P R E F A C E.

А с Е. OF all the great Writers of Antiquity, no one was

ever more honoured and admired while living, as few liave obtained a larger and faire: portion of fame after death, than Pindar. Paulanias tells us, that the character of Poet was really and truly confecrated in his person, by the God of Poets himself *, who was pleased by an express oracle to order the inhabitants of Delphi to set apart for Pindar one half of the first-fruit offerings brought by the religious to his fhrine; and to allow him a place in his temple; where in an iron chair he was used to fit and fing his hymns, in honour of that God. This chair was remairing in the time of † Paufanias (several hundred years after) to whom it was shewn as a relick not unworthy the fanétity and magnificence of that holy place. Pan I likewise, another Musical Divinity, is reported to have skipped and jumped for joy, while the Nymphs were dancing in honour of the birth of this Prince of Lyrick Poetry ; and to have been afterwards to much delighted with his compositions, as to have sung his Odes in the hearing even of the Poet himself g. Unhappily for us, and indeed for Pindar, those parts of his works, which procured himn these extraordinary testimonies from the Gods (or from Mortals rather, who by the invention

I

of

* Paus. in Beot.
| Philostratus in Icon,

+ Paus. in Phoc.
§ Plui, in Numa.

There is still another prejudice against Pindar, which may arise in the minds of those people who are not thoroughly acquainted with ancient Hiftory, and who may therefore be apt to think meanly of Odes, infcribed to a fet of Conquerors, whom poffibly they may look upon only as fo many Prize-fighters and Jockeys. To obviate this prejudice, I have prefixed to my tranflation of Pindar's Odes a Differtation * on the Olympick Games: in which the reader will see what kind of perfons thefe Conquerors were, and what was the nature of those famous Games; of which every one, who has but just looked into the hiftory of Greece, must know enough to defire to be better acquainted with them. The collection is as full as I have been able to make it, affifted by the labours of a learned Frenchman, Pierre du Faur, who, in his Book intituled Agonisticon, hath gathered almost every thing that is mentioned in any of the Greek or Latin Writers relating to the Grecian Games, which he has thrown together in no very clear order; as is obferved by his Countryman Monf. Burette, who hath written feveral pieces on the subject of the Gymnaftick Exercises, inferted in the Second Volume of "Memoires de l'Aca"demie Royale, &c." printed at Amfterdam, 1719. In this Differtation I have endeavoured to give a complete Hiftory of the Olympick Games: of which kind

there

For this Differtation, and the learned Author's copious notes in the following Odes, we must refer the curious reader to the work at large, N.

there is not, that I know of, any treatise now extant; thofe written upon this fubject by fome of the Ancients being all loft, and not being fupplied by any learned Modern, at least not fo fully as might have been done, and as fo confiderable an article of the Grecian Antiquities feemed to demand. As I flatter myfelf that even the learned Reader will in this Differtation meet with many points which have hitherto efcaped his notice, and much light reflected from thence upon the Odes of Pindar in particular, as well as upon many passages in other Greek Writers, I shall rather defire him to excufe thofe errors and defects which he may happen to discover in it, than apologize for the length of it.

Having now removed the chief prejudices and objections which have been too long and too generally entertained against the Writings of Pindar, I need fay but little of his real character, as the principal parts of it may be collected from the very faults imputed to him; which are indeed no other than the exceffes of great and acknowledged beauties, fuch as a poetical imagination, a warm and enthusiastic genius, a bold. and figurative expreffion, and a concife and fententious ftile. These are the characteristical beauties of Pindar; and to these his greatest blemishes, generally fpeaking, are fo near allied, that they have fometimes been mistaken for each other. I cannot however help. obferving, that he is fo entirely free from any thing like the far-fetched thoughts, the witty extravagances,

and

and puerile concetti of Mr. Cowley and the reft of his Imitators, that I cannot recollect fo much as even a fingle antithefis in all his Odes.

Longinus indeed confeffes, that Pindar's flame is fometimes extinguifhed, and that he now and then finks unexpectedly and unaccountably; but he prefers him, with all his faults, to a Poet who keeps on in one conftant tenour of mediocrity, and who, though he feldom falls very low, yet never rifes to those astonishing heights, which fometimes make the head even of a great Poet giddy, and occafion those flips which they

at the fame time excufe.

But, notwithstanding all that has or can be faid in favour of Pindar, he must ftill appear, as I before obferved, under great difadvantages, especially to the English Reader. Much of this fire, which formerly warmed and dazzled all Greece, muft neceffarily be loft even in the beft Tranflation. Befides, to say nothing of many Beauties peculiar to the Greek, which cannot be expreffed in English, and perhaps not in any other language, there are in these Odes so many references to fecret history, fo many allufions to perfons, things, and places, now altogether unknown, and which, were they known, would very little intereft or affect the Reader, and withal fuch a mixture of Mythology and Antiquity, that I almost despair of their being relished by any, but thofe who have, if not a great deal of claffical learning, yet fomewhat at least of an antique and classical tafte.

Every Reader, however, may ftill find in Pindar fomething to make amends for the lofs of those beauties, which have been fet at too great a distance, and in fome places worn off and obliterated by time; -namely, a great deal of good fenfe, many wife reflections, and many moral fentences, together with a due regard to religion; and from hence he may be able to form to himself fome idea of Pindar as a Man, though he fhould be obliged to take his character as a Poet from others.

But that he may not for this rely altogether upon my opinion, I fhall here produce the teftimonies of two great Poets, whofe excellent writings are sufficient evidences both of their taste and judgment. The first was long and univerfally admired, and is ftill as much regretted, by the present age: the latter, who wrote about seventeen hundred years ago, was the delight and ornament of the politeft and most learned age of Rome. And though even to him, Pindar, who lived fome centuries before him, must have appeared under some of the difadvantages above-mentioned, yet he had the opportunity of feeing all his works which were extant in his time, and of which he hath given a sort of catalogue, together with their feveral characters: an advantage which the former wanted, who must therefore be understood to fpeak only of those Odes which are now remaining. And indeed he alludes to those only, in the following paffage of his "Temple of Fame." Pope's Works, finall Edit. Vol. III. p. 17. ver. 210.