OLYMPIC ODES. then implores Jupiter to continue his bleffings on them, and to remain propitious to Xenophon; whofe exploits he enumerates, together with thofe of Theffalus and Piodorus, his father, and grandfather. He then, launches out again in praife of Corinth and her citizens, and relates the tory of Bellerophon. He then, checking himself for digreffing fo far, returns to his hero, relates his various fuccefs in the inferior games of Greece, and concludes with a prayer to Jupiter. STROPHE I. WHILST I rehearse the illuftrious houfe's praife, Bleft peace and juftice, hold their facred reign; hour. ANTISTROPHE I. ΙΟ But bloated infolence and fell difdain Who bade the bullock facred bleed And bade the fculptured bird of Jove His ornamental wings extend? While the sweet mufe her filver founds infpires, And Mars with glorious flame the warriors bofom fires. STROPHE II. 30 Olympia's honour'd patron! potent Jove! crown. ANTISTROPHE II. Seven times with reflets force Did Theffalus the Hellotian trophies gain, Some medium though will every praise befeem- 69 On either fide her fons embattled itood, [trand, Who by the filver fountain's fide 66 Awake, Æolian king "This facred gift with transport take; STROPHE IV. دو While midnight flumbers clos'd his heavy eyes; 102 Each myftic mandate of the dream divine; VER. I. The illuftrious houfe Thrice victor in Olympia's fportive war. The poet here alludes to the feveral prizes gained by Xenophon, his father Theffalus, and his grandfather Ptoeodorus; all which are mentioned in the ode, and not to three prizes won by Xenophon alone, as fome commentators have imagined, making radies deux not to fignify one exercife, but two. I leave the precife meaning of thefe words to be determined by thofe who are more curious in these fort of conjectures; but I think the poet's intention is to put out of all doubt, by the expreflion οἶκον τρισολυμπιονίκαν ; which plainly relates to Xenophon's family, and not to himfelf. Ver. 25. And bade the fculptured bird of Jove, The temple's maffy roofs above, For ever fix'd on either end, His ornamental wings extend. This is rather an obfcure paffage, and relates to a particular ornament of the Grecian temples, viz. the Aëtoma, or figure of an eagle placed there; the invention of which the poet here afcribes to the Corinthians. The Scholiaft adds, it was called double, from its form; or rather from there being one placed on each end of the temple, Δίδυμον δὲ φησὶν ὅτι διπλᾶτον ἀξιώμαλα τὰ ὄπισ diy xaliuxporter. Sudorius only differs from me by placing it within the temple; and perhaps he is in the right, as the word in the original is -vel intra, Templa aquila fpeciem locavit? I have feen a Latin comment on Pindar, which fuppofes atropa to mean a part of the temple itfelf; and to be fo called, from its extending on each fide as an eagle does its wings. Sciendum eft araua locum et partem templi fuiffe, ita diciam qua asos etiam dičia eft propterea quod in modum aquile extendentis alas formata effet. Comment. in Pind. auctore Benedicto Aretio Bernenfi, p. 189. Ver. 37. Surpaffing, when on Pifa's fhore, crown. The mention only of two prizes here, confirms, I Ισθμια καὶ Πυθοί Διοφὼν ὁ Φίλωνος ἐνίκα, λην. Anthologia, 1. i. cap I. epig. 8. What made it fo extraordinary for the Pentathlete to fucceed in any of the other exercifes, was the great application, and ftrict and peculiar re. gimen, neceffary to be obferved in the attaining perfection in any one of the Gymnaftic exercifes; which care the Pentathlete was obliged to divide amongst fo many. Plato confirms this in his 'Egara; where he makes Secrates anfwer to a perion who affirms philofophy to confit in a general knowledge: Δοκεῖς γάρ μοι λέγειν οἷον ἐν τῇ ἀγωνίᾳ εἰσὶν οἱ Πέπαθλοι πρὸς τὸς δρομέας, ἤ τὲς πελλαςὰς, καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖναι τέτων μὲν λείπονται κατὰ τὰ τέτων ἄλλα, καὶ δεύτεροι εἰσί, πρὸς τά τις τῶν δ ̓ ἄλλων ἀθλητῶν, πρῶτοι, καὶ νικῶσιν αυτός. "You feem to fpeak of a perfon like the Pentathlete; who, when matched with a runner, or darter in their own particular exercises, "is always inferior, though he may be the first among the other Athlets (i. e. thofe of his own profeffion), and overcome them." Longinus has alfo a paffage much to the fame purpose; when, comparing Hyperides with Demofthenes, he mentions the various merits of the former, and fays, "He bears the fecond rank in almost every thing, like a Pentathlete, who, though he may "be inferior to those who hold the firft eftima"tion in their feveral particular exercises, yet "excels all others of the fame clafs with himfelf:" “Ως ὁ Πένταθλος, ὥσε τῶν μὲν πρωτείων ἐν ἅπασιτων ἄλλων ἀγωνισῶν λείπεσθαι, πρωτεύειν δὲ τῶν ἰδιωτῶν. Ver. 48. The Ifthmian parley crown'd his victor brow. The prizes in the four facred games are enumeiated in the following line: Αθλα δὲ τῶν Κότινος, Μῆλα, Σέλινα, Πίτυς. The latter of which, i. e. a garland made of the leaves of the wild pine, was the reward given in the Ifthmian games. But Pindar's Scholiaft informs us, that lawa, the parfley, was alfo fometimes given at the Ifthmian games, as well as the Nemean; only with this difference, that the Ifthmian parley was dried, and the Nemean green. The third queftion of the fifth book of Plutarch's Sympofiacs affigns the reafons for changing the pine branch for the pardey, and afterwards reftoring the pine again. Ver. 48. Diaulic prize.] The Dialus was 1 foot-race, twice the length of the Stadic, conftit. ing of two Stadiums, as that did of one. Ver. 77. For Lycian Glaucus to the Achaian ho Glaucus was king of Lycia, great great grandion 2. 5. 2. He was an ally of Priam's at the fiege of whole lineage, and the ftory of Bellerophon, at Troy. In Homer, he gives an account of his large, in his fpeech to Diomedes, in the fixth Iliad. It is too long to infert here. Ver. 121. While thus the fhafts of harmony I throw. This is another instance of that manner of expres fion I have taken notice of in the note upon the fifth line of the ninth ode. Ver. 124. To Oligætbide's triumphant band) The Oligthida, were a trib?, or divifion of the people at Corinth, to which Xenophon belonged. The Scholiaft fays, the number of their prizes was equal in each of the games, viz. Thirty in the 14hmian, and Thirty in the Nemean. Exoje κις γὰρ ἀμφότεροι τοῖς ἀγῶσιν Ἰσθμίοις καὶ Νε μέοις ανεκυρήχθησαν οἱ Ὀλιγαιθίδαι, τειάκονα ἐν ἑκάτῳ ἀγῶνι. Ver. 137. Oft from Parnaffus' heights, &c.] The poet here, as in feveral of his other odes, enumerates the exploits of his patron and his family, in thofe inferior feftivals which were held in almost every city throughout Greece; and where the fame exercises were performed, though the prizes were not fo honourable as in the four principal.ones, viz. the Olympic, Pythian, Nemean, and Ifthmian; which were called, by way of eminence, facred. A lift of these festivals, with the occafion of them, and the places where they were held, may be found in the twentieth chapter of the firft volume of Potter's Grecian Antiquities. |