“The best thing for humans is
To have good luck from god.
See: a heavy-enduring suffering,
Debases even a good person when it comes,
While the elevated path,
Straightens out even a wicked one.
People have different kinds of honor
And their excellence is beyond counting–
Yet one thing looms above the rest:
When someone directs the work in front of them
With just thoughts.
The lyre’s tone
And the clear-voiced choruses
Are dissonant in battles weighed down by grief,
Just as the clash of bronze sounds off at feasts.
For every human act
The right time is the most important thing:
God straightens out the one who starts well.”
In this Ode, Herakles encounters Meleager in the underworld and hears the story of how the Calydonian hero started to lose strength and fail during battle because his mother had thrown a magic log whose safety ensured his life onto a fire. Herakles is moved by the story and has a somewhat surprising response.
Bacchylides, 4. 156-176
“Then the only son of Amphitryon
Wept, pitying the fate of the long-suffering man
As he answered him saying this:
“The best thing for mortals is not to be born
Nor to see the light of the sun.
Ah, but since weeping over these things
Does no good
We must speak of what will be done.
Is there, in the halls of war-loving Oeneus
An unwed daughter,
Similar to you in appearance?
I am willing to make her
My glorious wife.”
Meleager’s battle-hardened soul said:
“I left in my home
Pale-limbed Deineira,
Still unfamiliar with
Golden Aphrodite, enchanter of mortals.”
“Since you are mortal, you need to cultivate
Two concepts: that tomorrow is the only day
You will see the light of the sun
yet also that you will live fifty more years with overwhelming riches.
Bring joy to your heart by doing good deeds,
For this is the highest of profits.
If you know, you know what I am saying.
The heights of heaven are unpolluted
And sea’s water does not rot.
Gold can delight but
It is not permitted for a man
To put down his grey hair and
Return his flourishing youth.
The story of someone’s accomplishments,
Does not wither with the body–
No, the Muse helps it grow.”
“I claim and I will claim that
The greatest glory is virtue.
Wealth attends worthless people too
And longs to inflate any man’s thoughts.
But someone who does well by the gods
Lightens their heart with nobler hope.
Sure, they may be mortal but
If they have health and can live
On their own possessions,
They rival the most prominent.
Joy comes to any human life
that’s free of diseases and overwhelming poverty.
The desire of the rich for big things
And the poor for smaller things is
The same but there’s nothing sweet
In having access to everything.
Humans are always trying to catch
The things that escape them.”
“But empty-headed boasts toss some mortals
From good ends ,while a heart that is overly cautious
Holds others back by the hand, making them deny their own strength,
And keeping them from their natural wins.”
“Yet anything from Zeus has no clear sign for mortals.
Nevertheless, we still make a start on massive projects
Because we desire many accomplishments.
Our limbs are devoted to shameless hope,
while rivers of forethought flow far away.
We need to hunt for some limit to profits,
Obsession with unattainable desires is too sharp.”
“And the fair-haired Grey-eyed goddess / Once made Diomedes an immortal god”: This is the Argive Diomedes who was immortalized because of his excellence. There is a sacred Island Diomedeia in the Adriatic where he is honored as a god. Ibykos records this.”
“After marrying Hermione Diomedes was made a god with the Dioskouroi. For he shares their life. Polemon records this. Among the Argyrippoi he has a sacred place. And in Mentapontion as well he receives honor like a god. Among the Thourians as well, they put up statues of him as if he were a god.”
“Another explanation: Didn’t Athena also make Diomedes a god? For during the Theban War, Melanaippos, a Theban hero, wounded Tydeus. And Tydeus, enraged over the wound, sought Amphiaros to kill Melanippus and bring him his head. When the head was brought to him and his anger overcame his reason, he took a taste of the Melanippian meat, as Euripides writes in the Meleager: “he will arrive at man-eating pleasures / and tear into Melanippus’ head with blood-crusted jaws”
When Tydeus was wounded, Athena was planning on making him immortal, but she did not grant that gift because he ate human flesh. So, because he was not able to receive immortality, he thought it right for the goddess to transfer the gift to Diomedes. Diomedes is therefore honored as a god among the Thourians and Metapontians and there is no record of his death among the historians.”
“Older poets found these subjects
To be an elevated highway;
I follow it even though I have concern–
The wave that is always turning
Right into the front of the ship
Is said to cause everyone’s heart
The most trouble.”
On the internal surface, around the rim, four ships. Cemetery of Ancient Thera. 3rd quarter of the 6th cent. BC Archaeological Museum of Thera. [Wikimedia Commons]
“A celebration is the best medicine
For labors completed well, and yet
Songs, those wise daughters of the Muses,
Bewitch our minds when they touch them.
Not even hot water makes the limbs as supple
As praise can when it’s partnered with a lyre.
For the word lives a longer life than deeds,
At least the one the tongue lures from the depths of thought
With the Graces’ good fortune.”
