University of Virginia Library

ARGUMENT.

The Poet begins this noble Song of Triumph with a Simile, by which he endeavours to shew his great Esteem for those who obtain the Victory in the Olympick and other Games; as also the Value of the Present, that he makes them upon that Occasion; a Present always acceptable, because Fame and Praise is that which delights all Mortals; wherefore the Muse, says he, is perpetually looking about for proper Objects to bestow it upon; and seeing the great Actions of Diagoras, takes up a Resolution of celebrating Him, the Isle of Rhodes his Country, and his Father Damagetus (according to the Form observed by the Herald in proclaiming the Conquerors; which I mentioned in the Notes upon the last Ode) Damagetus, and consequently Diagoras, being descended from Tlepolemus, who led over a Colony of Grecians from

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Argos to Rhodes, where he settled, and obtained the Dominion of that Island. From Tlepolemus, therefore, Pindar declares he will deduce his Song; which he addresses to all the Rhodians in common with Diagoras, who were descended from Tlepolemus, or from those Grecians that came over with him; that is, almost all the People of Rhodes, who indeed are as much (if not more) interested in the greatest Part of this Ode, as Diagoras the Conqueror. Pindar accordingly relates the Occasion of Tlepolemus's coming to Rhodes, which he tells us was in Obedience to an Oracle, that commanded him to seek out that Island; which, instead of telling us its Name, Pindar, in a more poetical Manner, characterises by relating of it some Legendary Stories (if I may so speak) that were peculiar to the Isle of Rhodes; such as the Golden Shower, and the Occasion of Apollo's chusing that Island for himself; both which Stories he relates at large with such a Flame of Poetry, as shews his Imagination to have been extremely heated and elevated with his Subjects. Neither does he seem to cool in the short Account that he gives, in the next Place, of the Passion of Apollo for the Nymph Rhodos, from whom the Island received its Name, and from whom were descended its original Inhabitants (whom just before the Poet therefore called the Sons of Apollo) and particularly the three Brothers, Camirus, Lindus, and Jalysus; who divided that Country into three Kingdoms, and built the three principal Cities, which retained their Names. In this Island Tlepolemus (says the Poet, returning to the Story of that Hero) found

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Rest, and a Period to all his Misfortunes, and at length grew into such Esteem with the Rhodians, that they worshipped him as a God, appointing Sacrifices to him, and instituting Games in his Honour. The Mention of those Games naturally brings back the Poet to Diagoras, and gives him Occasion, from the Two Victories obtained by Diagoras in those Games, to enumerate all the Prizes won by that famous Conqueror in all the Games of Greece: after which Enumeration he begs of Jupiter, in a solemn Prayer, to grant Diagoras the Love of his Country, and the Admiration of all the World, as a Reward for the many Virtues for which he and his Family had always been distinguished, and for which their Country had so often triumphed: and then, as if he had been a Witness of the extravagant Transports of the Rhodians (to which, not the Festival only occasioned by the triumphal Entry of their Countryman, and the Glory reflected upon them by his Victories, but much more the flattering and extraordinary Eulogiums bestowed upon the whole Nation in this Ode, might have given Birth) the Poet on a sudden changes his Hand, and checks their Pride by a moral Reflection on the Vicissitude of Fortune, with which he exhorts them to Moderation, and so concludes.