Reading the Victory Ode

by Agocs, Peter; Carey, Chris; Rawles, Richard

• ISBN13: 9781107007871
• ISBN10: 1107007879
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-09-24
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

The victory ode was a short-lived poetic genre in the fifth century BC, but its impact has been substantial. Pindar, Bacchylides and others are now among the most widely read Greek authors precisely because of their significance for the literary development of poetry between Homer and tragedy and their historical involvement in promoting Greek rulers. Their influence was so great that it ultimately helped to define the European notion of lyric from the Renaissance onwards. This collection of essays by international experts examines the victory ode from a range of angles: its genesis and evolution, the nature of the commissioning process, the patrons, context of performance and re-performance, and the poetics of the victory ode and its exponents. From these different perspectives the contributors offer both a panoramic view of the genre and an insight into the modern research positions on this complex and fascinating subject.

Table of Contents

The Lost History of Epinician

Early Epinician: Ibycus and Simonides

The lost Isthmian Odes of Pindar Giovan

Epinician sounds: Pindar and musical innovation

Pindar and his patrons

What happened later to the families of Pindaric patrons - and to Epinician poetry?

Contexts of Performance and Re-Performance

Performance, re-performance, and Pindar's audiences

Performance and re-performance: the Siphnian treasury evoked

Representations of cult in Epinician poetry

Epinician and the Symposion: a comparison with the Enkomia

Performance and genre: reading Pindar's ¿¿¿¿¿

Pindar's 'difficulty' and the performance of Epinician poetry: some suggestions from ethnography

Critical Approaches to the Victory Ode: Rhetoric, Imagery, and Narrative

Poet and public: communicative strategies in Pindar and Bacchylides

Image and world in Epinician poetry

Metaphorical travel and ritual performance in Epinician poetry

Bacchylidean myths

Reading Pindar

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