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    Pindar, Odes

    Pythian Odes

    Editions and translations: Greek | English | English (ed. Steven J. Willett)
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    Pythian 12 For Midas of Acragas Flute-Playing Contest 490 B. C.

    [1] I beseech you, splendor-loving city, most beautiful on earth, home of Persephone; you who inhabit the hill of well-built dwellings above the banks of sheep-pasturing Acragas: be propitious, and with the goodwill of gods and men, mistress, [5] receive this victory garland from Pytho in honor of renowned Midas, and receive the victor himself, champion of Hellas in that art which once Pallas Athena discovered when she wove into music the dire dirge of the reckless Gorgons [9] which Perseus heard [10] pouring in slow anguish from beneath the horrible snakey hair of the maidens, when he did away with the third sister and brought death to sea-girt Seriphus and its people. Yes, he brought darkness on the monstrous race of Phorcus, and he repaid Polydectes with a deadly wedding-present for the long [15] slavery of his mother and her forced bridal bed; he stripped off the head of beautiful Medusa, [17] Perseus, the son of Danae, who they say was conceived in a spontaneous shower of gold. But when the virgin goddess had released that beloved man from those labors, she created the many-voiced song of flutes [20] so that she could imitate with musical instruments the shrill cry that reached her ears from the fast-moving jaws of Euryale. The goddess discovered it; but she discovered it for mortal men to have, and called it the many-headed strain, the glorious strain that entices the people to gather at contests, [25][25] often sounding through thin plates of brass and through reeds, which grow beside the city of lovely choruses, the city of the Graces, in the sacred precinct of the nymph of Cephisus, reeds that are the faithful witnesses of the dancers. If there is any prosperity among men, it does not appear without hardship. A god will indeed grant it in full today . . . [30] What is fated cannot be escaped. But that time will come, striking unexpectedly, and give one thing beyond all expectation, and withhold another.


    There are a total of 17 comments on and cross references to this page.

    Further comments from Basil L. Gildersleeve, Pindar: The Olympian and Pythian Odes:
    poem 12 (general note)
    poem 12, line 1 (general note)
    poem 12, line 1: philaglae
    poem 12, line 1: kallista brotean poliôn
    poem 12, line 10: leibomenon
    poem 12, line 10: sun
    poem 12, line 17 (general note)
    poem 12, line 17: huios Danaas
    poem 12, line 17: apo chrusou ... autorutou
    poem 12, line 20: ton ... goon
    poem 12, line 20: Eurualas
    poem 12, line 20: karpaliman genuôn
    poem 12, line 25 (general note)
    poem 12, line 25: thama
    poem 12, line 25: donakôn
    poem 12, line 5: stephanôma
    poem 12, line 5: Midai
    poem 12, line 9 (general note)
    poem 12, line 9: partheniois
    poem 12, line 9: hupo t' aplatois
    poem 12, line 9: ophiôn

    Cross references from Sir Richard Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Trachiniae:
    * [971-1278]

    Cross references from Basil L. Gildersleeve, Pindar: The Olympian and Pythian Odes:
    * [Olympian Odes]
    * [Pythian Odes]
    * [Antistrophe 2]
    * [Olympian Odes]

    Preferred URL for linking to this page: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Pind.+P.+12.1

    The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.

    This text is based on the following book(s):
    Pindar. Odes. 1990.


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