The Extant Odes of Pindar

This collection of extant odes by the Greek poet Pindar (c. 581-438 BC) presents a comprehensive look at the odes that define his poetic career. Along with Sappho, Pindar is one of the esteemed nine lyric poets of Ancient Greece. These extant odes are also representative of Greece's cultural and artistic trends at the beginning of the dynamic classical period (5th cen. – 4th cen. BC). Primarily in the mode of his famed victory odes, or «epikinia», Pindar elevates the legends of various athletic victors. From charioteers to wrestlers, these poems are frank yet powerful accounts of Ancient Greece's most harrowing Olympic events. Pindar's poetic style is particularly striking, often employing grandiosity unheard in his contemporaries' verse. His elegant phrasing and exacting imagery make these odes delightfully arresting. These games provide an opportunity for mortal men to be elevated to divine status; and it is these odes that so effortlessly set these transformations into action.