίδα πάτραθε Σώγενες, ἀπομνύω
μὴ τέρμα προβὰς ἄκονθ' ὥτε χαλκοπάρᾳον ὄρσαι //
θοὰν γλῶσσαν, ὃς ἐξέπεμψεν παλαισμάτων
αὐχένα καὶ σθένος ἀδίαντον, αἴθωνι πρὶν ἁλίῳ γυῖον ἐμπεσεῖν.

Sogenes of the Euxenidai, I swear

that without crossing the boundary I hurled, like a bronze-cheeked javelin,

my swift tongue, -- (the badly flung javelin) which releases from wrestling contests

(a man's) neck and strength undirtied, before he is thrown in the burning sun.

(A notoriously hard passage. It seems to mean that if a pentathlete committed a foul in the javelin event, he

was disqualified from the remaining two events including wrestling. Pindar has committed no such foul.)

N.9.54-55 εὔχομαι ταύταν ἀρετὰν κελαδῆσαι σὺν Χαρίτεσσιν, ὑπὲρ πολλῶν τε τιμαλφεῖν λόγοις / νίκαν, ἀκοντίζων σκοποῖ' ἄγχιστα Μοισᾶν.

I pray that with the Graces I may sing this excellence

and that beyond many (other poets) I may honor in words

the victory, by shooting nearest (of anyone) to the Muses' mark.

(IV. 3) CHARIOT: (The image is also implied at O.1.110 (476)-- see below V.6.a, and see also above (I) 7, line 8)

O.6.22-7 ὦ Φίντις, ἀλλὰ ζεῦξον ἤδη μοι σθένος ἡμιόνων,
ᾇ τάχος, ὄφρα κελεύθῳ τ' ἐν καθαρᾷ
βάσομεν ὄκχον, ἵκωμαί τε πρὸς ἀνδρῶν
καὶ γένος· κεῖναι γὰρ ἐξ ἀλλᾶν ὁδὸν ἁγεμονεῦσαι
ταύταν ἐπίστανται, στεφάνους ἐν ᾿Ολυμπίᾳ
ἐπεὶ δέξαντο· χρὴ τοίνυν πύλας ὕμνων ἀναπίτναμεν αὐταῖς·
But O Phintis [the victor's actual driver], quickly, for it's time, yoke me the strength

of mules, so that in the clear and open path (of song)

we may set our chariot and I may arrive (at my theme of) the heroes'

family. For those (mules) beyond others know how to lead

the way, since they have won garlands at Olympia.

So now for them we must open the gates of song...

O.9.80-83 (P. about to list all the victor's triumphs in wrestling)

εἴην εὑρησιεπὴς ἀναγεῖσθαι
πρόσφορος ἐν Μοισᾶν δίφρῳ·
τόλμα δὲ καὶ ἀμφιλαφὴς δύναμις / ἕσποιτo.

O may I be inventive of speech and fit*

to ride in the chariot of the Muses

May Boldness and far-reaching Power / follow me [i.e. as my attendants].

P.10.64-66 πέποιθα ξενίᾳ προσανέϊ Θώρακος, ὅσπερ ἐμὰν ποιπνύων χάριν
[[p.10.65]] τόδ' ἔζευξεν ἅρμα Πιερίδων τετράορον, / φιλέων φιλέοντ'...

I trust in the gentle hospitality of Thorax, who for my sake busying himself

yoked this four-horse chariot of the Muses, / a friend (busy) for a friend...

fr. 125 = 140b Sn, 1-4b ὦ Θρασύβουλ' ἐρατᾶν ὄχημα' ἀοιδᾶν

τοῦτο <τοι> πέμπω μεταδόρπιον. ἐν ξυνῷ κεν εἴη

συμπόταισίν τε γλυκερὸν καὶ Διωνύσοιο καρπῷ

καὶ κυλίκεσσιν Ἀθηναίαισι κέντρον·

O Thrasyboulos, this chariot of lovely songs

I send for after the feast. May it be for everyone,

a sweet spur to friends-in-drink, to the fruit of Dionysius

and the cups from Athens

N.1.7 ἅρμα δ' ὀτρύνει Χρομίου Νεμέα θ' ἔργμασιν νικαφόροις ἐγκώμιον ζεῦξαι μέλος. The chariot of Chromios and Nemea spur me to yoke a song of praise for their victories.

I.8.61-3 (After relating how Achilles' excellence was rewarded with song by the gods)

τὸ καὶ νῦν φέρει λόγον, ἔσσυταί τε
Μοισαῖον ἅρμα Νικοκλέος / μνᾶμα πυγμάχου κελαδῆσαι.

Even now this [i.e. a song for the great dead] is right and the Muses' chariot hurries to

sing a memorial for the boxer Nicocles [= the victor's dead kinsman].

(IV. 4) LONG JUMP: N.5.19-20

N.5.19-21 εἰ δ' ὄλβον ἢ χειρῶν βίαν ἢ σιδαρίταν ἐπαινῆσαι πόλεμον δεδόκηται, μακρά μοι / αὐτόθεν ἅλμαθ' ὑποσκάπτοι τις· ἔχω γονάτων ἐλαφρὸν ὁρμάν· / καὶ πέραν πόντοιο πάλλοντ' αἰετοί.
But if any see fit to praise wealth or strength of hands or iron-clad war, may someone

delve me a place for jumping: I have a light spring in my knees:

eagles soar even over the sea.

(V.1) HERALD: I here include two kinds of image: (a) that of the herald at the games, who proclaims the victor; (b) that of a messenger, who brings news of the victory. An image usually implicit, expressed in a word or two (κῆρυξ, ἄγγελος, ἀγγέλλων, ἀγγελία, ἀγγέλλειν, γεγονεῖν ["cry out" as a herald: O.3.9, P.9.2], ἀκούσατε ["Listen!" or "Hark!", said by the poet-herald calling for silence at P.6.1]). At P.6.14 (quoted above in III.1) it "mixes" with a different image, that that of a building's (= song's) facade which "proclaims" afar its sacred inner rooms (= message). I here quote only the three most gripping places, in two of which the ode = herald speaks even to the dead, in the other the poet = herald to all Hellas:

O.8.72-84 (near end of poem) ... ᾿Αΐδα τοι λάθεται / ἄρμενα πράξαις ἀνήρ. //
ἀλλ' ἐμὲ χρὴ μναμοσύναν ἀνεγείροντα φράσαι /
75] χειρῶν ἄωτον Βλεψιάδαις ἐπίνικον, /
ἕκτος οἷς ἤδη στέφανος περίκειται φυλλοφόρων ἀπ' ἀγώνων. /
ἔστι δὲ καί τι θανόντεσσιν μέρος / κὰν νόμον ἐρδομένων· /
κατακρύπτει δ' οὐ κόνις / [80] συγγόνων κεδνὰν χάριν. //
῾Ερμᾶ δὲ θυγατρὸς ἀκούσαις ᾿Ιφίων /

᾿Αγγελίας, ἐνέποι κεν Καλλιμάχῳ λιπαρὸν /
κόσμον ᾿Ολυμπίᾳ, ὅν σφι Ζεὺς γένει / ὤπασεν.

He in fact forgets Hades -- / the man who has done well.

But I must awaken Memory, to tell

of the victorious glory of the hands of the Blepsiadai,

who have now been wreathed with their sixth wreath from the games.

For even the dead have a share / of rites duly performed,

and dust does not bury / the noble grace of their kinsmen.

Iphion [i.e. the victor's dead father] hearing Hermes' daughter, /

Tidings, may perhaps tell Kallimachos [i.e. the victor's dead uncle] of the shining

adornment at Olympia, which Zeus has given their race.

Ο.13.97-100

᾿Ισθμοῖ τά τ' ἐν Νεμέᾳ παύρῳ ἔπει θήσω φανέρ' ἀθρό', ἀλαθής τέ μοι
ἔξορκος ἐπέσσεται ἑξηκοντάκι δὴ ἀμφοτέρωθεν
ἁδύγλωσσος βοὰ κάρυκος ἐσλοῦ.

their (deeds) at the Isthmus and at Nemea I shall make plain instantly in brief, and for me truthful, / bound by oath, heard sixty times in either place, will be / the sweet-tongued cry of the noble herald.

O.14.21-4 (= end of poem) ... μελανοτειχέα νῦν δόμον
Φερσεφόνας ἔλθ', ᾿Αχοῖ, πατρὶ κλυτὰν φέροισ' ἀγγελίαν,
Κλεόδαμον ὄφρ' ἰδοῖσ', υἱὸν εἴπῃς ὅτι οἱ νέαν
κόλποις παρ' εὐδόξοις Πίσας
ἐστεφάνωσε κυδίμων ἀέθλων πτεροῖσι χαίταν.
And now to the black-walled house

of Persephone go, Echo, bearing glorious news to [the victor's] father,

Kleodamos, in order having seen him to say that his son / in the famed vale of Pisa

crowned his young locks with the wings [= winged wreath!] of ennobling victory.

P.9.1 ἐθέλω χαλκάσπιδα Πυθιονίκαν
σὺν βαθυζώνοισιν ἀγγέλλων
Τελεσικράτη Χαρίτεσσι γεγωνεῖν,
ὄλβιον ἄνδρα, διωξίππου στεφάνωμα Κυράνας·

P.2.3-4 ὔμμιν τόδε τᾶν λιπαρᾶν ἀπὸ Θηβᾶν φέρων
μέλος ἔρχομαι ἀγγελίαν τετραορίας ἐλελίχθονος,
to you (Syracuse) I come from gleaming Thebes bearing

this song, news of the earth-shaking four-horse chariot

N.6.59-61 ἑκόντι δ' ἐγὼ νώτῳ μεθέπων δίδυμον ἄχθος ἄγγελος ἔβαν,
πέμπτον ἐπὶ εἴκοσι τοῦτο γαρύων // εὖχος ἀγώνων ἄπο,

But I on my willing back tending a double burden have come as a herald / bellowing that this is the 25th // vow (discharged) from contests (i.e. the family has won 25 victories)

fr. 61 (70b Sn) 18-20 ἐμὲ δ' ἐξαίρετον / κήρυκα σοφῶν ἐπέων /

Μοῖς' ἀνέστασ' Ἑλλάδι καλλιχόρῳ·

Me as her chosen / herald of knowing verses /

The Muse has appointed to [or 'put in charge of'] Hellas of the beautiful choirs

(V.2) LYRE = INSTRUCTOR:

P.1.2-4 (addressing the Phorminx) ... τᾶς ἀκούει μὲν βάσις, ἀγλαΐας ἀρχά,
πείθονται δ' ἀοιδοὶ σάμασιν,
ἁγησιχόρων ὁπόταν προοιμίων ἀμβολὰς τεύχῃς ἐλελιζομένα.
(O phorminx)... whom the footstep, beginning of splendor, hears,

and the singers obey (your) signals,

whenever, quivering, you build the preludes of choir-leading overtures.

This place is hard; there are at least two different ways of taking it. M.L.West, "The Singing of Homer and the Modes of Early Greek Music", JHS 101 (1981) 113-129, p. 122, explains σάμασιν by saying, "the preliminary notes of the lyre [= ἀμβολὰς] serve as a signal and guide to dancers and singers"; he compares Homer, O.i.155, viii.266, xvii.261-3; Ovid, Met. v.339-40, x.145-7. R. W. B. Burton, Pindar's Pythian Odes, p. 94, takes the word more literally: "As for σάμασιν, Schroeder is probably right in referring it to the various directions given by the accompanying lyre player to the chorus, such directions being marked, together with the musical notation, on the preformance-copy of the text; and the natural Greek word for them is σάματα, signs which give a cue to the singers". The next line, "stripped of its ornaments, amounts to προοίμια ἁγησίχορα ἀναβάλλεσθαι, 'to strike up the preludes that lead the chorus'" (ibid.; he thinks that this 'ornaments' the 'stark epic original' of Od.1.155, etc., ὁ φορμίζων ἀνεβάλλετο καλὸν ἀείδειν, 'he on his lyre struck up a prelude to the lovely singing').

But that seems to "strip" not mere "ornaments" but an actual image, that of building (τεύχῃς) the ἀμβολάς. The image implies a difference between ŽmbolaÛ and προοίμια. But what difference is there? Burton says, "it seems best to take it [προοίμια] of the opening notes of the lyre-accompaniment which precede the set movements of the dance and the entry of the voices.... the lyre is conceived as the controlling instrument which feet and voices obey." Yet it is that lyre-prelude that seems designated by ἀμβολὰς τεύχῃς! Perhaps προοίμια here means (as it does sometimes) the ode itself? But that seems ruled out by the epithet, ἁγησιχόρων.

(V.3) NOISE (implied by many other images; e.g. esp. V.1 Herald). In timid translations, Pindar's words for noise = song tend to vanish; they do so even in the dictionary, where he is often cited, wrongly, as showing that this or that word for a noise meant also a musical sound. Rather, in him these words retained their normal meanings and were metaphors. Like Bach and like Shakespeare, he was a great lover of all humble noises. And besides (as is most plainly visible in O.14.21-4 below) music, especially flute-playing, seemed to the Greeks an imitative art. Most often the song's "cry" (βοή) or "shouting" (γεγονεῖν) seems that of a herald (see above, section V.1) -- but see also below on N.8.13-16.

O.3.4-9 Μοῖσα δ' οὕτω ποι παρέστα μοι νεοσίγαλον εὑρόντι τρόπον
Δωρίῳ φωνὰν ἐναρμόξαι πεδίλῳ //
ἀγλαόκωμον. ἐπεὶ χαίταισι μὲν ζευχθέντες ἔπι στέφανοι
πράσσοντί με τοῦτο θεόδματον χρέος,
φόρμιγγά τε ποικιλόγαρυν καὶ βοὰν αὐλῶν ἐπέων τε θέσιν
Αἰνησιδάμου παιδὶ συμμῖξαι πρεπόντως, ἅ τε Πίσα με γεγωνεῖν·

The Muse thus stood beside me as I found a new-shining way / to fit to the Dorian sandal the voice / that gives splendor to the feast. For garlands joined to hair / exact from me this god-imposed debt / to mingle the word-embroidering phorminx and the cry of flutes, and the setting of the stories [or: of the words] / fittingly for the son of Ainesidamos,-- (the cry) which Pisa bids me shout.

O.5.19 ἱκέτας σέθεν ἔρχομαι Λυδίοις ἀπύων ἐν αὐλοῖς, (O Zeus) as your suppliant I come, calling to the sound of Lydian flutes.

O.9.40 Pindar warns himself not to babble about thegods: μὴ νῦν λαλάγει τὰ τοιαῦτ'.

O.9.109 Pindar howls (ὤρυσαι) as if he were a watchdog for the man's reputation.

Ο.13.97-100

...their (deeds) at the Isthmus and at Nemea I shall make plain instantly in brief, and for me truthful, / bound by oath, heard sixty times in either place, will be / the sweet-tongued cry of the noble herald.

of Persephone go, Echo, bearing glorious news to [the victor's] father,

Kleodamos, in order having seen him to say that his son / in the famed vale of Pisa

crowned his young locks with the wings [= winged wreath!] of ennobling victory.

P.1.113 f. ὅσσα δὲ μὴ πεφίληκε Ζεύς, ἀτύζονται βοάν / Πιερίδων αἴιοντα· but the creatures whom Z. does not love are terrified hearing the cry of the Pierides.

P.3.112-114. Νέστορα καὶ Λύκιον Σαρπηδόν', ἀνθρώπων φάτις,
ἐξ ἐπέων κελαδεννῶν, τέκτονες οἷα σοφοὶ / ἅρμοσαν, γιγνώσκομεν.

We know of Nestor and Lykian Sarpedon, the talk of men,

from dinning words (??echoing verses), such as skilled builders / constructed.

announcing it with the help of the deep-bosomed /

Graces, to shout "Telesikrates", /

a fortunate man, (for this song to be) a garland for horse-driving Kyrene.

P.9.89-90 Χαρίτων κελαδεννᾶν / μή με λίποι καθαρὸν φέγγος. May the pure light of the dinning (?echoing; thronging) Graces never leave me.

P.10.37-41 Μοῖσα δ' οὐκ ἀποδαμεῖ / τρόποις ἐπὶ σφετέροισι· παντᾷ, δὲ χοροὶ παρθένων / λυρᾶν τε βοαὶ καναχαί τ' αὐλῶν δονέονται·
(among the Hyperboreans) the Muse is not alien / to their customs: everywhere dances of girls / and the lyres' cries and clangings of flutes are stirred up) (compare N.7.80-2).

P.12.6-11; 19-21 (see also II.2.a) τέχνᾳ, τάν ποτε
Παλλὰς ἐφεῦρε θρασειᾶν Γοργόνων
οὔλιον θρῆνον διαπλέξαισ' ᾿Αθάνα· //
τὸν παρθενίοις ὑπό τ' ἀπλάτοις ὀφίων κεφαλαῖς
10] ἄϊε λειβόμενον δυσπενθέϊ σὺν καμάτῳ, / Περσεὺς ...

19] ... παρθένος αὐλῶν τεῦχε πάμφωνον μέλος,
ὄφρα τὸν Εὐρυάλας ἐκ καρπαλιμᾶν γενύων
χριμφθέντα σὺν ἔντεσι μιμήσαιτ' ἐρικλάγκταν γόον.

...in that craft (of flute-playing) that once Pallace Athena invented when she

wove together the death-filled lament of the Gorgons,

which from unapproachable virgins' heads of snakes

10] Perseus heard pouring in anguish....

19] the maiden (goddess) devised the all-voiced melody of flutes

so that by musical instruments she might imitate the shrill grief bursting

from the ravenous jaws of (the gorgon) Euryale.

N.3.65-8 Ζεῦ, τεὸν γὰρ αἷμα, σέο δ' ἀγών, τὸν ὕμνος ἔβαλεν
ὀπὶ νέων ἐπιχώριον χάρμα κελαδέων.
βοὰ δὲ νικαφόρῳ σὺν ᾿Αριστοκλείδᾳ πρέπει,
ὃς τάνδε νᾶσον εὐκλέϊ προσέθηκε λόγῳ
Zeus, it is your blood [i.e. Aiakos], your contest, that the hymn has hit / with the voices of young men, as it dins the joy of this land. / A cry befits victorious Aristokleidas / who has linked this island to glory

Ν.4.85-6 ...κεῖνος ἀμφ' ᾿Αχέροντι ναιετάων ἐμὰν / γλῶσσαν εὑρέτω κελαδῆτιν...

May he, who dwells near Acheron, / there hear my echoing (? thronging) speech

N.5.38 ἔνθα μιν εὔφρονες ἶλαι σὺν καλάμοιο βοᾷ θεὸν δέκονται,
there (at the Isthmos) merry crowds receive the god with the cry of the reed.

N.6.37 ff. ποτὲ Καλλίας ἁδὼν //ἔρνεσι Λατοῦς, παρὰ Κασταλίᾳ τε Χαρίτων
ἑσπέριος ὁμάδῳ φλέγεν· K. once pleasing the shildren of Leto at Castalia and in the din of the Graces blazed at dusk.

But I on my willing back tending a double burden have come as a herald / bellowing that this is the 25th / vow (discharged) from contests (i.e. the family has won 25 victories)

N.7.75 περὰν ἀερθὲις / ἀνέκραγον) too much carried away, I shouted

N.7.80-2 (addressing the chorus trainer) πολύφατον θρόον ὕμνων δόνει / ἡσυχᾷ.

Agitate the many-voiced din of songs / quietly. (With this compare N.10.37-41)

N.8.13-16 ἱκέτας Αἰακοῦ σεμνῶν γονάτων πόλιός θ' ὑπὲρ φίλας /
ἀστῶν θ' ὑπὲρ τῶνδ' ἅπτομαι φέρων /
Λυδίαν μίτραν καναχηδὰ πεποικιλμέναν.

As a suppliant I embrace the reverend knees of Aiakos on behalf of a kindred city / and these citizens, bearing a Lydian headband embroidered with ringing (flutes)" (Bowra translates, "embroidered with ringing bells" -- but cf. O.14.21-4 quoted above; also Sophocles, Trachiniae 641-2 ὁ καλλιβόας τάχ' ὑμῖν αὐλὸς οὐκ ἀναρσίαν / ἀχῶν καναχὰν ἐπάνεισιν, ἀλλὰ θείας / ἀντίλυρον μούσας. "for you quickly the sweet-crying flute will rise again, sounding not an incongruous clang, but like the lyre of a divine muse". For the "cry" [βοή] of flute and lyre alike see Iliad 18.495-6.)

Paean 5.43-6. ἰήιε Δάλι' Ἄπολλον· / Λάτοος ἔνθα με παῖδες / εὐμενεῖ δέξασθε νόῳ θεράποντα / ὑμέτερον κελαδεννᾷ / σὺν μελιγάρυι παιᾶνος ἀγακλέος ὀμφᾷ. There may you children of Lato well-disposed welcome me, your servant / with the dinning honey-voiced sound of the illustrious paean.

fr. 84 (150 Sn) 10-15 σειρῆνα δὲ κόμπον

αὐλίσκων ὑπὸ λωτίνων μιμήσομ' ἀοιδαῖς

κεῖνον ὃς Ζεφύρου τε σιγάζει πνοὰς / αἰψηράς...

the sirens' sound / I shall mimic in song with lotus-wood pipes,

that (sound) that hushes the swift breath of the West Wind...

(V.4) "KINGS OF THE LYRE, my songs": O.2. 1 ἀνακιφόρμιγγες ὕμνοι

(V.5) "PROPHET": fr. 137 (150 Sn) μαντεύεο, Μοῖσα, προφατεύσω δ' ἐγώ

Prophesy, Muse, and I will interpret (for you)

(V.6) MAGIC SPELL: (? Cf. P.1.12 θέλγει)

N.4.33-5 τὰ μακρὰ δ' ἐξενέπειν ἐρύκει με τεθμὸς
ὧραί τ' ἐπειγόμεναι·
ἴϋγγι δ' ἕλκομαι ἦτορ νουμηνίᾳ θιγέμεν.
But the whole long (story) I kept from telling, by the rule (of my art)

and the hurrying hours, --

but by magic I am pulled in my heart to touch on the feast of the new moon.

N.8.48-50 χαίρω δὲ πρόσφορον / ἐν μὲν ἔργῳ κόμπον ἱείς, ἐπαοιδαῖς δ' ἀνὴρ /
νώδυνον καί τις κάματον θῆκεν.
I am glad to utter / a fitting vaunt (for the victor); and with song-spells a man

makes even toil painless

(V.7) "PATH" OF SONG; gates (implied e.g. passim in Section VI below) cf. Homeric Hymn Merc. 471. See also O.6.27 f., 73; O.9.105, P.2.85, P.3.104, P.8.67-9, N.2.56, N.7.51õdòn kurÛan lñgvn

O.1.109-111 ... ἔτι γλυκυτέραν κεν ἔλπομαι // σὺν ἅρματι θοῷ κλεΐξειν, ἐπίκουρον εὑρὼν ὁδὸν λόγων / παρ' εὐδείελον ἐλθὼν Κρόνιον.

I hope that I may in a swift chariot celebrate a still sweeter path, ally of renown,* when I have come to the sunny hill of Kronos

* Or "a still sweeter helping path of words" (either const. is possible); in either case P. means both the chariot of song and the real chariot of Hieron; he hopes that Hieron will win at Olympia and that he, Pindar, will be asked to celebrate the victory

O.7.20-1 ἐθελήσω τοῖσιν ἐξ ἀρχᾶς ἀπὸ Τλαπολέμου
ξυνὸν ἀγγέλλων διορθῶσαι λόγον,

O.9.47-49 (?) (Referring to Pyrrha and Deucalion) ἔγειρ' ἐπέων σφιν οἶμον λιγύν,
αἴνει δὲ παλαιὸν μὲν οἶνον,* ἄνθεα δ' ὕμνων // νεωτέρων.

Stir up for them a stern-wind of stories! /

But praise wine for age, flowers of songs / for newness

*οἶμον codd.: ὅρμον Sn 72a: οὖρον Gedicke

P.8.6-7-9 ἄναξ, ἑκόντι δ' εὔχομαι νόῳ // κατά τιν' ἁρμονίαν βλέπειν, / ἀμφ' ἕκαστον ὅσα νέομαι. (Apollo), lord, I pray that with willing heart to observe due measure in every step of my path"

N.6.47-8 πλατεῖαι πάντοθεν λογίοισιν ἐντὶ πρόσοδοι
νᾶσον εὐκλέα τάνδε κοσμεῖν·

For story-tellers broad paths (lie open) on every side

for glorifying this illustrious island

fr. 180 (191 Sn) <αὐλὸς> Αἰολεὺς ἔβαινε / Δωρίαν κέλευθον ὕμνων

The Aeolian flute went its way / On the Dorian path of songs. (tr. Bowra)

fr. 61 (70b Sn): πρὶν μὲν ἕρπε σχοινοτένειά τ' ἀοιδὰ διθυράμβων

καὶ τὸ σὰν κίβδηλον ἀνθρώποισιν ἀπὸ στομάτων,

διαπέπτανται [δὲ νῦν ἱεροῖς] πῦλαι κύκλοισι νέαι

Of old the song of dithyrambs crept along [or simply 'went along'] straight like a rope,

with the San coming false from the lips to the ears,

but now new gates have been opened for [or 'by'] the sacred circles (?of the song).

"San" is what the Dorians call a sigma. Pindar seems to say (a) that archaic song was too full of sibilants -- "false-sounding" [lit. 'spurious', counterfeit'] because they adulterate the sound -- and that these are now avoided; also perhaps (b) that choral music, either in his or in the preceding generation, changed from non-strophic to strophic. That is, it changed from archaic "monody" in which the tune never changes, but is only repeated again and again as stanza follows stanza, to the triadic stanza, that "circle" of strophe, antistrophe, epode; or at least, to strophe and monostrophe (so P.'s extant dithyrambic fragments). Compare Proclus who said, Chrestomathia 320 Bek. O, that Arion invented the dithyramb and "was the first to lead the circular chorus", πρῶτος τὸν κύκλιον ἤγαγε χόρον.

BMCR 2002.04.24, review of Salvator Lavecchia, Pindari Dithyramborum Fragmenta. Rome and Pisa: Edizioni dell'Ateneo, 2000. Pp. 301. ISBN 88-8147-262-7. EUR 72.30. Reviewed by Peter Wilson. "At the start of the poem (fr. 70b.4) -- just after the (in)famous reference to the 'san [which] came false from the mouths of men' -- L. sees a mu or nu rather than a pi at the end of diapem?[.].[ and removes as illegible the alpha normally printed in the following space but one. Thus any form of diapetannumi ceases to be possible, and as for the rest of the line: 'lectionem nullam inveni idoneam' (p. 34). He thus has no time for the remains of 'fair-navelled' (euomphalois) -- applied to 'circular [choruses]' -- that d'Angour so brilliantly and to my mind convincingly conjured from the gloom of this line.

For d'Angour's compelling reading in lines 4-5 sees the chorus sing of how 'now the young men have been spread out in well-centred circles' ( kuklioi -- the term commonly used for the dithyrambic chorus in fifth-century Athens and elsewhere). A dithyrambic chorus of Thebans, whose song tells of the importation of the Eleusinian cult from Attica to Thebes, may thus have opened that same song with a proud declaration of the novelty of the kyklios khoros -- in a Theban milieu. Was this a direct competitive riposte to the recent appearance -- in the city that had 'stolen' Eleuthereus -- of massive new circular khoral performances devoted to him?

However, as already noted, L. does not think the opening of the poem contained a reference to the 'well-centredness' of these kyklioi. More contentiously (I would suggest) he also detects no choreographic dimension in the term schoinoteneia -- 'stretched out like a reed' -- that describes the song (aoida) of dithyrambs in the opening line. For L. the meaning is acoustic and rhythmic -- the old-style song is criticised for having used long periods with few strong pauses, something that the ecstatic, staccato rhythm of this song abundantly corrects. Yet an acoustic meaning is surely not incompatible with a kinetic one -- 'straggling', or 'in a long line'. And the use of the verb herpein of the song seems almost to require a 'choreographic' dimension. L's discussion of this strange opening seems to miss something of its complexity and crafted, enigmatic quality. He gives us little sense of the rhetorical or poetical point of such language as 'In the past, the reed-stretched song of dithyrambs crept about and the san came counterfeit from their mouths...' To do so, he might have drawn on his own excellent observations (pp. 119-21) on the role of ainigmata and allêgoriai in mystic contexts, as Hardie has done recently to very telling effect. Hardie argues that aoida in line 1 contrasts the 'ignorance' of the old ways of dithyramb with the 'knowledge' (eu e]idotes 5) of the new via an etymology of that aoida based on a privative alpha and the verb 'to know'. A puzzle of this sort posed for its original audience seems a very fitting way to introduce a song that presents a katabatic myth which may itself be a riddling allegory for those in the know concerning the future after death for the initiated.

5. A. d'Angour (1997) 'How the dithyramb got its shape', CQ 47, 331-51.
6. S. Lavecchia (1994) 'Il "Secondo" Ditirambo di Pindaro e i Culti Tebani', SCO 44, 33-93; (1996) 'P. Oxy. XXXII 2622 e il "Secondo Ditirambo" di Pindaro', ZPE 110, 1-26.
7. H. Lloyd-Jones (1967) 'Heracles at Eleusis: P. Oxy. 2622 and PSI 3891 [=Pindar fr. 346 S.-M.]', Maia 19, 206-29.
8. A. Hardie (2000) 'The Ancient 'Etymology' of aoidos', Philologus 144, 163-75.

V.8) DEBT

Ο.3.6 ...ἐπεὶ χαίταισι μὲν ζευχθέντες ἔπι στέφανοι
πράσσοντί με τοῦτο θεόδματον χρέος,
φόρμιγγά τε ποικιλόγαρυν καὶ βοὰν αὐλῶν ἐπέων τε θέσιν
Αἰνησιδάμου παιδὶ συμμῖξαι πρεπόντως,

since wreaths yoked to his hair / exact from me this god-given debt, / to mix the intricate-sounding phorminx and cry of flutes and setting of stories / for the child of Hagesidamos.

O.10.1-12 τὸν ᾿Ολυμπιονίκαν ἀνάγνωτέ μοι / Ἀρχεστράτου παῖδα, πόθι φρενὸς / ἐμᾶς γέγραπται· γλυκὺ γὰρ αὐτῷ μέλος ὀφείλων ἐπιλέλαθ'· ὦ Μοῖσ', ἀλλὰ σὺ καὶ θυγάτηρ / ᾿Αλάθεια Διός, ὀρθᾷ χερὶ / [5] ἐρύκετον ψευδέων / ἐνιπὰν ἀλιτόξενον. // ἕκαθεν γὰρ ἐπελθὼν ὁ μέλλων χρόνος / ἐμὸν καταίσχυνε βαθὺ χρέος. / ὅμως δὲ λῦσαι δυνατὸς ὀξεῖαν ἐπιμομφὰν τόκος· ὁρᾶτ' ὦν νῦν ψᾶφον ἑλισσομέναν / [10] ὅπα κῦμα κατακλύσσει ῥέον, / ὅπα τε κοινὸν λόγον / φίλαν τίσομεν ἐς χάριν.
Read me (the name of) the Olympic winner, / the son of Archestratos, where in my heart / it is written: for owing him a sweet melody, I forgot. But Muse, you and Truth (Un-forgetting), / daughter of Zeus, with rectifying hand / [5] ward off the guest-harming reproach of lies. //

For the (former) future, approaching from afar, / has shamed my deep dept.* / Yet (accrued) interest can dissolve keen reproach. See now, then, the pebble** rolling / [10] how the flowing wave [i.e. of song] spins it, / and how the general account [i.e. what is owed the whole family???] we shall repay as a loving favor.

*"deep debt"-- "The column of figures grows downward, deeper and deeper as interest is added to principal"(Gildersleeve) **"The Schol. refers ψᾶφος to ἐπιμομφάν, 'the accumulation of censure'. In view of the technical use of ψᾶφος as 'a counter', it seems more natural to refer it to the debt; but as the ἑπιμομφά consists in the accumulation of the 'deep debt' thus rolled up, there is no great divergence in the two views." (Id.)

P.8.32-4 τὸ δ' ἐν ποσί μοι τράχον / ἴτω τεὸν χρέος, ὦ παῖ, νεώτατον καλῶν, / ἐμᾷ ποτανὸν ἀμφὶ μαχανᾷ.

What runs before my feet / should go -- your debt, child -- newest of noble things, / winged with my skill.

P.9.103-5 ἐμὲ δ' ὦν τις ἀοιδᾶν
δίψαν ἀκειόμενον πράσσει χρέος αὖτις ἐγεῖραι
καὶ παλαιὰν δόξαν ἑῶν προγόνων· οἷοι

But someone, while for songs / I am quenching my thirst, exacts an unpaid debt,

to wake again / the old glory of his ancestors.

N.6.59-61 ἑκόντι δ' ἐγὼ νώτῳ μεθέπων δίδυμον ἄχθος ἄγγελος ἔβαν,
πέμπτον ἐπὶ εἴκοσι τοῦτο γαρύων //
εὖχος ἀγώνων ἄπο, (i.e. the family has won 25 victories)

But I on my willing back tending a double burden have come as a messenger / bellowing that this is the 25th / vow (discharged) from contests

(VI) A POEM'S "EXACT MEASURE" ('KAIROS'), "RULE" ('STATHMON'), "RIGHT PATH" See also IV.2. Αlso P.10 .4.

In this section some passages quoted earlier are repeated, or quoted more fully. It may seem at first very miscellaneous, but all these places --some of which are notoriously hard -- have all two key things in common:

(A) All are transitions, i.e. places where Pindar is about to leap from one topic to another. So he needs a little "bridge" or stepping-stone; and he generally also uses this as another way to praise the victor, by saying how hard it is to praise him. Like those other little "bridges", the maxim-clusters, they are thus an epinician "convention". But this "convention" is of greater interest than that one, because

(B) we here get clues to what Pindar thought was the proper way in which to construct an ode. For these are all places where he points to a danger of disorder, which he must avoid. In describing the danger (that of "surfeit", of a "rocky reef", of confusion at a "crossroads", etc.), he uses images that show the nature of the "right path" (for example, variety combined with compression) which he must not lose.

Often here occurs the word ὁ καιρός which is hard to translate. See Burton, Pindar's Pythian Odes, 46 f. (relying on L. R. Palmer's discussion of καιρός in 'The Indo-European Origins of Greek Justice', TPS 1950). Burton says of P.9.79 (quoted below), "In this and similar contexts the work signifies the right mark or limit between the too much and the too little, and not the opportune moment of time." (Here "and not" etc. because Burton dislikes taking the word here in its later sense of "occasion". But of course 'timing', timeliness, the timely, the apt and opportune, does seem involved)

The most exact image of ὁ καιρός is O.8.23-5, where P. explains why Themis (Justice) is honored specially in Aigina:

ὅ τι γὰρ πολὺ καὶ πολλὰ ῥέπῃ

ὀρθᾷ διακρῖναι φρενὶ μὴ παρὰ καιρὸν / δυσπαλές,

"for when something weighs much and swings many ways in the balance,

to distinguish it with correct mind, according to its right mark, / is hard to wrestle with."

As Gildersleeve says ad loc., here "we have to do with the scales of justice and the Aiginetan talent." Cf. also O.13.43-48 quoted below.

So ὁ καιρός is a scales-like balancing of opposed or unlike things. It is a right measure, a boundary line; a balance struck between variety and unity, the not-apt and the apt; hence, a poise, a proportion, even a harmony. Below I underline this word wherever it occurs. Again, I print these passages in a tentative chronological order (that of Bowra).

(f) O.6.82 ff. δόξαν ἔχω τιν' ἐπὶ γλώσσᾳ ἀκόνας λιγυρᾶς,
ἅ μ' ἐθέλοντα προσέρπει* καλλιρόοισι πνοαῖς· *προσέλκοι
ματρομάτωρ ἐμὰ Στυμφαλίς, εὐανθὴς Μετώπα, //
πλάξιππον ἃ Θήβαν ἔτικτεν, τᾶς ἐρατεινὸν ὕδωρ
πίομαι, ἀνδράσιν αἰχματαῖσι πλέκων / ποικίλον ὕμνον.

I have some feeling on my tongue of a shrill whetstone

drawing me [or creeps over me] willingly with sweet-flowing breaths.

On this notorious "mixed" image see Leonard Woodbury, "The Tongue and the Whetstone" in TAPA 86 (1955) 31-39, C.A.P.Ruck in Hermes 96 [1968] 132-142. Most think that Pindar here sharpens the javelin of his tongue! But the most plausible explanation seems to me that of Nisetich ad loc., that "whetstone" refers to the shrill sound of flutes, which Pindar loved. ...

(h) O.13.43-52 ὅσσα τ' ἐν Δελφοῖσιν ἀριστεύσατε
ἠδὲ χόρτοις ἐν λέοντος, δηρίομαι πολέσιν
45] περὶ πλήθει καλῶν, ὡς μὰν σαφὲς
οὐκ ἂν εἰδείην λέγειν ποντιᾶν ψάφων ἀριθμόν. //
ἕπεται δ' ἐν ἑκάστῳ
μέτρον· νοῆσαι δὲ καιρὸς ἄριστος.
ἐγὼ δὲ ἴδιος ἐν κοινῷ σταλεὶς
50] μῆτίν τε γαρύων παλαιγόνων
πόλεμόν τ' ἐν ἡρωΐαις ἀρεταῖσιν / οὐ ψεύσομ' ἀμφὶ Κορίνθῳ,

As to how often at Delphi you won

or in the Lion's Den, I would argue with many

how many prizes (you had)! For I would not know how

45] to say the exact number of pebbles in the sea.

But there pertains to each thing

a measure, and the right mark is the best thing to know.

But I, in the common fleet sailing my own course

50] by speaking of the sagacity of ancestors

and their martial prowess / will not lie about Corinth

(g) P.1.81-2 καιρὸν εἰ φθέγξαιο, πολλῶν πείρατα συντανύσαις
ἐν βραχεῖ, μείων ἕπεται μῶμος ἀνθρώπων. ἀπὸ γὰρ κόρος ἀμβλύνει αἰανὴς ταχείας ἐλπίδας·
If you utter the apt-and-timely, knotting the thread-ends of many (themes)

into a brevity, men blame you less; for interminable* surfeit dulls

keen expectation.

* 'interminable' (opposite of βραχύς) rather than (as LSJ here and most translators) 'tedious'

P.10.50-54 κώπαν σχάσον, ταχὺ δ' ἄγκυραν ἔρεισον χθονὶ
πρῴραθε, χοιράδος ἄλκαρ πέτρας.
ἐγκωμίων γὰρ ἄωτος ὕμνων
ἐπ' ἄλλοτ' ἄλλον ὥτε μέλισσα θύνει λόγον.

Stay the oar! Quickly drop onto earth from the prow

the anchor, defense against the rocky reef!

For the pride* of (my) hymns of praise *or 'bloom', or 'light'

from theme to theme darts like a bee.

P.9.76 ff. ἀρεταὶ δ' αἰεὶ μεγάλαι πολύμυθοι·
βαιὰ δ' ἐν μακροῖσι ποικίλλειν,
ἀκοὰ σοφοῖς· ὁ δὲ καιρὸς ὁμοίως
παντὸς ἔχει κορυφάν.

Much-storied are great excellences [i.e. great deeds of prowess are food for many stories],

but among lengthy things to pick out [embroider] little ones in bright colors

(is for) the hearing of knowing people; and the exact line

is most important in everything alike.

(d) P.11.38-45 (cf. N.3.26-7) ἦ ῥ', ὦ φίλοι, κατ' ἀμευσιπόρους τριόδους ἐδινήθην,
ὀρθὰν κέλευθον ἰὼν τὸ πρίν· ἤ μέ τις ἄνεμος ἔξω πλόου
40] ἔβαλεν, ὡς ὅτ' ἄκατον εἰναλίαν;
Μοῖσα, τὸ δὲ τεόν, εἰ μισθοῖο συνέθευ παρέχειν
φωνὰν ὑπάργυρον, ἄλλοτ' ἄλλᾳ ταρασσέμεν //
ἢ πατρὶ Πυθονίκῳ / τό γέ νυν ἢ Θρασυδαίῳ·
45] τῶν εὐφροσύνα τε καὶ δόξ' ἐπιφλέγει.
O! -- friends, my head spins at a three-forked crossroads,

though before I had the right path. Or perhaps some wind or other has thrown me

off course, as it does a skiff at sea?

But, Muse, if you have contracted to lend

your voice for silver, we must dart now one way, now another,

now to the father, winner at Pytho, / now to Thrasydeios,

whose good cheer and glory both blaze!

N.1. 18 πολλῶν ἐπέβαν καιρὸν οὐ ψεύδει βαλών.
On many themes I have touched, striking the right balance, with not a false (step).

(e) N.4.33-45 τὰ μακρὰ δ' ἐξενέπειν ἐρύκει με τεθμὸς / ὧραί τ' ἐπειγόμεναι·
35] ἴϋγγι δ' ἕλκομαι ἦτορ νουμηνίᾳ θιγέμεν.
ἔμπα, καίπερ ἔχει βαθεῖα ποντιὰς ἅλμα
μέσσον, ἀντίτειν' ἐπιβουλίᾳ· σφόδρα δόξομεν
δαΐων ὑπέρτεροι ἐν φάει καταβαίνειν·
φθονερὰ δ' ἄλλος ἀνὴρ βλέπων
40] γνώμαν κενεὰν σκότῳ κυλίνδει //
χαμαὶ πετοῖσαν· ἐμοὶ δ' ὁποίαν ἀρετὰν / ἔδωκε πότμος ἄναξ,
εὖ οἶδ' ὅτι χρόνος ἕρπων πεπρωμέναν τελέσει.
ἐξύφαινε, γλυκεῖα, καὶ τόδ' αὐτίκα, φόρμιγξ,
45] Λυδίᾳ σὺν ἁρμονίᾳ μέλος πεφιλημένον / Οἰνώνᾳ τε καὶ Κύπρῳ,

But the long (story) I am kept from telling, by the rule (of art) / and the hurrying hours,

35] but by magic I am pulled in my heart to touch on the feast of the new moon.

Stand fast, even though though the deep salt sea grips you

by the waist, straining against the dark design. We shall be seen

to emerge in the light on top of our enemies;

while another man casting an envious look

40] in the murk whirls his empty thought

that falls to the ground! But whatever the excellence / the lord Fate has given me,

I know well that coming Time will bring it to pass.

Weave out -- and that at once! -- sweet phorminx,

45] the beloved (fabric of) melody / for Oenone [i.e. Aigina] and for Cyprus...

("The background is that Pindar is determined to go, either in person or in song, to Aegina and there to confound his enemies.... He sees himself as struggling against the waves" that separate him from Aigina -- thus Bowra, Pindar, p. 273)

N.6.55 -60 (cf. 47) (After he has briefly summed up the glories of the Aiakidai)

... καὶ ταύταν μὲν παλαιότεροι
ὁδὸν ἀμαξιτὸν εὗρον· ἕπομαι δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ἔχων μελέταν·
τὸ δὲ πὰρ ποδὶ ναὸς ἑλισσόμενον αἰεὶ κυμάτων
λέγεται παντὶ μάλιστα δονεῖν
θυμόν. ἑκόντι δ' ἐγὼ νώτῳ μεθέπων δίδυμον ἄχθος ἄγγελος ἔβαν,

And this [i.e. this tale of glory] was the road that (poets) of old

found as a wagon-track; and I too follow them, having it as my theme;

yet it is always that (wave) which rolls at the very keel [or 'rudder'; cf. Od.10.32]

that is said most to perturb every (sailor's)

heart. But I, bearing a double burden on willing shoulders, have come as a messenger, to say (etc.)

(This passage is considered hard and much discussed. To me it seems to mean simply: "It was easy to sing of the Aiakidai--everyone does; but now I must return -- with some difficulty -- to my present theme, Alkimidas and his family" etc.)

(j) N.8.19-22 [before telling a new myth]

ἵσταμαι δὴ ποσσὶ κούφοις, ἀμπνέων τε πρίν τι φάμεν.
πολλὰ γὰρ πολλᾷ λέλεκται· νεαρὰ δ' ἐξευρόντα δόμεν βασάνῳ
ἐς ἔλεγχον, ἅπας κίνδυνος· ὄψον δὲ λόγοι φθονεροῖσιν·
ἅπτεται δ' ἐσλῶν ἀεί, χειρόνεσσι δ' οὐκ ἐρίζει.
Now -- I stand on light feet, I take a deep breath before speaking.

For many things have been told in many ways,

but on a finder of new things, who puts them to the touchstone

for proof, every danger (attends)! Tales are choice food for the envious,

and (envy) fastens always on what is noble, and does not contend with the inferior.

(VII) "DORIC" SONG VERSUS "AEOLIC"

fr. 180 (191 Sn) <αὐλὸς> Αἰολεὺς ἔβαινε / Δωρίαν κέλευθον ὕμνων

The Aeolian flute went its way / On the Dorian path of songs. (tr. Bowra)

O.3.4-5 Μοῖσα δ' οὕτω ποι παρέστα μοι νεοσίγαλον εὑρόντι τρόπον / Δωρίῳ φωνὰν ἐναρμόξαι πεδίλῳ // ἀγλαόκωμον. Thus, no doubt, the Muse was with me as I, finding a sparkling-new mode, / fit to the Dorian sandal the voice // that gives radiance to the feast.

O.1.100-2 . ἐμὲ δὲ στεφανῶσαι / κεῖνον ἱππίῳ νόμῳ / Αἰοληΐδι μολπᾷ / χρή·

But I must crown him with the horseman's song, with the Aeolian tune

(With the "Aeolian" "horseman's song" cf. P.2.69, I.1.16, Burton 123)

P.2.62-71 (To Hieron, winner in the chariot -- and as if the ode were nearly over:)

62] εὐανθέα δ' ἀναβάσομαι στόλον ἀμφ' ἀρετᾷ / κελαδέων.

67] ... Farewell! Like Phoenician merchandise this

song is sent over the foaming sea.

But the Castor (song) in Aeolian chords, please,

look out for and meet, for the sake of the seven-stringed phorminx.*

*"Comp. I.1.16: [ἐθέλω] ἢ Καστορείῳ ἢ ᾿Ιολάου ἐναρμόξαι νιν ὕμνῳ [but I wish to fit him to Castor's or Iolaos' song]. The Καστόρειον was an old Spartan battle song, the rhythm anapaestic, like the ἐμβατήρια, the mood Doric, the accompaniment the flute. P. uses it as a ἵππειος νόμος, in honor of victory with horse and chariot (Castor gaudet equis); the mood is Aiolian, and the accompaniment the φόρμινξ. Some suppose that the K. was another poem to be sent at a later time, hence ἄθρησον, as if the prince were bidden descry it coming in the distance: others that the K. is the last part of the poem, which P. made a present of to Hieron, together with a batch of good advice. [So Race ad loc.: "One implication may be that the first part is 'contractual', the second sent 'gratis'."] The figure of the Phoenician cargo runs into the antithesis. The Doric king might have expected a Doric lay, but this Kastoreion, with its Aiolian mood, is to be viewed kindly (θέλων ἄθρησον) for the sake of the Doric φόρμινξ--Apollo's own instrument. Comp. O.1, 100: ἐμὲ δὲ στεφανῶσαι / κεῖνον ἱππίῳ νόμῳ / Αἰοληΐδι μολπᾷ / χρή [But I must crown him with the horseman's song, in Aeolic melody] and P.1.17." -- so Gildersleeve ad loc.

PURSUING SOMETHING WITH (BY MEANS OF) SOMETHING:

[i.4.1] ἔστι μοι θεῶν ἕκατι μυρία παντᾷ κέλευθος·
ὦ Μέλισσ', εὐμαχανίαν γὰρ ἔφανας ᾿Ισθμίοις
ὑμετέρας ἀρετὰς ὕμνῳ διώκειν·

[i.6.70] καὶ ξένων εὐεργεσίαις ἀγαπᾶται,
μέτρα μὲν γνώμᾳ διώκων, μέτρα δὲ καὶ κατέχων·

[i.7.40] ὅ τι τερπνὸν ἐφάμερον διώκων
ἕκαλος ἔπειμι γῆρας ἔς τε τὸν μόρσιμον
αἰῶνα.

PURSUING THINGS UNDERSTOOD.

[n.10.65] καὶ πάθον δεινὸν παλάμαις ᾿Αφαρητίδαι Διός. αὐτίκα γὰρ
ἦλθε Λήδας παῖς διώκων· (SC. autous)

τὸ πόρσω δ' ἔστι σοφοῖς ἄβατον
[o.3.45] κἀσόφοις. οὔ νιν διώξω· (SC. auto) κεινὸς εἴην.

ἐν δὲ μέσαις
φόρμιγγ' ᾿Απόλλων ἑπτάγλωσσον χρυσέῳ πλάκτρῳ διώκων
[n.5.25] ἁγεῖτο παντοίων νόμων·

, ὃς κεραυνοῦ τε κρέσσον ἄλλο βέλος
[i.8.35] διώξει χερὶ τριόδοντός τ' ἀμαιμακέτου, Δί τε μισγομέναν ἢ Διὸς παρ' ἀδελφεοῖσιν.-