how to improve simple python shell script (to compile list of files)

[Jari Aalto]

[Keep CC, thank you]

Please suggest comments how can I make this script to work 
from bash. Also how can I skip better the [0] argument from
command line without hte extra variable i?

    #!/bin/bash

    function compile ()
    {
        python -c '
        import os, sys, py_compile;
        i = 0;
        for arg in sys.argv:
            file  = os.path.basename(arg);
            dir   = os.path.dirname(arg);
            i += 1;
            if i > 1  and os.path.exists(dir):
                os.chdir(dir);
                print "compiling %s\n" % (file);
                py_compile.compile(file);
        '  $*
    }

    compile $(find path/to -type f -name "*.py")

    # End of example

The error message reads:

      File "<string>", line 2
        import os, sys, py_compile;
        ^
    SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Jari