Now if Water be the Best[6], and of possessions Gold be the most precious, so now to the furthest bound doth Theron by his fair deeds attain, and from his own home touch the pillars of Herakles. Pathless the things beyond, pathless alike to the unwise and the wise. Here I will search no more; the quest were vain.
[Footnote 1: i. e. probably a new combination of lyre and flute to accompany the singing.]
[Footnote 2: When the Dorians invaded Peloponnesos one of their leaders is said to have been Oxylos, a man of Elean descent but living in Aitolia. As a result of the invasion he became king of Elis; and the judge at the Olympic games seems to have been considered a descendant of him or of some Aitolian who came with him.]
[Footnote 3: The Olympic games were held in the middle of the month Hekatombaion, when the moon was full. It is here implied that Herakles wished to institute them when the moon was full, as that was a season of good luck.]
Psaumis won this race in the year 452; therefore this ode and its companion, the next following, are the latest work of Pindar possessed by us to which we can assign a date.
The mule-chariot-race was introduced at Olympia B.C. 500 and abolished B.C. 444, according to Pausanias.
This ode seems to have been written immediately on Psaumis' victory, to be sung the same night beneath the moon by the company of friends who escorted the winner to return thanks at the altar of Zeus.
Hurler of thunderbolts unfaltering, the most high Zeus, for that thy chosen hour recurrent hath sent me with a song set to the music of the subtle lute for a witness to the greatest of all games--and when friends have good hap the good are glad forthwith at the sweet tidings--now therefore, O son of Kronos, unto whom Ætna belongeth, the wind-beaten burden that crusheth fierce Typhon's hundred heads, receive thou this band of triumph for an Olympian victory won by the Graces' aid, a most enduring light of far-prevailing valorous deeds.
For the sake of Psaumis' mule-chariot it draweth nigh to thee--Psaumis, who, crowned with Pisan olive, hasteth to raise up glory for Kamarina. May God be gracious to our prayers for what shall be! For I praise him as a man most zealous in the rearing of horses, and delighting in ever-open hospitality, and bent on peace and on the welfare of his city, with guileless soul.