Pindar and Greek Religion
Theologies of Mortality in the Victory Odes

Demonstrates the theological power of Pindar's victory songs by interpreting them within their contemporary religious landscapes.

Hanne Eisenfeld (Author)

9781108831192, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 December 2022

300 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.1 cm, 0.57 kg

Pindar's victory songs teem with divinity. By exploring them within the lived religious landscapes of the fifth century BCE, Hanne Eisenfeld demonstrates that they are in fact engaged in theological work. Focusing on a set of mythical figures whose identities blur the boundaries between mortality and immortality (Herakles, the Dioskouroi, Amphiaraos, and Asklepios), she newly interprets the value of immortality in the epinician corpus. Pindar's depiction of these figures responds to and shapes contemporary religious experience and revalues mortality as a prerequisite for the glory found in victory. The book combines close reading and philological analysis with religious historical approaches to Pindar's songs and his world. It highlights the inextricability of Greek literature and Greek religion, and models a novel approach to Greek lyric poetry at the intersection of these fields.

1. Pindar mythologus and theologus
2. Herakles looks back at the world
3. The Dioskouroi in existential crisis
4. Exaltation at Akragas: Herakles, the Dioskouroi, and Theron
5. The isolation of Amphiaraos
6. Asklepios and the limits of the possible
7. An invitation.

Subject Areas: History of religion [HRAX], Philosophy of religion [HRAB], History: earliest times to present day [HBL], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]