Pindar: Victory Odes
Olympians 2, 7 and 11; Nemean 4; Isthmians 3, 4 and 7

A presentation by Professor Willcock of seven of Pindar's extant poems celebrating the victories of athletes.

Pindar (Author), Malcolm M. Willcock (Edited by)

9780521436366, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 6 April 1995

192 pages
20.4 x 12.8 x 1.2 cm, 0.22 kg

The Greek lyric poet Pindar is renowned for his poems celebrating the victories of athletes in the great games of Greece at Olympia, Delphi (the Pythian Games), Corinth (the Isthmian Games) and Nemea. Pindar's victory odes have the reputation of being complex and allusive in their language and reference. In this much-needed commentary on seven of the extant odes, Professor Willcock aims to open up Pindar's poetry to a wider readership by starting with a short and straightforward poem and progressing by level of difficulty to one of the greatest. The book begins with an introduction which includes sections on Pindar's life and on his thought, language and style, but which pays particular attention to the genre of the victory ode and its conventions.

Introduction
1. Greek lyric poetry
2. Pindar's life and works
3. The games
4. The victors
5. The genre
6. Pindar's thought
7. Pindar's style
8. Pindar's language
9. Metrical form
10. The text and scholia
Pindar: Victory Odes: The Eleventh Olympian
The Seventh Isthmian
The Fourth Isthmian
The Third Isthmian
The Fourth Nemean
The Seventh Olympian
The Second Olympian
Commentary
Appendices
Bibliography
Indexes.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]