e unto him strangers, from Argos and from Thebes, and
from Arcadia others, and from Pisa. But the son of Aktor and Aigina,
Menoitios, he honoured above all settlers, him whose son[5] went with
the Atreidai to the plain of Teuthras and stood alone beside Achilles,
when Telephos had turned the valiant Danaoi to flight, and drove them
into the sterns of their sea-ships; so proved he to them that had
understanding that Patroklos' soul was strong. And thenceforward the
son of Thetis persuaded him that he should never in murderous battle
take his post far from his friend's conquering spear.

Fit speech may I find for my journey in the Muses' car; and let me
therewith have daring and powers of ample scope. To back the prowess
of a friend I came, when Lampromachos won his Isthmian crown, when on
the same day both he and his brother overcame. And afterward at the
gates[6] of Corinth two triumphs again befell Epharmostos, and more in
the valleys of Nemea. At Argos he triumphed over men, as over boys
at Athens. And I might tell how at Marathon he stole from among the
beardless and confronted the full-grown for the prize of silver
vessels, how without a fall he threw his men with swift and cunning
shock, and how loud the shouting pealed when round the ring he ran,
in the beauty of his youth and his fair form and fresh from fairest
deeds.

Also before the Parrhasian host was he glorified, at the assembly of
Lykaian Zeus, and again when at Pellene he bare away a warm antidote
of cold winds[7]. And the tomb of Iolaos, and Eleusis by the sea, are
just witnesses to his honours.

The natural is ever best: yet many men by learning of prowess essay to
achieve fame. The thing done without God is better kept in silence.
For some ways lead further than do others, but one practice will not
train us all alike. Skill of all kinds is hard to attain unto: but
when thou bringest forth this prize, proclaim aloud with a good
courage that by fate divine this man at least was born deft-handed,
nimble-limbed, with the light of valour in his eyes, and that now
being victorious he hath crowned at the feast Oilean Alas' altar.

[Footnote 1: This is the common interpretation, implying that Herakles
in contending with the gods here mentioned must have been helped by
other gods. But perhaps it might also be translated 'therefore how
could the hands, &c.,' meaning that since valour, as has just been
said, comes from a divine source, it could not be used