’Neath our song’s forecourt-rooftree pillars golden + 

Will we uprear; a palace shall it seem. + 

’Tis meet the forefront shine out far-beholden + 

Of work that hath such splendour-flashing theme. + 

The victor at Olympia, who withal + 

Is treasurer of Zeus’s oracle-altar, + 

Who is co-founder of the glorious wall + 

Of Syracuse⁠—shall his song-praises falter? + 

Share not the joy his fellow-burghers all? + 

Such sandal⁠—let the son of Sostratus know it⁠— + 

Gleams on his foot. Deeds without peril brought + 

To pass on land or sea win from no poet + 

Honour; but of each high achievement wrought + 

With hard toil, many the recorders are. + 

Thy deeds, Agesias, that same praise hath followed + 

Which justly Adrastus spake and published far + 

Of Amphiaraus, when the earth had swallowed + 

Oïkleus’ son and his bright battle-car. + 

When on the seven great pyres the dead lay burning, + 

Before Thebes’ gates the son of Talaos cried: + 

“For one that is not here mine heart is yearning, + 

Eye of mine host, good seer and warrior tried!” + 

And this same praise in song processional + 

To Syracuse’ son is rendered with all fitness. + 

I, who hate strife and disputation’s gall, + 

With a great oath to him I bear my witness: + 

The sweet-voiced Muses sanction it withal. + 

Phintis, thy mighty mule-team harness straightway, + 

That we may speed along a clear highway + 

The car, that I may reach the ancestral gateway + 

Whence came his race. None know so well as they + 

To find the track, who at Olympia won + 

Crowns: wherefore unto them it well beseemeth + 

That wide the doors of song should now be thrown. + 

For Pitane-ward, to where Eurotas gleameth + 

Must I in season due this day begone. + 

Now Pitane bare, by Lord Poseidon fathered, + 

Evadne of the violet hair, men say, + 

But hid her shame ’neath vesture-folds upgathered, + 

Till she might send her maidens thence away, + 

Bidding them bear her babe to Eilatus’ son + 

Who at Phaisane ruled in hill-girt places + 

Arcadian, and his lot by Alpheus won. + 

There was Evadne nurtured: in the embraces + 

Of Phoebus her love’s story was begun. + 

She could not for her full time hide the blossom + 

Of a God’s love from Aipytus: keen dread + 

And wrath no words might utter racked his bosom. + 

For light in darkness Pytho-ward he sped. + 

She laid the while her girdle crimson-twined + 

’Neath boughs dark-shadowing, and her silver ewer. + 

And there she bore a boy of godlike mind; + 

For golden-haired Apollo drew unto her + 

The Fates, and Eileithyia travail-kind. + 

So from her womb in painless birth outleaping + 

Iamus came. Grief-stricken on the ground + 

She left him. Came two bright-eyed serpents creeping + 

By the Gods’ counsel; softly coiling round + 

They fed him with the sweet dews of the bee. + 

But when the king from rocky Pytho riding + 

Came, he asked all his household eagerly: + 

“Where is the babe Evadne bare in hiding? + 

For fathered of Apollo’s self is he; + 

“A prophet shall he be all men excelling + 

To this folk: nevermore shall fail his race,” + 

But they, “Of him have we heard no man telling, + 

Nor seen him”⁠—yet the babe was born five days! + 

But in a pathless reed-brake, oversprayed + 

With gold and purple splendours was he lying, + 

Which pansy-petals on his soft flesh rayed. + 

“So shall he,” spake his mother prophesying, + 

“Bear this name that through all time shall not fade.” + 

Now when to fruitage of youth golden-pinioned + 

He won, to Alpheus’ mid-stream he strode + 

’Neath the night-stars, and on the wide-dominioned, + 

His grandsire, called, and Delos’ Archer-god, + 

Praying, “Let honour nation-fostering rest + 

Upon mine head!” And answer made his father + 

With voice infallible to his request: + 

“Arise, and to that place where all men gather + 

Follow, my son, obeying my behest.” + 

So reached they Kronion’s steep rock sunward-soaring. + 

There prophecy’s twin treasure gave his sire⁠— + 

To hear his voice unswerving truth outpouring + 

First: then, when Heracles, that soul of fire, + 

Should come, when he, the Alkaïds’ seed renowned, + 

Should found his God-sire’s Feast thronged by all nations, + 

Of all world-games with chiefest honour crowned, + 

Then high on Zeus’s altar of oblations + 

A second oracle he bade him found. + 

Thereafter through all Hellas famed in story + 

Were Iamus’ sons, and prospered. High emprise + 

They honour; so they tread the path of glory. + 

The achievement proves the man: but envious eyes + 

Of slanderers follow still him on whose head + 

The Grace rains beauty, who before all other + 

His chariot round the twelvefold course hath sped. + 

Agesias, if the forbears of thy mother, + 

Who ’neath Kyllene had their old homestead, + 

With prayer and sacrifice ceased not adoring + 

Heaven’s herald Hermes, him in whom begun + 

Be Games and ended, who is honour pouring + 

On Arcady’s hero-land⁠—He, Sostratus’ son, + 

With his deep-thundering Sire, thy bliss fulfils. + 

My tongue is poesy’s whetstone shrilly-sounding! + 

That fancy all my willing spirit thrills + 

With breathings beauty-rippling. Flower-abounding + 

Metope in Stymphalus ringed of hills, + 

My ancestress, bare Thebe chariot-glorious. + 

I’ll sip her dear springs, and for warriors twine + 

A song-wreath rainbow-hued. Thy choir victorious, + 

O Aeneas, teach to chant the Maid divine + 

Hera, and know that none in after days + 

With scoffed “Boeotian swine!” our ear abuses! + 

A messenger thou art whose faith all praise, + 

O cryptic herald-staff of bright-haired Muses, + 

Sweet mixing-bowl of royal-ringing lays! + 

Bid Syracuse and Ortygia’s praise be chanted, + 

By Hiero with righteous sceptre swayed + 

Who honours Her whose feet on furrows planted + 

Make red the com, the great Feast of the Maid + 

Of the White Steeds, and Zeus throned on the height + 

Of Etna honours. Lyre and song sweet-pealing + 

Know Hiero well. His fortune may the flight + 

Of time not wreck! With welcome love-revealing, + 

King, greet this song that chants Agesias’ might, + 

Which from Stymphalus’ mother-town comes winging, + 

From home to home⁠—Sicilia, Arcady! + 

’Tis good the ship on anchors twain be swinging + 

In night of storm. May Heaven propitiously + 

Grant either folk high glory without stain. + 

In thy protection, Sea-lord King, enfolden + 

Straight onward may he sail: guard him from bane, + 

Spouse of the Sea-queen of the distaff golden, + 

And bless the gladsome flower of this my strain. + 