Whose haunts are by Kephissos' river, you queens beloved of poets' song, ruling Orkhomenos, that sunlit city and land of lovely steeds, watch and ward of the ancient Minyan race, hear now my prayer, you Kharites three. For in your gift are all our mortal joys, and every sweet thing, be it wisdom, beauty, or glory, that makes rich the soul of man. Nor even can the immortal gods order at their behest the dance and festals, lacking the Kharites' aid; who are the steward of all rites of heaven, whose thrones are set at Pytho beside Apollon of the golden bow, and who with everlasting honour worship the Father, lord of great Olympos. Euphrosyne, lover of song, and Aglaia revered, daughters of Zeus the all-highest, hearken, and with Thalia, darling of harmony, look on our songs of revel, on light feet stepping to grace this happy hour... I come to praise Asopikhos, whose Minyan house, Thalia, now of your favour wears the pride of the Olympian victor.
Commentarius · Commentary
The opening of the fourteenth Olympian, the shortest of Pindar's odes. The victor, the boy Asopichus of Orchomenos, is not named in these lines at all: the Graces are placed first, and the ode begins as a hymn.
Geography works here as it does in the Homeric prelude that routes Artemis through Smyrna to Klaros (homeric-artemis-001): the singer names the waters of the Cephisus, the land of fine horses, glittering Orchomenos, and "the ancient-born Minyae". All of it is the boy's homeland and its legendary ancestors. The goddesses are reminded whose they are, and the audience that the goddesses are theirs.
Κλῦτ᾽, ἐπεὶ εὔχομαι — hear, since I pray. The transaction is stated in four words: a prayer has been uttered, therefore it is to be heard. No other ground is offered, and none is needed.
Compare the Orphic hymn to the same Graces (orphic-charites-001): there they are named by abstract epithets — begetters of gladness, ever-blooming — and attached to no place at all. Here they have an address in Boeotia. The difference between the hymn of an initiate community and a song commissioned for a particular city.
Fons · Source
AuthorPindar
WorkOlympian Odes
Section14.1 ff
Period5th c. BC
Occasionvictory ode for Asopichus of Orchomenos — invocation of the three Graces by Pindar at the start of the ode
