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ὕβριν ὀρθίαν: “Rampant lewdness” (Paley). “Towering wantonness.” ὕβρις is “braying,” and its accompaniments (compare Hdt. 4, 129: “ὑβρίζοντες ὦν οἱ ὄνοι ἐτάρασσον τὴν ἵππον τῶν Σκυθέων” ), and ὄρθιος in P. is regularly used of sound (O. 9.117; N. 10.76), as Mezger notes, but ὁρῶν cannot be explained away. On the sacrifice of the ass to Apollo, the musical beast to the musical god, see A. B. Cook, Journ. Hell. Stud. XIV., pt. 1, where this passage is illustrated by a fresco found at Mycenae representing two rampant asses with lolling tongues and leering eyes.

κνωδάλων: Properly used of “gnawing” (ravening) monsters; hence, as here, of untamed beasts of draught, Aisch. P. V. 407: ἔζευξα πρῶτος ἐν ζυγοῖσι κνώδαλα.


Pindar: The Olympian and Pythian Odes. Basil L. Gildersleeve. Anne Mahoney. edited for Perseus. New York. Harper and Brothers. 1885.

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