analysis of the process in which Pindar’s diction indicates, albeit in descriptive compression, that in terms of choral performance the prooimion ('prooemium') precedes nomos: the chorus starts dancing (002) as soon as Apollo’s lyre gives off its sēmata ('signals') that are heeded by aoidoi, 'singers' (003), thus creating the anabolai, 'preludes' (004) of prooimia, 'prooemia' (004) which are described as hāgēsikhora, 'chorus-leading' (004)

comment on the explicit reference to choral singing and dancing

comment on Croesus’ aretē ('achievement' not 'failing' (verb phthi-) in Pindar’s composition, because it is transmitted by logioi ('masters of speech') and aoidoi ('masters of song')

example of a choral lyric song described as starting with a prooimion

example of the concept of anabolē ('prelude') being closely parallel to the concept of prooimion

example of ponos denoting an ordeal of a man who fights in warfare as well as athletics

comment on the Hērakleidai ('sons of Herakles') representing the ancestors of the Dorian dynasties who took over the major political centers of the Peloponnesus in the Dark Age

comment on the concept of Herakleidai ('Heraclids') as the basic lineage of the Dorian royal dynasties

comment on the concept of Herakleidai ('Heraclids') as the basic lineage of the Dorian royal dynasties

comment on etumos ('genuine') as applied to logos, in the sense of 'what men tell,' further associated with the verb diakrīnō in the sense of 'discriminate' what is genuine from what is false

analysis of the true misthos ('wage') of compensation for song being equated with kharis, the beauty and pleasure of reciprocity between the poet and the subject of his praise; example of Pindaric composition setting up the 'mercenary Muse' as a foil for its own transcendence, owing to the sacred context of a communal epinician celebration

analysis of an exception to the general rule that Pindar’s songs consistently avoid metrical patterns of spoken poetry; part of the metrical sequence of the line looks like a dactylic hexameter, but without correspondence with the final word boundaries of hexameter

analysis of the emphasis on the aretē ('achievement') of Croesus whenever he is directly compared with a patron of the praise song (Hieron of Syracuse); comment on the suppression of Croesus’ perversion of olbos in itself serving as a sign or signal, an implicit warning

comment on Pindaric diction drawing logioi ('masters of speech') into an explicit parallelism with aoidoi ('masters of song'), emphasizing that both groups enshrine the achievements of those who died long ago

comment on the song contrasting the virtue of Croesus with the depravity of the tyrant Phalaris, indicating that both logioi and aoidoi (drawn into an explicit parallelism in P.01.094) can have in their repertoire Hellenes and non-Hellenes

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 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

example of kamatos denoting an ordeal of a man who fights in warfare as well as athletics

comment on the negative paradigm of Ixion as a warning against the perversion of olbos ('bliss'), which in this case is manifested in sensual extravagance, the violation of sexual norms

comparison of Ixion’s and Tantalos’ perversion of olbos, entailing a violation of sexual and a violation of dietary norms, respectively

comment on a direct reference to Archilochus in Pindar, where he is described as the exponent of blame and the enemy of praise (in contrast to the only other direct reference to Archilochus (O.09.001-005) where he is presented as the primordial poet of praise)

example of a song’s self-reference to the Aeolian mode corresponding to the actual composition in Aeolic meter

example of the concept of agathoi, those who are intrinsically 'noble' by virtue of having been raised on proper ethical standards, which are the message encoded in the poetry, especially in the medium of ainos

example of the concept of philoi, those who are 'near and dear' and therefore interconnected to the poet and to each other, so that the message encoded in the poetry may be transmitted to them and through them, especially in the medium of ainos: communication through community

example of the lyric medium expressing that Pindar, a master of the ainos, is obliged to be direct and truthful toward his near and dear, the philoi, while at the same time being entitled to be indirect and deceitful toward his enemies, the ekhthroi

comment on Pindar’s representation, through the medium of ainos, of the polis as capable of three forms of government: tyranny, democracy, and aristocracy, the last of which gets an ideological approval

example of the concept of agathoi, those who are intrinsically 'noble' by virtue of having been raised on proper ethical standards, which are the message encoded in the poetry, especially in the medium of ainos

example of a song stressing the positive aspects of turannos ('tyrant') whenever it is actually praising a tyrant

comment on the song’s implicit warning about hubris conveying the negative potential of any tyrant, while remaining ambivalent in the actual use of the word turannos

In this retelling of the Hippolytus myth, Asklepios as the son of Apollo possesses extraordinary skills as a physician, and he uses these skills to bring Hippolytus back to life after that hero dies in a chariot crash caused by the ārai or ‘curses’ hurled at him by Theseus. From another retelling of the myth, however, we learn that the resurrection of Hippolytus, engineered by the skills of Asklepios, was not only the result of his death: it was also the cause of another death. And the one whose death was caused by the resurrection of Hippolytus was Asklepios himself. As the story goes, Zeus incinerated Asklepios with his divine thunderbolt, and he did so precisely because this hero had used his extraordinary skills as a physician to resurrect Hippolytus after that hero’s death (scholia for Pindar Pythian 3.54). This version of the myth seems to be quite ancient, datable at least as far back as the sixth century BCE.

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

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

comment on the proteroi ('predecessors, men of the past') designating the tellers of the tradition

comment on the proteroi ('men of the past') referring to the actual tellers of the tradition, not its subject matter

example of the word proteroi ('men of the past') referring to the tellers of the tradition (those who give kleos to the heroes) and not the subject matter (the heroes who receive the kleos)

comment on the nonpejorative application of the word turannos to Hieron of Syracuse

example of Pindar addressing Hieron of Syracuse as turannos ('tyrant') in a nonpejorative sense

example of Pindar addressing Hieron of Syracuse as turannos ('tyrant') in a nonpejorative sense

comment on the poem’s coda expressing the transcendence of aretē ('achievement') through the efficacy of the poem

a parallel to show that the phrase πλοῦτον ἄγει ('does he bring about wealth') at P.06.047 implies materialism that is of 'otherworldly' sort

The idea of a ‘crossing’ that is both dangerous and sacralizing is built into the name Hellēs-pontos, which means literally ‘the crossing of Hellē’, and this meaning is embedded in a myth that we see summarized in most of its major details in the Library attributed to Apollodorus (1.9.1). According to this myth, there was once a boy named Phrixos and a girl named Hellē who were children of the hero Athamas and of a goddess called Nephelē, meaning ‘Cloud’; the divine mother of these children saved them from being murdered by their stepmother, named Ino, by sending to them as their helper the Ram with the Golden Fleece, who took the children on his back and flew away with them; as the ram was flying across the Hellespont, Hellē lost her grip and slipped off, plunging into the Hellespont and drowning there; and that is why the name of this dangerous body of water that Hellē was crossing is Hellēs-pontos or ‘crossing of Hellē’. But Phrixos succeeds in crossing the Hellespont safely, and he escapes to the Far East, where he sacrifices the Ram with the Golden Fleece in thanksgiving for his salvation (again, Apollodorus Library 1.9.1). This salvation of Phrixos is explicitly marked by the words pontos, ‘crossing’, and sōzein, ‘save’, in a song of Pindar (Pythian 4.161): τῷ ποτ’ ἐκ πόντου σαώθη, ‘by way of this [= the Golden Fleece] he [= Phrixos] was saved [saō-thē, from sōzein], getting away from the sea [pontos]’.

a parallel with P.04.220 where aethlos refers (on the level of myth) to the mortally dangerous tasks imposed by King Aietes on Jason as a precondition for the hero’s possessing the Golden Fleece (while the same word can also refer to the contests of athletes on the level of ritual)

example of the word ponos designating the life-and-death struggles of heroes (in this case, the voyage of the Argo)

comment on aethlos referring (on the level of myth) to the mortally dangerous tasks imposed by King Aietes on Jason as a precondition for the hero’s possessing the Golden Fleece (while the same word can also refer to the contests of athletes on the level of ritual)

comment on aethlos at P.04.220 referring to Jason’s plowing of a large field with a pair of fire-breathing bronze bulls, a mortally dangerous task imposed on him by King Aietes as a precondition for the hero’s possessing the Golden Fleece

example of the word ponos (ἐξεπόνησεν) designating the life-and-death struggles of heroes (in this case, Jason’s task of plowing with the bronze bulls)

comment on the word ponos applying to the ordeal of slaying the dragon that was guarding the Golden Fleece, and not only to the feat of plowing

example of the word ponos designating the life-and-death struggles of the heroes (in this case, Jason’s task of fighting to the death a monstrous dragon after plowing with the bronze bulls)

comment on aethlos at P.04.220 referring to Jason’s fighting to the death a monstrous dragon that was guarding the Golden Fleece, a mortally dangerous task imposed on him by King Aietes as a precondition for the hero’s possessing the Fleece

Among the many landmarks of the mystical topography of Colonus that we see described in this most remarkable passage, I highlight a rock that is called by the name of Thorikios Petros at line 1595 of Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus. The meaning of this place-name is complex. The noun petros means ‘rock’ or ‘stone’, while the adjective thorikios is derived from the verb thrōiskein, which means both ‘leap’ and ‘emit semen’. I quote here an antiquarian report about the relevant myth:

Others say that, in the vicinity of the rocks at Athenian Colonus [Kolōnos], he [Poseidon], falling asleep, had an emission of semen, and a horse named Skuphios came out, who is also named Skīrōnitēs.

Scholia for Lycophron 766

ἄλλοι δέ φασιν ὅτι καὶ περὶ τοὺς πέτρους τοῦ ἐν Ἀθήναις Κολωνοῦ καθευδήσας ἀπεσπέρμηνε καὶ ἵππος Σκύφιος ἐξῆλθεν ὁ καὶ Σκιρωνίτης λεγόμενος.

There are other versions of the myth that are tied to places other than Colonus. Here is an example:

Poseidon Petraios [‘of the rocks’] has a cult among the Thessalians ... because he, having fallen asleep at some rock, had an emission of semen; and the earth, receiving the semen, produced the first horse, whom they called Skuphios. ... And they say that there was a festival established in worship of Poseidon Petraios at the spot where the first horse leapt forth.

Scholia for Pindar Pythian 4.246

analysis of the theme of reciprocity between the kleos of heroes in the past or of patrons in the present on one hand and the kleos of poets from past to present: in Pindaric diction the idealized poet of the past can be represented as 'Homer' while the implicit poet of the present is Pindar

example of the word pherō meaning 'win as a prize'

comment on the expression αὔξεται καὶ Μοῖσα referring not only to the poetry (in the broadest sense, including song), but also to the subject of the poetry, due to the emphatic placement of καὶ

comment on the verb mūtheomai ('say'), derivative of mūthos, being less susceptible than mūthos to negative implications

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

comment on the concept of Herakleidai ('Heraclids') as the basic lineage of the Dorian royal dynasties

comment on the concept of Herakleidai ('Heraclids') as the basic lineage of the Dorian royal dynasties

comment on the Hērakleidai ('sons of Herakles') representing the ancestors of the Dorian dynasties who took over the major political centers of the Peloponnesus in the Dark Age

comment on the Aigeidai representing the patriliny of Pindar

comment on Pindar’s self-reference by mentioning the Aigeidai, a lineage originating in Thebes and extending into important offshoots at Sparta and its colonies (including Thera and Cyrene)

comment on the Aigeidai (representing Pindar’s patriliny) described as participating in the colonization of Thera, from where the polis of Cyrene was in turn colonized [MRBTP: 'ff']

reference to Segal (1986) analyzing the relationship between dead ancestors and the athletic victors whose deeds are witnessed by them

Pindar’s Pythian 6 is one of the earliest attested compositions attributed to this poet. Highlighted in Pindar’s song here is the grand epic moment when the youthful hero Antilokhos gives up his own life for his father Nestor after the old hero gets entangled in his chariot—and is just seconds away from getting killed by the hero Memnon, whose onrush is now thwarted by the dutiful son. Antilokhos gets killed while rescuing his father, and the song of Pindar goes on to praise the young hero’s filial piety by holding it up as a model for Thrasyboulos, son of Xenokrates of Akragas. The father’s chariot team was winner of the four-horse chariot race in 490 BCE at the Pythian Festival in Delphi. In the comments that follow, we will see that the chariot driver may well have been Thrasyboulos himself, as signaled by way of a gesture: he is pictured as crowning himself with a garland of victory. A parallel gesture is noted by Malcolm Bell in his study of a most celebrated marble statue known today as the Motya Charioteer.

It seems fashionable, I must add, for modern literary critics to doubt an ancient report about Thrasyboulos, transmitted in the scholia for Pindar (at Pythian 6.15 ed. Drachmann), where we read that some interpreters thought that this young man was actually the driver of the victorious four-horse chariot of his father, while others thought that the victorious charioteer was not Thrasyboulos but an Athenian named Nikomakhos, whom we see being praised elsewhere as the driver of the victorious four-horse team of Xenokrates, in Pindar Isthmian 2.22. Elsewhere in the scholia (at Pythian6.13 ed. Drachmann), it is noted elliptically that Thrasyboulos was somehow in charge (ἐπιστατεῖ) of the chariot team competing in the Pythian chariot race (τῶν ἱππικῶν ἀγώνων).

Motya charioteer. As noted by Bell (1995:22), “During the sack of Akragas in 406 [BCE], the Carthaginians will not have looked kindly” at monuments glorifying the city’s former rulers, and “this may have been the moment when the face and the genitals of the sculpture were intentionally damaged.” Image via Wikimedia Commons.

My comments on this song of Pindar, Pythian 6, which celebrates the victory of a four-horse chariot team sponsored by Xenokrates of Akragas in the chariot race of 490 BCE at the Pythian Festival in Delphi, will be tied to other comments, planned for further postings, on four other songs of Pindar: Olympian 2 and 3; Isthmian 2; and a skolion addressed to Thrasyboulos (Fragment 124). All five songs are relevant to the Emmenidai, a lineage of tyrants who ruled in various cities of Sicily in the early fifth century BCE. The figure of Thrasyboulos, son of Xenokrates, is of special relevance. Even the name of Thrasyboulos is relevant to the glory that is being conferred on him by the medium of Pindar. The element thrasu+ ‘bold’ of his name conveys the idea of impulsiveness in action, while the element +boulos ‘planning’ conveys the idea of restraint by way of deliberation before taking action. I argue that the original naming of Thrasyboulos by his family had already programmed him from birth to be modeled on the epic hero Antilokhos, who once upon a time followed the advice of his father Nestor by acting in a way that combined impulsiveness and restraint on the occasion of driving Nestor’s chariot in the Chariot Race as narrated in Iliad 23: first Antilokhos acted impulsively by executing a reckless maneuver in overtaking the chariot team of Menelaos, but then he acted with admirable restraint by not losing his temper when the older man insulted him in anger over a loss that was rightly blamed on the recklessness of the younger man: instead, Antilokhos engaged in wise deliberation, resulting in a coming to terms with Menelaos. I have published in other comments an analysis of this narrative about Antilokhos. The poetic paradigm of Antilokhos as a model for Thrasyboulos applies also to the fatal occasion, narrated at P.6.28–51, when Antilokhos impulsively rescues the life of his own father by neglecting to deliberate within himself about his own safety. The death of Antilokhos, as narrated here , was also narrated in a part of the epic Cycle, the Aithiopis, attributed to Arctinus of Miletus, as we read in the plot-summary of Proclus p. 106 lines 4–6 (ed. Allen 1912). And there is a passing reference to the death of Antilokhos in O.04.186–188. I have published elsewhere an analysis of the overall narrative about this heroic. The death of Antilokhos was narrated also in the visual arts. A most striking example is a battle scene depicted in the relief sculpture of the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi, where we see Achilles battling with Memnon and Aeneas over the possession of the dead body of Antilokhos. I show here a reconstructed version of that relief sculpture, featuring a close-up of the fighting over the dead hero’s body. In this particular reconstruction, an attempt has been made to restore the original colors painted on the stone.

East Frieze detail representing the battle of Troy, Achilles against Memnon. Reproduction of the Treasury of Siphnos. Delphi, Archaeological Museum of Delphi. Image via Wikimedia Commons.The expression ὕμνων θησαυρός ‘treasury [thēsauros] of songs [humnoi]’ at P.6.7–8, referring to the songs that glorify Xenokrates and the whole lineage of the Emmenidai, is surely relevant to the relief sculpture of the Siphnian Treasury at Delphi, which as we have just seen accentuates the death scene of Antilokhos. Just as the verbal art of song memorializes this heroic death in Pythian 6, so too the visual art of relief sculpture memorializes it on the exterior surface of the Siphnian Treasury. A ‘treasury of songs’, revealing a poetic architecture of its own, corresponds to the songs that are visualized in the relief sculpture of the Siphnian Treasury. On this point, I recommend the article of Kenneth D. Shapiro (1988) about the relief sculpture adorning the Treasury of the Siphnians at Delphi.

comment on the song, in honoring the young charioteer Thrasyboulos, establishing a direct connection between the noos of Thrasyboulos and that of Antilokhos

example of a composition in which the victorious man of the present (Thrasyboulos) is said by Pindar’s lyric poetry to be repeating the patterns of the ancestors by virtue of repeating the patterns of the heroes

example of the potential close relationship between a man’s name and his kleos as conferred by epinician lyric poetry: the very identity of the victor – Thrasuboulos (thrasu– implying rashness or impetuousness and –boulos implying deliberation or wise counsel) – was planned, from birth onward by virtue of his name, so as for the individual to participate in the epic themes of the Antilokhos story (who behaved, in accordance with his father Nestor’s advice, both impulsively and prudently); in the case of Thrasyboulos this implies success in the chariot races in the Games and immortalization by epinician lyric poetry, which formalizes such success

The lineage of the Emmenidai is described as olbioi ‘blessed’: this word, in the context of Pindar’s songs of praise, is to be taken in a transcendent sense, referring not so much to wealth as to a state of ‘blessedness’ conferred by way of mental contact with the world of heroes.

In these lines, P.6.14–27, Thrasyboulos is pictured as a charioteer for his father Xenokrates; in the lines that follow, P.6.28–51, the chariot team of Xenokrates is linked with the chariot team of Nestor, who is rescued by his charioteer son Antilokhos. At a later point in the comments here, I will be translating those lines literally. As we will see at the end of those lines, at P.6.50–51, the picturing of Thrasyboulos as a charioteer is repeated and enhanced: the young man is described in those lines as someone who is most pleasing to Poseidon in that god’s function as lord of chariot racing. The earlier picturing of Thrasyboulos at P.6.14–27 as a charioteer is reconstructed in an incisive article by Malcolm Bell (1995) on the basis of a comparison he makes with a gesture made by the marble statue known as the Motya Charioteer. Bell (1995:9) argues persuasively that the Motya Charioteer is pictured in the act of placing a garland of victory on his head:

“The position of the missing right forearm and hand should therefore be associated with the four bronze nails in the cranium, the placement of which in a tilted plane shows that they were intended to hold in place a circular object around the head at the point of its greatest diameter. This missing object can best be explained as a wreath, held or touched by the raised right hand.”Motya charioteer. From this angle, we can see most clearly the gesture of raising the right hand. Image via Wikimedia Commons.Bell (again, 1995:9) goes on to argue that the same gesture is pictured in the verbal art of Pindar at P.6.19: σύ τοι σχεθών νιν ἐπὶ δεξιὰ χειρός. The wording here can be interpreted this way: ‘but you [= Thrasyboulos], holding it [νιν] in your right hand’, where the pronoun νιν would refer to a garland of victory that is indicated earlier at P.6.17 by way of the wording εὔδοξον ἅρματι νίκαν ‘glorious victory-by-chariot’. In the light of Bell’s explanation, I now distance myself from the interpretation I preferred in PH 208 = 7§10, where I took the pronoun νιν as referring to the father of Thrasyboulos, indicated earlier at P.6.15 by way of the wording πατρὶ τεῷ ‘your father’: thus ‘but you [= Thrasyboulos], keeping him [νιν] at your right hand’, as if the charioteer were standing together with his father on the platform of the chariot. (Elsewhere too in Pindaric diction, νιν can refer to an inanimate antecedent, as for example at P.4.109, P.4.242, P.5.6, P.9.80). In sum, I now agree with Bell’s argument that the verbal art of Pindar shows Thrasyboulos in the act of crowning himself with a garland of victory—just as the Motya charioteer is crowning himself. I should add, however, that Bell refrains from arguing that the marble statue of the Motya charioteer is a representation of Thrasyboulos himself.

context for the interpretation of P.06.019 according to which Thrasyboulos is pictured as driving the victorious chariot while his father is riding on the right

The genre of paraeneis ‘advice’ (by way of song/poetry) applies not only to the moral lessons directed by the Centaur Cheiron at the hero Achilles but also to the moral lessons in song/poetry as directed by Pindar at those who are patrons of his songmaking.

The sēma, ‘sign’, given by Nestor to Antilokhos (Iliad 23.326) points not only to the immediate epic narrative about the chariot race in honor of Patroklos but also to an ulterior epic narrative mentioned in the epic Cycle (plot-summary by Proclus of the Aithiopis by Arctinus of Miletus): in this narrative, best attested in a retelling by Pindar (Pythian 6.28-42), Antilokhos himself dies in a chariot fight, giving up his own life while saving the life of his father Nestor, whose chariot had been immobilized. Once again we see the mentality of choosing to die for someone else: I will die for you. For Antilokhos, then, the highest point in his ascending scale of affection proves to be his immediate ancestor, that is, his father. And, in the master Narrative of the Iliad, such a ranking is relevant to Patroklos himself, since, as we have seen, the name Patrokleēs means ‘the one who has the glory [kleos] of the ancestors [pateres]’.

comment on Antilokhos becoming a therapon, a ritual substitute for Nestor, the way Patroklos was for Achilles: he not only drives the chariot for his father but also rescues the old man from death by giving up his own life when Nestor’s chariot is immobilized

[[See translation above]]

The relevance of this death scene to Pindar’s song of praise for the chariot victory celebrated by his patrons, Xenokrates and Thrasyboulos, is signaled the expression νόημα τοῦτο φέρων ‘who wins-as-a-prize [pherein] this thought [noēma]’ here at P.6.29, which applies both to Thrasyboulos as patron and to that young man’s model Antilokhos as hero, just as the expression λόγον φέρεις ‘you win-as-a prize the wording [logos]’ at P.8.38 applies both to Aristomenes as patron and to his model Alkmaion as hero (PH 193–196 = 6§86–88). The thinking of Thrasyboulos is also expressed by way of the related word nóos ‘mind, thought, thinking’ at P.6.49 and P.6.51. So, the thinking of the hero Antilokhos and the thinking of the patron Thrasyboulos are fused in the medium of Pindar, and, in this way, the patron of Pindar can be “channelling,” as it were, the identity of the hero who is his model even by way of the name Thrasyboulos, the meaning of which replicates, as I have been arguing, the heroic nature of Antilokhos. The name of the patron Thrasyboulos, which signals implicitly the heroic idea of matching boldness and restraint as exemplified by Antilokhos, comes to life in Pythian 6, where the patron is explicitly praised in song for following the example set by the hero Antilokhos. And, by following such a heroic example, he fits into an ancestral paradigm that is politically as well as poetically constructed by the lineage of the Emmenidai. In general, the paradigm of heroes who are celebrated in epic is connected in Pindar’s songmaking with the paradigm of ancestors who are venerated by the patrons celebrated in his songmaking. This way, Pindar’s medium celebrates the heroes as well as his own patrons and their ancestors.

We may compare πλοῦτον ἄγει ‘he brings [agein] wealth [ploutos]’ here with ψυχὰν κομίξαι … δέρμα τε κριοῦ … ἄγειν ‘to rescue [komizein] the life-force [psūkhē] and to bring [agein] the fleece of the ram’ at Pindar Pythian 4.159. The materialism here is of the transcendent kind, as noted in the comment at P.6.5.

example of a quasityrant as Pindar’s patron: Megakles of Athens, of the geneā ('lineage') of the Alkmaionidai, whose oikos ('house') and patrā ('lineage') are pointedly referred to in the ode

comment on Megakles of the Alkmaionidai, celebrated by the composition of Pindar for a chariot victory at the Pythian Games in Delphi at 486 B.C., whose father was a younger brother of Kleisthenes the Reformer and who was ostracized from Athens the same year he won at the Pythian Games

comment on the subject of praise in Pindar’s composition being the same figure (Megakles of the Alkmaionidai) as the one whose sēma ('tomb') is marked by an epigram by Simonides (EG 75)

comment on the allusive use of the word phthonos ('envy') to refer to the ostracism and exile of the victor Megakles, in the context of the analysis of the lineage of the Alkmaionidai that was notoriously suspect of potential tyranny

comment on the last securely datable poem of Pindar, composed for performance in 446 B.C.

example of a composition in which the victorious man of the present (Aristomenes) is said by Pindar’s lyric poetry to be repeating the patterns of the ancestors by virtue of repeating the patterns of the heroes

summary of Chapter 7

comment on the last securely datable poem of Pindar, composed for performance in 446 B.C.

comment on the phrase λόγον φέρεις ('you win as a prize the words') applying to Aristomenes as well as to his model Alkmaion; comparison with a similar expression in P.06.029, applying to Thrasyboulos as well as to his model Antilokhos

comment on the phrase λόγον φέρεις ('you win as a prize the words') applying to Aristomenes as well as to his model Alkmaion; comparison with a similar expression in P.06.029, applying to Thrasyboulos as well as to his model Antilokhos

comment on Aristomenes winning as a prize (verb pherō) the words (logos) of Amphiaraos spoken about his son Alkmaion by the extension of the stories of heroes into the present, where a contemporary deed is implicitly worthy of the kleos that the heroes had earned through the klea andrōn

analysis of the notion that by upholding the values of the epic heroes the victor is represented as simultaneously upholding the values of his own immediate ancestors: Pindar’s praise of the victorious Aristomenes for the glory that he has conferred upon his immediate ancestors, the lineage of Medulidai, is echoed in the words of a dead hero Amphiaraos about the martial victories of his son Alkmaion

analysis of the honor conferred by the words of poetry in an unbroken continuum extending from the world of heroes to the world of the here and now, thereby 'making great' (auxō) the immediate ancestry (pateres) that produced the subject of the poetry who has performed a glorious deed

comment on the words of Amphiaraos about his son Alkmaion, and by extension the present victor Aristomenes, taking the form of an ainos (αἰνίξατο)

interpretation of the lines spoken by Amphiaraos in the context of the theme of epiphany of pateres, where the word pateres means not only 'fathers' but also 'ancestors'

example of the elliptic plural, a grammatical formation where plurality consists not of A+A+A+A . . . but of A+B+C+D . . ., and where A is the defining and dominant principle, while B+C+D . . . are extensions thereof: the plural of patēr ('father'), pateres in the sense of 'ancestors' consists of a primordial father followed by an unbroken succession of fathers

comment on Pindar’s songs at times representing the heroic past as literally intervening into the present through the epiphany of a hero, in this case when the poet says that he 'met' the hero Alkmaion on the way to Delphi; in such a context the poet is possessed by the epiphany, in that the intent of his words is controlled by the spirit of the hero

comment on the kleos given by the poet ultimately being the kleos given by the hero in the sense that the hero is the source of inspiration to the poet: Pindar’s recounting of his epiphanic experience, on his way to Delphi, of the hero Alkmaion in effect equates the hero’s message and the poet’s message

comment on the voice of the poet, in claiming that he 'met' the hero Alkmaion on the way to Delphi, in effect saying that he experienced an epiphany of the hero, which is the inspiration of his of own words

citation of Kurke (1988) on Pindar’s mystical encounter with the epiphany of the hero Alkmaion as 'both a transition and a source of inspiration for this song'

reference to Kurke (1988) pointing out that the oracle of Alkmaion, which that hero had inherited from his father Amphiaraos, is parallel to the oracle of Diagoras in Olympian 7, which is the wisdom of his ancestors

analysis of the connection between the concepts of ploutos ('wealth') and habros ('luxuriant') as related to the victor in the Games: the luxuriance conveyed by habros can apply not only to the victor’s ploutos, which in itself is transient, but also to the praise that he gets from song, which is transcendent; in the context of such transcendent luxuriance, elpis ('aspiration') makes the victor’s thoughts soar beyond mere ploutos

comparison of the expression ἔχων κρέσσονα πλούτου μέριμναν ('with his ambition beyond material wealth') with the expression πλοῦτος ... ὑπέχων μέριμναν ἁβροτέραν ('wealth ... supporting an ambition that is more luxuriant') at O.002.053-56, in the context of the analysis of the connection between the concepts of ploutos ('wealth') and habros ('luxuriant') as related to the victor in the Games; in both expressions merimna ('concern') is interpreted as 'ambition' rather than 'worry'

interpretation of the expression skiās onar ('dream of a shade') as a recapitulation of the earlier words of the dead Amphiaraos about his living son (P.08.043-044): since in Homeric usage the word skiā ('shade') can designate a dead person, the shade of the dead person is literally dreaming - that is, realizing through its dreams – the living person; the occasion of victory in a mortal’s day-to-day lifetime is that singular moment when the dark insubstantiality of an ancestor’s shade is translated, through its dreams, into the shining life-force (aiōn, 097) of the victor in full possession of victory, radiant with the brightness of Zeus (096)

In the poetics of Greek myth, the identity or non-identity of a hero matches the presence or absence of light: in the words of Pindar (Pythian 8.95–97), the difference between being tis, ‘someone’, and being ou tis, ‘no one’, becomes visible when a burst of light and life coming from Zeus himself illuminates the void of darkness and death.

|95 Creatures of a day. What is a someone, what is a no one? Α dream of a shade |96 is man. But when the radiance [aiglē] that is given by Zeus comes, |97 then there is a light shining over men, and the recircling of time [aiōn] is sweet to the taste. |98 Aegina! Mother near and dear [philē]! Make a [naval] mission [stolos] of freedom |99 for this polis [= the island state of Aegina] as you bring it back to safety [komizein], back to Zeus! May it happen with the help of Aiakos the Ruler. |100 And of Peleus. And of noble Telamon. And especially of Achilles.

Pindar Pythian 8.95-100

The land of this island, named after the local goddess Aegina, is invoked here as the Mother Earth of the island’s population. This reverent invocation of Mother Aegina is a pointed reference to the glorious past of the island state, likewise called Aegina, as a major maritime power in the Mediterranean world. In a gesture of sacred nostalgia, the people of Aegina are represented here as praying to their mother goddess to send for them ‘a [naval] mission of freedom’, an eleutheros stolos (line 98), which is to be activated by the superhuman help of the prototypical native son of Aegina, the hero Aiakos (line 99), and of his heroic descendants, namely Peleus, Telamon, and ‘especially’ Achilles (line 100).

The aiglē or ‘radiance’ of Zeus in line 96 of this song is imagined as the power of song to visualize this radiance. And the light that comes from Zeus is envisioned as a clear sky that follows a spell of fearsome darkness for sailors beset by a storm at sea. Such a salvation from darkness and death is expressed by the use of the word aiglē, ‘radiance’, in line 140 of Ode 13 of Bacchylides, which signals the cessation of violent winds and the ultimate salvation of the Achaeans.

The word komizein at line 99 of this song, which I translate as ‘bring back to safety’, can be interpreted in the mystical sense of ‘bring back to light and life’, parallel to the mystical sense of the noun nostos, ‘return to light and life’. This meaning connects with the meaning of aiōn at line 97 in the sense of an eternally recycling and luminous ‘life-force’. The adverb aiei, ‘forever’, is the old locative singular of the noun aiōn in the sense of a ‘life’ or a ‘life-force’ that keeps coming back to life by way of a ‘recircling of time’, and this locative aiei means literally ‘in a recircling of time’, signaling an eternal return.

comment on the ultimate voice of authority belonging to the god of the Oracle at Delphi, whose supreme vantage point confers upon him the knowledge of all things, even the precise number of all grains of sand in the universe

example of Pindar’s diction revealing an ideology according to which he, like a seer, has a lofty vantage point of knowledge, expressed in the concept of koruphē ('culmination, summing up')

comment on the Pindaric victory ode being a formal compensation (in the form of the poet’s ponos) for the athlete’s ordeal (ponos), which in turn is the athlete’s compensation for a primordial death

comment on the notion of 'assemble' being intrinsic to the general sense of agōn, that is, 'assembly'

comment on the notion of 'assemble' being intrinsic to the general sense of agōn, that is, 'assembly'

As for the opposite of dikē, which is hubris, I have already noted that this word is conventionally translated as ‘outrage’. But this translation does not capture adequately the metaphorical world of hubris as the opposite of dikē in the sense of ‘justice’. To understand in more depth the meaning of hubris as the opposite of dikē, I propose to outline the contexts in which we find the word hubris, and I divide these contexts into the realms of (1) humans (2) animals (3) plants. In the human realm, hubris refers to acts that provoke a sense of moral outrage, which calls for a response by humans and gods alike, and the response can take the form of social and cosmic sanctions respectively; in the Odyssey, for example, hubris refers frequently to the behavior of the suitors of Penelope (1.368 and so on). As for the realm of animals, hubris refers more simply to any behavior that is violent (Herodotus 1.189) or sexual (as in Pindar Pythian 10.36) - though such behavior extends of course from animals to humans. As for the realm of plants, hubris refers to excessive productivity in one aspect of the plant, to the detriment of other aspects: for example, in the case of fruit-bearing trees and shrubs, hubris would result in the excessive production of wood or of leaves at the expense of the fruit itself.

example of the concept of agathoi, those who are intrinsically 'noble' by virtue of having been raised on proper ethical standards, which are the message encoded in the poetry, especially in the medium of ainos

example of the word patrā taking on the default meaning of 'homeland,' in contrast to Aeginetan contexts in which it always means 'patriliny'

comment on the brief description of Troy, in the context of its ultimate doom, with words that convey the sensuality of both the city and the woman on whose account it was destroyed

comment on the name of a victor’s father, Puthonīkos ('he who has victory at the Pythian games') as intended to be formalized by the success in the Games and immortalized by epinician lyric poetry

comparison of the language that espouses sensuality (ἐραίμαν καλῶν, 'I lust for beauty') with that of Sappho F 58.25-26 V

comment on the single attested Pindaric instance where the song explicitly warns against tyranny, but does so while all along promoting the ideals of moderation in a language that clearly espouses sensuality

example of Pindar’s epinician lyric poetry praising the reality of victor and warning against the potential of tyranny due to a pervasive thematic parallelism between the reality of an athlete’s victory and the potential of a tyrant’s power

comment on the use of the word turannis ('tyranny') in a clearly negative sense