Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Greece and Turkey in Europe: Vol. XIX. 1876–79. | | | | Greece: Athens | | Athens | | Pindar (c. 522–433 B.C.) |
| | Pythian VII
Translated by H. F. Cary
ATHENS, the stately-walled, magnificent! | |
| Proem most beauteous for Alcmæon’s race, | |
| Whereon to lay the base | |
| Of sacred song, their steeds’ proud ornament! | |
| For what more eminent | 5 |
| Country or home, shall I in Grecia name, | |
| Inhabited? No city, wherein fame | |
| Sounds not Erectheus’ sons; they who for thee, | |
| Apollo, have built up a gorgeous shrine | |
| In Pytho the divine. | 10 |
| Five victories in Corinth lead me on; | |
| One in Olympia, Jove’s, the chief of these; | |
| And two from Cyrrha; yours, O Megacles, | |
| And your forefathers’! At the new success | |
| In part rejoicing, yet for this I mourn; | 15 |
| That beauteous deeds in envy meet return. | |
| ’T is said indeed that mortal happiness, | |
| When most it flourisheth, to last, must be | |
| Thus checkered with a strange variety. | | | | |
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