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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
NEMEAN ODES: 10. CASTOR AND POLYDEUCES, by PINDAR Poet's Biography First Line: They with alternate change for one day keep Last Line: Of castor in his bronzen guise. | |||
THEY with alternate change for one day keep By their dear father Zeus; the next they lie Far-sunk beneath Therapne's valleys deep In earth, fulfilling thus one destiny For each alike; for Polydeuces chose To share the grave's repose And not himself alone in Heaven to dwell In full eternity of life divine, Since in the strife his brother Castor fell, When Idas haply for his raided kine Was angered sore, and through his body sheer Drove the bronze-pointed spear. For gazing from Taygetus' far height, Lynceus espied them where they lay reclined Within an hollow oak, for keener sight Had he than all the rest of humankind; And thither straight on lightning feet he hied With Idas at his side, And they together planned the monstrous deed. Yet dreadful retribution fell anon On both Aphareus' sons, as Zeus decreed, When swiftly on their track came Leda's son, And face to face they stood, anigh the ground Of their sire's burial-mound. From thence a carven stone, that bore The glory of the dead, they tore, And flung it at the breast Of Polydeuces; but it failed To crush him, and he still assailed, And forward hotly pressed, And through the side of Lynceus sped His flying javelin's brazen head, While Zeus on Idas threw His bolt of fire; and there the two Perished forlorn, for hard it is to fight With those that be of stronger might. Then quickly to his brother's manly frame Back Polydeuces went. Not yet had Death Quite mastered him, but from his throat there came The shuddering gasps of his departing breath. And while he moaned and the hot teardrops shed, He cried aloud and said: 'O Father, Son of Cronus, what can fall To save me from my grief? O let me die, Let me too die with him, great Lord of All! The glory of life departeth utterly When dear ones leave us, and of all mankind In sorrow we shall find Few only we may trust to share our woe.' He spake; then Zeus himself before him stood And uttered thus his voice: 'Full well I know Thou art my son, whereas thy brother's blood Flowed through thy mother from her lord on earth After thy Heavenly birth. But now, behold, this choice I offer thee. If thou thyself would'st never more be vowed To death and hateful age, but dwell with me, And with Athene, and with Ares proud, The dark spear's lord, upon our Mount Divine, That portion shall be thine. But if for thy dear brother slain Thou pleadest, and thyself art fain To share with him thy doom, Then may'st thou draw the living breath For half thy time where after death He lies in nether gloom, And half thy time abide on high In golden mansions of the sky.' Then, hearing the god's voice, The other stayed not in his choice; And straightway Zeus unsealed the lips and eyes Of Castor in his bronzen guise. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ISHTMIAN ODES: 5. THE SONS OF AEACUS by PINDAR ISTHMIAN ODES: 7. STREPSIADES OF THEBES by PINDAR ISTHMIAN ODES: 8. THR MARRIAGE OF THETIS by PINDAR NEMEAN ODES: 1. THE INFANT HERACLES by PINDAR |
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