Pindar, Olympian 13.43-54
“I am fighting with many others over
The sheer number of noble things,
How your family has excelled at Delphi and
In the fields of the lion. I just couldn’t imagine how
To speak a true number of all the sand in the sea.
Still, a measure exists for each thing-
And it is best to recognize what is timely.
Because I as a private person went ahead on a common mission,
Praising aloud the wit of their forebears
And their war in heroic endeavors,
I will not lie about Corinth, mentioning Sisyphus
As clever as a god, or Medea
Who set up her own marriage,
Against her father’s wishes,
To be the savior of the Argo and its men.”
ὅσσα τ᾿ ἐν Δελφοῖσιν ἀριστεύσατε
ἠδὲ χόρτοις ἐν λέοντος, δηρίομαι πολέσιν
περὶ πλήθει καλῶν· ὡς μὰν σαφές
οὐκ ἂν εἰδείην λέγειν
ποντιᾶν ψάφων ἀριθμόν.
ἕπεται δ᾿ ἐν ἑκάστῳ
μέτρον· νοῆσαι δὲ καιρὸς ἄριστος.
ἐγὼ δὲ ἴδιος ἐν κοινῷ σταλείς
μῆτίν τε γαρύων παλαιγόνων
πόλεμόν τ᾿ ἐν ἡρωίαις ἀρεταῖσιν
οὐ ψεύσομ᾿ ἀμφὶ Κορίνθῳ, Σίσυφον
μὲν πυκνότατον παλάμαις ὡς θεόν,
καὶ τὰν πατρὸς ἀντία Μή-
δειαν θεμέναν γάμον αὐτᾷ,
ναῒ σώτειραν Ἀργοῖ καὶ προπόλοις
