Biagio d'Antonio, Scenes from the Story of the Argonauts, c. 1465-1472 (frame cropped) · The Metropolitan Museum of Art · public domain
4.211
The Victory Odes 4.211 · They come to the Phasis4.211They come to the Phasis
Pythian 4, lines 211–213. The Argo has passed the Clashing Rocks and reaches Colchis, at the far end of the Black Sea.
· · ·
δʼ1
d’
And
ἔπειτεν2
épeiten
then
ἤλυθον3
ḗlython
they came
ἐς4
es
tointo
Φᾶσιν5
Phâsin
the Phasis
; ἔνθα6
éntha
there
μῖξαν7
mîxan
they matchedthey mixed
βίαν8
bían
strengthforce
against
the
κελαινώπεσσι9
kelainṓpessi
dark-faceddark of face
Κόλχοισιν10
Kólchoisin
Colchians
παρʼ11
par’
beforebeside
Αἰήτᾳ12
Aiḗtai
Aeetes
αὐτῷ13
autôi
himself
. And then they came to the Phasis; there they matched strength against the dark-faced Colchians before Aeetes himself.
And then they came to the Phasis; there they matched strength against the dark-faced Colchians before Aeetes himself.
Interpretation
And then they came to the Phasis, and there, before Aeetes himself, they matched their strength against the dark-faced Colchians.
Pindar brings the Argo through the Clashing Rocks and lands it at the Phasis, the river of Colchis at the far east end of the Black Sea, in less than two lines. The first thing the heroes do there is fight: βίαν μῖξαν, "they mixed force," with the Colchians, under their king's eyes.
He calls the Colchians κελαινῶπες, "dark-faced." A generation later Herodotus says they are dark-skinned and woolly-haired, and argues that they came from Egypt (Histories 2.104). The scene that begins here with βία, force, ends at line 249 with τέχναι, skill, and everything between shows which of the two wins.
4.213
The Victory Odes 4.213 · Aphrodite's wheel and Medea's drug4.213Aphrodite's wheel and Medea's drug
Pythian 4, lines 213–223. Aphrodite gives Jason a love charm, and Medea gives him a drug.
· · ·
And the queen of sharpest arrows, the Cyprus-born, binding the dappled wryneck, four-spoked, to an unbreakable wheel, brought the maddening bird from Olympus to mortals for the first time, and she taught the skilled son of Aeson prayers and charms, so that he might strip Medea's respect for her parents, and longed-for Greece would drive her, burning in her heart, with the whip of Persuasion. And quickly she showed the way to finish her father's trials; and medicating remedies with oil against harsh pains, she gave them to him to rub on himself. And they agreed to be joined with each other in a sweet, shared marriage.