Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Greece and Turkey in Europe: Vol. XIX. 1876–79. | | | | Greece: Thebæ (Thebes) | | Thebes | | Pindar (c. 522–433 B.C.) |
| | (From Isthmian VII)
Translated by H. F. Cary
IN whom, O Thebes, of all the host, | |
| In antique days renowned, | |
| That trod thy sacred ground, | |
| Hath thy blest spirit joyed the most? | |
| Whether when first thou gav’st to light | 5 |
| Him, who his seat possesses | |
| Next timbreled Ceres in those regions bright, | |
| Bacchus of wide-clustering tresses? | |
| Or at the night’s mid hour, | |
| When in a golden shower | 10 |
| The mightiest of the gods receiving, | |
| Thou brought’st him to Amphitryon’s bower, | |
| With that fair bride the Herculean germin leaving? | |
| Or in the ample mind | |
| Of thy Tiresias? or the might | 15 |
| Of Iolaus, warrior knight? | |
| Or theirs, who from the furrows rose, | |
| Clashing their spears in hostile rows? | |
| Or when thou sentest from the stormy fight | |
| Adrastus home to Argian fields again, | 20 |
| Leaving on the battle plain | |
| His myriad friends behind? | |
| Or when that Dorian colony | |
| Thou on their firm-fixed base | |
| Didst in Laconia place; | 25 |
| And Pytho’s oracle, | |
| In Amyclæan turrets, gave to dwell | |
| The sons of Ægeus, sprung from thee? | | | | |
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