Pindar

Pindar was an ancient Greek poet. His surviving victory odes praise named winners at the games of Olympia, Delphi, Nemea and Isthmia. Myth is part of each poem’s praise. He chooses between rival stories, changes what he thinks improper and links the victory to heroes and to the winner’s city. This makes Pindar an important source for myth, but one shaped by each poem’s victor, audience and occasion.

In short

Pindar was an ancient Greek poet whose surviving victory odes honoured individual winners at Olympia, Delphi, Nemea and Isthmia.
Olympian 1 celebrates Hieron of Syracuse for his win in the single-horse race at Olympia in 476 BC and puts Pelops at the centre of the praise.
In Olympian 1, Pindar rejects the story that Tantalus served Pelops to the gods. In its place he tells how Poseidon carried Pelops away.
Pythian 4 celebrates Arcesilaus of Cyrene and tells one of the main surviving versions of the Argonauts’ story from before Apollonius.
The names Olympian and Pythian mark victories at those sanctuaries, although at least some songs were performed in the winners’ home cities.
In the second century, Pausanias recorded a tradition at Delphi that Pindar used an iron chair inside Apollo’s temple when singing or composing for the god.

A poet of victory songs

Pindar was an ancient Greek poet. His surviving works are victory odes: songs written for individual winners at the games of Olympia, Delphi, Nemea and Isthmia. The names of the collections keep those links. The Olympian odes answer wins at Olympia, and the Pythian odes answer wins at Delphi. Each poem still belongs to one named winner and one occasion. It is not a general account of the sanctuary, the holy site where the games were held.

Where a song was performed sharpens this point. Pythian 8, for example, was commissioned by the family of Aristomenes, a winner from Aegina. A local chorus, a group of singers and dancers, sang and danced it on Aegina. So a Pythian ode could mark a win at Delphi without being performed beside Apollo’s temple. The sanctuary sets the achievement being praised. The home community may supply the audience and the setting that give that achievement its meaning for the city.

How myth works in his odes

The form decides how myth enters the poem. In performance, praise of the athlete, political concerns and the family lines of heroes work together. A story about a hero can name the winner’s ancestors, explain a city’s standing or set present success beside an older trial. Myth is part of how the praise makes sense to one particular community.

This is why Pindar is both useful and difficult as a source for myth. He knows the stories his audience has heard and expects them to recognise one. That does not make him repeat it. He judges what may properly be said about the gods, chooses another version and shows that choice inside the song.

Why Pindar refuses the feast

One story puts the body of Pelops on the gods’ table, cut up and served by his father Tantalus. In Olympian 1, Pindar refuses it. He says it is wrong to call a god greedy for food. In place of the banquet, he tells how the god Poseidon carried Pelops away. The ivory shoulder, which belongs to the story of the cutting up, becomes part of the false report too.

The song also names its occasion. Olympian 1 celebrates Hieron of Syracuse for his win in the single-horse race at Olympia in 476 BC. The race of Pelops and his worship at Olympia become central to the praise. The poet honours Hieron, sets the win within the sacred history of Olympia and decides which story of Pelops suits that task.

How Pythian 4 enlarges the story

Pythian 4 opens for Arcesilaus of Cyrene after his chariot win at the Pythian Games, the games at Delphi. From that present success, the poem reaches into a much longer story. Medea makes a prophecy. Battus receives an oracle, a message from the god at Delphi. Jason returns to Iolcus to face Pelias before the voyage of the Argonauts, his crew on the ship Argo, begins.

The surviving story follows Jason’s single sandal, his claim against Pelias, the gathering of the crew, the passage through the Clashing Rocks and Medea’s help in Colchis. It is one of the main surviving tellings of the Argonauts’ story from before the later poet Apollonius. Yet it is still a victory ode for Arcesilaus, not a separate epic about Jason. Its length shows how much story the form could hold when a heroic voyage, the authority of Delphi and the concerns of Cyrene all belonged to the act of praise.

Olympian 1 corrects a troubling story on its way to the race of Pelops. Pythian 4 gives the Argonauts room to gather, sail and reach Colchis. The scale changes, but in both, Pindar’s myths serve the needs of one particular song, chosen for its own winner and audience.

What the iron chair at Delphi records

Delphi later gave Pindar a place inside Apollo’s temple. Pausanias, writing his description of Greece in the second century, recorded an iron chair set up as an offering near the hearth. The account at Delphi said that Pindar sat there when he came to Delphi and sang or composed songs to Apollo.

Pausanias was reporting a tradition that grew up later, not an eyewitness memory of the poet at work. The chair shows how Delphi later understood Pindar’s bond with Apollo and with song. It cannot prove where any Pythian ode was first performed. What survived for Pausanias to record was the object itself: an iron chair beside the hearth in Apollo’s temple.

Places to visit

Olympia

Peloponnese

Olympian 1 calls itself a song for Hieron of Syracuse’s win in the single-horse race at Olympia in 476 BC. Pindar sets that win beside the race of Pelops and his worship at the sanctuary, so Olympia is the occasion and sacred ground of the poem, not a passing mention.
Olympia
Delphi

Cultural Sites

Pythian 4 answers Arcesilaus of Cyrene’s chariot win at the Pythian Games and ties its story of the Argonauts to the oracle Battus received from Delphi. Pausanias later recorded an iron chair inside Apollo’s temple and the Delphic tradition that Pindar used it when singing or composing for the god.
Delphi