PINDAR

Pindar of Thebes was the ancient Greek lyric poet whose work is best preserved. Although he composed various genres of choral poetry (dithyrambs, hymns, laments), of which only fragments remain, he is best known for his epinikia, i.e. victory odes that he wrote on commission in honour of winners at Panhellenic games. His four books of victory odes (the Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian and Nemean Odes) have survived complete. His patrons included important figures of his time (Hieron of Syracuse, Theron of Akragas, Diagoras of Rhodes). Pindar would typically praise the victor’s birthplace and its local heroes and deities, his family and personal virtues. According to Pindar, victory came as the combined result of innate virtue, training and the favour of the gods. Pindar has been admired since antiquity for his sublime and grandiloquent style, his bold use of language and the seriousness he attached to his own art.