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 the academic smart enough to understand Pindar, and the poet learned enough to quote him. Pindaric roots run deep in Pfeijffer’s early poetic and essayistic work. This article aims to map this reception. First I focus on Pfeijffer’s essayistic works that use Pindar’s reputation as a difficult poet as a mirror for a poetics of obscuritas. To better understand how this difficulty is engaged, I turn towards George Steiners (1978) fourfold model of literary difficulty. We see that Pindar and Pfeijffer both prefer a mode of tactical difficulty, with preference for obscure references and difficult language. I explore these findings with a close reading of the poem ‘Pindaros. Dertiende Pythische ode’.