to praise Hieron. High above, slicing the deep air with his swift golden wings, the eagle, messenger of loud-thundering, wide-ruling Zeus, trusts boldly in his powerful strength, and thin-voiced birds crouch in fear. The peaks of the great earth do not restrain him, nor the rough, choppy waves of the untiring sea. In the everlasting void he shifts his delicate wings, riding the gusts of the west wind, a conspicuous sight for men. So now for me there are countless paths of song leading in every direction, thanks to dark-haired Nike and Ares with his bronze breastplate, to sing of your excellence, noble sons of Deinomenes. May the god not tire of doing good. Beside the wide-whirling Alpheus, golden-armed Dawn saw the victory of the chestnut horse Pherenicus, a runner swift as a wind-storm, and she saw him win in very holy Pytho . Laying my hand on the earth, I make this declaration: never in any contest has he been fouled by the dust of faster horses as he strained toward the finish-line. In force he is like Boreas; obeying his rider, he speeds a new victory and new applause to hospitable Hieron. Prosperous is he to whom a god has given a share of fine things, and a rich life to live out with enviable luck. For no man on earth was born to be fortunate in everything. So it was, they say, that the gate-destroying unconquerable son Heracles. of Zeus of the flashing thunderbolt went down to the halls of slender-ankled Persephone to bring up into the light from Hades the razor-toothed dog, Cerberus. son of the fearsome Echidna. There he saw the souls of miserable mortals by the streams of Cocytus, like leaves swirled by the wind along the sheep-pasturing headlands of shining Ida. Among them, the shade of Porthaon's bold, spear-wielding descendant Meleager. Porthaon is his grandfather; his father is Oineus. stood out.