Laudator Temporis Acti

Pindar, Olympian Odes 2.15-17 (tr. Anthony Verity):

But when some deed has been done, right or wrong,
not even Time the father of all things can undo its outcome.

                             τῶν δὲ πεπραγμένων
ἐν δίκᾳ τε καὶ παρὰ δίκαν ἀποίητον οὐδ᾿ ἄν
Χρόνος ὁ πάντων πατὴρ
δύναιτο θέμεν ἔργων τέλος.

Thanks to Eric Thomson for directing my attention to Thomas D. Seymour, ed., Selected Odes of Pindar (Boston: Ginn, Heath, & Co., 1882), p. 90:

15. τῶν δὲ κτλ.: construe τέλος ἔργων τῶν ἐν δίκᾳ τε καὶ παρὰ δίκαν πεπραγμένων. This is periphrastic for τὰ ἐν δίκᾳ κτλ. πεπραγμένα.

16. ἐν δίκᾳ κτλ.: cf. Terence, Adelphi V 9:33 iusta, iniusta, prorsus omnia. — The emphasis is on παρὰ δίκαν as is shown by v. 18 λάθα δὲ πότμῳ, κτλ.

17. χρόνος: time produces all things (ὁ πάντων πατήρ) yet it can destroy nothing. The Greeks often refer to the immutability of the past. Hom. Ι 249 οὐδέ τι μῆχος | ῥεχθέντος κακοῦ ἔστ ̓ ἄκος ἔσσεται. Simonides fr. 69 τὸ γὰρ γεγενημένον οὐκέτ ̓ ἄρεκτον ἔσται. Agatho fr. 5 μόνου γὰρ αὐτοῦ καὶ θεὸς στερίσκεται, | ἀγένητα ποιεῖν ἅσσ ̓ ἂν ᾖ πεπραγμένα. Time is often personified. See on Ol. I 33; Pyth. I 46. So also in Shakespeare Two Gent. of Verona, III 1 Time is the nurse and breeder of all good. Soph. Εl. 179 χρόνος γὰρ εὐμαρὴς θεός.

If Seymour's suggestion (on line 15) that πεπραγμένων and ἔργων go together is accepted, then there are two instances of hyperbaton in this sentence:

• πεπραγμένων ... ἔργων (15 words intervening)
• ἀποίητον ... τέλος (9 words intervening)

See Franz Dornseiff, Pindars Stil (Berlin: Weidmann, 1921), p. 107.

See also William H. Race, "Framing Hyperbata in Pindar's Odes," Classical Journal 98.1 (October-November, 2002) 21-33.

Related post: Death Wish.