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thoughts: that tomorrow will be the last day you see
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the sun's light, and that you will complete another fifty years of life deep in wealth. Cheer your spirit with pious deeds, for this is the highest of profits.
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To the thoughtful, what I sing is intelligible. The deep air is undefiled. The water of the sea does not decay. Gold is a delight. It is not lawful for a man to bypass gray
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old age, and recover flourishing youth.
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And yet the gleam of a mortal's excellence does not diminish along with the body—no, the Muse nurtures it. Hieron, you
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have displayed to mortals the most beautiful flowers of prosperity.
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Silence is no ornament for a successful man. With remembrance of fine deeds a man will also sing the gracious recompense made by the honey-voiced Cean nightingale.
Ode 4 For Hieron of Syracuse Chariot Race at Delphi 470 B. C.
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Golden-haired Apollo still loves the state of Syracuse and honors Hieron, the city's lawful ruler. For his praises are sung as a Pythian victor for a third time beside the navel of the high-ridged land,
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through the excellence of his swift-footed horses. Ourania's sweet-voiced cockerel, ruler of the lyre but with willing mind
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showered with hymns.
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And yet a fourth time we would be honoring the son of Deinomenes if some held the scales of Justice
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he can be crowned with garlands, as the only man on earth who has accomplished this in the vale of Cirrha by the sea; and he has two Olympian victories to sing of as well. What is better than to be loved by the gods
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and to be granted a share of every kind of noble deed?
Ode 5 For Hieron of Syracuse Single-horse victory at Olympia 476 B. C.
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Fortunate in your fate, commander of the Syracusans, riders of whirling horses: you,
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if any man on earth today, will rightly understand this honor, sweet gift of the violet-garlanded Muses. Now, calm your righteous mind; rest it from cares, and consider: a hymn, woven with the help of the deep-waisted Graces,
