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ἦν δὲ κλέος βαθύ: It was to this fame that Rhodes owed her prosperity. Pindar skilfully suppresses the loss incurred by the neglect of the Heliadai. Athena transferred her presence to Athens, but did not leave the Rhodians comfortless.

δαέντι ... τελέθει: “To the wise man (to him that knows), e'en surpassing art is no magic trick.” The mythical artisans of Rhodes, the Telchines, who came up out of the water with the island, were supposed to be wizards. All folk-lore is full of magicians of this kind, and the devil figures largely as a craftsman in mediaeval legends. All these miracles of art, says P., were wrought by ἀριστοπόνοι χεῖρες, and there is no trick in any of them. The refutation of this charge naturally brings up the story of the birth of Rhodes. There are other renderings. “The subtlety that is without deceit is the greater altogether,” that is, the Heliadai, who received their knowledge from Athena, were greater artists than the Telchines, who were magicians. Yet others refer δαέντι to the artisan and not to the judge. Bergk transl. in prudente homine etiam maior sapientia fraudis est expers.


Pindar: The Olympian and Pythian Odes. Basil L. Gildersleeve. Anne Mahoney. edited for Perseus. New York. Harper and Brothers. 1885.

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