Pindar, << PIHN duhr >> (522?-443 B.C.), was the greatest lyric poet of ancient Greece. He is generally credited with inventing the Pindaric ode. This type of ode is built of three stanzas–the strophe, antistrophe, and epode–repeated in series. Pindar wrote these stately, intricate poems in praise of various events, such as an athletic victory at the great national games.
Pindar’s odes were intended for elaborate performance, with music and dance, when the victor returned to his native city. They are unlike other poetry, except for some choral lyrics in the tragedies of the dramatist Aeschylus. Standard elements include praise of the victor, often combined with veiled advice; the telling of a myth; and praise of the gods. The odes are perfect in form and beautiful in their intricate language, but lose much in translation. Most of Pindar’s other poetry was lost.
Pindar was born of a noble family in Cynoscephalae near Thebes. His fame was so great that when Alexander the Great burned Thebes to the ground, Pindar’s house was the only one spared. Pindar was a deeply religious man who wrote of the immortality of the soul and judgment by the gods after death. In politics, he was conservative and antidemocratic.
