Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ISTHMIAN ODES: 8. THR MARRIAGE OF THETIS, by PINDAR


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ISTHMIAN ODES: 8. THR MARRIAGE OF THETIS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Nor were the courts divine
Last Line: To crown a brave man dead with strains of heavenly fire.
Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


Nor were the courts divine
Unmindful of their worth, when highest Zeus
With glorious bright Poseidon strove,
Since both were captured by the love
Of beauteous Thetis; yet did they refuse,
In their immortal wisdom, to fulfil
Her marriage with a god, but bowed to Fate's own will,

When Themis in their midst with counsel fair
Uttered these words of doom: 'The Fates require
This goddess of the sea to bear
A prince more potent than his sire
And if her love to Zeus she yield
Or to his brethren, then her son will wield
A weapon to outbrave the thunder's might
Or the dread Trident. Put your purpose by,
And rather let her wed a mortal wight,
And see her son in mortal battle die,
A son strong-armed as Ares, and with feet
That match the fiery lightning swift.
I pray you, grant the Heavenly gift
To Peleus, son of AEacus. 'Tis meet
This marriage should be his, whom all maintain
The most God-fearing man reared on Iolchos' plain.

'These tidings speed to Chiron's holy cave
Forthwith, and let not Nereus child again
Lay in our palms this issue grave,
These leaves of strife, but, ere the wane
Of this full moon, for him alone
At evening's hour unloose her maiden zone.'
These words to Cronus' Sons the goddess said,
And they with brows immortal bowed assent;
Nor did the fruit of her wise utterance fade,
For Zeus with such a marriage waxed content,
Nor have the lips of poets sung in vain
To men unversed, in mellow rhyme,
The glory of Achilles' prime,
Who once imbrued the vine-clad Mysian plain
With the black blood of Telephus, and gave
The Atreidae safe return across the late-bridged wave.

And he delivered Helen, when his spear
Cut Troy's strong sinews that had stayed his toil
Of deadly carnage many a year
On Ilion's plain, till on the soil
He laid the might of Memnon low,
Stout Hector, and the foremost of the foe.
To them that champion of the AEacid name
Revealed Persephone's dim dwelling-place,
And lifted to the starry heights of fame
AEgina's isle and his own glorious race.
Nor did sweet songs forsake him after death,
For Helicon's own maiden choir
Stood by his tomb and funeral pyre,
Hymning his dirge with many a tuneful breath;
For thus it was the Immortal Gods' desire
To crown a brave man dead with strains of Heavenly fire.





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