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F all the great Writers of Antiquity, no one was ever more honoured and admired while living, as few have obtained a larger and fairer portion of fame after death, than Pindar. Paufanias tells us, that the character of Poet was really and truly confecrated in his perfon, by the God of Poets himself *, who was pleased by an express oracle to order the inhabitants of Delphi to fet apart for Pindar one half of the first-fruit offerings brought by the religious to his shrine; and to allow him a place in his temple; where in an iron chair he was used to fit and fing his hymns, in honour of that God. This chair was remaining in the time of † Paufanias (feveral hundred years after) to whom it was shewn as a relick not unworthy the fanctity and magnificence of that holy place. Pan ‡ likewife, another Musical Divinity, is reported to have skipped and jumped for joy, while the Nymphs were dancing in honour of the birth of this Prince of Lyrick Poetry; and to have been afterwards so much delighted with his compofitions, as to have fung his Odes in the hearing even of the Poet himself §. Unhappily for us, and indeed for Pindar, those parts of his works, which procured him these extraordinary testimonies from the Gods (or from Mortals rather, who by the invention

* Pauf. in Bœot.
† Philoftratus in Icon.

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† Pauf. in Phoc.
§ Plut. in Numa.

of

of these fables meant only to express the high opinion they entertained of this great Poet) are all loft: I mean his Hymns to the several Deities of the Heathen World. And even of those writings, to which his less extravagant, but more serious and more lasting glory is owing, only the least, and, according to some people, the worst part is now remaining. These are his Odes infcribed to the Conquerors in the Four facred Games of Greece. By these Odes therefore are we now left to judge of the merit of Pindar, as they are the only living evidences of his character.

Among the moderns * those men of learning of the trueft taste and judgment, who have read and confidered the writings of this Author in their original language, have all agreed to confirm the great character given of him by the Ancients. And to such who are still able to examine Pindar himself, I shall leave him to itand or fall by his own merit; only bespeaking their eandour in my own behalf, if they should think it worth their while to peruse the following translations of some of his Odes: which I here offer chiefly to the English reader, to whom alone I defire to address a few confiderations, in order to prepare him to form a right judgment, and indeed to have any relish of the Compositions of this great Lyrick Poet, who notwithstanding

* See Abbé Fraguier's Character of Pindar, printed in the 3d Vol. of Memoires de l' Academie Royale, &c. Kennet's Life of Pindar, in the Lives of the Greek

ing muft needs appear before him under great difad

vantages.

To begin with removing some prejudices against this • Author, that have arisen from certain writings known by the name of Pindarick Odes; I must insist that very few, which I remember to have read under that title, not excepting even those written by the admired Mr. Cowley, whose wit and fire first brought them into reputation, have the least resemblance to the manner of the Author, whom they pretend to imitate, and from whom they derive their Name; or, if any, it is such a resemblance only as is expressed by the Italian word caricatura, a monstrous and distorted likeness. This observation has been already made by Mr. Congreve in his Preface * to two admirable Odes, written profefsedly in imitation of Pindar; and I may add, so much in his true manner and spirit, that he ought by all means to be excepted out of the number of those who have brought this author into difcredit by pretending to refemble him.

Neither has Mr. Cowley, though he drew from the life, given a much truer picture of Pindar in the Translations he made of two of his Odes. I say not this to detract from Mr. Cowley, whose genius, perhaps, was not inferior to that of Pindar himself, or either of those other two great Poets, Horace and Virgil, whose names have been bestowed upon him, but chiefly to apologize for my having ventured to tranflate the fame Odes; and to prepare the Reader for

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* Preferved in the present collestion.

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the wide difference he will find between many parts of bis Translations and mine.

Mr. Cowley and his Imitators (for all the Pindarick Writers fince his time have only mimicked him, while they fancied they were imitating Pindar) have fallen themselves, and by their examples have led the world, into two mistakes with regard to the character of Pindar: both which are pointed out by Mr. Congreve in the Preface above-mentioned, and in the following words:

"The character of these late Pindaricks is a bundle " of rambling incoherent thoughts, expressed in a like " parcel of irregular stanzas, which also confift of "such another complication of disproportioned, un" certain, and perplexed verses and rhymes. And " I appeal to any Reader, if this is not the condition " in which these titular Odes appeared.

"On the contrary (adds he) there is nothing more

regular than the Odes of Pindar, both as to the "exact observation of the measures and numbers of "his stanzas and verses, and the perpetual coherence " of his thoughts: for though his digreffions are fre

quent, and his transitions sudden, yet is there ever " some fecret connexion, which, though not always " appearing to the eye, never fails to communicate it" felf to the understanding of the reader."

Upon these two points, namely, the regularity of meafure in Pindar's Odes, and the connexion of his thoughts, I shall beg leave to make a few obser

These Odes were all composed to be sung by a Chorus, either at the entertainments given by the Conquerors (to whom they were inscribed) or their friends, on account of their victories, or at the folemn facrifices made to the Gods upon those occasions. They confift generally of three stanzas, of which the following account was communicated to me by a learned and ingenious Friend.

"Befides what is faid of the Greek Ode in the " Scholiast upon Pindar, I find (says he) the follow"ing paffage in the Scholia on Hephæstion; it is the very last paragraph of those Scholia."

The passage cited by him is in Greek, instead of which I shall insert the Translation of it in Englism.

You must know that the Ancients (in their Odes) framed two larger stanzas, and one less; the first of the larger stanzas they called Strophé, finging it on their festivals at the altars of the Gods, and dancing at the Same time. The second they called Antiftrophé, in which they inverted the dance. The lesser stanza was named the Epode, which they sung ftanding ftill. The Strophe, as they say, denoted the motion of the higher Sphere, the Antiftrophé that of the Planets, the Epode the fixed station and repose of the Earth.

" From this passage it appears evident that these "Odes were accompanied with dancing; and that " they danced one way while the Strophe was finging, " and then danced back again while the Antiftrophé "was fung: Which shews why those two Parts con" fisted of the fame length and meafure; then, when