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you meet the strength of your enemies roughly, sinking Arrogance in the flood. Porphyrion did not know your power, when he provoked you beyond all measure. Gain is most welcome, when one takes it from the home of a willing giver.
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Violence trips up even a man of great pride, in time. Cilician Typhon with his hundred heads did not escape you, nor indeed did the king of the Giants. Porphyrion, mentioned above. One was subdued by the thunderbolt, the other by the bow of Apollo, who with a gracious mind welcomed the son of Xenarces on his return from Cirrha , crowned with
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a garland of laurel from Parnassus and with Dorian victory-song.
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His island with her just city has not fallen far from the Graces, having attained the famous excellence of the Aeacidae; she has had perfect
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glory from the beginning. She is praised in song for having fostered heroes who were supreme in many victory-bearing contests and in swift battles;
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and she is distinguished in these things even for her men. But I do not have the time to set up
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their whole long story to the lyre and the gentle voice, for fear that satiety would come and distress us. But my debt to you, child, which comes running at my feet, your latest fine achievement, let it fly on the wings of my artfulness.
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For in wrestling you follow in the footsteps of your mother’s brothers, and you do not disgrace Theognetus at Olympia, nor the bold-limbed victory of Cleitomachus at the Isthmus. And by exalting the clan of the Midylids, you fulfill the prophecy which once Amphiaraus the son of Oicles spoke in riddling words, when he saw, in seven-gated
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Thebes, those sons standing by their spears,
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when they came from Argos on that second march, the Epigoni. Thus he spoke, while they were fighting: “By nature the genuine spirit of the fathers
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is conspicuous in the sons. I clearly see Alcmaeon, wielding a dappled serpent on his blazing shield, the first at the gates of Cadmus.
