the complete odes jul 2007

[...]... heroes The Olympic games were the oldest and most prestigious, held in Elis in the western Peloponnese in honour of Zeus There had been a sanctuary to Zeus there even before the traditional date for the founding of the games ( BC) Athletics competitions provided an additional way of honouring the god, the winner owing his victory to the help of the god and in consequence thanking the god The festival... Hippocleas’ father had won twice in the race in armour at the Olympics (two lengths of the stadium, like Hippocleas’ own victory) and at the Pythian games After this mention of the successes of members of the family, Pindar says that he hopes the gods are not jealous of them and that they do not meet with reversals of fortune (lines –) The potential for others, either gods or men, to resent the victorious... about the need for him not to overstep the mark or miss the target or say too much He had been paid by his patrons to compose victory odes in praise of them, but also had his own poetic agenda, wanting to bring out in his poetry other themes, such as human frailties, the power of the gods, the uncertainty of the future Sometimes one can detect a tension between these two aspects of his odes, the private... held in honour of the sea-god Poseidon at the Isthmus, the strip of land that then connected the Peloponnese with mainland Greece In his victory odes Pindar generally refers to the god presiding over the games where the victory had been gained, and sometimes the myth relates to the particular games (for example, in Olympian  the myth concerns Pelops who had a hero-cult at Olympia) These four games... Isthmian , for a Theban pancratiast, Pindar rather surprisingly says that the victor was of puny appearance (line )— perhaps a joke for a fellow Theban The ordering of the odes, Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian, reflects the order of the games in terms of their importance; within each group of odes those celebrating victories in the chariot race generally come first because it was the event held... financial transaction, and the ode ends with praise of Thessaly’s political governance The performance of Pythian  would have been part of a public celebration The last lines of the ode emphasize this aspect, rather as the playing of a victor’s national anthem does at a modern games The political dimension of Pindar’s odes is apparent in many ways Five of the six odes for the powerful Sicilian tyrants... it was forced into the Athenian empire and to pay tribute to Athens Pindar seems to be taking the opportunity to allude to the possible consequences of Athens’ arrogance towards Aegina, and the xviii Introduction theme seems to be taken up at the end of the ode when the divinities and heroes associated with Aegina are invoked to protect the island ‘on its freeborn voyage’ (line ) There are political... Pindar then moves on to the victor’s family and tells us that his talent was in the genes: one of his maternal uncles had been an Olympic wrestling victor, and another had won at the Isthmian games Then follows (lines –) the mythical section of the ode, about the same length as that in Pythian , but less straightforward: it is about the attacks on Thebes, first the unsuccessful one by the Seven... the Seven against Thebes, then successfully by their sons the Epigoni, focusing in particular on Amphiareus who perished in the first expedition and his son Alcman, a member of the second Pindar then, somewhat surprisingly, adds that Adrastus, sole survivor of the first expedition and also a member of the second, alone of the Epigoni lost his son in the second expedition So beneath the theme of inherited... four years On the first day Zeus apomuios or ‘averter of flies’ was invoked to keep the sacrificial meat fly-free, and on the third day a hundred oxen were sacrificed to Zeus The programme of events developed and changed during time In the fifth century, when Pindar was writing, there were three running events: the stadion (a sprint the length of the stadium), the diaulos (there and back), and the dolichos . poetry other themes, such as human frailties, the power of the gods, the uncertainty of the future. Sometimes one can detect a tension between these two aspects of his odes, the private and the public. he knew the threat posed by the growth of the Athenian empire. 11 Political instability, the fickleness of fortune, and the dangers inher- ent in power are all themes that play a large part in his odes. . Poseidon at the Isthmus, the strip of land that then connected the Peloponnese with mainland Greece. In his victory odes Pindar generally refers to the god presiding over the games where the victory