Friday, December 12, 2025
Inglorious Old Age
Pindar, Olympian Odes 1.81-84 (tr. William H. Race):
Ge. = Douglas E. Gerber, Pindar's Olympian One: A Commentary (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982).
‹Older
Great risk does not take hold of a cowardly man. But since men must die, why would anyone sit in darkness and coddle a nameless old age to no use, deprived of all noble deeds?W.J. Verdenius ad loc.:
ὁ μέγας δὲ κίν-
δυνος ἄναλκιν οὐ φῶτα λαμβάνει·
θανεῖν δ᾽ οἷσιν ἀνάγκα, τί κέ τις ἀνώνυμον
γῆρας ἐν σκότῳ καθήμενος ἕψοι μάταν,
ἁπάντων καλῶν ἄμμορος;
