Note 97 — Chapter II · THE ANTHESTERIA. The Ritual of Ghosts and Sprites.
Reading edition
Pind. Ol. IX. 33
οὐδ’ Ἀΐδας ἀκινήταν ἔχε ῥάβδον βρότεα σώμαθ’ ᾇ κατάγει κοίλαν πρὸς ἀγυιὰν θνᾳσκόντων.
ἀκινήταν is usually rendered ‘unraised’ as though the sceptre were lifted in token of kingly power. I translate by ‘wave’ because I believe the action denoted is the waving or moving of a wand, not the raising of a sceptre. The verb κινέω is, I believe, characteristic of this wand-waving. κινέω is used in Homer (loc. cit.) τῇ δ’ ἄγε κινήσας. By Pindar’s time the wand and the sceptre were fused, but he is haunted by the old connotation of magic.