No sculptor am I, that I should carve statues doomed to linger only on the pedestal where they stand. No! I would bid my sweet song speed from Aegina, in every argosy, and in every skiff, spreading abroad the tidings that the stalwart Pytheas, son of Lampon, hath won the crown for the pancratium at the Nemean games, or ever he showed on his cheeks the hue of summer, the soft harbinger of youthful bloom. And he hath brought honour to the Aeacidae, those heroic spearmen descended from Cronus and Zeus, and from the golden Nereids; honour also to the mother city, the friendly home of strangers, which the famous sons of Endais, and the mighty prince Phécus, son of the goddess Psamatheia, whom she bare by the beach of the sea, prayed might some day be rich in heroes and famed for ships, as they stood beside the altar of Father Zeus Hellénius, and together stretched their hands toward the sky. Reverence restraineth me from telling of a mighty deed, a
deed hazarded in no righteous wise,’—how at last they left the famous island, and what was the doom that drave the bold heroes from Oenéné. I will halt: it is not every truth that is the better for showing its face undisguised ; and full oft is silence the wisest thing for a man to heed. But, if any one be resolved on praising riches, or might of hands, or mail-clad war, I would that some one might delve me the ground for long leaps from this point. I have a lightsome spring in my knees; the eagle swoopeth e’en beyond the sea. Yea, for the sons of Aeacus themselves, the gladsome song was sung on Pélion by the fairest choir of the Muses, while, in their midst, Apollo, sweeping with golden quill the seven-fold notes of the a prelude to Zeus, first of all sang of holy Thetis and of Péleus, telling how Hippolyté, the dainty daughter of Crétheus, would fain have caught Péleus by guile, having by-crafty counsels persuaded her husband, the lord of the Magnétes, to be partner in her plot. And so she forged a lying tale of her own invention, pretending he had attempted her honour in the bed of Acastus, when the very contrary was the truth indeed; for many a time had she with all her heart
besought him with beguiling words. But her bold language stung him to wrath, and at once he spurned her embraces in reverent awe of the anger of Father Zeus, who defendeth the rights of hospitality; and Zeus, the king of the immortals, who marshalleth the clouds of heaven, marked the deed, and decreed that ere long he should win for his wife a sea-nymph from among the Nereids with their golden distaffs, after gaining the consent of their kinsman, Poseidon, who oft cometh from Aegina to the famous Dorian Isthmus, where the joyous bands welcome the god with the music of the flute, and wrestle with all the hardy prowess of their limbs. It is the natal star that ruleth over every deed; and thou, Euthymenes from Aegina, twice falling in the lap of victory, didst win thee a varied strain of song. Verily even now, O Pytheas, thine eme doth glorify that hero’s kindred clan, by following in his steps. Nemea is linked with thee, and Aegina’s festal month beloved of Apollo, and thou wast victorious over thy comrades who entered the lists, both at home and in the fair dells of the hill of Nisus. I rejoice that all the State striveth for glory.
' Bear in mind that, by the good fortune of Menander, thou didst win a sweet requital for thy toils. Meet it is that a fashioner of athletes should come from Athens ; but, if thou art come to sing the praises of Themistius, away with cold reserve. Lift up thy voice, and hoist the sails to the top-most yard; proclaim him as a boxer, and tell that he hath won a double victory in the pancratium by his conquest in Epidaurus ; and bring to the portals of Aeacus grassy garlands of flowers in the company of the fair-haired Graces.
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