Pindar
Pindar | |
---|---|
Lyric poet | |
Genre | Poetry |
Pindar (
Pindar was the first Greek poet to reflect on the nature of poetry and on the poet's role.[5] His poetry illustrates the beliefs and values of Archaic Greece at the dawn of the Classical period.[6] Like other poets of the Archaic Age, he has a profound sense of the vicissitudes of life, but he also articulates a passionate faith in what men can achieve by the grace of the gods, most famously expressed in the conclusion to one of his Victory Odes:[7]
Biography
Sources
Five ancient sources contain all the recorded details of Pindar's life. One of them is a short biography discovered in 1961 on an Egyptian papyrus dating from at least 200 AD (
- brief biography of Pindar and his tomb in Boeotia, from Pausanias's “descriptions of Greece” [9.23.2]-[9.23.5].
- Commentaries on Pindar by Eustathius of Thessalonica;
- Vita Vratislavensis, found in a manuscript at Breslau, author unknown;
- a text by Thomas Magister;
- some meagre writings attributed to the lexicographer Suidas.
Although these sources are based on a much older literary tradition, going as far back as Chamaeleon of Heraclea in the 4th century BC, they are generally viewed with scepticism today: much of the material is clearly fanciful.[11][12] Scholars both ancient and modern have turned to Pindar's own work – his victory odes in particular – as a source of biographical information: some of the poems touch on historic events and can be accurately dated. The 1962 publication of Elroy Bundy's ground-breaking work Studia Pindarica[13] led to a change in scholarly opinion—the Odes were no longer seen as expressions of Pindar's personal thoughts and feelings, but rather as public statements "dedicated to the single purpose of eulogizing men and communities."[14] It has been claimed that biographical interpretations of the poems are due to a "fatal conjunction" of historicism and Romanticism.[15] In other words, we know almost nothing about Pindar's life based on either traditional sources or his own poems. However, the pendulum of intellectual fashion has begun to change direction again, and cautious use of the poems for some biographical purposes is considered acceptable once more.[16][17][18][19]
πολλὰ γὰρ πολλᾷ λέλεκται: νεαρὰ δ᾽ ἐξευ- |
Story is vast in range: new ways to find |
Life
Infancy to adulthood
Pindar was born circa 518 BC (the 65th
The early-to-middle years of Pindar's career coincided with the
Middle age
Pindar seems to have used his odes to advance his, and his friends', personal interests.
Pindar might not actually claim to be an Aegeid since his 'I' statements do not necessarily refer to himself. The Aegeid clan did however have a branch in Thebes, and his reference to 'my ancestors' in Pythian 5 could have been spoken on behalf of both Arcesilas and himself – he may have used this ambivalence to establish a personal link with his patrons.[28]
He was possibly the Theban
Some doubt this biographical interpretation of Nemean 7 since it is largely based on marginal comments by
scholiasts and Pindaric scholiasts are often unreliable. The fact that Pindar gave different versions of the myth may simply reflect the needs of different genres, and does not necessarily indicate a personal dilemma.[33] Nemean 7 in fact is the most controversial and obscure of Pindar's victory odes, and scholars ancient and modern have been ingenious and imaginative in their attempts to explain it, so far with no agreed success.[34]
In his first Pythian ode, composed in 470 BC in honour of the Sicilian tyrant
Pindar's actual phrasing in Pythian 11 was "I deplore the lot of tyrants" and though this was traditionally interpreted as an apology for his dealings with Sicilian tyrants like Hieron, an alternative date for the ode has led some scholars to conclude that it was in fact a covert reference to the tyrannical behaviour of the Athenians, although this interpretation is ruled out if we accept the earlier note about covert references. According to yet another interpretation Pindar is simply delivering a formulaic warning to the successful athlete to avoid hubris.[17] It is highly unlikely that Pindar ever acted for Athenians as their proxenus or consul in Thebes.[37]
Lyric verse was conventionally accompanied by music and dance, and Pindar himself wrote the music and choreographed the dances for his victory odes. Sometimes he trained the performers at his home in Thebes, and sometimes he trained them at the venue where they performed. Commissions took him to all parts of the Greek world – to the Panhellenic festivals in mainland Greece (Olympia, Delphi, Corinth and Nemea), westwards to Sicily, eastwards to the seaboard of Asia Minor, north to
It was assumed by ancient sources that Pindar's odes were performed by a chorus, but this has been challenged by some modern scholars, who argue that the odes were in fact performed solo.
scholiasts but there is no reason to accept their interpretation of the odes.[42] In fact, some scholars have interpreted the allusions to fees in Isthmian 2 as a request by Pindar for payment of fees owed to himself.[43] His defeats by Corinna were probably invented by ancient commentators to account for the Boeotian sow remark, a phrase moreover that was completely misunderstood by scholiasts, since Pindar was scoffing at a reputation that all Boeotians had for stupidity.[44]
Old age and death
His fame as a poet drew Pindar into Greek politics. Athens, the most important city in Greece throughout his poetic career, was a rival of his home city,
Covert criticism of Athens (traditionally located in odes such as Pythian 8, Nemean 8 and Isthmian 7) is now dismissed as highly unlikely, even by scholars who allow some biographical and historical interpretations of the poems.[46]
One of his last odes (Pythian 8) indicates that he lived near a shrine to the oracle Alcmaeon and that he stored some of his wealth there. In the same ode he says that he had recently received a prophecy from Alcmaeon during a journey to Delphi ("...he met me and proved the skills of prophecy that all his race inherit")[47] but he does not reveal what the long-dead prophet said to him nor in what form he appeared.[nb 2] The ode was written to commemorate a victory by an athlete from Aegina.
Pindar doesn't necessarily mean himself when he uses the first person singular. Many of his 'I' statements are generic, indicating somebody engaged in the role of a singer i.e. a 'bardic' I. Other 'I' statements articulate values typical of the audience, and some are spoken on behalf of the subjects celebrated in the poems.[48] The 'I' that received the prophecy in Pythian 8 therefore might have been the athlete from Aegina, not Pindar. In that case the prophecy must have been about his performance at the Pythian Games, and the property stored at the shrine was just a votive offering.[49]
Nothing is recorded about Pindar's wife and son except their names, Megacleia and Daiphantus.[50]
About ten days before he died, the goddess Persephone appeared to him and complained that she was the only divinity to whom he had never composed a hymn. She said he would come to her soon and compose one then.[citation needed]
Pindar lived to about eighty years of age. He died around 438 BC while attending a festival at Argos. His ashes were taken back home to Thebes by his musically gifted daughters, Eumetis and Protomache.
Post mortem
One of Pindar's female relatives claimed that he dictated some verses to her in honour of Persephone after he had been dead for several days. Some of Pindar's verses were inscribed in letters of gold on a temple wall in
Pindar's house in Thebes became one of the city's landmarks. When Alexander the Great demolished Thebes in 335 BC, as punishment for its resistance to Macedonian expansionism, he ordered the house be left intact out of gratitude for verses praising his ancestor, Alexander I of Macedon.[51]
Values and beliefs
Pindar's values and beliefs have been inferred from his poetry. No other ancient Greek poet has left so many comments about the nature of his art. He justified and exalted choral poetry at a time when society was turning away from it. It "... had for two centuries reflected and shaped the sentiments, the outlook, and the convictions of the Greek aristocracies ... and Pindar spoke up for it with passionate assurance".[52] His poetry is a meeting ground for gods, heroes and men – even the dead are spoken of as participants: "Deep in the earth their heart listens".[53]
His view of the gods is traditional but more self-consistent than
Gods are the embodiment of power, uncompromisingly proud of their nature and violent in defense of their privileges.[57][58] There is some rationalization of religious belief, but it is within a tradition at least as old as Hesiod, where abstractions are personified, such as "Truth the daughter of Zeus".[59] Sometimes the wording suggests a belief in 'God' rather than 'a god' (e.g. "What is God? Everything"),[nb 4] but the implications are not given full expression and the poems are not examples of monotheism.[citation needed] Nor do they vocalize a belief in Fate as the background to the gods, unlike the plays of Aeschylus for example. Pindar subjects both fortune and fate to divine will (e.g. "child of Zeus ... Fortune").[60][56][61][62][63]
He selects and revises traditional myths so as not to diminish the dignity and majesty of the gods. Such revisionism was not unique.
Being descendants of divine unions with privileged mortals, mythical heroes are an intermediate group between gods and men, and they are sympathetic to human ambitions. Thus, for example, Pindar not only invokes Zeus for help on behalf of the island of Aegina but also its national heroes Aeacus, Peleus and Telamon.[68] Unlike the gods, however, heroes can be judged according to ordinary human standards and they are sometimes shown in the poems to demean themselves. Even in that case, they receive special consideration. Thus Pindar refers obliquely to the murder of Phocus by his brothers Peleus and Telamon ("I am shy of speaking of a huge risk, hazarded not in right"), telling the audience that he will not talk of it ("silence is a man's wisest counsel").[nb 6][69][70] The Theban hero Heracles was a favourite subject but in one poem he is depicted as small in order to be compared with a small Theban patron who had won the pankration at the Isthmian Games:[71] a unique example of Pindar's readiness to shape traditional myths to fit the occasion, even if not always flattering to the mythical hero. A hero's status is not diminished by an occasional blemish but rests on a summary view of his heroic exploits.[72][73][74]
Some of his patrons claimed divine descent, such as
Whereas the Muses inspired Homer with relevant information and with the language to express it, Pindar seems to receive only their inspiration: his role is to shape that inspiration with his own wisdom and skill. Like his patrons, whom he immortalizes in verse, he owes his success to hard work as well as to innate gifts; though he hires himself out, he has a vocation. The Muses are to him as an oracle is to a prophet, and lesser poets are to him as ravens are to an eagle; the art of such men is as hackneyed as garland-making; his is magical:[85][86][87][88]
εἴρειν στεφάνους ἐλαφρόν: ἀναβάλεο: Μοῖσά τοι |
To plait garlands is easy. Strike up! The Muse |
Works
Pindar's strongly individual genius is apparent in all his extant compositions but, unlike
Although he probably spoke
He composed 'choral' songs yet it is by no means certain that they were all sung by choirs – the use of choirs is testified only by the generally unreliable scholiasts.[94]
Scholars at the Library of Alexandria collected his compositions in seventeen books organized according to genre:[95]
- 1 book of hymnoi – "hymns"
- 1 book of paianes – "paeans"
- 2 books of dithyramboi – "dithyrambs"
- 2 books of prosodia – "processionals"
- 3 books of parthenia – "songs for maidens"
- 2 books of hyporchemata – "songs for light dances"
- 1 book of enkomia – "songs of praise"
- 1 book of threnoi – "laments"
- 4 books of epinikia – "victory odes"
Of this vast and varied corpus, only the epinikia – odes written to commemorate athletic victories – survive in complete form; the rest survive only by quotations in other ancient authors or from papyrus scraps unearthed in Egypt. Even in fragmentary form however, they reveal the same complexity of thought and language that are found in the victory odes.[96]
Dionysius of Halicarnassus singled out Pindar's work as an outstanding example of austere style (αὐστηρὰ ἁρμονία) but he noted its absence in the maiden songs or parthenia. One surviving fragment of a maiden song does seem to be different in tone, due however to the fact that it is spoken in the character of a girl:[97][98][99]
ἐμὲ δὲ πρέπει παρθενήια μὲν φρονεῖν |
emè dè prépei parthenḗia mèn phroneîn |
I must think maidenly thoughts |
Enough of his dithyrambic poetry survives for comparison with that of Bacchylides, who used it for narrative. Pindar's dithyrambs are an exuberant display of religious feeling, capturing the wild spirit of Dionysus and pointing forward to the ecstatic songs of Euripides' Bacchae. In one of these, dedicated to the Athenians and written to be sung in Spring, he depicts the divine energy of the revitalized world.[102][103]
φοινικοεάνων ὁπότ' οἰχθέντος Ὡρᾶν θαλάμου |
phoinikoeánōn hopót' oikhthéntos Hōrân thalámou |
When the chamber of the scarlet-clothed Hours is opened |
Victory odes
Almost all Pindar's victory
- If ever a man strives
- With all his soul's endeavour, sparing himself
- Neither expense nor labour to attain
- True excellence, then must we give to those
- Who have achieved the goal, a proud tribute
- Of lordly praise, and shun
- All thoughts of envious jealousy.
- To a poet's mind the gift is slight, to speak
- A kind word for unnumbered toils, and build
- For all to share a monument of beauty. (Isthmian I, antistrophe 3)[106]
His victory odes are grouped into four books named after the
Style
Pindar's poetic style is very distinctive, even when the peculiarities of the genre are set aside. The odes typically feature a grand and arresting opening, often with an architectural metaphor or a resounding invocation to a place or goddess. He makes rich use of decorative language and florid compound adjectives.[109] Sentences are compressed to the point of obscurity, unusual words and periphrases give the language an esoteric quality, and transitions in meaning often seem erratic, the images seem to burst out – it is a style that sometimes baffles but also makes his poetry vivid and unforgettable.[110]
Pindar's power does not lie in the pedigrees of ... athletes ... It lies in a splendour of phrase and imagery that suggests the gold and purple of a sunset sky. – F. L. Lucas[111]
He has that force of imagination which can bring clear-cut and dramatic figures of gods and heroes into vivid relief...he has that peculiar and inimitable splendour of style which, though sometimes aided by magnificent novelties of diction, is not dependent on them, but can work magical effects with simple words; he has also, at frequent moments, a marvellous swiftness, alike in the succession of images, and in the transitions from thought to thought; and his tone is that of a prophet who can speak with a voice as of Delphi. – Richard Claverhouse Jebb[91]
His odes were animated by...
one burning glow which darted out a shower of brilliant images, leapt in a white-hot spark across gaps unbridgeable by thought, passed through a commonplace leaving it luminous and transparent, melted a group of heterogeneous ideas into a shortlived unity and, as suddenly as a flame, died. – Gilbert Highet[112]
Some of these qualities can be found, for example, in this stanza from Pythian 2, composed in honour of Hieron:
θεὸς ἅπαν ἐπὶ ἐλπίδεσσι τέκμαρ ἀνύεται, |
God achieves all his purpose and fulfills his every hope,
and he bends the arrogant heart of many a man,
|
The stanza begins with a celebration of divine power, and then abruptly shifts to a darker, more allusive train of thought, featuring condemnation of a renowned poet,
Pindar's treatment of myth is another unique aspect of his style, often involving variations on the traditional stories,
Structure
Pindar's odes typically begin with an invocation to a god or the Muses, followed by praise of the victor and often of his family, ancestors and home-town. Then follows a narrated myth, usually occupying the central and longest section of the poem, which exemplify a moral, while aligning the poet and his audience with the world of gods and heroes.[120] The ode usually ends in more eulogies, for example of trainers (if the victor is a boy), and of relatives who have won past events, as well as with prayers or expressions of hope for future success.[121] The event where the victory was gained is never described in detail, but there is often some mention of the hard work needed to bring the victory about.
A lot of modern criticism tries to find hidden structure or some unifying principle within the odes. 19th century criticism favoured 'gnomic unity' i.e. that each ode is bound together by the kind of moralizing or philosophic vision typical of archaic Gnomic poetry. Later critics sought unity in the way certain words or images are repeated and developed within a particular ode. For others, the odes are just celebrations of men and their communities, in which the elements such as myths, piety, and ethics are stock themes that the poet introduces without much real thought. Some conclude that the requirement for unity is too modern to have informed Pindar's ancient approach to a traditional craft.[93]
The great majority of the odes are triadic in structure – i.e., stanzas are grouped together in three's as a lyrical unit. Each triad comprises two stanzas identical in length and meter (called 'strophe' and 'antistrophe') and a third stanza (called an 'epode'), differing in length and meter but rounding off the lyrical movement in some way. The shortest odes comprise a single triad, the largest (Pythian 4) comprises thirteen triads. Seven of the odes however are monostrophic (i.e., each stanza in the ode is identical in length and meter). The monostrophic odes seem to have been composed for victory marches or processions, whereas the triadic odes appear suited to choral dances.[121] Pindar's metrical rhythms are nothing like the simple, repetitive rhythms familiar to readers of English verse – typically the rhythm of any given line recurs infrequently (for example, only once every ten, fifteen or twenty lines). This adds to the aura of complexity that surrounds Pindar's work. In terms of meter, the odes fall roughly into two categories – about half are in dactylo-epitrites (a meter found for example in the works of Stesichorus, Simonides and Bacchylides) and the other half are in Aeolic metres based on iambs and choriambs.[93]
Chronological order
Modern editors (e.g., Snell and Maehler in their
Date (BC) |
Ode | Victor | Event | Focusing myth |
---|---|---|---|---|
498 | Pythian 10 | Hippocles of Thessaly | Boy's long foot-race
|
Hyperboreans
|
490 | Pythian 6 (M) | Xenocrates of Acragas | Chariot-race | Antilochus, Nestor
|
490 | Pythian 12 (M) | Midas of Acragas | Flute-Playing | Perseus, Medusa |
488 (?) | Olympian 14 (M) | Asopichus of Orchomenus | Boys' foot-race | None |
486 | Pythian 7 | Megacles of Athens | Chariot-race | None |
485 (?) | Nemean 2 (M) | Timodemus of Acharnae | Pancration
|
None |
485 (?) | Nemean 7 | Sogenes of Aegina | Boys' Pentathlon | Neoptolemus |
483 (?) | Nemean 5 | Pythias of Aegina | Youth's Pancration | Peleus, Hippolyta, Thetis |
480 | Isthmian 6 | Phylacides of Aegina | Pancration | Heracles, Telamon |
478 (?) | Isthmian 5 | Phylacides of Aegina | Pancration | Aeacids, Achilles |
478 | Isthmian 8 (M) | Cleandrus of Aegina | Pancration | Zeus, Poseidon, Thetis |
476 | Olympian 1
|
Hieron of Syracuse
|
Horse-race | Pelops |
476 | Olympians 2 & 3 | Theron of Acragas | Chariot-race | 2. Hyperboreans
|
476 | Olympian 11 | Agesidamus of Epizephyrian Locris
|
Boys' Boxing Match | Heracles, founding of Olympian Games |
476 (?) | Nemean 1 | Chromius of Aetna | Chariot-race | Infant Heracles |
475 (?) | Pythian 2 | Hieron of Syracuse
|
Chariot-race | Ixion |
475 (?) | Nemean 3 | Aristocleidas of Aegina | Pancration | Aeacides, Achilles |
474 (?) | Olympian 10 | Agesidamus of Epizephyrian Locris | Boys' Boxing Match | None |
474 (?) | Pythian 3 | Hieron of Syracuse | Horse-race | Asclepius |
474 | Pythian 9 | Telesicrates of Cyrene | Foot-race in armour | Apollo, Cyrene |
474 | Pythian 11 | Thrasydaeus of Thebes
|
Boys' short foot-race | Orestes, Clytemnestra |
474 (?) | Nemean 9 (M) | Chromius of Aetna | Chariot-race | Seven against Thebes |
474/3 (?) | Isthmian 3 & 4 | Melissus of Thebes | Chariot race & pancration | 3.None 4.Heracles, Antaeus |
473 (?) | Nemean 4 (M) | Timisarchus of Aegina | Boys' Wrestling Match | Aeacids, Peleus, Thetis |
470 | Pythian 1
|
Hieron of Aetna
|
Chariot-race | Typhon |
470 (?) | Isthmian 2 | Xenocrates of Acragas | Chariot-race | None |
468 | Olympian 6 | Agesias of Syracuse | Chariot-race with mules | Iamus |
466 | Olympian 9 | Epharmus of Opous
|
Wrestling-Match | Deucalion, Pyrrha |
466 | Olympian 12 | Ergoteles of Himera | Long foot-race
|
Fortune |
465 (?) | Nemean 6 | Alcimidas of Aegina | Boys' Wrestling Match | Aeacides, Achilles, Memnon
|
464 | Olympian 7 | Diagoras of Rhodes | Boxing-Match | Helios and Rhodos, Tlepolemus |
464 | Olympian 13 | Xenophon of Corinth | Short foot-race & pentathlon | Bellerophon, Pegasus |
462/1 | Pythian 4 & 5 | Arcesilas of Cyrene | Chariot-race | 4.Argonauts 5.Battus |
460 | Olympian 8 | Alcimidas of Aegina | Boys' Wrestling-Match | Aeacus, Troy |
459 (?) | Nemean 8 | Deinis of Aegina | Foot-race | Ajax |
458 (?) | Isthmian 1 | Herodotus of Thebes | Chariot-race | Castor, Iolaus |
460 or 456 (?) | Olympian 4 & 5 | Psaumis of Camarina | Chariot-race with mules | 4.Erginus 5.None |
454 (?) | Isthmian 7 | Strepsiades of Thebes | Pancration | None |
446 | Pythian 8 | Aristomenes of Aegina | Wrestling-Match | Amphiaraus |
446 (?) | Nemean 11 | Aristagoras of Tenedos
|
Inauguration as Prytanis
|
None |
444 (?) | Nemean 10 | Theaius of Argos | Wrestling-Match | Castor, Pollux |
Manuscripts, shreds and quotes
Pindar's verses have come down to us in a variety of ways. Some are only preserved as fragments via quotes by ancient sources and papyri unearthed by archeologists, as at
Where all the codices agree, there perhaps the true reading shines out. Where however they differ, the preferred reading is that which best fits the sense, meter, scholia and grammatic conventions. Wherever moreover two or more readings of equal weight are found in the codices, I have chosen that which smacks most of Pindar. Yet this difficulty rarely occurs, and in many places the true reading will be found if you examine and compare the language of the codices with that of other Greek poets and especially of Pindar himself.[125]
Code | Source | Format | Date (century) |
Odes contained |
---|---|---|---|---|
A | codex Ambrosianus C 222inf. | Paper 35×25.5 cm | 13th–14th | Olympian 1–12, with some unique readings that Bowra considered reliable, and including scholia. |
B | codex Vaticanus graeca 1312 | Silk 24.3×18.4 cm | 13th | Olympian 1 to Isthmian 8 (entire corpus), but with some leaves and verses missing, and includes scholia; Zacharias Callierges based his 1515 Roman edition on it, possibly with access to the now missing material. |
C | codex Parisinus graecus 2774 | Silk 23×15 cm | 14th | Olympian 1 to Pythian 5, including some unique readings but also with many Byzantine interpolations/conjectures (Turyn rejected this codex accordingly), and written in a careless hand. |
D | codex Laurentianus 32, 52 | Silk 27×19 cm | 14th | Olympian 1 to Isthmian 8 (entire corpus), including a fragment (Frag. 1) and scholia, written in a careless hand. |
E | codex Laurentianus 32, 37 | Silk 24×17 cm | 14th | Olympian 1 to Pythian 12, largely in agreement with B, including scholia but with last page removed and replaced with paper in a later hand. |
G | codex Gottingensis philologus 29 | Silk 25×17 cm | 13th | Olympian 2 to Pythian 12, largely in agreement with B (thus useful for comparisons), including Olympian 1 added in the 16th century. |
V | codex Parisinus graecus 2403 | Silk 25×17 cm | 14th | Olympian 1 to Nemean 4, including some verses from Nemean 6; like G, useful for supporting and verifying B. |
Influence and legacy
- The influential Alexandrian poet Callimachus was fascinated by Pindar's originality. His masterpiece Aetia included an elegy in honour of Queen Berenice, celebrating a chariot victory at the Nemean Games, composed in a style and presented in a manner that recall Pindar.[126]
- The Hellenistic epic Argonautica, by Apollonius Rhodius, was influenced by some aspects of Pindar's style and his use of episodic vignettes in narrative. The epic concerns the adventures of Jason, also touched on by Pindar in Pythian 4, and both poems link the myth to a Greek audience in Africa.[127]
- There seems to have been a vogue for Pindaric-style lyrics following the 'publication' of Horace's Odes 1–3. Horace had mastered other styles such as Sapphic and Alcaeic, which had discouraged his contemporaries from attempting anything in the same form, but he had not composed anything in triadic stanzas in the manner of Pindar.[128]
- Pindar was much read, quoted, and copied during the Christophoros Mytilenaios of the 11th century parodied a chariot race in his sixth poem, employing explicit allusions to Pindar.[129]
- During the 17th and 18th centuries, literary theorists in Europe distinguished between two types of lyric poetry, loosely associated with Horace and Pindar. Regular verses in four line stanzas were associated with Horace's Odes, which did in fact inspire and influence poets of the period. Irregular verses in longer stanzas were termed Pindarics, though the association with Pindar was largely fanciful. Abraham Cowley was considered the main exponent of English Pindarics. In fact, the two styles were not always easy to distinguish and many 'Pindaric' odes were quite Horatian in content, as in some poems by Thomas Gray.[130]
- A 'Pindaric Ode' was composed for the revived 1896 Olympic Games in Athens by the Oxford scholar George Stuart Robinson, and similar compositions were commissioned from and composed by classicist Armand D'Angour for the Athens Olympics in 2004 and the London Olympics in 2012.
Horace's tribute
The Latin poet, Quintus Horatius Flaccus, was an admirer of Pindar's style. He described it in one of his Sapphic poems, addressed to a friend, Iullus Antonius:
Pindarum quisquis studet aemulari, |
Julus, whoever tries to rival Pindar, |
Bowra's tribute
His innate, unquestioning pride in his poetical mission means that he gives to it all his gifts and all his efforts. The result is a poetry that by any standards deserves the name because it is based on a radiant vision of reality and fashioned with so subtle, so adventurous, and so dedicated an art that it is worthy to be an earthly counterpart of the songs which Pindar regards as the archetype of music on those lofty occasions when all discords are resolved and all misgivings obliterated by the power of the life-giving word.[132]
See also
Notes
- ^ Pindar (1972) p. 212. The three lines here, and in Bowra's Greek, are actually two lines or stichoi in Greek prosody. Stichoi however are often too long to be preserved as single lines in published form, and they are then broken into metrical units, or cola, the break indicated by indentation. This practice is observed both in Greek and in translations, but it is a modern convenience or preference and it has no historical authority: "...nullam habet apud codices auctoritatem neque veri simile est Pindarum ita carmina manu propria conscripsisse."
- scholium, he and a pupil, Olympichus, once saw a mysterious flame on a mountain, attended by strange noises. Pindar then beheld Rhea, the Mother of the Gods, advancing in the form of a wooden image. Pausanias (9.25.3) reported that he set up a monument near his home, dedicated conjointly to Pan and the Mother of the Gods (Δινδυμήνη). According to Eustathius (Proem. 27, p. 298. 9 Dr) and Vit. Ambr. (p. 2. 2 Dr.), Pan was once heard between Cithaeron and Helicon singing a paeancomposed to him by Pindar (fr. 85).
- ^ Paean 9.13-20). The eclipse is mentioned in a fragment quoted by Stobaeus, addressed to the Thebans:
Is it some sign of war you bring? / Or blight on crops, or snow-fall's strength / Beyond all telling, or murderous strife at home, / Or emptying of the sea on land, / Or frost binding the earth, or south-wind in summer / With a flood of furious rain, / Or will you drown the land and raise / A new breed of men from the beginning? - ^ fr. 129: τί θεός; τὸ πάν
- ^ Chiron's compliment to Apollo:
"You, Sire, who know / The appointed end of all, and all paths: / How many leaves in April the earth puts forth, / How many grains of sand / In the sea and rivers / Are troubled by the waves and the swirling winds, / And what shall be, and whence it shall come / You see with clear eyes." - ^ Nemean Odes 5.14–18:
I am shy of speaking of a huge risk / Hazarded not in right, / How they left the famous island, / And what fate drove strong men from the Vineland. / I shall halt. Truth does not always / Gain more if unflinching / She reveals her face; / And silence is often a man's wisest counsel.
References
- ^ The Greek and Roman critics: "The odes of Pindar (518-438B.C.), written for the most part to celebrate victories in athletic contests, are interspersed with moral and philosophical reflections"
- .
- ^ Eupolis F366 Kock, 398 K/A, from Athenaeus 3a, (Deipnosophistae, epitome of book I)
- JSTOR 27533621.
- ^ Gerber, p. 261
- ^ Pindar (1972) Introduction p. xv
- ^ de Romilly, p. 37
- ^ Bowra, Pythia VIII, lines 95–7
- ^ Pindar (1972) p. 144
- ^ Race, p. 4
- ^ a b Gerber, p. 253
- ^ Morice, pp. 211–15
- ^ Escholarship.org
- ^ E.Bundy, Studia Pindarica, Berkeley (1962), p. 35
- ^ Lloyd-Jones, Hugh (1982). "Pindar". Proceedings of the British Academy. 68: 139–163 (145).[permanent dead link]
- ^ Hornblower 2004, p. 38.
- ^ a b Hornblower 2004, p. 59.
- ^ Hornblower 2004, p. 67.
- ^ Currie, pp. 11–13
- ^ Nemean 8, lines 20–21
- ^ Bowra 1947.
- ^ Bowra 1947, p. 9.
- ^ https://livingpoets.dur.ac.uk/w/index.php/Pindar:_A_Guide_to_Selected_Sources
- ^ https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/bitstream/handle/1773/33129/Carlson_washington_0250E_14276.pdf?sequence=1
- ^ "Ancient Greece - War - The British Museum". www.ancientgreece.co.uk. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
- ^ "Battle of Marathon". HISTORY. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
- JSTOR 311420.
- ^ Gerber, p. 270
- ^ Hornblower 2004, p. 177.
- ^ Hornblower 2004, p. 178.
- ^ Hornblower 2004, p. 179.
- ^ Hornblower 2004, p. 180.
- ^ Ian Rutherford, Pindar's Paeans, Oxford University Press (2001), pp. 321–22
- JSTOR 1087989.
- ^ Isocrates 15.166
- ^ Pindar (1972) p. 158
- ^ Hornblower 2004, p. 57.
- ^ Pindar (1972) pp. 10, 88–9
- ^ Pindar (1972) Introduction p. XIII
- ^ Hornblower 2004, p. 16.
- ^ Race, pp. 10–11
- ^ David Campbell, Greek Lyric IV, Loeb Classical Library (1992), page 6
- ^ Pindar (1972) p. 239
- ^ D. Campbell, Greek Lyric IV, p. 2
- ^ Pindar (1972), p. 138
- ^ Charles Segal, 'Choral Lyric in the Fifth Century', in Easterling, pp. 231–232
- ^ Pindar (1972) p. 142
- ^ Currie, p. 20
- ^ Gerber, pp. 268–269
- ^ "Brill Academic Publishers". Retrieved 21 November 2022.
- Anabasis Alexandri1.9.10
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 2.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 38.
- ^ Archilochus fr. 122 West
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 83.
- ^ a b c Bowra 1964, p. 84.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 42.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 43.
- ^ Olympic Ode 10.3-4
- ^ Olympic Ode 12.1-2)
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 85.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 86.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 87.
- ^ Pythian Ode 9
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 61.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 64.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 65.
- ^ Pythian Ode 8.99–100
- ^ a b Bowra 1964, p. 67.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 68.
- ^ Isthmian Odes 4.57
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 47.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 48.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 71.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 66.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 96.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 89-96.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 76.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 77.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 120.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 100.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 101.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 102.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 103.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 4.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 5.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 6.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 7.
- ^ Nemean Ode 7.77-79
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 16.
- ^ a b Jebb, Richard (1905) Bacchylides: the poems and fragments, Cambridge University Press, p. 41
- ^ Pindar (1972) p. 17
- ^ a b c Gerber, p. 255
- ^ Gregory Nagy, Greek Literature in the Hellenistic Period, Routledge (2001), p. 66
- ^ M.M. Willcock: Pindar: Victory Odes (1995). Cambridge University Press, p. 3.
- ^ Bowie, p. 110
- ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus, de Comp. 22, de Dem. 39
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 193.
- ^ a b Bowra 1964, p. 363.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 25.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 26.
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 62.
- ^ a b Bowra 1964, p. 63.
- ^ Bowra 1964, pp. 15–20.
- ^ Antony Andrewes, Greek Society, Pelican Books (1971), pp. 219–22
- ^ Pindar (1972) p. 235
- ^ Pindar (1972), p. 88. 96
- ^ Pindar (1972) Introduction p. xx
- ^ a b Charles Segal, 'Choral Lyric in the Fifth Century', in Easterling, p. 232
- ^ de Romilly, p. 38
- ^ Lucas, F. L. Greek Poetry for Everyman. Macmillan Company, New York. p. 262.
- ^ Gilbert Highet, The Classical Tradition, Oxford University Press (1949), p. 225
- ^ Bowra, Pythia II 49–56
- ^ Pindar (1972) pp. 92–3
- ^ De Subl. 33.5
- ^ Athenaeus 13.5.64c
- ^ Bowie, pp. 107–8
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 310.
- ^ Pindar (1972) pp. 192, 54, 4, respectively
- ^ Bowie, p. 108
- ^ a b Pindar (1972)
- ^ Currie, p. 25
- JSTOR 27688007.
- ^ Bowra, Praefatio iii–iv, vii
- ^ Bowra, Praefatio iv
- ^ A.W. Bulloch, 'Hellenistic Poetry', in Easterling, pp. 556–57
- ^ William H. Race, Apollonius Rhodius: Argonautica, Loeb Classical Library (2008), page xiii
- ^ R. Tarrant, 'Ancient receptions of Horace', in The Cambridge Companion to Horace, Stephen Harrison (ed.), Cambridge university Press (2007), page 280
- ^ F. Lauritzen, Readers of Pindar and students of Mitylinaios, Byzantion 2010
- ISBN 0-521-83002-8
- ^ The Odes of Horace James Michie (translator), Penguin Classics 1976
- ^ Bowra 1964, p. 401.
Sources
- Bowie, Ewen, 'Lyric and Elegiac Poetry' in The Oxford History of the Classical World, J. Boardman, J. Griffin and O. Murray (eds), Oxford University Press (1986) ISBN 0-19-872112-9
- Bowra, C. M. (1947). Pindari Carmina Cum Fragmentis, Editio Altera. Oxford University Press.
- ISBN 978-0-19-814338-3.
- Campbell, David A. (1992). Greek Lyric IV: Bacchylides, Corinna and Others. Loeb Classical Library. ISBN 978-0-674-99508-6.
- Currie, Bruno (2005), Pindar and the Cult of Heroes, Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-161516-1
- Easterling, P. & Knox, B. (eds) (1985), The Cambridge History of Classical Greek Literature "Greek Literature", Cambridge University Press
- Gerber, Douglas E. (1997) A Companion to the Greek lyric poets, Brill ISBN 90-04-09944-1
- ISBN 978-0-19-929828-0.
- Morice, Francis David (2009), Pindar, Bibliobazaar, LLC ISBN 1-148-33210-3
- Conway, Geoffrey Seymour (1972), The Odes of Pindar, Dent ISBN 978-0-460-01017-7
- Race, William H. (1997), Pindar: Olympian Odes, Pythian Odes, Loeb Classical Library ISBN 0-674-99564-3
- De Romilly, Jacqueline (1985), A Short History of Greek Literature, University of Chicage Press
Further reading
- Nisetich, Frank J., Pindar's Victory Songs. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980: translations and extensive introduction, background and critical apparatus.
- Revard, Stella P., Politics, Poetics, and the Pindaric Ode 1450–1700, Turnhout, Brepols Publishers, 2010, ISBN 978-2-503-52896-0
- Race, W. H. Pindar. 2 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997.
- Bundy, Elroy L. (2006) [1962]. Studia Pindarica (PDF) (digital version ed.). Berkeley, California: Department of Classics, University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 12 February 2007.
- Barrett, W. S., Greek Lyric, Tragedy, and Textual Criticism: Collected Papers, edited M. L. West (Oxford & New York, 2007): papers dealing with Pindar, Stesichorus, Bacchylides and Euripides
- Kiichiro Itsumi, Pindaric Metre: 'The Other Half' (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).
- Burnett, Anne Pippin, Pindar (London: Bristol Classical Press, 2008) (Ancients in action).
- Wells, James Bradley. Pindar's Verbal Art: An Enthnographic Study of Epinician Style, Hellenic Studies Series 40. Washington, DC, ISBN 978-0-674-03627-7
External links
- Works by Pindar in eBook form at Standard Ebooks
- Works by Pindar at Perseus Digital Library
- Works by Pindar at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Pindar at Internet Archive
- Works by Pindar at Open Library
- Selected odes, marked up to show selected rhetorical and poetic devices
- Olympian 1, read aloud in Greek, with text and English translation provided
- Pythian 8, 'Approaching Pindar' by William Harris (text, translation, analysis)
- Pindar by Gregory Crane, in the Perseus Encyclopedia
- Pindar's Life by Basil L. Gildersleeve, in Pindar: The Olympian and Pythian Odes
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Pindar, Olympian Odes, I, 1–64; read by William Mullen
- Perseus Digital Library Lexicon to Pindar, William J. Slater, De Gruyter 1969: scholarly dictionary for research into Pindar
- Pindar-A Hellenistic Bibliography compiled by Martine Cuypers
- William J. Slater, Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin, De Gruyter, 1969 on the Perseus Project
- Historic editions
- The Odes of Pindar translated into English with notes, D.W.Turner, A Moore, Bohm Classical Library (1852), digitalized by Google
- Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 617–620. .
- Pindar – translations and notes by Reverend C.A.Wheelwright, printed by A.J.Valpy, M.A., London (1830): digitalized by Google
- Pindari carmina, adnotationem criticam addidit Tycho Mommsen, vol. 1, vol. 2, Berolini apud Weidmannos, 1864.
- Scholia of Pindar:
- Pindari opera quae supersunt. Scholia integra, Augustus Boeckhius (ed.), 2 voll., Lipsiae apud Ioann. August. Gottlob Weigen, 1811: vol. 1, vol. 2.
- Scholia vetera in Pindari carmina, Anders Bjørn Drachmann (ed.), 3 voll., Verlag Adolf M. Hakkert, Amsterdam, 1903-27: vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3.