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Pindar's First Pythian Ode is an ancient Greek epinicion praising Hiero of Syracuse for a victory in the Pythian Games. It was to be sung at a grand musical festival, celebrating Hiero of Syracuse's achievements and the founding of the new city, Aetna. Most of Pindar's signature characteristics and signature style appear in this poem.
In his first Pythian ode, composed in 470 BC in honour of the Sicilian tyrant Hieron, Pindar celebrated a series of victories by Greeks against foreign invaders: Athenian and Spartan-led victories against Persia at Salamis and Plataea, and victories by the western Greeks led by Theron of Acragas and Hieron against the Carthaginians and ...
He won the chariot race at Delphi in 470 BC (a victory celebrated in Pindar's first Pythian ode) and at Olympia in 468 BC (this, his greatest victory, was commemorated in Bacchylides' third victory ode). Other odes dedicated to him include Pindar's first Olympian Ode, his second and third Pythian odes, and Bacchylides' fourth and fifth victory ...
The ode begins with a priamel, where the rival distinctions of water and gold are introduced as a foil to the true prize, the celebration of victory in song. [7] Ring-composed, [8] Pindar returns in the final lines to the mutual dependency of victory and poetry, where "song needs deeds to celebrate, and success needs songs to make the areta last". [9]
The battle was later honored in Pindar's first Pythian Ode. [4] [6] [7] Cumae acropolis seen from lower city. References
It also allowed the dates of three of Pindar's odes, which had previously been disputed, to be determined precisely. The papyrus also dated Pindar's First Olympian Ode and the Fifth ode of Bacchylides. This papyrus proved that Bacchylides was alive as late as 452 BC, when the latest previously known date was 468 BC.
The ode is compared to a loving-cup (1–10), presented to the bridegroom by the father of the bride. [3] Even as the cup is the pledge of loving wedlock, so is the poet's song an earnest of abiding fame, but Charis, the gracious goddess of the epinician ode, looks with favour, now on one, now on another (10–12). [ 3 ]
In addition to epinikia, a victorious athlete might be honored with a statue, as with this charioteer found at Delphi, probably a champion driver at the Pythian Games. The epinikion or epinicion (pl.: epinikia or epinicia, Greek ἐπινίκιον, from epi-, "on", + nikê, "victory") is a genre of occasional poetry also known in English as a victory ode.