Wine is the power of wealth, whene’er it is wedded with stainless honour, so that a mortal man receiveth it at the hands of Destiny, and taketh it to his home as a ministrant that bringeth him many friends. O blest of Heaven! Arcesilas! From the first steps of thy famous life thou dost indeed seek for that wealth, and fair fame withal, by the help of Castor of the golden chariot, who, after the wintry storm, sheddeth beams of calm upon thy happy hearth. They that are noble bear with a fairer grace even the power that is given of God ; and thou, while thou walkest in the straight path, hast prosperity in abundance around thee. First, as thou art a king over mighty cities, the eye of thy ancestry looketh on this as a meed most fit for reverence, when wedded to a soul like thine; and even to-day art thou happy in that thou hast already, with thy coursers, won glory from the famous Pythian festival,
and shalt soon give welcome to this triumph-band of men, in whom Apollo delighteth. Therefore, when thou art hymned in song in Cyrene’s garden of Aphrodite, do not forget to give God the glory; do not forget to love, above all thy comrades, Carrhétus, who, on returning to the palace of them that reign by right, did not bring in his train Excuse, that daughter of After-thought, who is wise too late; but, when welcomed beside the waters of Castalia, flung over thy locks the guerdon of glory in the chariot-race with his reins unsevered in the sacred space of the twelve courses of swift feet. For he brake no part of his strong equipage ; nay, he hath dedicated all the dainty handiwork of skilled craftsmen, with which he passed the hill of Crisa on his way to the god’s own hollow glen. Wherefore are they all placed in the shrine of cypress-wood, hard by the statue cloven as a single block, that the Cretan bowmen dedicated beneath the roof Parnassian.
Therefore is it fitting to requite with ready mind the doer of a good deed. Son of Alexibius! thy name is lit up by the fair-haired Graces. Thou art happy in that, after labour sore, thou hast the noblest praise to keep thy memory green. For, amid forty drivers who were laid low, thou, with thy fearless spirit, didst bring thy chariot through unscathed, and, from the glorious games, hast now returned to the plain of Libya, and to the city of thy sires. But no man is now, or ever shall be, without his share of trouble ; yet, in spite of chequered fortune, there is present still the olden prosperity of Battus, that tower of the city of Cyrene, and that light most radiant to strangers from afar. ‘Even the loudly-roaring lions fled before Battus in terror when he unloosed on them his strange tongue, and Apollo, the founder of the State, doomed the wild beasts to dread fear, that so his oracles might not be unfulfilled for the ruler of Cyrene. ’Tis Apollo that allotteth to men and to women remedies for sore diseases. “’Twas he that gave the cithern, and bestoweth the Muse on whomsoever he will, bringing into the heart the love of law that hateth strife.
’Tis he that ruleth the secret shrine of the oracles ; wherefore, even for sake of Lacedaemon, he planteth the valiant descendants of Heracles and Aegimius in Argos, and in hallowed Pytho. But mine it is to sing of the dear glory that cometh from Sparta, whence sprang the Aegeidae, my own forefathers, who, not without the gods, but led by some providence divine, once went to Théra, whence it was that we have received the festal sacrifice in which all have part, and, in thy banquet, O Carneian Apollo,” we honour the nobly built city of Cyrene, which is held by bronze-armed Trojans from a foreign shore, even by the descendants of Anténdér. For they came with Helen, after they had seen their Carneia, and in its local festivals paid honour to Cyrene as a colony of Théra.
native city burnt in war, and that chariot-driving race was heartily welcomed with sacrifices by men who greeted them with gifts, men who were brought by Aristoteles, when, with his swift steps, he opened a deep path across the sea. And he made the groves of the gods greater than aforetime, and ordained that, for the festivals of Apollo, which bring health unto mortals, there should be a straight and level road, paved with stone and trodden by the hoofs of horses, where now, in death, he resteth apart, at the further end of the market-place. Blessed was he, while he dwelt among men, and thereafter a hero worshipped by the people; and asunder, before the dwellings, are the other holy kings, whose portion is in Hades, and in their soul, in the world below, they haply hear of lofty prowess besprent with soft dew beneath the outpourings of revel-songs—a happy lot for themselves and a glory shared by their son, Arcesilas, and his rightful claim. Meet it is that, amid the minstrelsy of youths, he should pen the praise of golden-lyred Apollo,
now that he receiveth from Pytho the gracious song that is the victor’s guerdon for all cost. That hero is praised by the prudent. I shall only say what is said by others. He cherisheth a mind and a tongue that are beyond his years; in courage he is like a broad-winged eagle among birds, while his might in athlete-contests is a very tower of strength; and, even from his mother’s lap, he hath soared among the Muses; and he hath proved himself a skilful charioteer ; and all the openings for noble exploits around him, hath he boldly essayed. Even now doth God readily bring his powers to perfect issue, and, in the time to come, do ye blessed sons of Cronus grant him a like boon, both in deeds and counsels, lest haply some stormy blast of autumn make havoc of his life. Lo! it is the mighty mind of Zeus that guideth the fate of men that he loveth. I beseech him to grant the race of Battus this new guerdon at Olympia.
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