The victory celebrated here is the same as that of the preceding ode.
The verse about which the poem revolves is v. 15: αἰεὶ δ᾽ ἀμφ᾽ ἀρεταῖσι πόνος δαπάνα τε μάρναται πρὸς ἔργον | κινδύνῳ κεκαλυμμένον. The preceding poem dwells on the importance of the final trial (4, 16); this gives the conditions of success, πόνος δαπάνα τε. The wain must be untiring (v. 3), the sacrifices great and various (v. 6). To gain an Olympian victory, to found a new city, costs toil and money. The flower of victory is sweet (ἄωτος γλυκύς), the abode of Pelops lovely (εὐηρατοι σταθμοί), now that the work is over, the price paid. So the daughter of Okeanos, Kamarina, who is to greet the victor with laughing heart (v. 2), was builded with much toil, much cost. The stately canals, the grove of houses — these, like ἀπήνη, like βουθυσίαι, were not made for naught. May blessings rest on city and on Olympian victor! May the one have the adornment of the noble deeds of her sons, the other a happy old age, with his sons clustering about him! πόνος δαπάνα τε have brought their reward. Wealth sufficient remains. Add fame. What more? Let him not seek to become a god.
There is no myth. The founding of Kamarina is fairy-tale, is magic achievement, enough.
This poem, short as it is, has given rise to much discussion. The Breslau Scholiast (A) tells us that it was not in the ἐδάφια (original texts), but it was considered Pindar's from the time of Didymos on. In O. 2 and 3 we have two poems on one and the same victory, but the treatment is very different, as we have seen. P. 4 and 5 celebrate the same success, but different sides are turned out. Here, too, it might be said that O. 4 dwells on the achievement, O. 5 on the conditions; and O. 5 shows a more intimate acquaintance with local circumstances than O. 4 does. But this makes it only the harder to understand the resemblance in diction. With ὑψηλᾶν ἀρετᾶν (5, 1) compare ὑψηλοτάτων ἀέθλων (4, 3); with ἄωτον γλυκύν (5, 1), ἀγγελίαν γλυκεῖαν (4, 4); with ἀκαμαντόποδος ἀπήνας (5, 3), βροντᾶς ἀκαμαντόποδος (4, 1). δέκευ occurs 4, 8, and 5, 3; κῦδος ἀνέθηκε is found 5, 7; κῦδος ὄρσαι, 4, 11; ἵκων, 5, 9; ἵκει, 4, 10; and if the more common interpretation of 4, 4 be accepted, ἔσαναν αὐτίκ᾽ ἀγγελίαν ποτὶ γλυκεῖαν ἐσλοί, it is echoed by 5, 16: ἠὺ δ᾽ ἔχοντες σοφοὶ καὶ πολίταις ἔδοξαν ἔμμεν: if not, 5, 16 is a sarcastic comment. γῆρας (5, 22) is a reflex of πολιαί (4, 26). It is also well to remember the very narrow limits within which these resemblances, some of them in themselves trifling, are crowded, and Pindar's disinclination to repeat himself. In all P. δέκευ occurs but four times, ἀκαμαντόπους three times, forms of ἵκω seven. The chances of an accidental coincidence are remote. The poet must have had his own ode in mind, or another — perhaps Pindar's local representative, another Aineas (O. 6.88) — must have imitated his manner. Add the point adduced above, the evidence of a more intimate acquaintance with local circumstances.
Much of the other detail is hyper-Pindaric. καρδίᾳ γελανεῖ, v. 2, seems to be modelled, and not very happily modelled, on P. 4.181, θυμῷ γελανεῖ, and ἀκαμαντόποδος ἀπήνας, v. 3, on O. 3.3, ἀκαμαντοπόδων ἵππων. ὑψηλᾶν ἀρετᾶν, v. 1, is matched by I. 4 (5), 45, ὑψηλαῖς ἀρεταῖς, πόλιν λαοτρόφον, v. 4, by O. 6.60, λαοτρόφον τιμάν. κῦδος ἁβρόν, v. 7, is found I. 1, 50; σεμνὸν ἄντρον, v. 18, is found P. 9.32. On the other hand, ἄωτος is ὀρθόπολις, O. 2.8; ἐπίνικος, O. 8.75; ἱερός, P. 4.131; κάλλιστος, N. 2.9; ἄλπνιστος, I. 4 (5), 12; ἄκρος, I. 6 (7), 18, never γλυκύς except here. Mezger has called attention to the resemblance between this ode and the beginning and the end of the fifth Isthmian; and we can hardly resist the impression that we have before us a clever copy of Pindar's manner.
But if it is a copy of Pindar, the copy is faithful to Pindaric symmetry. Of the three triads, the first has for its main theme the victory of Olympia, the second the founding of Kamarina, the third contains a prayer for well-earned enjoyment of the glory gained abroad as well as at home. The three triads have been compared to the three κρατῆρες of the symposium, at which the ode was sung.
The metres, logaoedic acc. to J. H. H. Schmidt, are often called dactylo-ithyphallic, not elsewhere found in P. Moriz Schmidt insists on the strong resemblance between the movement of O. 4 and of O. 5, in opposition to Böckh, who says: “A ceteris Pindari carminibus mirum quantum distans.” Von Leutsch emphasizes the brief compass of the strophes and epodes, the simplicity of the verse, the peculiarity of the sequence, all indicating the Lesbian style of composition. According to him the poem is too light, and has too little art, for Pindar.
If we had a wider range of Pindaric poems, we might obelize with more certainty. To me the poem is exceedingly suspicious.
Strophe 1
ἄωτον: “The prime.” See O. 2.8.
Ὠκεανοῦ θύγατερ: The nymph of the lake, Kamarina, from which the city received its name.
γελανεῖ: P. 4.181: θυμῷ γελανεῖ.
Antistrophe 1
αὔξων: P. 8.38: αὔξων πάτραν.λαοτρόφον: With reference to the rapid growth of the restored Kamarina.
βωμοὺς ἓξ διδύμους: According to Herodoros, Herakles built six altars to twelve deities, and the pairs of σύμβωμοι are these: 1. Zeus and Poseidon; 2. Hera and Athena; 3. Hermes and Apollo; 4. Charites and Dionysos; 5. Artemis and Alpheios; 6. Kronos and Rhea.
ἐγέραιρεν: More natural than ἐγέραρεν, on account of αὔξων: “Strove to honor.”
ὑπὸ βουθυσίαις: Compare I. 5 (6), 44: εὐχαῖς ὑπὸ θεσπεσίαις | λίσσομαι. β. denotes the height of liberality, and sorts with αὔξων. Do not extend ὑπό to ἁμίλλαις.
πεμπταμέροις: This is the reading of the best MSS. Hermann thinks that the contests were held on the fifth day. Fennell considers πεμπταμέροις a formation analogous to ἑβδομήκοντα, ὀγδοήκοντα, and so equivalent to πεμπαμέροις, “lasting five days,” which many editors have.
Epode 1
ἵπποις ἡμιόνοις τε μοναμπυκίᾳ τε: The various games in which he strove to honor (ἐγέραιρε) the city. He succeeded only in the mule-race (ἀπήνη). The controversy about this passage is endless.μοναμπυκίᾳ: “And with the riding of single horse.” The μονάμπυξ was a κέλης. “Sole-frontleted” for “single,” like οἰόζωνος ἀνήρ. See commentators on So. O. C. 718: “τῶν ἑκατομπόδων Νηρῄδων ἀκόλουθος” .
νικάσαις ἀνέθηκε: The success is in the aor., the effort (v. 5) in the imperf.
ἐκάρυξε: Causative.
νέοικον: See Introduction to O. 4.
Strophe 2
Οἰνομάου καὶ Πέλοπος: See O. 1.24 foll. P. does not couple closely the luckless king and his fortunate successor.
σταθμω_ν: “Abode.’ So O. 10(11), 101; P. 4.76; I. 6(7), 45.
Παλλάς: Brought from Lindos in Rhodes to Gela, from Gela to Kamarina.
ἀείδει μὲν ... ποταμόν τε: See O. 4.13.
Ὤανιν: K. lay on a hill, eighty feet high, between the mouth of the Oanis (Frascolaro) and the mouth of the Hipparis (Camarana), at the eastern end of the great bay, the innermost point of which is occupied by Gela (Holm). Ὤανις bears a suspicious resemblance to Ὠάννης, an Oriental fish-god, germane to Dagon. τε Ὤανιν points to ϝώανις. See Curtius, Gr. Et.^{4}, p. 561.
ἐγχωρίαν: Not otiose. Kamarina gets its name from the lake of the land.
Antistrophe 2
σεμνοὺς ὀχετούς: “Stately canals” (Am. Journ. of Phil. VII. p. 407). Others “sacred” because of the river.στρατόν: Doric use of the word “host” for “folk.”
κολλᾷ: The commentators are divided as to the subject; part take Ἵππαρις, part Ψαῦμις. Assuming, as we may, that Psaumis had done much to improve the navigation of the river, the praise is more delicate if we make the river the agent of all this good, and put, instead of the benefactor, the benefaction. “The river doth build with speed a lofty forest of stedfast dwellings” (Myers). The canal enables the builders to float down wood rapidly for the new houses. Fennell transl. κολλᾷ, “makes into rafts.”
ὑψίγυιον ἄλσος: As it were, “a forest of tall houses.”
ὑπ᾽ ἀμαχανίας: Livelier than the other reading, ἀπ᾽. See O. 6.43, and N. 1.35: σπλάγχνων ὕπο ματέρος θαητὰν ἐς αἴγλαν μολών.
Epode 2
ἀμφ᾽ ἀρεταῖσι: N. 5.47: ἐσλοῖσι μάρναται πέρι πᾶσα πόλις.πόνος δαπάνα τε: I. 1, 42: ἀμφότερον δαπάναις τε καὶ πόνοις.
μάρναται: The singular number of a welded pair.
πρὸς ἔργον: “With victory in view, veiled though it be with risk.” The chariot-race was a risk to person as well as to property. See P. 5.49.
ἠὺ δ᾽ ἔχοντες: The successful are the wise — an old sneer. So Eurip.: τὸν εὐτυχοῦντα καὶ φρονεῖν νομίζομεν.
καὶ πολίταις: Who are the last to recognize merit in a fellow-citizen. P. 11.28: κακολόγοι δὲ πολῖται.
Strophe 3
Σωτήρ: Kamarina was a redeemed city. The voc. σῶτερ is post-Homeric.
ϝιδαῖον: According to Demetrios of Skepsis this Idaian cave was at Olympia. If so, it was doubtless named after the great Ida in Crete. There were many Cretans among the original founders of Kamarina.
Λυδίοις ἀπύων ἐν αὐλοῖς: The Lydian flute melody was used in supplications. On ἐν, see O. 7.12: παμφώνοισι ... ἐν ἔντεσιν αὐλῶν.
Antistrophe 3
εὐανορίαισι: “With hosts of noble men.”
Ὀλυμπιόνικε: The victor is apostrophized, as often, at the close of the poem.
Ποσειδανίαισιν ἵπποις: Cf. O. 1.77; 8, 49.
εὔθυμον: P.'s usage would lead us to combine εὔθυμον with τελευτάν, but this is an exceptional poem, and we may follow the Schol., who combines it with γῆρας. See O. 1.37; P. 8.88.
Epode 3
παρισταμένων: Cf. Od. 12. 43: τῷ δ᾽ οὔ τι γυνὴ καὶ νήπια τέκνα | οἴκαδε νοστήσαντι παρίσταται οὐδὲγάνυνται. — ὑγίεντα = ὑγιᾶ. Proleptic.
ἐξαρκέων: Cf. N. 1.31: οὐκ ἔραμαι πολὺν ἐν μεγάρῳ πλοῦτον κατακρύψαις ἔχειν ἀλλ᾽ ἐόντων εὖ τε παθεῖν καὶ ἀκοῦσαι φίλοις ἐξαρκέων. That prosperity is sound which streams in and out, helping others and gaining good report. Whoso hath this, and Psaumis hath it, let him not seek to become a god.
μὴ ματεύσῃ θεὸς γενέσθαι: So I. 4 (5), 14: μὴ μάτευε Ζεὺς γενέσθαι. An abrupt end, like O. 3.
