The chant of Archilochus that was vocal at Olympia, the song of victory swelling with its thrice repeated refrain, sufficed to welcome Epharmostus when, with his dear comrades, he marched in triumph to the hill of Cronus. But now, from the bow of the far-darting Muses, do thou shoot a shower of such shafts of song as these, at Zeus, the Lord of the ruddy lightning, and at the hallowed crest of Elis, which, in olden time, the hero Pelops won as the fair dowry of Hippodameia; and speed thou to Pytho also a winged arrow sweet, for not unto the ground shall fall the words thou shalt essay, while trilling the lyre in honour of the wrestling of the hero from famous Opis. Praise herself and her son; praise her whom Themis and her glorious daughter, the Saviour Eunomia, have received as their portion. She rejoiceth o’er the deeds of valour done beside thy
‘stream, Castalia, and beside Alpheüs. Thence it is that the choicest crowns do glorify the mother-city of the Locrians amid her noble trees. Lo! I am lighting up that city dear with dazzling songs of praise, and I shall spread my message everywhere, more swiftly than proud steed or winged ship, so surely as I, by the ordering of destiny, am tilling the choicest garden of the Graces, for ‘tis they that are givers of delight, but men become brave and wise according unto fate divine. Else, how had Heracles wielded his club against the trident? what time he was pressed hard by Poseidon standing in defence of Pylos aye and pressed hard by Phoebus, who was warring with his silver bow, nor did Hades keep his wand unmoved, the wand wherewith he leadeth mortal forms down to the hollow way of the dead. Cast away this word, O my lips! since to speak evil of the gods is a skill that is hateful, and untimely boasting is in unison with madness. Babble not, my Muse, of such themes as these; let war and all battle remain far from the immortals; but lend thy tongue to the city
of Protogeneia, where, by the ordinance of Zeus with the gleaming thunderbolt, Pyrrha and Deucalion, coming down from Parnassus, first fixed their home, and, without wedlock, made the stone people to be of one folk, and from the stones were the people called. Raise in their honour a clearly sounding strain, and, while thou praisest the wine that is old, thou shalt also praise the flowers of songs that are new. They tell, in sooth, how the mighty waters drowned the dark earth, until, by the counsels of Zeus, the ebbing tide suddenly drained off the flood. From these were descended your ancestors with their brazen shields, young men sprung of old from the daughters of the race of Iapetus and from the mighty sons of Cronus, being ever a native line of kings, until the Lord of Olympus, having carried off the daughter of Opis from the land of the Epeians, lay by her side in a silent spot amid the Maenalian mountains, and brought her to Locrus, that so Time might not destroy him, laying upon him the doom of childlessness. But his bride bare in her womb the seed of the Mightiest, and the hero rejoiced at seeing the son that had been given him, and called him by
the self-same name as his mother’s sire. Wondrous he became in beauty of form and in the works of his hands, and Locrus gave him a city and a people to govern; and strangers gathered themselves together unto him from Argos and Thebes, from Arcadia and Pisa; but, among the new settlers, he chiefly honoured the son of Actor and Aegina, Menoetius. It was the son of Menoetius who went with Atreidae to the plain of Teuthras, and stood alone beside Achilles, when Télephus turned to flight the valiant Danai, and made onslaught on their ships beside the sea; so that a man of understanding might clearly discern the warrior spirit of Patroclus. From that time forward the son of Thetis exhorted him never in murderous war to post himself afar from his own man-subduing spear. Would I could find me words as I move onward as a bearer of good gifts in the Muses’ car; would I might be attended by Daring and by all-embracing Power! I have come at virtue’s bidding, and in friendship for the folk, to pay the further honour due to the Isthmian wreath of Lampromachus, for that the twain were victors in two events on the self-same day; and, afterwards, there were two gladsome victories at the portals of Corinth and others won
by Epharmostus in the vale of Nemea, while at Argos he gained glory in a contest of men, and as a boy at Athens. And, when reft from the beardless company, what a glorious contest for the prize of silver cups did he maintain at Marathon, among the men and, having vanquished those wights by the cunning skill that swiftly shifts its balance but never falls, amid what loud applause did he pass round the-ring, a victor in life’s prime, nobly fair, and one who had wrought most noble deeds! Then again he seemed marvellous to look upon, amid the Parrhasian people, at the festival of the Lycaean Zeus, and also on that day when, at Pellana, he carried off as his prize a warm remedy against the chilly blasts; and the tomb of Iolaus beareth witness to him, and the shore of Eleusis telleth of his glorious Sdiress. That which cometh of Nature is ever best, but many men have striven to win their fame by means of merit that cometh from mere training ; but anything whatsoever, in which God hath no part, is none the worse for being quelled in silence. Yet some roads lead further than others, and it is not all of us that can prosper in a single path of work. Steep are the heights of skill; but, while offering this prize of song, with a ringing shout do I boldly
declare that our hero hath by the blessing of heaven been born with deftness of hand and litheness of limb, and with valour in his glance—our hero, who, at the banquet of the son of Oileus, crowned by his victory the altar of Aias.
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