Pindar and the Construction of Syracusan Monarchy in the Fifth Century B.C

Bibliographic Data

ID9294152
AuthorsKathryn A Morgan (corresponding author)
Year2015
Pages472
Publication date2015-01-22
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenuePindar and the Construction of Syracusan Monarchy in the Fifth Century B. C. (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199366859.001.0001
OpenAlexW4230474082
Open LibraryOL28547291M
ISBN9780199366859
LanguageEN
Citations received34

This book attempts a fully contextualized reading of the praise poetry written by Pindar for Hieron of Syracuse in the 470s BC. It argues that the songs composed by Pindar for the Sicilian tyrant were part of an extensive cultural program that included athletic competition, coinage, architecture, sanctuary dedication, city foundation, and much more. In the tumultuous years following the Persian invasion of Greece in 480, elite Greek leaders and their cities struggled to capitalize on the Greek victory and to define themselves as free peoples who triumphed over the threat of Persian monarchy. Pindar's victory odes are an important contribution to Hieron's goal of panhellenic preeminence, redescribing contemporary tyranny as an instantiation of golden-age kingship and consonant with best Greek tradition. Three initial chapters set the stage by presenting the history and culture of Syracuse under the Deinomenid tyrants. Subsequent chapters examine in turn all of Pindar's preserved poetry for Hieron and members of his court and contextualize this poetry by comparing it to the songs written for Hieron by Pindar's poetic contemporary, Bacchylides. These odes develop a specifically "tyrannical" mythology in which a hero from the past enjoys unusual closeness with the gods, only to bring ruin on himself or herself by failing to manage this closeness appropriately. Such negative exemplars counterbalance Hieron's good fortune and present the dangers against which he must (and does) protect himself by regal virtue

Archaeology · Aristocracy (class · Art · Elegiac · HERO · Honour · Literature · Monarchy · Mythology · Poetry · Political science · Politics · Theology · Victory · Virtue · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · Historical and Literary Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Colonies · Criticism and interpretation · Greece · Greek literature · Greek literature, history and criticism · History and criticism · Pindar · Syracuse (italy)

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