"Read me the name of the Olympic victor, the son of Archestratus, where it has been written in my mind."

— Pindar (522 - c. 443 BC)


Work Title
Date
474 BC
Metaphor
"Read me the name of the Olympic victor, the son of Archestratus, where it has been written in my mind."
Metaphor in Context
τὸν Ὀλυμπιονίκαν ἀνάγνωτέ μοι
Ἀρχεστράτου παῖδα, πόθι φρενὸς
ἐμᾶς γέγραπται: γλυκὺ γὰρ αὐτῷ μέλος
ὀφείλων ἐπιλέλαθ᾽: ὦ Μοῖσ᾽, ἀλλὰ σὺ καὶ θυγάτηρ
Ἀλάθεια Διός, ὀρθᾷ χερὶ
ἐρύκετον ψευδέων
ἐνιπὰν ἀλιτόξενον.
ἕκαθεν γὰρ ἐπελθὼν ὁ μέλλων χρόνος
[10] ἐμὸν καταίσχυνε βαθὺ χρέος.
ὅμως δὲ λῦσαι δυνατὸς ὀξεῖαν ἐπιμομφὰν τόκος: ὁρᾶτ᾽ ὦν νῦν ψᾶφον ἑλισσομέναν
ὅπα κῦμα κατακλύσσει ῥέον,
ὅπα τε κοινὸν λόγον
φίλαν τίσομεν ἐς χάριν.

[Read me the name of the Olympic victor, the son of Archestratus, where it has been written in my mind (phrên). For I owed him a sweet song, and I have forgotten. But come, Muse, you and the daughter of Zeus, unforgetting Truth: with the hand that puts things right, [5] keep from me the blame for lying, for wronging my friend. Approaching from far away, the future has arrived and made me ashamed of my deep debt. Still, payment with interest has a way of dissolving the bitter reproach of men.]
Categories
Provenance
Reading Christopher Collins, Neopoetics : The Evolution of the Literate Imagination (New York: Columbia University Press, 2017), 229.
Citation
See Odes, trans. Diane Arnson Svarlien (1990). <Link to perseus.tufts.edu>
Date of Entry
01/09/2017

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.