But aside from lofty thoughts like these, native to the greater interpretative intelligences of Greece, the recently discovered poems of Bacchylides tell us much of the actual spirit of the games. Bacchylides was nephew of Simonides, the poet-laureate of the nation from Thermopylæ to Platæa, and he was also the grandson and namesake of a famous athlete. He was qualified to sing both the Games and the Graces. And the native of the little island of Ceos did not hesitate to enter the contest with the splendidly arrogant Theban who could compare his inferior rivals to “crows that chatter against the divine bird of Zeus.”[41] Footnote 41: Pindar, _Olympian Odes_, ii, translated by E. Myers. Of the twelve epinician odes of Bacchylides three were addressed to Hieron, at whose court he enjoyed especial favour. Two Olympic odes were written for Lachon, a young athlete from the poet’s native island. One of these is a short serenade sung before the victor’s own house by his fellow-citizens. Nothing could better illustrate the intensity of local pride and enthusiasm. Now the victorious athlete is praised, now his very identity is merged in the personification of his native land. It is Ceos herself that has won the boxing and the foot-race. Lachon, as the ode reminds us, has already been greeted by the impromptu choral sung at Olympia on the evening of his triumph. Now he is welcomed at home by another choral for which there has been ample time to make ready. Bacchylides may well have written this little serenade not as a paid commission but as a spontaneous outburst of patriotic pride and affection for his country and his fellow countrymen. We should prefer to have it so. In any case we feel a human interest in the young athlete whose strong body and swift feet have won the prize:— “Lachon has lot of such renown From Zeus most-high as yet had none, Enhancing fame with feet that run Beside Alphēus flowing down. For which e’er this with hair wreath-bound Olympic youths sang songs around How Ceos, with her vineyards crowned, The boxing and the foot-race won. “Thee now song-queen Urania’s hymn Ennobles—O thou wind-fleet one, Of Aristomenes the son— Thy praise as victor homeward bringing And here before thy lintel singing How thou, thy course through stade-race winging, Brought Ceos fame no time shall dim.” From little Ceos, the second in order of those bright stepping-stones that dot the Ægean from Attica to Rhodes, we may quickly cross to the mainland and find our way to Marathon. From there to Athens we trace that greatest of all ancient race-courses over which the Greek runner ran in full armour to give with his dying breath the warning and the news of victory, and to win a memorial beside which the olive-wreath might well turn pale.[42] Footnote 42: