Olympics: For Theron of Akragas

For Theron of Akragas,
Winner in the Olympic chariot-race, 476 BC

                                    by Cameron Hawke Smith

                                     Herakles in pursuit of the doe
                                     with the golden antler
                                     came to the land
                                     beyond the north wind's home

                                     and wondered
                                     at the forest of dark green
(for which there is no word in Greek)
and the round eye of the moon
gazed at him

a sweet urge came upon him
to fetch that primal greenness
and make shade for the racetrack

where the garden
with the consecrated altars of Zeus
was naked of trees and exposed
to the sun's caustic rays

and now athletes
hot from the chase
and crowned
by the Arbiter of Games
carry that forest on their victors' heads

For Theron of Akragas,
Winner in the Olympic chariot-race, 476 BC

Olympian 3

                                  by Pindar 

 1. I aim to please the guest-loving tydarids,

     golden-haired Helen, too,

while I pay honor to famous Akragas and

rouse up for Theron the hymn of Olympic victory owed to the tireless

hooves of his team! Once more the Muse

     stands at my side as I search out a

new-fashioned mix of Dorian dance with

voices that celebrate triumph.  Crowns

    fixed in my hair mark a

ritual duty of joining the elegant

tones of the lyre with a shout from the pipe and a pattern of

   words in due praise of

Hagedisamos' brave son, and

   Pisa commands me as well.  Songs

travel from there, god-sent and destined for

ep. him on whose brow the strict Elian judge,

following Harakles' ancient rule,

   places a wreath of gray olive to

bind in his hair -- leaves from the tree

   brought long ago by Amphitryon's

son from the shadowy sources of

   Ister to serve as best

emblem of games at Olympia, once his

2. words had persuaded the men of Apollo who

   live beyond VZoreas.

He made his plea in good faith, wanting a

tree for the famed grove of Zeus, as shade to be shared by the

   crowd, and as a badge of 

valiant success. His father's altars once

   hallowed, the eye of the midmonth

moon had shone full upon him from her golden

car as on Alpheos' banks he established a sacred

   judging of games and a

festival, every four years, but no splendid

trees as yet grew in that field by the Kronian Hill --

   Pelops' domain.  To him the

precinct seemed naked, enslaved to the sharp

   rays of the sun, and in that

moment his heart had urged him to go

ep. back to the Istrian land where Orthosia,

horse-driving daughter of Leto, had

   earlier met him, come from Arkadia's

ridges and glens, forced by Eurystheus

   (and by the oath of his father) to

bring back the hind whose horns were of 

   gold, the gift that Taygeta 

offered to Artemis with her inscription.

3. Chasing that doe, he'd glimpsed the land that lies

   back of the chill winds of 

Boreas and he had stood there in silence,

stunned by the trees.  A sweet longing to plant just such

   trees at the turn of his twelve-lap

course later seized him, and now he is

   glad as he visits that Elean

festival, joining the twin sons of Leda!

To them, when he went to Olympos, he left the 

   care of his glorious

contests of muscle and chariot skills.

My heart commands me say that these same horse-loving

   Tyndarids now bring

glory to Theron and to the Emmenid tribe,

   who, of all men, have most frequently

welcomed these heroes at their friendly feasts,

ep. piously keeping the rites of the Blessed.  If

water is best, gold the most honored of

   all man's possessions, so it is

Theron who reaches the outermost

   edge of success, moving from home to

Herakles' pillars! No wise man goes

   further, nor even the 

unwise.  I'll not attempt it -- I'd be a fool

Cameron Hawke Smith, from Modern Poetry in Translation 3/17: Parnassus (£9.95).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/27/theron-akragas-olympic-race-poem?INTCMP=SRCH

Pindar from  Anne Pippin Burnett, Pindar: Odes for Victorious Athletes, (JHUP, Baltimore, 2010).