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Ode 9 For Automedes of Phlius Pentathlon at Nemea Date unknown
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Graces with golden distaffs, give fame, which moves the minds of men; for the divinely inspired prophet of the violet-eyed Muses is ready to sing the praises of Phlius and
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the flourishing plain of Nemean Zeus, where white-armed Hera reared the sheep-slaughtering, deep-voiced lion, the first of Heracles' far-famed labors.
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There the heroes with red shields, the best of the Argives, held games for the first time in honor of Archemorus, whom a fiery-eyed monstrous dragon killed in his sleep: a sign of the slaughter to come.
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Powerful fate! The son of Oicles could not persuade them to go back to the streets thronged with good men. Hope robs men [of their sense]:
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it was she who then sent Adrastus son of Talaus
to
Thebes
to Polyneices
The mortal men who crown their golden hair with the triennial garland from those glorious games in
Nemea
are illustrious;
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and now a god has given it to the victorious Automedes,
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for he stood out among the pentathletes as the shining moon in the mid-month night sky outshines the light of the stars.
In such a way, amid the vast circling crowd of the Greeks, did he display his marvellous body, hurling the wheel-shaped discus, and raise a shout from the people as he flung the shaft of the dark-leaved elder-tree
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from his hand into the steep sky.
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He executed the flashing movement of wrestling, and brought strong-limbed bodies down to the earth with such high-spirited strength, then returned to the dark-whirling waters of the Asopus,
whose fame has reached every land, even the farthest reaches of the
Nile
. And the women skilled with the spear who live by the fair-flowing stream of Thermodon, daughters of horse-driving Ares,
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have met with your descendants, much-envied lord of rivers, and so has
Troy
, the city of high gates. Countless reports of your offspring tread wide paths everywhere, of your daughters
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with shining belts, whom the gods established, with good fortune, as founders of cities that were never to be sacked.
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Who does not know the well-built city of dark-haired
Thebes
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or renowned Aegina, who went to the bed of great Zeus and bore the hero
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the land of the Achaeans
trials
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with beautiful robe
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and Peirene with her twisted garland, and as many other
honorable daughters of the ancient resounding river who were overcome in the glorifying beds of gods.
city
victory
the cries of flutes
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to speak well of golden, violet-haired Cypris, the glorious mother of unbending passions for mortals
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hymn
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even for one who is dead
everlasting time, would always declare to later generations your victory at
Nemea
. A fine deed which attains genuine songs of praise is stored up on high with the gods.
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With the true remembrance of men, the finest adornment of the [deep-waisted] Muses is left behind even [after death].
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There are many
of men; but the mind of the gods distinguishes
what is hidden in the darkness of night
and the better
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few men
what will be.
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gave
grace
and Dionysus
city honored by the gods
to dwell
golden-sceptered
whoever takes a fine thing
praise
for the son of Timoxenos sing praises, with processions [of young men], for his victory in the pentathlon.
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Epinicians. Bacchylides. Diane Arnson Svarlien (Translator). New Haven, CT. 1996.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.