list of Pindaric passages (also collected in Irigoin (1952)) referred to in the attested Platonic corpus

Aristotle’s reference (Rhetoric 1364a) to the line in the context of a hypothetical edition of Pindar circulating in Athens

comment on Pindar’s poetics presenting the song as a thing of nature, not culture, by juxtaposing water with gold (khrūsos) as the best display of wealth (ἂριστον μὲν ὕδωρ)

introduction to the composition (analysis of the occasion and major themes);

comment on the juxtaposition of two myths that has led to major problems of interpretation

Caption

outline of the argument presented in the chapter: the composition is a poetic expression of a preexisiting fusion of two myths, where the earlier myth is officially subordinated to but acknowledged by the later myth; the composition thus reflects the evolving aetiology of the Olympics in the early fifth century

comment on the shift, as attested in the song, in the setting of the cannibalistic feast of the gods from Olympia in the Peloponnesus to Sipylos in Asia Minor

analysis of the two layers of myths (death and restoration of Pelops, death of Oinomaos) that function as aitia for the two layers of athletic events (the foot race and the chariot race, respectively)

comment on the song’s honorand, Hieron of Syracuse, as a prime example of a tyrant as Pindar’s patron

comment on the hierarchy of elements in the composition (water, gold = sun, aithēr), all presented as things of nature in contrast to Bacchylides 3, where aithēr and water, things of nature, serve as foils for gold, a thing of culture

analysis of the aetiological sequence of the Olympics in the song, which gives the impression that there were two perverted feasts of Tantalos, one 'false' and another 'true' from the standpoint of the song

comment on the narrative reordering in the composition, whereby the story about the dismemberment of Pelops is subordinated to a story that starts with his abduction by Poseidon, which leads into the story about the chariot race of Pelops

comment on the mythical detail of Pelops’ ivory shoulder being out of joint with the rest of his body, yet occupying the central place in the composition’s aetiological complex, just as Pelops’ larger-than-life size ivory shoulder was venerated as the centerpiece cult object in the ritual complex of the Olympics

comment on the mythological rearrangements in the composition reflecting the evolving aetiology of the Olympics

summary of Chapter 4

comment on the pertinence of the theme of a victory with a chariot team to Hieron, who – having won in the single-horse competition of 476 B.C. - is looking forward to winning a future Olympic victory in the chariot competition

analysis of Pindar’s presentation of song as a thing of nature, not of culture; comment on gold being perceived as a reflection of the sun itself (005), which is the greatest of prizes (aethla, 003) shining preeminently through the aithēr (006), in the way that the Olympics are superior to other athletic contests (005-007)

example of agōn as a prominent word for the concept of athletic event in the lyric poetry of Pindar; linguistic derivation of the word

comment on the image of a Dorian lyre playing as overtly expressing a synthesis of Doric and Aeolic poetic traditions

comment on the poet’s request that the Dorian lyre (Δωρίαν ... φόρμιγγα) be handed over to him along with a self-reference to an Aeolian song and dance (O.01.102) in the context of the analysis of the systematization of melodic traditions

comment on the name of the prize horse Pherenīkos ('he who carries off the victory [nīkē]') as intended to be formalized by the success in the Games and immortalized by epinician lyric poetry

example of Hieron of Syracuse, the tyrant patron of Pindar, being addressed as basileus ('king')

example of Hieron of Syracuse, the tyrant patron of Pindar, being addressed as basileus ('king')

comment on a Hellenic myth that Pelops was a Lydian (Λυδοῦ Πέλοπος), who was ousted from his homeland and emigrated to the Peloponnesus; analysis of the myth as an ideological formalization of Spartan connections with Lydia, analogous to the political formalization of those connections in the alliance between the two regions, since Sparta dominated the Peloponnesus and was the foremost of all Hellenic city-states on the Mainland to establish an alliance with Lydia

comment on the Peloponnesus as the apoikiā ('colony') of Pelops in the context of the myth of Pelops originally being a Lydian, who was ousted from his homeland and emigrated to the Peloponnesus

comment on Pelops’ migration from Lydia before the founding of the Peloponnesus in the context of the equation 'alien is native:' when Hellenes come into contact with cultures that appear more prestigious by reason of greater antiquity or greater achievement, a typical response of their Hellenocentrism is to establish links with such cultures genealogically

comment on the Peloponnesus being described as the apoikiā ('settlement') of Pelops; analysis of the ritual elements of initiation into adulthood in the myth: before Pelops is presented with a chariot team as a gift from his abductor Poseidon, he is expelled from Poseidon’s home on Olympus and banished to a place that is as yet foreign to him, the Peloponnesus; in this 'foreign' land, Poseidon helps him succeed in his exploits and after the ordeal in the chariot race, the Peloponnesus finally becomes his new home

comment on the mention of Pelops’ emergence from the cauldron just before the mention of his abduction by Poseidon creating an impression of two perverted feasts of Tantalos

comment on ἐπεί as 'after,' rather than 'since'

comment on Pelops being taken 'out of a purifying cauldron' (καθαροῦ λέβητος) by the goddess of fate, the Moira called Klotho; analysis of the shift in the aetiological emphasis of the myth of the Olympics: although the voice of Pindar rejects the first story (involving cannibalism) as 'false,' the second and 'true' story is begun with a detail from the first (the 'purifying cauldron')

analysis of the dispute over the meaning of ἐπεί: was Pelops abducted 'after' or 'since' (in the causal sense) Klotho the Moira ('Fate') took him out of the 'purifying cauldron' (καθαροῦ λέβητος)?

interpretation of the chronology of Pelops’ abduction by Poseidon (immediately after, ἐπεί, the hero emerges from the cauldron)

analysis of the dispute over the meaning of ἐπεί in the previous line

comment on the detail of Pelops’ ivory shoulder as a key to a narrative reordering in which the dismemberment of Pelops is subordinated to his abduction by Poseidon and the ultimate chariot race

comment on Pelops’ shoulder of ivory contributing to the shift in the aetiological emphasis of the myth of the Olympics

analysis of Pindar’s rejection of the 'false' alternative of the myth of Pelops, despite linking some of its details with parts of the 'true' alternative of the myth

comment on the apparent rejection of Pelops’ dismemberment as a 'false' substitute for the 'true' story of the abduction and rape of Pelops by Poseidon

analysis of the concept of alētheia as a Panhellenic truth-value; comment on the juxtaposition of what purports to be a unique and true Panhellenic version with a plethora of false versions, described as mūthoi ('myths'); interpretation of the outer core of mūthoi, containing traditions that are apista ('untrustworthy') as an undifferentiated outer core consisting of local myths (where various versions from various locales may potentially contradict each other), and the inner core of alētheia ('truth'), containing traditions that are pista ('trustworthy') as a differentiated inner core of exclusive Panhellenic myths that tend to avoid the conflicts of the local versions (2§28)

comment on the contrast between alēthea ('true') and pseudea ('false'), where alēthea designates the Panhellenic version of a story

comment on the image of an outer core of 'falsehoods' and an inner core of 'truth' (following Young (1986))

comment on the negative implications of the word mūthos in Pindaric discourse

comment on the apparent rejection of Pelops’ dismemberment as a 'false' substitute for the 'true' story of the abduction and rape of Pelops by Poseidon

comment on the poetic and performative tradition witnessing the present truth of the story not only in the past but also in the future

interpretation of the phrase ἀντία προτέρων as meaning 'in the presence of the predecessors,' that is, with the past tradition as witness, rather than 'contrary to the predecessors'

comment on the phrase ἀντία προτέρων as meaning 'in the presence of the predecessors,' that is, with the past tradition as witness

comment on the description of the feast at which Poseidon fell in love with Pelops, as the youth emerged from the cauldron with his ivory shoulder, fitting the context of the 'true' version of the feast, which, in Pindar’s words, was most orderly (εὐνομώτατον)

comment on the shift of the cannibalistic feast from Olympia in the Peloponnesus to Sipylos in Asia Minor making room for the chariot race of Pelops at Olympia to be the central aition of the Olympics proper; analysis of the integration of an older aition that motivates the foot race with an expanded newer aition that motivates both the foot race and the chariot race – not, however, to be ascribed to Pindar’s invention, since it is in keeping with Panhellenic prestige of the chariot race as the central event of the Olympics in Pindar’s time

comment on the lines supporting the interpretation of ἐπεί as 'after,' rather than 'since'

comment on the lines supporting the interpretation of ἐπεί as 'after,' rather than 'since'

analysis of the aetiology of the Olympics as the combination of 'false' and 'true' stories, with the subordination of the 'false' to the 'true'

comment on the apparent rejection of Pelops’ dismemberment as a 'false' substitute for the 'true' story of the abduction and rape of Pelops by Poseidon

analysis of the perversion of olbos ('wealth, bliss') by Tantalos; comment on the Pindaric diction entertaining but ultimately denying a 'false' version of Tantalos’ perversion, according to which he had given the unsuspecting gods the flesh of his own son, Pelops, to eat

analysis of the perversion of olbos by Tantalos

analysis of the perversion of olbos by Tantalos; comment on the expression πέψαι μέγα ὄλβον οὐκ ἐδυνάσθε ('he was not able to digest his great olbos') covering both versions of Tantalos’ perversion of olbos in that it entails in either case a violation of dietary norms

analysis of the perversion of olbos by Tantalos

comment on the parallelism of dietary and sexual violations, underscored by the semantics of koros ('satiety, point at which satiety is reached, insatiability'), which applies primarily to food and drink, but can also apply to sex

comment on the same punishment of Tantalos in Euripides’ Orestes and Pindar’s Olympian 1

analysis of the perversion of olbos by Tantalos; comment on the general and specific reason for the punishment of Tantalos: he was not able 'to digest his great bliss (olbos),' in that he stole and distributed to the other members of his symposium the nectar and ambrosia that the gods had given to him alone

comment on the song’s explanation for Pelops’ expulsion from Olympus: his father, Tantalos, had stolen nectar and ambrosia from the gods and given some to his human drinking companions; analysis of the perversion of the reciprocity of a feast by serving up inappropriate food: the story of Tantalos’ stealing of nectar and ambrosia serves as a functional equivalent of the story about his crime of creating a scene of cannibalism, which allows for a narrative substitution of the two stories

analysis of the Pindaric retelling of the Tantalos story - while steering away from the explicit theme of cannibalism, it still bears its signature: besides the image of 'digesting' (O.01.055), there is also that of 'boiling' one’s youthful vitality for an excessively long time (as fresh meat loses its vitality from overboiling) – Pelops is pictured using this image in the context of asking Poseidon for the gift of a chariot team and declaring to the god his desire to risk death in his quest for the hand of Hippodameia; comment on the theme of death as an aetiological analogue of initiation into adulthood in both the 'false' (Pelops in the cauldron) and the 'true' story (Pelops in the chariot race)

comment on aethlos referring to the chariot race between Pelops and Oinomaos on the level of myth (as well as to the contests of athletes on the level of ritual)

analysis of Pelops’ abduction by Poseidon as underscoring institutional and ritual features of initiation into adulthood: after the boy is abducted, sexually forced, and taken to his divine abductor’s home on Olympus, the young hero receives from Poseidon the gift of a magnificent chariot team, with which he wins the race against Oinomaos, and the hand of Hippodameia, thereby inaugurating a kingship that serves as a model of political power and sovereignty by virtue of being the ideological foundation for the royal Peloponnesian dynasties of Sparta, Argos, and Messene

quotation/translation; comment on the poet’s request that the Dorian lyre be handed over to him along with a self-reference to 'an Aeolian song and dance' (Αἰοληίδι μολπᾷ) in the context of the analysis of the systematization of melodic traditions

comment on the Aeolian molpē ('singing and dancing') as overtly expressing a synthesis of Aeolic and Doric poetic traditions

comment on the exceptional case of a Pindaric song composed in neither Aeolic meters nor in dactylo-epitrites, but in Ionic meters

comment on the solitary occurrence of a song composed in distinctly Ionic meters

comment on the song being the only Pindaric composition where the meters can be described as overtly Ionic, because it is the only Pindaric composition where the meters are exclusively Ionic (Doric being the dominant metrical pattern and therefore applied even to patterns (e.g. dactylo-epitrites) that are cognate with Ionic patterns)

comment on the generalized mention of Herakles as the founder of the Olympics

comment on the act of refoundation, or the most definitive foundation, of the Olympics by Herakles in compensation for the death of his great-grandfather Pelops

list of Pindaric passages (also collected in Irigoin (1952)) referred to in the attested Platonic corpus

comment on the praise poetry of Pindar recording not only the patron’s (Theron of Akragas) accomplishments in the here and now, but also linking him with the heroes of the past (Thersandros, son of Polyneikes – a hero of the Seven against Thebes epic tradition)

analysis of the connection between the concepts of ploutos ('wealth') and habros ('luxuriant') as related to the victor in the Games: ploutos becomes a transcendent thing when it is enhanced by the luxuriance earned through victory at the Games

comment on Pindar’s lyric poetry treating Epic Cycle heroes as equivalents of Homeric heroes: closely arranged references to Hektor (Iliad) in 081-082, Kyknos (Cypria) in 082, and Memnon (Aithiopis) in 083 show no distinction between Cyclic and Homeric heroes

example of the concept of sophoi, those who are 'skilled' in decoding the message encoded by the poet in his poetry, especially in the medium of ainos

comment on the theme of phuē conveying 'a natural and spontaneous enthusiasm that is divinely inspired' in epinician songmaking, which is contrasted with the foil of artificial glorification

example of ainos ('praise'), a word used in Pindar’s diction to designate the occasionality of his medium; more specifically, ainos is an affirmation, a marked speech-act, made by and for a marked social group

comment on the collocation of koros ('satiety, point at which satiety is reached, insatiability') with margos, an adjective denoting both dietary and sexual excess

example of a song’s self-reference to the Dorian mode corresponding to the actual composition in Doric (dactylo-epitrite) meter

interpretation of the meaning of thesis (ἐπέων … θέσιν) as 'composition,' analogous to the choral stasis as the process of establishing or constituting choral performance

example of Pindar’s poetics juxtaposing water with gold (khrūsos) as the best display of wealth (ἀριστεύει μὲν ὕδωρ)

example of kudos ('emblem of victory') won by the victor being described as habron ('luxuriant')

example of ponos ('ordeal') used programmatically in Pindar’s diction to designate the hardships of preparing for and engaging in athletic competition

The final triad opens with an invocation to the third deity of the ode, Zeus Soter. He is explicitly localized in Olympia, inhabiting the hill of Kronos and honoring the wide-flowing Alpheos and the sacred cave of Ida. The following lines make it clear that the invocation is still made from the deictic origo in Kamarina, confirming that the general geographical ubiquity of Greek gods can be assumed whenever they are entreated, even if one location—Olympia, in this case—is more foregrounded than others. The three successive invocations take the audience progressively from a distinctly local context (Lake Kamarina) via a Panhellenic deity with a local cult (Pallas Athena) to the broadly Panhellenic perspective represented in the principal god honored at the Panhellenic Olympic competitions and festivities (Zeus, here in his manifestation as ‘Savior’ [Sotēr]).

Most of the stones from the Temple of Athena in Kamarina were used for the masonry of the 19th century building, which now houses the Museo Archeologico Regionale di Camarina, quite literally incorporating the temple remains! Image via Wikimedia Commons.

example of a song’s self-reference to the Lydian mode corresponding to the actual composition in Aeolic meter; comment on the Lydian mode perhaps being adaptable to more than one native metrical tradition (Aeolic and Doric)

comment on Pindar’s own lyric medium referring to itself as ainos

example of ainos ('praise'), a word used in Pindar’s diction to designate the occasionality of his medium; more specifically, ainos is an affirmation, a marked speech-act, made by and for a marked social group

comment on the concept of habros ('luxuriant') transcending mere ploutos ('wealth') by its inherent quality of sensuality; example of the adjective being applied to the beautiful body of Iamos

comment on the expression patria ossa ('ancestral voice') applied to the words of Apollo as he speaks to his son Iamos, the primordial seer who is ancestor of the Iamidai; analysis of the notion that poet-seers have personal contact with the ancestors, from whom they receive their songs directly

comment on the potential of ainos to express blame as well as praise; analysis of the earlier phases of ainos, where one man’s praise proved to be another man’s blame (mōmos ('blame') looming over the successful and not only the base) and the later pattern of restriction on the range of blame to the base only and the range of praise to the noble only

example of a Pindaric composition addressed to a non-Theban that bears a clear 'signature' of Thebes as the poet’s native polis

analysis of the pattern of Pindar relinquishing choral leadership, either as a rhetorical strategy or literally, as in this instance, to another specified person (Aineias), who has taken Pindar’s place in training and leading the chorus

comment on the exceptional case of a Pindaric composition from the beginning meant to be performed on more than one occasion: at Stymphalos in Arcadia, the native place of the victor, and at the court of Hieron of Syracuse in Sicily, where the victor lived

comment on the evidence that the Eratidai considered the composition of Pindar that they had commissioned as their precious personal possession, which they had generously shared with the public through the medium of public choral performance, in the public spirit described in the words of Pindar (and subsequently inscribed in gold letters and dedicated in the temple of Athena Lindia in Rhodes)

comment on the public gesture of inscribing in gold letters and dedicating in the temple of Athena Lindia in Rhodes a victory ode of Pindar, commissioned to celebrate the Olympic victory of Diagoras of Rhodes in 464 B.C.

comment on Diagoras of Rhodes being an example of a quasityrant: the composition is explicitly directed toward praising the island state of Rhodes, the native place of Diagoras, in the context of praising the victor’s lineage, the Eratidai

example of a reference in Pindaric song to an 'I' who comes to the polis from afar, which must be the mark of the poet since the chorus on any given epinician occasion consists of local polis dwellers

comment on the geneā ('lineage') of the Eratidai (including the quasityrant victor Diagoras of Rhodes) deriving descent from the royal line of Argos and extending all the way back to Herakles

comment on the hero Tlepolemos slaying, in a deranged anger, his grandmother’s half-brother and this catastrophe being compensated for by the establishment of Tlēpolemeia, a seasonally recurring festival of athletic contests on Rhodes

comment concerning an oath about the future, as sworn by Lachesis the Moira (Fate) in conjunction with the Will of Zeus, in the context of the analysis of Pindar’s diction that reveals an ideology of the poet who has a lofty vantage point of knowledge and who, like a seer or a deity swearing an oath, understands the koruphē ('culmination') of logoi ('words')

example of the phrase koruphai logon ('culmination of words') as related to alētheia ('truth'), especially in terms of a lofty vantage point of knowledge

comments on the concept of lutron ('compensation') for a primordial death in the form of the institution of a seasonally recurring athletic festival, in which the athlete symbolically dies by participating in the ordeal of ritual athletics

comments on the concept of lutron ('compensation') for a primordial death in the form of the institution of a seasonally recurring athletic festival, in which the athlete symbolically dies by participating in the ordeal of ritual athletics

reference to Kurke (1988) citing Gildersleeve (1899) on the wisdom of Diagoras’ ancestors being personated in him as his oracle

comment on the epinician composition being explicitly directed toward praising the island state of Rhodes, the native place of victor, in the context of praising his geneā ('lineage'), the Eratidai

example of the epithet hieros ('sacred') characterizing the word aethlos (athletic 'contest'), indicating that the word carries with it a sense of ritual

comment on the tradition that Archilochus had no musical instrument in his earliest mode of epinician composition, corresponding to the formal status of Archilochus’ poetry as not lyric in the strict sense, since it was composed in meters that are asynartetic (roughly half-way between strophic and stichic)

comment on Pindar’s lyric medium indicating the nonlyric medium of Archilochus aetiologically, by implying a nonlyric origin of lyric epinicians

comment on the Pindaric composition presenting Archilochus not only as a poet of praise, but as a protopoet of epinician lyric poetry, a primitive forerunner of Pindar himself

comment on the song asserting that Archilochus is a protopoet of praise (in contrast to the testimony of Aristotle in Poetics 1449a and 1448b23, who evidently considered Archilochus exclusively as a protopoet of blame)

comment on a Hellenic myth that Pelops was a Lydian (Λυδὸς ἥρως Πέλοψ) who was ousted from his homeland and emigrated to the Peloponnesus; analysis of the myth as an ideological formalization of Spartan connections with Lydia, analogous to the political formalization of those connections in the alliance between the two regions, since Sparta dominated the Peloponnesus and was the foremost of all Hellenic city-states on the Mainland to establish an alliance with Lydia

comment on the noos of Patroklos being described as biatās

comment on the context of O.09.075 where Achilles warns Patroklos not to venture off on his own

example of agōn meaning specifically 'contest'

example of agōn meaning specifically 'contest'

comment on the meaning of ana-gignōskō metaphorically extending the notion of public performance

comment on the verb ana-gignōskō (ἀνάγνωτε) 'to read out loud;' analysis of the act of reading as a metaphor for the activation, through public performance, of the composition, which triggers recognition in the mind of both performer and audience as one hears the words being read out loud

comment on the notion of the actual composition by the poet kept distinct from the public performance of the composition through the metaphor of an inscription inside the poet’s phrēn ('mind')

comment on the name of the Olympic winner being 'written down' inside the poet’s phrēn ('mind') in the context of the complementary metaphors for the public performance of a composition (the image of reading out loud) and for the composition itself (the image of writing)

example of the voice of the poet claiming he owes it to his patron to create a song; analysis of the fundamentally religious ideology of Pindar’s praise poetry in which the compensation of the composer for the song is the concluding link in the chain of compensations (seasonally recurring ordeals of athletes for the proto-ordeal and death of a hero, song as the praise for the ordeal of a victorious athlete, poet’s compensation for the composition of the song), rather than a simplistic illustration of Pindar’s 'mercenary Muse'

example of the voice of the poet claiming he owes it to his patron to create a song; analysis of the fundamentally religious ideology of Pindar’s praise poetry in which the compensation of the composer for the song is the concluding link in the chain of compensations (seasonally recurring ordeals of athletes for the proto-ordeal and death of a hero, song as the praise for the ordeal of a victorious athlete, poet’s compensation for the composition of the song), rather than a simplistic illustration of Pindar’s 'mercenary Muse'

comment on the alternative version of the foundation of the Olympics by Herakles (043) with the spoils taken from the dead Augeias (041-042) [MRBTP: 041-042, 043]

example of a Pindaric composition addressed to a non-Theban that bears a clear 'signature' of Thebes as the poet’s native polis

example of ainos ('praise'), a word used in Pindar’s diction to designate the occasionality of his medium; more specifically, ainos is an affirmation, a marked speech-act, made by and for a marked social group

comment on the only Pindaric composition in which there is a coexistence between dactylo-epitrite and Aeolic meters, with Aeolic modulating into dactylo-epitrite

comment on the only Pindaric song where there is a coexistence of two types of metrical patterns within one composition (Aeolic modulating into dactylo-epitrites)

analysis of aoidoi ('masters of song') as conveyors of kleos ('glory') by means of ainos, which is the code of the message in the diction of Pindar the aoidos

comment on the relationship between hubris and koros: in Pindaric diction hubris gives birth to koros, while the relationship is expressed in reverse in Solon F 6.3-4 W and Theognis 153-154

example of the epithet hieros ('sacred') characterizing the word aethlos (athletic 'contest'), indicating that the word carries with it a sense of ritual

comment on the 'invention' of the dithyramb in Corinth

comment on the Corinthian origins of the dithyramb and its affinities with Dionysus

example of a song’s self-reference to the Lydian mode corresponding to the actual composition in Aeolic meter; comment on the Lydian mode perhaps being adaptable to more than one native metrical tradition (Aeolic and Doric)

In the opening of the first triad, the city’s eponymous nymph Kamarina, the daughter of Ōkeanos, is asked to accept a ‘sweet choice reward’ (ἄωτον γλυκύν), Ο.5.1, in exchange for ‘athletic struggles of the highest order’ (ὑψηλᾶν ἀρετᾶν), Ο.5.1, and for the ‘garlands’ [stephanoi] won in Olympia. The achievement of Psaumis and the reward he carried off are conceived as the ‘gifts’ (δῶρα), Ο.5.3, to be welcomed by Kamarina through the medium of the present song. Psaumis achieved his accomplishments by furnishing entries in the races with chariots, mules, and single horses and, upon victory, conducting grand sacrifices of oxen on the altars of Olympia. The ‘luxuriant glory of victory’ [kūdos habron] was, therefore, conferred not only on Psaumis, his family, and ancestors, embodied collectively in the mention of his father Akron, but it was also bestowed upon his hometown of Kamarina. In Pindar’s wording, Psaumis ‘dedicated’ (ἀνέθηκε), O.5.8, the glory of his victory [kūdos] to Kamarina, addressed as ‘you’ (τίν) at O.5.7, in a continuation of the opening apostrophe. It is significant to note that the amplification of kūdos habron ‘the glory of victory’ is imagined as coming from the mouth of Psaumis himself, as he is envisioned in the act of kerūssein ‘making a public proclamation’ (ἐκάρυξε), O.5.8, of his father and his homeland. Through a metonymical transference of utterance from the original official heraldic announcement that would have concluded the athletic contest in Olympia to the persona of the returning victor, the poetry invests Psaumis with an ability to confer fame in the manner of an official Olympic herald [kērux]. Moreover, even though the act of proclaiming [kērussein] is attributed to the victor’s own voice and persona, it is ultimately the present performance of Pindar’s composition that assumes that role, taking shape, as it does, in the very act of being described. The concentric circles of epinician praise are thus encapsulated in the first triad, with the victor at the center, followed closely by the immediate family and by the implied ancestral line, extending in its widest reach to the whole homeland community of Kamarina.

Olympian 5 is one of the few Pindaric odes that lack a mythical narrative. The focus, instead, is on the victor himself and on his role in the resettlement of his hometown of Kamarina. The ode refers also to other benefactions credited to the victor, especially the glory of two Olympic victories that made his homeland famous. Extended descriptions of Kamarina and of the victor’s latest victory in Olympia are especially striking. My comments focus on those descriptions, and I analyze them from the standpoint of a subfield of linguistics, pragmatics, as I proceed to examine the spatial orientations and shifts effected through verbal signs and cues.

Sicilia, Camarina. Circa 415–405 BCE. AR Didrachm (8.20 g, 12h). Horned head of young river-god Hipparis left, wearing taina, inscription KAMAPINA on the left. Nymph Kamarina, holding up her veil in her left hand, reclining right, head left, on swan swimming left; waves around. Image via Wikimedia Commons.Olympian 5 was composedd in honor of the victory by Psaumis of Kamarina in a mule-cart race at Olympia in 448 BCE. All we know of the victor comes from this and one other victory ode—Olympian 4—composed for an earlier victory in a chariot race. These two odes, Olympian 4 and Olympian 5, are the only Pindaric compositions commissioned by a patron from Kamarina, a Greek city located on the south shore of Sicily between Akragas and Gela in the west and Syracuse in the east. Although the proper names of Kamarina and Olympia occur only once in Olympian 5, many paraphrases for both locations metonymically direct our attention to one place or the other. (For a definition of metonymy, see the Inventory of terms and names.) Remarkably, the apostrophe to the Olympic victor [Olumpionīkos], at O.5.21, notionally links the two locations: on the semantic level, it looks back to the place of victory, but on the level of ‘referential pointing’ (deixis), it addresses the victor in the ‘here and now’ (hic et nunc) of Kamarina, as evidenced by the reference to it, at O.5.20, as ‘this city’ [polis hēde]. In the song, Olympia is evoked in the image of ‘the six double altars at the greatest religious festival |6 with the sacrifices of oxen in the five days of athletic competitions’ (βωμοὺς ἓξ διδύμους ἐγέραρεν ἑορταῖς θεῶν μεγίσταις |6 ὑπὸ βουθυσίαις ἀέθλων τε πεμπαμέροις ἁμιλλαις), O.5.5–6, in the cultic references (without explicit narrative) to the heroes Pelops and Oinomaos, O.5.9, and in the landscape features that include the hill of Kronos, the river Alpheos, and an Idaian Cave. O.5.17–18. (For an identification of the cave, see the comment at O.5.18.). Kamarina, on the other hand, is pointed to in the invocation of its eponymous nymph and her ‘people-nourishing city’ (πόλιν λαοτρόφον) at O.5.4, the ‘newly-founded home’ (νέοικον ἕδραν) at O.5.8, and the landmarks such as the precinct of Athena, Lake Kamarina, and the rivers Oanos and Hipparis, O.5.10–14.

These thumbnail sketches of the two regions are not all grouped in discrete sections; in fact, they are so thoroughly interwoven in the fabric of the ode that the listener’s attention is continuously directed from one to the other, from the imagined to the visible, from the physical sight to the mind’s eye. Not even all the sites in Kamarina would have necessarily been visible from the site of the original performance (river Oanos, for example, is some 6 miles away from the ancient city), and this would have been especially the case in subsequent re-performances where the listeners might have experienced the song elsewhere in Sicily, at Olympia, or any other location. Overall, in the course of the song, the listener’s attention is guided from Olympia to Kamarina and back in no fewer than seven distinct spatial shifts: from Olympia to Kamarina at O.5.1, O.5.8, O.5.10, O.5.20, O.5.21 and from Kamarina to Olympia at O.5.5, O.5.17, O.5.21. An additional movement to the Olympic landscape, during the competition at the hippodrome, may even be registered at O.5.3 in the reference to the ‘tirelessly-running mule cart’ (ἀκαμαντόποδός τ᾽ ἀπήνας) of Psaumis, interjected between the two invocations of Kamarina, O.5.2 and O.5.4. However, the origo or the deictic center in the act of song’s utterance remains fixed in the homeland of Psaumis, as indicated by the verbs of motion dehkesthai ‘to receive’ (δέκευ), O.5.3, and hikanein ‘to come’ (ἵκων), O.5.9, anchored as they are in Kamarina, to which the victor is envisaged as returning and whose community is encouraged by the poet to welcome him with due celebration. In a reciprocal gesture, Pindar’s poetic persona is also presented as ‘arriving’ (ἔρχομαι), O.5.3, to the location of the festivities that include the very performance of the song.

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Dekhesthai ‘to receive, to welcome’ is virtually a technical term in epinicians. It implies arrival and reception of a kōmos ‘revel, reveling, band of revelers’, which Pindar uses to describe what, in reality, would have been a khoros, a performing group of non-professional singers/dancers, who would have been carefully trained and choreographed for the occasion of the epinician performance. The ‘reception motif’ is pervasive in Pindaric victory odes, either coupled explicitly with kōmos or, as in this case, used metonymically for the song being performed. The song itself is understood to be a recompense for, and therefore on par with, ‘athlete’s struggles and athletic prowess’ [aretē].

The exhortation to Kamarina to receive the gifts of Psaumis in the present is followed by a description of his past activities in Olympia, with the relative pronoun hos ‘who’ (referring to Psaumis) functioning as a ‘hinge’ that enables the spatio-temporal shift. See also the comment at O.5.10 for a reverse spatio-temporal shift from Olympia to Kamarina.

The epithet ‘newly-built’ (νέοικον ἕδραν) most likely refers to the resettlement of Kamarina in 461–460 BCE, in which Psaumis took part. This event would have been the most recent physical, demographic, and political rebuilding and reorganization of the city in only 150 years since its original foundation. At different times Kamarina was associated with two neighboring “mother” cities—Syracuse and Gela—but also attempted numerous times to gain independence. It was first founded by Syracuse in 598 BCE and subsequently destroyed by the Syracusans around 553 BCE. Hippokrates of Gela rebuilt it in 492 BCE, but it was soon afterwards destroyed a second time by parties from Gela in 484 BCE. Kamarina was abandoned at that point and its citizens deported to Syracuse, where Gelon, a successor of Hippokrates and the first tyrant in the Deinomenidai lineage, moved the seat of government. The city was rebuilt once more by Gela after the fall of the dynasty of the Deinomenidai (Hieron and Thrasyboulos, after Gelon) in 461–460 BCE. Although all we know of Psaumis of Kamarina comes from the mentions of his name in two Olympian odes (Olympian 4 and 5), it is clear that he was a wealthy citizen who helped rebuild the city in the process of the latest resettlement. Commissioning a Pindaric epinician was intended not only to celebrate his Olympic victories but also broadcast his status and aspirations in the new community.

In the second triad Psaumis’ engagement with the local community and environs is further elaborated, as his return from Olympia is presented through a song about his hometown in the present. This triad starts off with an invocation as well, this time to the ‘city-protecting Pallas’ (πολιάοχε Παλλάς), O.5.10, of whose holy precinct Psaumis himself is imagined as singing upon his victorious return. In this case, the spatio-temporal shift from Olympia to Kamarina is facilitated by a less common epinician ‘hinge’ device: instead of the more usual relative pronouns or adverbs, we find here a participle-verb combination: ‘coming, as he comes’ (ἵκων), ‘he sings’ (ἀείδει), Ο.5.9, Ο.5.10. See the comment at O.5.4. The first subject of the song of Psaumis, Athena’s sanctuary, starts off a series of local landmarks: the river Oanos and ‘the nearby lake’ (ἐγχωρίαν λίμναν), O.5.11, which according to scholia is Lake Kamarina, invoked in the opening triad in the form of the city’s eponymous nymph, as well as the sacred canals of the river Hipparis, which provide water for the community and serve as a means of transporting building materials necessary for Kamarina’s frequent rebuilding efforts, O.5.12–14. The triad closes with a gnomic sentiment about the importance of labor and expense in all human endeavors, which includes, of course, athletics, but also—one might assume—Kamarina’s arduous rebuilding. The deictic emphasis on ‘this community of townsmen’ (τόνδε δᾶμον ἀστῶν), O.5.14, who benefit from the city’s reconstruction, is echoed in the closing words of the triad about the respect accorded to a successful individual by his ‘fellow citizens’ (πολίταις), O.5.16.

A 5th century BCE temple of Athena in Kamarina is well known and has been excavated. It was situated at the summit of a small hill near the center of the city. Today only the foundations and a handful of stones from its walls survive in situ. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

The subject of the verb ‘joins together’ (κολλᾷ) is ambiguous. It could be ‘he’ (Psaumis), continuing the construction from O.5.10—in parallel with ‘he sings’ (ἀείδει)—in order to emphasize Psaumis’ direct involvement in improving the navigation of the river Hipparis and facilitating the transport of building materials. Or it could be ‘it’ (Hipparis), the subject of the more immediately preceding relative clause at O.5.12 and in parallel with ‘waters’ (ἄρδει)—understanding the river as metaphorically building an area of sturdy dwellings by enabling the builders to rapidly float down wood and other construction elements for the new houses. In either case, the reference is an effective way of combining the local landscape features with their function in the life of the city and (explicitly or implicitly) with the involvement of Psaumis himself within the city.

Image via Wikimedia Commons.

The reference to the cave of Ida has raised much speculation already in the antiquity. The scholia are divided on the issue, with some reporting a cave of Ida near Olympia and others suggesting that the reference here is to the great cave of Ida in Crete. The two variants need not be mutually exclusive (if, indeed, there was a cave of Ida in Olympia, which has so far not been identified). In another epinician (Pythian 1), for example, Apollo is localized first in Lycia, then in Delos, and finally in Parnassos, the site of victory.

The first-person epinician speaker, interjects here with a self-reference for the first (and only) time in the song, announcing his arrival: ‘I come as your suppliant’ (ἱκέτας σέθεν ἔρχομαι), O.5.20. The polysemy, that is, the plurality of potential references inherent in the first-person epinician speaker is crucial for proper understanding the full range of the first person (both singular and plural) choral statements. Recognition that the epinician “ego-statements” often elide distinct moments from the time of the song’s composition to its live performance, leading to a frequent conflation of the choral “we, the performers” with the composer’s “I, the poet” and even with the audience’s “we, the local community,” helps to avoid the vexed attempts to assign a uniform referent to Pindaric ego across the epinician corpus as a whole. Here, the enunciative ego entreats Zeus to honor Kamarina—‘this city (πόλιν τάνδε), O. 5.20—and, in a parallel construction, addresses the Olympic victor himself (Ὀλυμπιόνικε), O. 5.21. The double apostrophe thus combines distal deixis (to Zeus in Olympia) with proximal deixis (to Psaumis in Kamarina), bringing the man and the god closer together, especially in light of the request ‘to adorn this city with famous deeds of manliness’ (πόλιν εὐανορίαισι τάνδε κλυταῖς δαιδάλειν), O.5.20–21, an act of which both Zeus and Psaumis can be seen as agents on the divine and human level respectively.

The verb ārdō, used here metaphorically in the sense of ‘to foster,’ was used earlier at O.5.12 with the full range of its potential meanings applicable to the river Hipparis. Pindar’s metaphors of watering and vegetative growth are frequently associated with the immortalizing power of song. In this case, it is precisely eulogia ‘praise [received from song]’ that distinguishes the wealth that is transcendent [olbos] and of higher order than the mere ‘material possesions’ [kteatessi].

Having invoked in virtually the same breath the ruler of the gods and a mere human, however accomplished and worthy, Pindar checks himself and exhorts Psaumis in a gnomic third-person formulation to do the same. In the poetics of praise, drawing near to the gods is a dangerous endeavor, potentially resulting in divine ‘wrath’ [mēnis], human ‘envy’ [phthonos], or one’s own ‘insatiable and outrageous excesses’ [koros, hubris]. And so, Pindar is quick to clear any potential confusion; the final words of the ode resound powerfully:

εἴ τιϲ ὄλβον ἄρδει, |24 ἐξαρκέων κτεάτεσσι καὶ εὐλογίαν προστιθείς, μὴ ματεύϲῃ θεὸϲ γενέϲθαι

‘if someone fosters a healthy wealth, |24 having enough possessions and adding to them praise, let him not seek to become a god.’