out of his hand; and thus he fulfilled the destiny ordained him of
Zeus, and having escaped the violence of the fire and the dauntless
lion's claws exceeding keen, and the bitings of teeth most
terrible[5], he espoused one of the Nereids high-enthroned, and beheld
the circle of fair seats whereon were sitting the kings of heaven and
of the sea, as they revealed unto him their gifts, and the kingdom
that should be unto him and unto his seed.

Nightward[6] beyond Gadeira none may pass. Turn back again to the
mainland of Europe the tackle of our ship; for it were impossible for
me to go through unto the end all the tale of the sons of Aiakos.

For the Theandrid clan came I a ready herald of games that make men's
limbs wax strong, to Olympia and to Isthmos, and to Nemea according
to my promise, where having put themselves to the proof they are
returning homeward, not without wreaths whose fruitage is renown; and
there report hath told us, O Timasarchos, that thy clan's name is
preeminent in songs of victory.

Or if further for thy mother's brother Kallikles thou biddest me set
up a pillar whiter than Parian stone, lo as the refining of gold
showeth forth all his splendours, so doth a song that singeth a
man's rare deeds make him as the peer of kings. Let Kallikles in his
dwelling beside Acheron find in my tongue a minstrel of his praise,
for that at the games[7] of the deep-voiced wielder of the trident
his brows were green with parsley of Corinth; of him, boy, did
Euphaenes, thy aged grandsire, rejoice erewhile to sing.

Each hath his own age-fellow; and what each hath seen for himself that
may he hope to set forth best of all. How for Melesias'[8] praise
must such an one grapple in the strife, bending the words beneath his
grasp, yielding not his ground as he wrestleth in speech, of gentle
temper toward the good, but to the froward a stern adversary.

[Footnote 1: Aigina. See Ol viii. 21; Pyth. viii. 22.]

[Footnote 2: Kleonai was very near Nemea, and the Kleonaians were for
a long time managers of the Nemean games.]

[Footnote 3: Seemingly the same personage as Aigina.]

[Footnote 4: Akastos.]

[Footnote 5: Thetis, resisting her wooer Peleus, changed herself into
fire and wild beasts. See Dict. Myth.]

[Footnote 6: Westward.]

[Footnote 7: The Isthmian games.]

[Footnote 8: Timasarchos' trainer in wrestling. He is here praised in
terms borrowed from the wrestling-school.]

V.

FOR PYTHEAS OF AIG