Pindar

Pindar (in Greek Πίνδαρος, Pindaros) (518-438 BCE) was a Greek lyric poet who composed celebratory odes for aristocratic patrons. Much of his work has survived only in fragments, but his triumphal odes (victory songs, ἐπινίκια, epinikia) for successful competitors in the athletic contests at the Greek festivals have been preserved in their entirety.

Pindar came from Cynoscephalae, a village in Boeotia, not far from Thebes. Born into an aristocratic family claiming descent from Aegeus, a legendary king of Athens, he first developed his skills as a poet with the help of his uncle, Scopelinus, but later moved to Athens and studied the art of lyric poetry with Apollodorus and Agathocles. He composed his first lyric ode (for a protégé of the Aleuadae, an aristocratic Thessalian family) in 498 at the age of 20, and continued to compose odes throughout his life, even into advanced old age. He travelled widely to all parts of the Greek world, both in search of commissions and to train the choral groups who would perform his odes, and in 476-475 went on an extended visit to Sicily, where he spent time with two of his patrons, Hieron, ruler of Syracuse (and winner of the chariot race at Delphi in 470), and Theron, ruler of Acragas (and winner of a chariot race at the Olympic games in 476) - he composed a number of celebratory odes for both rulers. Pindar died, probably in 438, while attending a festival in the city of Argos in the Peloponnese.

Most of Pindar’s odes consist of a series of strophes or stanzas arranged in groups of three, the first two stanzas in the triad (strophe and antistrophe) having the same metrical scheme, and the third (epode) a different scheme. However, in a small number of odes all the stanzas follow the same scheme. The metrical schemes themselves are elaborate and vary in their details from ode to ode, no two odes having the same metrical scheme. The language of the odes is drawn from several Greek dialects but predominantly from Doric, and the variety of occasions for which Pindar composed odes is clear from the categories into which the odes were divided by the librarians at the Library in Alexandria, namely: hymns, paeans, dithyrambs, processionals, songs for maidens, songs for dances, songs of praise, laments, and victory songs (ἐπινίκια, epinikia).