Search engine for discovering works of Art, research articles, and books related to Art and Culture
Javascript must be enabled to continue!
Pindar's First Pythian: The Fire Within
View through CrossRef
‘If you speak at the right length, winding together the strands of many themes into one, the reproach of men will be less' (ll. 81-82). And in truth Pindar's First Pythian is filled with complex and conflicting elements twisted into a tightly knit pattern of myth, metaphor, advice, and historical allusion. The listener moves from celestial harmony to the volcano of Aitna, from the sack of Troy to the founding of a new city. He witnesses the battle of Cumae and the strivings of a tyrant for immortal fame. He is lulled to sleep by the lyre, startled awake by grim Typhon and the barbarians of Carthage, made to feel compassion for the sick Philoktetes, and confronted with the incarnate evil of a man who burned his enemies to death in a bronze bull. Yet at the same time, in counterpoint to this rapid succession of images, Pindar polarizes basic themes — music and discord, peace and pain, chaos and foundation — over the widest range his poetry will allow.
Title: Pindar's First Pythian: The Fire Within
Description:
‘If you speak at the right length, winding together the strands of many themes into one, the reproach of men will be less' (ll.
81-82).
And in truth Pindar's First Pythian is filled with complex and conflicting elements twisted into a tightly knit pattern of myth, metaphor, advice, and historical allusion.
The listener moves from celestial harmony to the volcano of Aitna, from the sack of Troy to the founding of a new city.
He witnesses the battle of Cumae and the strivings of a tyrant for immortal fame.
He is lulled to sleep by the lyre, startled awake by grim Typhon and the barbarians of Carthage, made to feel compassion for the sick Philoktetes, and confronted with the incarnate evil of a man who burned his enemies to death in a bronze bull.
Yet at the same time, in counterpoint to this rapid succession of images, Pindar polarizes basic themes — music and discord, peace and pain, chaos and foundation — over the widest range his poetry will allow.
Related Results
Amphiaraos As Alkman: Compositional Strategy and Mythological Innovation in Pindar's Pythian 8.39-60
Amphiaraos As Alkman: Compositional Strategy and Mythological Innovation in Pindar's Pythian 8.39-60
AbstractIt is argued that Amphiaraos' prophecy in Pindar's eighth Pythian takes place not at the time of the second expedition against Thebes, but at the moment of his heroisation,...
Op dit geslacht beroem ik mij: Imitaties van Pindarus in het vroege werk van Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer
Op dit geslacht beroem ik mij: Imitaties van Pindarus in het vroege werk van Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer
Pindar is the most difficult poet in the Western tradition. That is what the author Ilja Leonard Pfiejffer would like us to believe to make a point about his own abilities. He is t...
Didymos of Alexandria - Commentary on Pindar
Didymos of Alexandria - Commentary on Pindar
Modern studies of Pindar have largely neglected ancient scholarship on the poet. This is not entirely by chance, since the almost 1000 pages of the scholia vetera on the odes presu...
What is your Lot?
What is your Lot?
A novel interpretation of the underworld narrative of Pindar’s Olympian 2, which moves away from the established approach that seeks to separate and define specific religious/culti...
Horace, Pindar, Iullus Antonius, and Augustus: Odes 4. 2
Horace, Pindar, Iullus Antonius, and Augustus: Odes 4. 2
Abstract
Odes 4. 2 hasreceived much critical attention,1 owing to several evident difficulties. First, what docs it mean for Horace to reject imitation of Pindar in ...
The poet Pindar and Lydian Pelops
The poet Pindar and Lydian Pelops
Although by the fifth century B.C. the myth of Pelops was very well-known among Greeks, and especially in the Peloponnese, versions of the myth differed on where he came from, and ...
The Hymn to Delos and Callimachus’ Blame of Thebes
The Hymn to Delos and Callimachus’ Blame of Thebes
Abstract
This article seeks to explain Callimachus’ blame of Thebes in the Hymn to Delos, arguing that Callimachus uses Apollo as a mouthpiece to voice the goals of his poetic proj...
Ajax in Aegina
Ajax in Aegina
This chapter focuses on the reception of Ajax in ancient Aegina. The whole argument of the chapter rests on the assumption that Ajax was imbued with a strong political significance...