e raised up the house of Themistios, and dwell here in a city which
the gods love well.

And Lampon, in that he bestoweth practice on all he doth, holdeth
in high honour the word of Hesiod which speaketh thereof[10], and
exhorteth thereunto his sons, whereby he bringeth unto his city a
general fame: and for his kind entreating of strangers is he loved, to
the just mean aspiring, to the just mean holding fast; and his tongue
departeth not from his thoughts: and among athlete men he is as the
bronze-grinding Naxian whetstone amid stones[11].

Now will I give him to drink of the holy water of Dirke, which
golden-robed Mnemosyne's deep-girdled daughters made once to spring
out of the earth, beside the well-walled gates of Kadmos.

[Footnote 1: I. e. Pytheas. See Nem. v.]

[Footnote 2: Poseidon.]

[Footnote 3: [Greek: Zeus Sotaer], to whom the third cup at a feast
was drunk. He is here invoked also to give a third victory to the
family at the Olympic games.]

[Footnote 4: Lampon.]

[Footnote 5: Figuratively said, as elsewhere.]

[Footnote 6: A hundred feet wide, seemingly.]

[Footnote 7: Not 'invulnerable.' A magic invulnerability was only
attributed to heroes by later legend.]

[Footnote 8: From [Greek: aietos] an eagle.]

[Footnote 9: Maternal uncle of Pytheas and Phylakidas.]

[Footnote 10: [Greek: melete de ergon ophellei]. Opp. 411.]

[Footnote 11: I. e. he stimulates their zeal and skill. The Naxian
whetstone seems to be emery.]

VI.

FOR STREPSIADES OF THEBES,

WINNER IN THE PANKRATION.

* * * * *

The date of this ode is not fixed, but it has been supposed that the
battle referred to--apparently a defeat--in which the winner's uncle
was killed was the battle of Oinophyta, fought B.C. 457. But this, and
the notion that the democratic revolution at Thebes is referred to,
are only conjectures.

* * * * *

Wherewithal of the fair deeds done in thy land, O divine Thebe, hath
thy soul had most delight? Whether when thou broughtest forth to the
light Dionysos of the flowing hair, who sitteth beside Demeter to whom
the cymbals clang? or when at midnight in a snow of gold thou didst
receive the mightiest of the gods, what time he stood at Amphitryon's
doors and beguiled his wife, to the begetting of Herakles? Or when
thou hadst honour in the wise counsels of Teiresias, or in Iolaos the
cunning charioteer, or the unwearied spears of