it is owing to his having aimed at this
character of composition, that Pindar is so
frequently daring and abrupt in his transitions;
a peculiarity for which he has been
unjustly censured. It is, however, generally
acknowledged that in these apparent
violences he shows great lyric art, for in
many instances, indicating at the first view
an exclusively wild imagination, there will be
found, on closer inspection, a philosophical
logical connexion.

While at Athens, Pindar is said also to
have availed himself of the instructions
of Agathocles and Apollodorus. In his
twentieth year he returned to Thebes, and
further profited by the advice and example
of Myrtis and Corinna of Tanagra, two
poetesses of great eminence, with both of
whom he contended for the musical prize.
He failed;  but in regard to the latter,
he charged the partial judges with having
been corrupted by her beauty, and
appealed from them to the famous singer
herself. Pindar commenced his career as
a composer of choral odes in his twentieth
year, and soon rose to such a reputation
that his merits were acknowledged by the
whole Hellenic world. Poetry in him was
recognised as a profession, and he was
regularly applied to by different states and
princes whenever they desired remarkable
events to be commemorated. The tyrants
and wealthy men of Greece paid homage
to the superior genius by which they
profited, and the free states vied with each
other in honouring the man whose poetry
could render their memory immortal.
Athens, Ægina, and Opus conferred upon
him the honour of electing him a public
guest;  the inhabitants of Ceos employed
him to compose for them a processional
song to the exclusion of two celebrated
poets of their own;  and, by order of the
priestess of Delphi, he received a portion
of the banquet of the Theoxenia. But not
only did Pindar succeed in obtaining great
honours while living, so that the conquerors
in the public games were proud to be
celebrated by him, but after his death, too, he
was still more highly honoured;  for a
statue was erected to him at Thebes, which
weathered safely six centuries;  and his
house was spared by the Spartans, and
at a later period by Alexander. One of
his odes, also, was preserved in a temple
at Athens, in letters of gold. Cary, the
translator of Dante, has given us an
excellent version of Pindar, which the world,
with other good things, has we fear
neglected; and he renders the first strophe
of the lyric in question in the following
manner:

       Like a chalice, all of gold,
       With the vine-dew bubbling o'er,
       That one at wedding feast doth hold
       Costliest treasure of his store;
       First quaffs to him, above the rest,
       Whom his daughter's love has blest;
       From home to home, then gives, to bear
       The envied present rich and rare;
       So I, the Muses' nectar shedding,
       To conquerors deal the draught divine,
       Whose brow, with garlands amply spreading,
       Pytho and Olympia twine.

It was Aristophanes of Byzantium who
first divided Pindar's odes into four classes;
selecting such as had reference, more or less
directly, to victories gained at the great
games of the Greeks. It is hard, however,
in relation to some of these, to refer them
to any special victory. Many appear to
have been merely composed for rehearsal
at the general triumph of the conquerors
on the evening succeeding the contest in
the games;  others for the private festival
afterwards given to the individual victor
by relatives and friends. It is pleasant to
see poetry thus entering into the daily life
of a people. Still more instructive is it to
find that the encouragement thus afforded
availed to elicit the genius of such a poet,
and to confer glory on such a country. In
modern times it is difficult for the poet to
get a hearing, except from the select few,
and years must pass before his reputation
can culminate. This is no doubt an evil,
but it is due to the progress of civilisation.
So much poetic wealth has been already
accumulated, that the public mind is
reluctant to admit any addition, and from
the crowd of competitors takes time to
select the best. But even in the early
Grecian age, there must have been many
candidates for the laurel who were
neglected; or else we should not have lost
so many lyrics of writers who have left
great names, but only a few fragments
of works once much esteemed. Time,
however, has highly favoured the lyrics
of Pindar, and also those of another very
different poet—Anacreon. The characteristics
of the two bards are, say the critics,
totally opposite. "Anacreon sings of
women, and roses, and wine;  Pindar, of
heroes, of public contests, of victories, and
laurels. The one melts away in amatory
softness; the other is ever like the foaming
steed of the race, vaulting in the pride
of conscious strength, or the furious
warhorse, dashing fearlessly on over every
obstacle."  We may add, that Pindar does
not confine himself to the Doric dialect,
but adopts, when expedient, Æolic and other