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'''Pindar''' (or '''Pindarus''' / '''Pindaros''') ([[522 BC]] – [[443 BC]]), considered the greatest of the [[nine lyric poets]] of [[ancient Greece]], was born at [[Cynoscephalae]], a village in [[Thebes]]. He was the son of [[Daiphantus]] and [[Cleodice]]. The traditions of his family have left their impression on his poetry, and are not without importance for a correct estimate of his relation to his contemporaries. While his father belonged to the 'aristocracy', his mother is said to have been a member of the 'rightless' class or maybe even a slave. Together with the fact that his relation with a woman from the aristocracy ended abruptly, this would remain a source of inspiration for Pindar. He felt looked down upon. He got his 'revenge' through his poetry. It is even said that the same girl and his father committed suicide after reading his work.

But nevertheless, through his father, he truly belonged to the aristocracy, and from a very early age on, he became familiar with all the intimacies of the aristocratic ranks and titles. This is something to keep in mind when studying Pindar's work. The clan of his father, the [[Aegidae]] – tracing their line from the hero [[Aegeus]] – belonged to the [[Cadmus|Cadmean]] element of Thebes, i.e., to the elder nobility whose supposed date went back to the days of the founder Cadmus.

Employing himself by writing choral works in praise of notable personages, events and princes, his house in Thebes was spared by [[Alexander the Great]] in recognition of the complimentary works composed for king [[Alexander I of Macedon]].

Pindar composed choral songs of several types. According to a [[Late Antique]] biographer, these works were grouped into seventeen books by scholars at the [[Library of Alexandria]].
They were, by genre:

* 1 book of '''humnoi''' "hymns"
* 1 book of '''paianes''' "paeans"
* 2 books of '''dithuramboi''' "dithyrhambs"
* 1 book of '''prosodia''' "preludes"
* 3 books of '''parthenia''' "songs for maidens"
* 1 book of '''huporchemata''' "songs to support dancing"
* 1 book of '''enkomia''' "praise-songs"
* 1 book of '''threnoi''' "laments"
* 4 books of '''epinikia''' "victory odes"

Of this vast and varied corpus, only the victory odes survive in complete form. The rest are known to us only by quotations in other ancient authors or papyrus scraps unearthed in Egypt.

Pindar's victory odes were composed for aristocratic victors in the four most prominent athletic festivals in early [[Classical Greece]]: the [[Ancient Olympic Games|Olympian]], [[Pythian Games|Pythian]], [[Isthmian Games|Isthmian]] and [[Nemean Games|Nemean Games]]. Rich and allusive in style, they are packed with dense parallels between the athletic victor, his illustrious ancestors, and the myths of gods and heroes underlying the athletic festival. But "Pindar's power does not lie in the pedigrees of ... athletes, ... or the misbehavior of minor deities. It lies in a splendour of phrase and imagery that suggests the gold and purple of a sunset sky."[1] Two of Pindar's most famous victory odes are Olympian 1 ([[476 BC]]) and Pythian 1 ([[433 BC]]).

Pindar is to be conceived, then, as standing within the circle of those families for whom the heroic myths were domestic records. He had a personal link with the memories which everywhere were most cherished by [[Dorian]]s, no less than with those which appealed to men of "Cadmean" or of [[Achaean]] stock. And the wide ramifications of the Aegidae throughout [[Hellas]] rendered it peculiarly fitting that a member of that illustrious clan should celebrate the glories of many cities in verse which was truly [[Panhellenic]].

Pindar is said to have received lessons in [[aulos]]-playing from one [[Scopelinus]] at Thebes, and afterwards to have studied at [[Athens]] under the musicians [[Apollodorus (musician)|Apollodorus]] (or [[Agathocles]]) and [[Lasus of Hermione]]. Several passages in Pindar's extant [[ode]]s glance at the long technical development of Greek [[lyric poem|lyric poetry]] before his time, and at the various elements of art which the lyricist was required to temper into a harmonious whole. The facts that stand out from these meagre traditions are that Pindar was precocious and laborious. Preparatory labour of a somewhat severe and complex kind was, indeed, indispensable for the Greek lyric poet of that age.

Pindar's wife's name was [[Megacleia]], and he had a son named Daiphantus and two daughters, [[Eumetis]] and [[Protomache]]. He is said to have died at [[Argos]], at the age of seventy-nine, in 443 BC.

== Reference ==

*[1]:Lucas, F. L. "''Greek Poetry for Everyman''", p.262, Macmillan Company, New York

== External links ==
*[http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Pindar.html Odes of Pindar]
* {{gutenberg author| id=Pindar | name=Pindar}}
**[http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/10717 Extant Odes of Pindar from Gutenberg translated by Ernest Myers]
*[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0101%3Aid%3Di2s1 'Pindar's Life' in: Gildersleeve, Basil. ''Pindar: The Olympian and Pythian Odes'']
*[http://216.71.135.198/HW/pindar.html Example of Pindar's Poems]
*[http://www.fofweb.com/Onfiles/Ancient/AncientDetail.asp?iPin=GRE0406 Pindar]

{{Credit wikipedia}}

[[Category:522 BC births]]
[[Category:443 BC deaths]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek poets]]

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 == External links ==
 *[http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/browse-Pindar.html Odes of Pindar]
 **[http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/10717 Extant Odes of Pindar from Gutenberg translated by Ernest Myers]
 *[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0101%3Aid%3Di2s1 'Pindar's Life' in: Gildersleeve, Basil. ''Pindar: The Olympian and Pythian Odes'']

Pindar - Revision history

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Irlandos at 15:05, February 12, 2006