Pindarus, Pythian 9.97–125: the effect of athletic success on female spectators (?)

Pindarus, Pythian 9.97–125: the effect of athletic success on female spectators (?)

518 - after 446 BCE

Victory Ode

Literary source

The women saw your many victories at the seasonal rites of Pallas, and each silently prayed that you could be her dear husband, Telesicrates, or her son; and in the Attic Olympia too, and in the contests of deep-bosomed Mother Earth, and in all your local games. But while I am quenching my thirst for song, someone exacts an unpaid debt from me, to awake again the ancient glory of his ancestors as well: for the sake of a Libyan woman they went to the city of Irasa, as suitors of the very famous daughter of Antaeus with the beautiful hair. Many excellent kinsmen sought her, and many strangers too, since her beauty was marvellous. They wanted to pluck the flowering fruit of golden-crowned Youth. But her father, cultivating for his daughter a more renowned marriage, heard how Danaus once in Argos had found for his forty-eight daughters, before noon overtook them, a very swift marriage. For right away he stood the whole band of suitors at the end of a course, and told them to decide with a footrace which of the heroes, who came to be bridegrooms, would take which bride. The Libyan too made such an offer in joining his daughter with a husband. He placed her at the goal, when he had arrayed her as the crowning prize, and in their midst he announced that that man should lead her to his home, whoever was the first to leap forward and touch her robes. There Alexidamus, when he had sped to the front of the swift race, took the noble girl's hand in his hand and led her through the crowd of Nomad horsemen. They cast on that man many leaves and garlands, and before he had received many wings for his victories.

Diane Arnson Svarlien, Odes of Pindar, 1990.

πλεῖστα νικάσαντά σε καὶ τελεταῖς ὡρίαις ἐν Παλλάδος εἶδον ἄφωνοί θ᾽ ὡς ἕκασται φίλτατον παρθενικαὶ πόσιν ἢ υἱὸν εὔχοντ᾽, ὦ Τελεσίκρατες, ἔμμεν, ἐν Ὀλυμπίοισί τε καὶ βαθυκόλπου Γᾶς ἀέθλοις ἔν τε καὶ πᾶσιν ἐπιχωρίοις. ἐμὲ δ᾽ ὦν τις ἀοιδᾶν δίψαν ἀκειόμενον πράσσει χρέος αὖτις ἐγεῖραι καὶ παλαιὰν δόξαν ἑῶν προγόνων: οἷοι Λιβύσσας ἀμφὶ γυναικὸς ἔβαν Ἴρασα πρὸς πόλιν, Ἀνταίου μετὰ καλλίκομον μναστῆρες ἀγακλέα κούραν: τὰν μάλα πολλοὶ ἀριστῆες ἀνδρῶν αἴτεον σύγγονοι, πολλοὶ δὲ καὶ ξείνων. ἐπεὶ θαητὸν εἶδος ἔπλετο: χρυσοστεφάνου δέ οἱ Ἥβας καρπὸν ἀνθήσαντ᾽ ἀποδρέψαι ἔθελον. πατὴρ δὲ θυγατρὶ φυτεύων κλεινότερον γάμον, ἄκουσεν Δαναόν ποτ᾽ ἐν Ἄργει οἷον εὗρεν τεσσαράκοντα καὶ ὀκτὼ παρθένοισι, πρὶν μέσον ἆμαρ ἑλεῖν, ὠκύτατον γάμον. ἔστασεν γὰρ ἅπαντα χορὸν ἐν τέρμασιν αὐτίκ᾽ ἀγῶνος: σὺν δ᾽ ἀέθλοις ἐκέλευσεν διακρῖναι ποδῶν, ἅντινα σχήσοι τις ἡρώων, ὅσοι γαμβροί σφιν ἦλθον. οὕτω δ᾽ ἐδίδου Λίβυς ἁρμόζων κόρᾳ νυμφίον ἄνδρα: ποτὶ γραμμᾷ μὲν αὐτὰν στᾶσε κοσμήσαις τέλος ἔμμεν ἄκρον, εἶπε δ᾽ ἐν μέσσοις ἀπάγεσθαι, ὃς ἂν πρῶτος θορὼν ἀμφί οἱ ψαύσειε πέπλοις. ἔνθ᾽ Ἀλεξίδαμος, ἐπεὶ φύγε λαιψηρὸν δρόμον, παρθένον κεδνὰν χερὶ χειρὸς ἑλὼν ἆγεν ἱππευτᾶν Νομάδων δι᾽ ὅμιλον. πολλὰ μὲν κεῖνοι δίκον φύλλ᾽ ἔπι καὶ στεφάνους: πολλὰ δὲ πρόσθεν πτερὰ δέξατο νικᾶν.

John Sandys (ed.), The Odes of Pindar including the Principal Fragments (= Loeb Classical Library; 56), London 1915.