University of Virginia Library

ARGUMENT.

Pindar opens this Ode with an Invocation to Vesta (the Goddess who presided over the Courts of Justice, and whose Statue and Altar were for that Reason placed in the Town-Halls, or Prytanæums, as the Greeks called them) beseeching her to receive favourably Aristagoras and his Collegues, who were then coming to offer Sacrifices to her, upon their entering on their Office of Prytans or Magistrates of Tenedos; which Office continuing for a Year, he begs the Goddess to take Aristagoras under her Protection during that Time; and to conduct him to the End of it without Trouble

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or Disgrace. From Aristagoras Pindar turns himself, in the next Place, to his Father Arcesilas, whom he pronounces happy, as well upon account of his Son's Merit and Honour, as upon his own great Endowments, and good Fortune; such as Beauty, Strength, Courage, Riches, and Glory resulting from his many Victories in the Games. But lest he should be too much puffed up with these Praises, he reminds him at the same Time of his Mortality, and tells him that his Cloathing of Flesh is perishable, and that he must e're long be cloathed with Earth, the End of all Things; and yet, continues he, it is but Justice to praise and celebrate the Worthy and Deserving, who from good Citizens ought to receive all kinds of Honour and Commendation; as Aristagoras, for Instance, who hath rendered both himself and his Country illustrious by the many Victories he hath obtained, to the Number of Sixteen, over the neighbouring Youth, in the Games exhibited in and about his own Country. From whence, says the Poet, I conclude he would have come off victorious even in the Pythian and Olympick Games, had he not been restrained from engaging in those famous Lists by the too timid and cautious Love of his Parents: upon which he falls into a moral Reflection upon the Vanity of Mens Hopes and Fears, by the former of which they are oftentimes excited to Attempts beyond their Strength, which accordingly issue in their Disgrace; as, on the other Hand, they are frequently restrained by unreasonable and ill-grounded Fears, from Enterprizes, in which they would, in all probability, have come off with Honour. This Reflection he applies to

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Aristagoras, by saying it was very easy to foresee what Success he was like to meet with, who both by Father and Mother was descended from a long Train of great and valiant Men. But here again, with a very artful Turn of Flattery to his Father Arcesilas, whom he had before represented as strong and valiant, and famous for his Victories in the Games, he observes that every Generation even of a great and glorious Family, is not equally illustrious, any more than the Fields and Trees are every Year equally fruitful; that the Gods had not given Mortals any certain Tokens, by which they might foreknow when the rich Years of Virtue should succeed; whence it comes to pass, that Men out of Self-conceit and Presumption, are perpetually laying Schemes, and forming Enterprizes, without previously consulting Prudence or Wisdom, whose Streams, says he, lye remote, and out of the common Road. From all which he infers, that it is better to moderate our Desires, and set bounds to our Avarice and Ambition; with which moral Precept he concludes the Ode.