Pindar

Pindar (pĭn`dər), 518?–c.438 B.C., Greek poet, generally regarded as the greatest Greek lyric poet. A Boeotian of noble birth, he lived principally at Thebes. He traveled widely, staying for some time at Athens and in Sicily at the court of Hiero I at Syracuse and also at Acragas (modern Agrigento). His chief medium was the choral lyric, and he set the standard for the triumphal ode or epinicion. Of his complete works 45 odes survive; these make one of the greatest collections of poems by a single author in Greek. His fragments are exceptionally numerous and some of them widely famous. The epinicia celebrate victories in athletic games: there are 14 Olympian odes, 12 Pythian odes, 11 Nemean odes, and 8 Isthmian odes. Each was written to be sung in a procession for the victor, usually on his return to his home city. The outstanding feature of each ode is its narrative myth, which is always connected with the winner. The myth makes appropriate the elevated moral tone and religious flavor characteristic of Pindar's poems. His style loses a great deal in translation. It has a high-flown diction and an intricate word order, dependent partly upon the complexity of his metrical requirements. Pindar wrote on commissions, but he was quite independent of any meretriciousness, because of his lofty conception of the poet's vocation.

The term

Pindaric ode refers to a verse form used primarily in England in the 17th and 18th cent. The form, based on a somewhat faulty understanding of the metrical pattern used by Pindar, originated with Abraham Cowley in his Pindarique Odes (1656) and was later used by John Dryden, among others. It is characterized by irregularity in the rhyme scheme, length of the stanzas, and number of stresses in a line.

Bibliography

See his works (tr. by L. R. Farnell, 1930–32); his odes (tr. by R. Lattimore, 1976); studies by F. T. Nisetich (1980) and K. Crotty (1982).

---

Pindar

(born 518/522, Cynoscephalae—died c. 438 BC, Argos) Greek poet. A Boeotian of aristocratic birth, Pindar was educated in neighbouring Athens and lived much of his life in Thebes. Almost all his early poems have been lost, but his reputation was probably established by his later hymns in honour of the gods. He developed into the greatest lyric poet of ancient Greece, respected throughout the Greek world. Of his 17 volumes, comprising almost every genre of choral lyric, only four have survived complete, and those lack his musical settings. The extant poems, probably representing his masterpieces, are odes (see Pindaric ode) commissioned to celebrate triumphs in various Hellenic athletic games. Lofty and religious in tone, they are noted for their complexity, rich metaphors, and intensely emotive language.

---

Pindar

?518--?438 bc, Greek lyric poet, noted for his Epinikia, odes commemorating victories in the Greek games

---

Pindar 

Born circa 518 B.C.; died 442 or 438 B.C. Ancient Greek poet.

The only works by Pindar that have survived in their entirety are four books of epinician odes, triumphant choral hymns glorifying the victors of the Panhellenic games. The conditions for achieving a victory—the athlete’s favorable destiny, talent, and efforts—give rise to the poet’s reflections. Pindar ponders the might of the gods and man’s inability to know their intentions, reminisces about mythical heroes and the winner’s ancestors, and calls for the complete development of the qualities inherent in man. The epinician odes are distinguished by their elemental force of language, the bold associative quality of the poetic conception, and the richness of rhythmic pattern.

PUBLICATIONS

Pindari carmina cum fragmentis, parts 1-2. Edited by B. Snell. Leipzig, 1964-71.
In Russian translation:
“Ody.” In Vestnik drevnei istorii, 1973, nos. 2-4.

REFERENCES

Iarkho, V. N., and K. P. Polonskaia. Antichnaia lirika. Moscow, 1967.
Gerber, D. E. A Bibliography of Pindar, 1513-1966 [no place, no date].