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Pythian 10 For Hippocleas of Thessaly Boys« Double Foot Race 498 B. C. E.
Lacedaemon is prosperous; Thessaly is divinely blessed. Both are ruled by the race of a single ancestor, Heracles, the best in battle. Why do I make this untimely boast? Because Pytho summons me, and Pelinna,
and the sons of Aleuas; they want me to present to Hippocleas the glorious voices of men in celebration.
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For he is trying his hand at contests, and the gorge of Parnassus proclaimed him to the people that live around as the greatest of the boys in the double-course footrace.
Apollo, the end and the beginning both grow sweet when a god urges on a man«s work. No doubt he accomplished this with the help of your counsels. Kinship has stepped into the footprints of the father,
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who was twice an Olympic victor in the war-enduring armor of Ares;
and the contest in the deep meadow that stretches beneath the rock of Cirrha made Phricias victorious in the race. May a good fate follow them in their future days as well, so that their noble wealth will blossom;
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having received no small share of the delights of Greece, may they encounter no envious reversals at the hands of the gods. A god«s heart should be free from pain; but a man is considered fortunate, and wise poets sing his praises, if he wins victory with his hands or the excellence of his feet, and takes the greatest prizes through his courage and strength,
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and lives to see his young son duly winning Pythian garlands. He can never set foot in the bronze heavens; but whatever splendor we mortals can attain, he reaches the limit of that voyage. Neither by ship nor on foot could you find
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the marvellous road to the meeting-place of the Hyperboreans—
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