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The World's Greatest Books [Volumes 1-15, 17-20]
- Автор: Gutenberg
- Год: 1910
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Культурология
Электронная книга - «The World's Greatest Books [Volumes 1-15, 17-20]». Краткое содержание книги:
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 01 — Fiction от Неизвестный
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 02 — Fiction от Неизвестный
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 03 — Fiction от Неизвестный
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 04 — Fiction от Неизвестный
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 05 — Fiction от Неизвестный
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 06 — Fiction от Неизвестный
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 07 — Fiction от Неизвестный
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 08 — Fiction от Неизвестный
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 09 — Lives and Letters от Неизвестный
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 10 — Lives and Letters от Неизвестный
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 11 — Ancient and Mediæval History от Неизвестный
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 12 — Modern History от Неизвестный
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 13 — Religion and Philosophy от Неизвестный
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 14 — Philosophy and Economics от Неизвестный
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 15 — Science от Неизвестный
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 17 — Poetry and Drama от Неизвестный
The world's greatest books от Mee, Arthur, 1875-1943, joint editor & Hammerton, John Alexander, Sir, 1871-1949, joint editor & McClure, S. S. (Samuel Sidney), 1857-1949, joint editor
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 19 — Travel and Adventure от Неизвестный
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 20 — Miscellaneous Literature and Index от Неизвестный
Then he tells the story of the shipwreck; and Halcyone's distracted cries bring her servants on the scene. Certain now of his death, and refusing all comfort, she makes her way to the seashore at daybreak, and encounters the harrowing experience of having her husband's body washed ashore beside her.
" 'Tis he," she cried, and therewithal she rends Face, hair, and raiment; then with hands outstretched To fiim, " My dearest lord, oh! is it thus," She says—" thus, that thou dost return to me ? "
Then a strange thing happens: she is miraculously changed into a bird.
Smiting thin air with pinions newly grown, She skimmed the waves, a bird of misery.
And as she reached Ceyx's body, the gods took pity on them; for both were transformed into the halcyon birds with whom are associated the period of calm amidst the storms of winter.
In wintertide through seven peaceful days Halcyone upon her nest doth brood, Upheld above tt.c surface of the deep: And all that time the sea-waves are at rest.
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PINDAR Odes of Victory
Olympian and Pythian Odes
Note.—In condensing the longer odes, it has been impossible to keep the stropliic structure. In the tzvo short ones, however, it has been retained; these are not abridged.
The First Olympian Ode
FOR HIERO OF SYRACUSE, WINNER IN THE HORSE RACE
Water is best! And gold
Most excellently bright, Amid the treasure in some lordly hold,
Burns, as a fire by night.
Pindar, " the Theban Eagle," as Gray calls him, was born about the year 522 B.C., in the village of Cynoscephalae, near Thebes, in Bceotia. He died about 443 B.C. Of his life very little is known. His birth took place, appropriately enough, during the celebration of the Pythian games. He studied the flute under Scopelinus, who is sometimes named as his father. His teachers in poetry were the women poets, Myrto and Corinna. Although a Theban, he was always a warm friend of the Athenians, and when he celebrated Athens as the " bulwark of Hellas," the Thebans fined him. The grateful Athenians, however, paid his fine, and appointed him their consul at Thebes. Pindar's life-work was the celebration of victors in the Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian games, and he has left us a legacy of song unrivalled in the lyric utterance of the world. He loved all bright and glorious things, and his lines are jewelled with allusions to water, fire, and gold. He loved, too, the sea, and seafaring, from which he drew many gorgeous metaphors. But his wealth of mythology, in which he clothed the praise of his victors, made him difficult for the general reader. This epitome has been prepared from the original text. The finest English prose version, perhaps, is that of the late Ernest Myers.
75
But, dear my heart, If thou dost crave a part Of glory in the games— Even as the sun-orb flames
In the wide aether, star pre-eminent Of day, and quickening spring;
So surely, voice of man No higher theme may sing
Than that high strife, the strife Olympian: Whence harmonies are blent With multitudinous utterance in the mind Of mortals skilled to raise Of Kronos' son the praise; When to the happy hearth, That knows no dearth, They come, the hearth of Hiero, who wields The rod of Justice o'er Sicilian fields, Where many flocks their pasture find. There choicest fruits he culls of excellence, And music's eloquence
With glory wreathes the fame
Of that high lord: Such be the lays we frame,
Banqueting blithely round a friendly board. Come, take the Dorian lute Down from the peg, if aught Thou'rt touched with gladdest thought Of that swift steed Pherenikos, whose foot
Was first at Pisa, where his speed Outran Alpheos' waves, when he, Ungoaded, bent him to the course
And crowned with victory His lord of Syracuse, who glories in the horse. Bright his fame
In Lydian Pelops' colony, the place Where men of goodly race 76
Were set by him who caught in love's allure Mighty Poseidon, the earth-shaking one; Who looked, and was undone When Klotho from the vessel pure Drew Pelops, bright with ivory-shouldered grace. Marvels be many, ay, with cunning plan The tale adorned may overpass the truth; And thus, ah ruth!
To falsehood turns the speech of man. Charis, that fashioneth
For mortals every pleasant thing, To these such honour rendereth, Making the false appear the true. But days that shall hereafter rise Are of the issue witnesses most wise. Seemly it is for man
To speak immortals fair: Of old a story ran
How Tantalus devised to share
His Pelops' flesh among his guests;
Not so I read the tale: 'twas Love's behests
That moved the Trident-bearer glorious To steal thee, Pelops, and with golden speed
Of steeds to bear thee to the father's house; Where, on the self-same need, In aftertime came ravished Ganymede. Far be it from my mind To call a blessed god devourer of "his kind. From this I will refrain, Since evil-speakers win but scanty gain. If ever mortal wight, Had honour in Olympus' sight, That man was Tantalus, but he Swelled with crude pride, and now must ever
dread The threatening rock that swings above his head.
77
But back the immortals sent his son,
With mortal men again to share Their fleeting lot, and ere he won
The bloom of early manhood fair, His thoughts to wedlock turned,
And to Poseidon rose his prayer, If ere for Cyprus' gifts the god had burned,
To grant the maid of glory rare, Hippodameia, for his bride. " Hard is the task," he cried, " Since many a suitor for her sake has died Beneath her father CEnomaus' spear: But death awaits us all, Why then deny the call To strife, and sit inactive here? But to endure Eld nameless and obscure." Whereat the god, right joyfuly,
To Pelops lent a golden-winged car Whose steeds untiring bore him far To CEnomaus, whom he overcame, Winning the maid and sons of doughty fame. And now beside Alpheos' wave He rests, and there his honoured grave
Is drenched by strangers with blood-offerings; And from afar his vision wings
To catch the glory of Olympian strife, Those courses Pelops names; But he that conquers in the games Leads evermore a tranquil life. The blessing of to-day
Man ever counts supreme; For Hiero must I wreathe my lay;
uiEolian be the mode, and steeds the theme. A host more wise, a host more strong, The glorious mazes of my song Shall never find to celebrate; 7«
But loftier hymns await Thy prowess, noble Hiero, If but the god, thy guardian, show Himself propitious to thy hope, I'll raise for thee a sweeter strain, When, guided by the god, I gain
Kronion's bright far-shining slope. My keenest dart of song is still in store. Mortal renown is manifold, But kings the loftiest portion hold; Thou, therefore, king, look not for more; But be it thine the highest path to tread, And mine with victors to commune, and shed New honours on my art, where'er the race Of Greeks hath found a dwelling-place.
The First Pythian Ode
FOR HIERO OF .ETNA, WINNER OF THE CHARIOT RACE
O golden Lyre, Apollo's treasure,
His, and the Muses', violet-tressed, That rul'st the dancers' festal pleasure,
In quivering preludes to the choir addressed; How do thy tones allay the furious levin,
And quench its darting will, And shed soft spells upon the bird of heaven,
Throned on Jove's sceptre, to distil Darkling, a mist upon his arched crest,
Till, gently heaving to thy throbbing measure, He sinks to rest ?
And Ares also lets the spear lie idle For joy of thee, sith Phoebus' skill
And the deep-bosomed Muses bridle The rage of god-head, at their will.
But whatsoever thing Zeus hateth Flees, nerveless, from the voice Pierian, 79
Whether by land or raging sea it waitethAs he, that erst in den Kilikian,
Bred many names, but now lies helpless bound 'Neath ^Etna's skyward pillar, snowy-crowned: Whence from the depths well purest fonts of fire,
By day-time smoking lurid, but by night Red rolling flames and molten rocks conspire
To whelm the sea with uproar and affright. 'Tis dragon Typhon makes the flood to flow