4. Nemean 5: Peleus’ Wedding Song

Abstract This chapter examines Nemean 5, a wedding song and the first surviving ode written by Pindar for an Aiginetan, commissioned by a nobleman named Lampon for his son Pytheas. Lampon takes a close interest in the making of athletes and has hired one of the best teachers of the day, Menander of Athens, to supervise the training of his sons. Now, though not yet fifteen, Pytheas has crossed to Nemea and won in the pankration, a brutal mixture of boxing and wrestling in which almost any move was permitted. The boy has rescued his father's house from athletic obscurity, but his flair for victory comes from the maternal family. Other odes announce their purpose with an opening invocation, a wise generality, or an elaborated simile, but the chorus of Nemean 5 begins with a negative boast that defines its function and ends the Isthmian celebrations with inferential praise of the bride Thetis.