The Epinician Past

This chapter explores the beginnings of epinician in history and as represented in Pindar’s odes. We may enrich our understanding of his victory odes by investigating how he presents the past of his genre and situates himself within contemporary practices. Section 1 investigates the historical origins of epinician. Section 2 explores the distant generic past as depicted within Pindar’s poems. It is argued that the poet displays a view of the history of his genre compatible with the broad outlines of modern scholarly consensus. Pindar understood that, on the one hand, he had a relatively novel relationship to his audience as a professional author composing literary epinicians on commission and that, on the other hand, he was continuing a tradition rooted in less sophisticated celebrations. Section 3 offers a reading of Olympian 9, a poem which is interested in many themes discussed in this chapter.

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