Owed to the winner

Pindarou Olympia, Pythia, Nemea, Isthmia (Pindar's Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian Odes). Printed in Geneva by Paul Estienne in 1599. Lower Library, G.1.44

Pindar (c. 518 BCE – c. 438 BCE) was a Greek lyric poet born in Boeotia, on the outskirts of Thebes. His poetry was historically arranged into seventeen books, of which four were comprised of epinikia, or victory odes. These have survived into the modern day almost intact, although sadly much of his other work has been lost. The four books of epinikia are divided by the games at which each victory was achieved: Olympic (at Olympia, every four years), Pythian (at Delphi, every four years), Isthmian (at the Isthmus of Corinth, every two years) and Nemean (at Nemea, every two years). These were the four major Panhellenic festivals, spread throughout the Olympiad (the period from one set of Olympic games to the next). Many other, smaller athletic contests also occurred throughout the Greek world; the final odes in the book of the Nemean victories actually celebrate victories elsewhere.

Pindar’s victory odes are as beautiful as they are challenging to read. To a modern audience they seem to resist the one thing which might be expected of them: they do not describe in detail the victory they are praising, nor the victor himself. Instead they swerve through myth, praise, and prayer, blending metaphor with athletic feats. Various critics have described them as “not straightforward,”¹ having “baffled readers,”² and being “notoriously difficult to understand.”³ Compressed sentences, poetic language and complex metres allow Pindar to create vivid images quickly and convey multiple meanings at once.

These victory odes were composed to be sung to a backing of lyres and pipes, with a choreographed dance performance. These performances most likely occurred at a later date, as part of the celebrations in the victor’s home city.⁴ As with many aspects of the ancient world, the specifics of this are unclear. Whether there was a singular singer or a chorus is debated, although a chorus seems likely. Were the chorus and the dancers the same people, or separate? Were dances performed for even the shortest of the odes?

Here we share an excerpt of “Olympian Ode 1”, which was written to celebrate the victory of Hieron in the single-horse race in 476 BC. The ode opens as follows:

Just as water is the best of all elements, just as gold is
more precious than any other good, just as the sun
outshines every other star, so Olympia puts all other
Games in its shade by its brilliance.⁵

There were many editions of Pindar’s work published in the sixteenth century. The edition in our exhibition, published 1599, contains the Greek text with a parallel Latin translation. An English translation is freely available in Tufts University’s .

Fair play << Owed to the winner >> Roads to victory

Stephen Instone, preface to Selected Odes, by Pindar, ed. Stephen Instone (Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1996), vii.
Jacqueline de Romilly, A Short History of Greek Literature, trans. Lillian Doherty. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), 38.
William Race, introduction to Olympian Odes. Pythian Odes, by Pindar, ed. and trans. William H. Race (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 2.
Instone, introduction to Selected Odes, 13.
Pindar, Olympian Odes, 1.1–8. Translation from Girolamo Mercuriale, De Arte Gymnastica, ed. Concetta Pennuto, trans. Vivian Nutton (Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, 2008).