Pindar

Pindar of Thebes was born in around 520BC and is said to have lived to the age of eighty. An author of various genres of lyric poetry he is most famous for his odes which celebrate victors in the athletic games, such as those at Olympia, Delphi (the Pythian Games), Nemea and Corinth (the Isthmian Games), around a quarter of which survive, numbering over forty. These epinician (‘on victory’) odes vary in length but generally celebrate the victor and his family and include a mythical section which forms a comparison, message or warning to the victor in religious allegory. His work was considered by other ancient authors to be unrivalled (Horace Odes 4.2 and Quintilian  Inst. Or. 10.1.61).

 

Olympians | Pythians

Nemeans | Isthmians

Olympians

Olympians 10.1-12 | For Hagesidamos
Contributed by Nigel Nicholson

Olympians 1.1-13 | Hieron’s Olympic Victory
Contributed by Chris Childers

 

 

Pythians

Pythians 1.1-12 | For Hieron of Syracuse
Contributed by Chris Childers

Pythians 8.88-100 | For Aristomenes
Contributed by Chris Childers