Pindarspoems

Pindar's poems, which cover a period of fifty years (502-452 B.C.), include hymns to the gods andi encomia in praise of men, dithyrambs (q.v.), pagans (q.v.), prosodia (processional songs), parthenia (choral songs for maidens), skolia (festal songs), and threnoi (dirges). Besides beautiful fragments representing each of these types, we possess in theiu entirety four books of epinilda, odes of victory celebrating the successes achieved at the great national games - Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, andi Isthmian. In these compositions the praises of the hero are blended with mythical narratives and moral reflections, the whole being wrought together into a strain of the loftiest and most glowing enthusiasm. The language is epic, with a Doric element. It is now known that the extraordinary variety in the metre was not due to the poet's caprice, but was strictly conditioned by the requirements of the musical accompaniment. [Ode.]