“I am a guest here, holding off shadowy blame–
I will praise my dear friend and bring him
Real glory like streams of water.
This is the correct payment for good people
If any Achaean man approaches he will not criticize me,
Even one living beyond the Ionian sea.
I rely on hospitality too–and I shine bright
In the sight of these townspeople because I haven’t cross a line
Once I removed everything forced on me from my way.
Let the rest of time come kindly.
Someone who knows me will inform
If I ever near a corrupt word with a false tune.”
Column crater in red figure, ca 420 BC, Pantoxena Painter. Side Aː Symposium scene, youth and female double-flute player, detail. Archaeological Museum of Agrigento, C 1582. from Wikimedia commons
“Now recognize the wisdom of Oedipus:
If someone could cleave the branches from
A giant oak tree with a sharp-edged axe
And wreck its eye-catching beauty,
It would still weigh in about itself even though
It could no longer bear fruit
If it came face to face with a winter’s fire in the end
Or if set upon columns for some master,
It provides the labor for someone else’s walls,
Leaving its place deserted.
But you are the most timely healer and Paian
Honors your light.
You need a soft touch to work on
An open wound.
It is easy for cowards to shake up a state,
But it is hard indeed to make it stable again,
Unless the leaders suddenly have a god
For a pilot.”
“Now recognize the wisdom of Oedipus”: Pindar encourages Arkesilaos to examine his own riddle. For he wants him to consider the wisdom of Oedipus because he solved the riddle of the Sphinx. And he is riddling here, and he means this kind of thing. Some people were in revolt in Kyrene during Arkesilaos’ reign because they wanted to expel him from power. But because he was stronger than them, he sent them into exile from the country. Demophilos was among the rebels because he was an insurrectionist himself. He also went as exile into Thebes. Some people thought—since others claim that he gave money to Pindar for the victory ode—that Pindar was using the poem to reconcile him to Arkesilaos
“If water is best, but gold is
The most respected of possessions,
Then now indeed has Theron reached
The farthest point of excellence and he
Grasps the pillars of Herakles from his own home.
Whatever is beyond that point is closed to
Wise people and fools. I wouldn’t be that guy, I won’t pursue it.”
Yet, elsewhere, Pindar claims that something else exceeds water too:
Pindar, Nemean Ode 4.1-8
“The best doctor for sufferings when they’re done
Is celebration—and the Muses’ talented daughters,
Songs to distract when they touch us,
Not even warm water can make limbs as soft
As the praise that takes the lyre as its partner.
An utterance lives longer than deeds,
Any word the tongue chances upon
With the Graces, drawn from a deep mind.”
“Water is best. Well, Pindar says that three things are best among people. Water is best for living, for life is impossible without it. Then gold is best of a possessions, standing out like fire in the night. Third, is reputation from a victory at the Olympian games.”
