The prefent offer'd to his virtuous fame,
On whofe ennobled brows

The righteous umpire of the facred game,
Th' Ætolian judge, bestows
The darkfome olive, ftudious to fulfill
The mighty founder's will,

Who this fair enfign of Olympick toil
From diftant Scythia's fruitful foil,
And Hyperborean Ifter's woody shore,
With fair entreaties gain'd, to Grecian Elis bore.

STROPHE II.

The blameless fervants of the Delphick God
With joy the valued gifts beftow'd;
Mov'd by the friendly chief to grant,

On terms of peace, the facred plant,

Deftin'd at once to fhade Jove's honour'd fhrine
And crown heroick worth with wreaths divine.
For now full-orb'd the wandering moon
In plenitude of brightness fhone,
And on the fpacious eye of night

Pour'd all the radiance of her golden light:

ANTIS TROPHE

II.

Now on Jove's altars blaz'd the hallow'd flames,
And now were fix'd the mighty games,

Again, when e'er the circling fun
Four times his annual course had run,

Their period to renew, and fhine again
On Alpheus' craggy fhores and Pifa's plain :

But

But fubject all the region lay

To the fierce fun's infulting ray, While upon Pelops' burning vale No fhade arofe his fury to repell.

Then travering the hills, whofe jutting bafe

Indents Arcadia's meads,

To where the virgin goddess of the chace
Impells her foaming steeds,

To Scythian Ifter he directs his way,
Doom'd by his father to obey

The rigid pleasures of Mycena's king,
And thence the rapid hind to bring,
Whom, facred prefent for the Orthian maid,
With horns of branching gold, Täygeta array'd.

STROPHE III.

There as the longfome chace the chief pursued,
The fpacious Scythian plains he view'd ;
A land beyond the chilling blast

And northern caves of Boreas caft:
There too the groves of olive he furvey'd,

And gaz'd with rapture on the pleasing shade,
Thence by the wondering hero borne
The goals of Elis to adorn.

And now to Theron's facred feast

With Leda's twins he comes, propitious guest!

ANTI

ANTIS TROPHE III.

To Leda's twins (when heaven's divine abodes
He fought, and mingled with the gods)
He gave th' illuftrious Games to hold,

And crown the fwift, the ftrong, and bold.
Then, Mufe, to Theron and his house proclaim
The joyous tidings of fuccefs and fame,
By Leda's twins bestow'd to grace,
Emmenides, thy pious race,

Who, mindful of heaven's high behefts, With stricteft zeal obferve their holy feats.

E PODE III.

As water's vital ftreams all things furpass,
As gold's all-worship'd ore

Holds amid fortune's ftores the highest class;
So to that diftant fhore,

To where the pillars of Alcides rife,
Fame's utmoft boundaries,
Theron, pursuing his fuccefsful way,

Hath deck'd with glory's brightest ray

His lineal virtues.-Farther to attain,

Wife, and unwife, with me defpair: th' attempt were vain.

THE

THE FIFTH OLYMPICK ODE..

THIS Ode is infcribed to Pfaumis of Camarina (á) town in Sicily), who, in the eighty-fecond Olympiad, obtained three victories; one in the race of chariots drawn by four horfes; a fecond in the race of the Apené, or chariot drawn by mules, and a third in the race of fingle horfes. Some people (it seems) have doubted, whether this Ode be Pindar's, for certain reafons, which, together with the arguments on the other fide, the learned reader may find in the Oxford edition and others of this Author; where it is clearly proved to be genuine. But, befides the reasons there given for doubting if this Ode be Pindar's, there is another (though not mentioned, as I know of, by any one) which may have helped to biafs people in their judgment upon this queftion. I fhall therefore beg leave to confider it a little, because what I fhall fay upon that head, will tend to illuftrate both the meaning and the method of Pindar in this Ode. In the Greek editions of this Author there are two Odes (of which this is the fecond) infcribed to the fame Pfaumis, and dated both in the fame Olympiad. But they differ from each other in feveral particulars, as well in the matter as the manner. In the fecond Ode, notice is taken of three victories obtained by Pfaumis in the first, of only one, viz. that ob

tained by him in the race of chariots drawn by four horfes in the fecond, not only the city of Camarina, but the lake of the fame name, many rivers adjoining to it, and fome circumftances relating to the prefent ftate, and the rebuilding of that city (which had been deftroyed by the Syracufians fome years before) are mentioned; whereas in the firft, Camarina is barely named, as the country of the conqueror, and as it were out of form: from all which I conclude, that these two Odes were compofed to be fung at different times, and in different places; the firft at Olympia, immediately upon Pfaumis's being proclaimed conqueror in the chariot-race, and before he obtained his other two victories. This may with great probability be inferred, as well from no mention being there made of those two victories, as from the prayer which the poet fubjoins immediately to his account of the first, viz. that heaven would in like manner be favourable to the rest of the victor's wishes; which prayer, though it be in general words, and one frequently ufed by Pindar in other of his Odes, yet has a peculiar beauty and propriety, if taken to relate to the other two exercifes, in which Pfauinis was still to contend; and in which he afterwards came off victorious. That it was the custom for a conqueror, at the time of his being proclaimed, to be attended by a chorus, who fung a fong of triumph in honour of his victory, I have obferved in the Differtation prefixed to

thefe