But Aias hath the Salamis of his father:  and in the Euxine Sea Achilles hath a shining isle, and at Phthia hath Thetis power, and Neoptolemos in wide Epeiros, where cattle-pasturing headlands, from Dodona onwards, slope forward to the Ionian Sea.  And beside the foot of Pelion did Peleus set his face against Iolkos, and deliver it over to be a servant to the Haimones, after that he had proved the guileful counsels of Hippolyte, Akastos’ wife.

For by (stealing) his sword of cunning workmanship the son[4] of Pelias prepared death for him in an ambush; but Cheiron delivered him out of his hand; and thus he fulfilled the destiny ordained him of Zeus, and having escaped the violence of the fire and the dauntless lion’s claws exceeding keen, and the bitings of teeth most terrible[5], he espoused one of the Nereids high-enthroned, and beheld the circle of fair seats whereon were sitting the kings of heaven and of the sea, as they revealed unto him their gifts, and the kingdom that should be unto him and unto his seed.

Nightward[6] beyond Gadeira none may pass.  Turn back again to the mainland of Europe the tackle of our ship; for it were impossible for me to go through unto the end all the tale of the sons of Aiakos.

For the Theandrid clan came I a ready herald of games that make men’s limbs wax strong, to Olympia and to Isthmos, and to Nemea according to my promise, where having put themselves to the proof they are returning homeward, not without wreaths whose fruitage is renown; and there report hath told us, O Timasarchos, that thy clan’s name is preeminent in songs of victory.

Or if further for thy mother’s brother Kallikles thou biddest me set up a pillar whiter than Parian stone, lo as the refining of gold showeth forth all his splendours, so doth a song that singeth a man’s rare deeds make him as the peer of kings.  Let Kallikles in his dwelling beside Acheron find in my tongue a minstrel of his praise, for that at the games[7] of the deep-voiced wielder of the trident his brows were green with parsley of Corinth; of him, boy, did Euphaenes, thy aged grandsire, rejoice erewhile to sing.

Each hath his own age-fellow; and what each hath seen for himself that may he hope to set forth best of all.  How for Melesias’[8] praise must such an one grapple in the strife, bending the words beneath his grasp, yielding not his ground as he wrestleth in speech, of gentle temper toward the good, but to the froward a stern adversary.

[Footnote 1:  Aigina.  See Ol viii. 21; Pyth. viii. 22.]

[Footnote 2:  Kleonai was very near Nemea, and the Kleonaians were for a long time managers of the Nemean games.]

[Footnote 3:  Seemingly the same personage as Aigina.]

[Footnote 4:  Akastos.]

[Footnote 5:  Thetis, resisting her wooer Peleus, changed herself into fire and wild beasts.  See Dict.  Myth.]

[Footnote 6:  Westward.]

[Footnote 7:  The Isthmian games.]