The Extant Odes of Pindar
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TH E EXTANT O D E S O F P I N D ‘A R O EN GLISH WITH AN I N TR OD UCTI ON 2411i SHOR T NOTES E N S M Y E M R E T R S, . A. And qf thc 320111107; M A L L A A D . c C M I N N o . SON OF THE LI H NIN F AIR AN H ERY S AR G T G, D T . S RONG-WIN E IMPERIAL P DA VO CE IV INE T G D IN R, I D ; LET THESE DEEP D RAUGH TS OF THY ENCHANTED WINK L I FT ME WITH THEE IN SOARI N GS HI GH AND F AR PRO ER HAN PEGASEKN OR HE CAR UD T , T WHE E N APOLLO RAP HE M AI R I T T HUNTRESS D. SO LE ME RANGE MI N E HOU OO SOON O F A E T R, T T D T R I N O DULL P ESEN CE OF THE T HI N GS THAT A RE. YET K NOW THAT EV EN AMID THIS JARRI N G N OI SE OF HATES L OV ES CRE E D T OGETHER H EAPED AN H RLE . , S, D U D, SOME ECHO P AI N T OF G RACE AND G RAN D EUR S TI RS RO T Y SWEET H EL L AS HOME OF OBL E OYS F M H . N J . FI RST F RUIT AND B EST OF ALL OUR W ESTERN W ORLD ; ATE'ER E HOL OF BEA TY HALF I S HE H W U . W D , RS I N T R O D U C T L O N E R R A T A In the Introduction a e 1 ’ ’ p g 3 , 2 8 or d - line , f psm read dp crr, 0 last line on the page, for V ale read vale In the Prefatory N ote . 2 2 1. 1 p , , a ter 2 7 f Isthm . insert 7 In the Translafion I . 1. I x or p 4 , , f hastest read hasteth . 1. or h p 3 3 , I I , f P o ebus rea d Phoibos . 1 p 4 3 , . , after Er oteles insert 4 g , and at Pytho twi ce , ' ’ 6 1 or ne fiw p , note f p s rea d x epaaJ . 8 p n Ode I V of the I troduction to , for I o lchian . 1 2 1. or e d p 4 , f gu st rea quest . 1 2 l . I or p 4 , 3 , f court rea d count never derive pleasure and instruction from 3 tra slatl on 0 5 1e ( ? h Hegfe; foreign poet, for to this rule our current ver n t e ° 1 _ _ psalm ists and prophets furnish one m arked ex c p5ton at east ilt- l ned Class still it is robabl to what m ay be called the a ear , p y I N T R O D U C T I O N . PROBABL Y no poet of importance equal or approaching to finds few that of Pindar so and so infrequent readers . The causes are not far to seek : in the first and m ost obvious place m difficult co es the great y of his language, in the second the ft c l quent obscurity of his thought, resu ting mainly from his exceed u ing allusiveness and his abr pt transitions, and in the third place that amount of m onotony which m ust of necessity attach to a m m series of poe s provided for a succession of si ilar occasions . I t is as an attempt towards obviating the fi rst of these - hind difficult rances to the study of Pindar, the y of his language, that m this translation is of course especially intended . To who and in what cases are translations of poets useful ? To a perfect the su erfluous scholar in original tongue they are p , to one wholly ignorant of it they are apt to be (unless here and there to a m m Keats) eaningless, flat, and puzzling. There re ains the third class of those Who have a certain am ount of knowledge of a m language, but not enough to enable the to read unassisted its m ore difficult books Without an expenditure of tim e and trouble transla which is virtually prohibitive . It is to this class that a s m chiefl An intelli tion ought, it would ee , y to address itself. gent person of cultivated literary taste, and able to read the m easier books in an acquired language , will feel hi self indebted to a hand which unlocks for him the inner chambers of a tem ple in whose outer courts he had already delighted to wander. ‘ ’ Without therefore saying that the m erely English reader m ay never derive pleasure and instruction from a translation of a w foreign poet, for to this rule our current version of the Hebre psalm ists and prophets furnish one m arked exception at least m a — still, it is probably to what y be called the half learned class m find that the translator m ust pree inently look to an audience . The other causes of Pindar ’s unpopularity to which reference m was m ade above, the obscurity of his thought and the onotony m m at of his subj ects, will in great easure disappear by eans of m o m tentive study of the poem s the selves, and of ther sources fro which m ay be gathered an understanding of the region of tho ught and feeling in which they m ove . In proportion to our m fam iliarity not only with Hellenic ythology and history, but with Hellenic life and habits of thought generally, will be our readiness and facility in seizing the drift and import of what m Pindar says, in divining what has passed through his ind and in his case perhaps even m ore than in the case of other inde finitel o ur ~ increasin poets, this facility will increase y with g acquaintance With his works and with the light thrown on each part of them by the rest 1 m m u n ues The onotony of the odes, though to so e extent q n bl m su erficial tio a y and unavoidably real, is to so e extent also p m and in appearance only. The fa ily of the victor, or his country, m t som e incident of his past, so e possibility of his future li e , m ff m m suggest in each case so e di erent legendary atter, so e dif it m ff it ferent way of treating , so e di erent application of , general Out in ex or particular, or both . of such resources Pindar is haustible in building up in subtly varying forms the splendid structure of his song . Y K et doubtless the drawbacks in reading Pindar, though they m a m : y be largely reduced, will always in so e degree exist we o shall always wish that he was easier to c nstrue, that his allu; sions to things unfam iliar and som etim es undiscoverable to us m m m were less frequent , that fa ily pride had not ade it custo ary for him to spend so m any lines on an enum eration of priz es won elsewhere and at other tim es by the victor of the occasion or by ‘ hi iin fi s kin . Such drawbacks can only fall into ns g icance when m eclipsed by consideration of the far ore , than counterbalancing m attractions of the poe s, of their unique and surpassing interest, m . poetical, historical, and oral 1 The importance and interest to a student in Hellenic literature of a collateral study o f w hatever rem ains to us of He llenic plasti c art_ — a e e em and o n can a d be ro s s d st tu s, vas s, g s , c i s h r ly too st ngly in i te ou . Of i Pindar as a poet it is hard ndeed to speak adequately, and m ' briefl al ost as hard to speak y, for a discussion of his poetical characteristics once begun m ay wander far before even a sm all m b part has been said of what ight e . To say that to his poetry m b in supre e degree elong the qualities of force, of vividness, of m e intoxicating Splendour, of the ajesty of a lofty styl , the ex m m m pression of a high personality, of a astery of rhyth and etre m difi d and i aginative diction, of an intensely Hellenic Spirit m o e m e - m ra by an un istakabl individuality, above all of a pre e inent ’ — p idity as of an eagle s flight or of very lightning to say all this would be to suggest som e of the m ost obvious features of u m these wonderf l odes ; and each of these qualities, and any m i m - b w ore requ ring exacter delineation, ight e illustrated ith numberless instances which even in the faint im age of a transla m m 2 tion would furnish a ple testi ony . But as this introduction ’ ho is intended for those W purpose reading Pindar s poetry, or ' l it m at any rate the present trans ation of , for the selves, I will leave it to them to discover for them selves the qualities which m have given Pindar his high place a ong poets, and will pass on to suggest briefly his claims to interest us by reason of his place m in the history of hum an action and hu an thought .