Read me the name of the Olympian victor, the son of Archestratus! Tell me where it is written in my heart! For I have forgotten that I owed him a sweet song; but do thou, O Muse, and also Truth, the daughter of Zeus, with a hand that setteth all things right, put an end to the blame for a broken promise, the blame for wronging a friend. Lo, the lingering hours have come from afar, and have made me ashamed of my deep debt. Yet payment with usance hath power to do away with the bitter rebuke of mortal men. Now mark how the tide of song, as it floweth, is washing the rolling pebbles ashore! Mark how we shall pay our debt as a welcome boon in our praise of the victor’s home ! In that city of the Locrians in the West, dwelleth Justice! ; and dear to her is Calliopé, and Arés clad in bronze. Even the mighty Heracles yielded in his
battle with Cyenus; and Hagésidamus, victorious as a boxer at Olympia, may offer thanks to Ilas, even as Patroclus did to Achilles. When anyone is born for prowess, one may, as a man, with the help of God, whet his keen spirit and prompt him to great glory. Few indeed have won, without toil, the joy that is a light of life above all labours. But the laws of Zeus prompt me to sing that famous scene of contest, founded by Heracles with its altars six in number, near the olden tomb of Pelops ; for Heracles slew Cteatus, the blameless son of Poseidon, and slew Eurytus too, that he might forthwith exact from the unwilling and over-weening Augeas the wage for his menial service ; and he, even Heracles, lay in wait for them in the thicket and overcame them below Cleénae by the roadside ; for aforetime the haughty Moliones had destroyed for him his Tirynthian host, when it was encamped in the heart of Elis. And, verily, not long after, the faithless king of the Epeians saw his rich country,
aye, his own city, sinking into the deep gulf of ruin beneath the remorseless fire and the iron blows.’ Hard it is to rid oneself of strife with them that are stronger than ourselves; so even he, by his ill counsel, last of all found himself captured, and could not escape falling into deep destruction. Then did the brave son of Zeus gather all the host, with the whole of the spoil, in Pisa, and measured out a holy precinct for his sire supreme ; and, fencing round the Altis, he marked it off in the open, and the soil around he set apart as a resting-place for the evening banquet, thus doing honour to the stream of the Alpheüs, among the twelve rulers divine. And he gave a name to the hill of Cronus, for aforetime it was nameless, while Oenomaüs was king, and it was besprent with many a shower of snow. But, in this rite primaeval, the Fates were standing near at hand, and Time, the sole declarer of the very truth. And Time, in passing onward, clearly told the plain story, how Heracles divided the spoils that were the gift of war, and offered sacrifice, and how he ordained the four years’ festival along with the first Olympic games and with contests for victors.
Tell me who it was that won the primal crown with hands or feet or chariot, when he had set before his mind the glory of the games and had attained that glory in very deed? In the stadium the bravest in running a straight course with his feet was Oeénus, son of Licymnius, who had come from Midea at the head of his host. And in wrestling, it was Echemus who gat glory for Tegea. And the prize in boxing was won by Doryclus, who dwelt in the city of Tiryns ; and, in the car of four horses, the victor was Samos of Mantinea, the son of Halirhothius. Phrastor it was who hit the mark with the javelin, and Niceus, who, with a circling sweep of his hand, excelled all others in flinging afar the weight of stone; and all the friendly host raised a mighty cheer, while the lovely light of the fair-faced moon lit up the evening, and, in the joyous festival, all the precinct rang with song like banquet-music. And even now, as we follow the first beginnings of the games, as a namesake song of the victory proud, we shall loudly sing of the thunder, and the fire-flung bolt of Zeus, the lord of the levin, the gleaming thunder-bolt that is the fit emblem in every victory; and there shall answer to the pipe
the swelling melody of songs, which at last have come to light beside the famous stream of Dircé. But, even as a son born of a wife is welcome to a father who hath already reached the reverse of youth, and maketh his heart to glow with happiness, since, for one who is dying, it is a hateful sight to see his wealth falling to the lot of a master who is a stranger from another home ; even so, Hagésidamus, whensoever a man, who hath done noble deeds, descendeth to the abode of Hadés, without the meed of song, he hath spent his strength and his breath in vain, and winneth but a little pleasure by his toil; whereas thou hast glory shed upon thee by the soft-toned lyre and by the sweet flute, and thy fame waxeth widely by favour of the Pierid daughters of Zeus. I, the while, who am eagerly lending a hand of help, have taken to my heart the famous tribe of the Locrians, while I besprinkle with honey a city of noble sons; and I have praised the beauteous son of Archestratus, whom, on that day, beside the Olympic altar, I saw winning victory with the might of his hands,—one who was fair to look upon, and was graced with that bloom which, in olden days, by the blessing of Aphrodité, warded from Ganymede a ruthless fate.
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