The Extant Odes of Pindar Part 27

[Footnote 3: Leto.]

FRAGMENT OF A SONG WITH ACCOMPANIMENT OF DANCE ([Greek: huporchaema]), WRITTEN ON OCCASION OF AN ECLIPSE OF THE SUN, PROBABLY THAT OF APRIL 30, B.C. 463.

Wherefore, O Light of the Sun, thou that seest all things and givest bounds unto the sight of mine eyes--wherefore O star supreme hast thou in the daytime hidden thyself, and made useless unto men the wings of their strength and the paths that wisdom findeth, and hastest along a way of darkness to bring on us some strange thing?

Now in the name of Zeus I pray unto thee, O holy Light, that by thy swift steeds thou turn this marvel in the sight of all men to be for the unimpaired good hap of Thebes. Yet if the sign which thou showest us be of some war, or destruction of harvest, or an exceeding storm of snow, or ruinous civil strife, or emptying of the sea upon the earth, or freezing of the soil, or summer rains pouring in vehement flood, or whether thou wilt drown the earth and make anew another race of men, then will I suffer it amid the common woe of all....

FRAGMENTS.

I

FRAGMENTS OF DIRGES (thraenoi).

.... For them s.h.i.+neth below the strength of the sun while in our world it is night, and the s.p.a.ce of crimsonflowered meadows before their city is full of the shade of frankincense-trees, and of fruits of gold. And some in horses, and in bodily feats, and some in dice, and some in harp-playing have delight; and among them thriveth all fair-flowering bliss; and fragrance streameth ever through the lovely land, as they mingle incense of every kind upon the altars of the G.o.ds....

II.

.... BY happy lot travel all unto an end that giveth them rest from toils. And the body indeed is subject unto the great power of death, but there remaineth yet alive a shadow of life; for this only is from the G.o.ds; and while the limbs stir, it sleepeth, but unto sleepers in dreams discovereth oftentimes the judgment that draweth nigh for sorrow or for joy..

III

But from whomsoever Persephone accepteth atonement made for an ancient woe, their souls unto the light of the sun above she sendeth back again in the ninth year. And from those souls spring n.o.ble kings, and men swift and strong and in wisdom very great: and through the after-time they are called holy heroes among men......

THE END.