Pindar

Born in Boeotia , in the town of Kinoskofaly near Thebes . Belonged to a noble Theban family, which dates back to the ancient nobility of this city. His family was also close to the aristocrats of Sparta , Cyrene and Fera , and was closely associated with Delphi , the ideological center of the Greek aristocracy. He studied playing at Avlos with his uncle Skopelin, continued his education in Athens under the guidance of musician Apollodorus (or Agathocles) and poet Las Hermione. He traveled a lot, lived in Sicily and in Athens. The name of the wife is known - Megakley, two daughters - Evmetis and Protomakh, son - Diaphantos. Died in Argos .

Pindar's works relate to choral lyrics ( melik ): these were hymns and peans , praises of Dionysus , prosody (songs for solemn processions), encomies (laudatory songs), lamentations and epinicias (odes in honor of the winners of the Greek games).

We have reached four incomplete cycles of epinicias , including 14 in honor of the winners of the Olympic Games , 12 - the Pythian , 11 - the Nemean and 8 - the Isthmian . The surviving is hardly a quarter of what was created by the poet, since the publication of Pindar, prepared by Alexandrian scholars, included 17 books. The idea of ​​the lost 13 books we now get only by random fragments. The earliest work of Pindar, which lends itself to dating, is the 10th Pythian Canto, 498 BC. e. , at the latest - the 8th Pythian Canto, 446 BC e.

Pindara's epinikia is an example of the genre. For the caste ideology of the Greek aristocracy, athletic success was valuable primarily as a manifestation of "class prowess"; accordingly, the victorious hero should have been glorified in the light of the exploits of mythological characters, from whom a noble family usually descended.

The introduction usually refers to victory, but without any specific description of the competition. From the glorious present, the poet throws the “conditional bridge” suitable for the occasion to the glorious past, to the “suitable” myth, which will form the main part of the poem. The final part often contains a direct appeal to the winner, often in the form of instructions to behave worthy of the legendary ancestors and accomplished by him. Almost all of Pindar's odes are written by stanza triads (from 1 to 13), and each triad (traditionally) consists of a stanza , an antistrophe, and an episode . Occasionally, the thematic and formal divisions in odes coincide (Ol. 13), but more often the poet defeated the mismatch of these divisions; large tirades with an incredible number of subordinate sentences spill over from stanza to stanza, blurring metrically clear boundaries.

Odes of Pindar are considered to be a kind of standard of mystery. The complexity of Pindar's poetry is partly due to the unusual order of words: Pindar sacrificed the simplicity of syntax to build the desired sequence of images (although commentators believe that simplicity even abhors the dithyrambic style). Pindar’s text is distinguished by the “elemental” power of the language, bold associativity, and rich rhythmic patterns. The method of presentation he adopted is also peculiar: Pindar does not retell the myth, as in the epic, but refers only to episodes that seem to him the most important for the context of a particular poem. Beyond all this, the images of Pindar are magnificent and fluid; its main tools are inversion , hyperbole , metaphor and neologism .

Pindar's worldview is conservative; he is completely uncharacteristic of any criticism of “traditional values.” He firmly believes in divine omnipotence, does not trust knowledge, appreciates wealth and glory, recognizes only innate valor. Pindar reflects on the power of the gods and the unknowability of their designs, recalls the mythical heroes - the ancestors of the winner, calls for the comprehensive development of the possibilities inherent in man; victory is achieved by the favor of fate, the innate prowess of the winner and his own efforts (on which the favor of fate depends not least). The "refinement" of this aristocratic ideology (characteristic of the religion of Apollo Delphic ) finds in Pindar a full-fledged exponent; Pindar is the last poet of the Greek aristocracy, his meaning is "not in the creation of new forms, but in the ascent of the old to an unattainable height." The richness of the stanza, the pomp of images, the solemnity and oratory expressiveness of the language, harmonious with its archaic worldview, put Pindar among the most important Greek lyricists.

Pindar the Musician

The surviving literary works of Pindar allow us to confidently assert that the poet not only knew the genres and forms of contemporary music, accurately described the ethos of musical instruments (for example, the lyre in Pyth. 1), used the “technical” terms ( “many-headed number” in Pyth. 12) , but perhaps he himself was a melurgist ("composer"). It is also undoubted that Pindar had a great command of the lyre and accompanied the chorus on the instrument ^[3] . However, no noted monuments of Pindar's music (however, like many other poets and musicians of the classical era) have not been preserved. In the wake of the next European “revival” of the ancient Greek culture, Athanasius Kircher announced that during his journey from 1637 to 1638 in Sicily he discovered a notated fragment of the first Pythian ode. This fragment, entitled Musicae veteris specimen (“An Example of Ancient Music”), published by Kircher in his (huge) treatise “Universal Musurgy” (1650), has long been considered the oldest surviving piece of music. Nowadays, musicologists and source experts consider the Ode of Pindar an invention of Kircher, the first loud evidence of musical hoax ^[4] .

Pindar was considered the most famous of the Nine Lyrics (in poetic dedications to the Nine Lyrics, he is always called the first). According to legend, the gods themselves sang his poems; one traveler, lost in the mountains, met the god Pan , who sang the song of Pindar. Both the birth and death of Pindar were wonderful. When he, the newborn, lay in the cradle, the bees flocked to his mouth and filled them with honey - in a sign that his speech would be sweet as honey. When he was dying, Persephone appeared to him in a dream and said: “You sang all the gods except me, but you will soon sing me.” Ten days passed, Pindar died; ten more days passed, he appeared in a dream to his relative and dictated a hymn in honor of Persephone.

The glory of Pindar in Greece was so great that even a hundred years later, when Alexander the Great conquered the rebellion of Thebes, he ordered to destroy the city to the foundation and ordered to preserve only the temples of the gods and the house of Pindar (whose descendants, the only one in the whole city, also retained freedom ) Democratic Athens treated the aristocrat and conservative Pindar with disapproval, but in the Hellenistic and Roman eras, Pindar's oratorical solemnity aroused interest throughout the Mediterranean, and the school appreciated the ethical content of his poetry.

According to one version, the Apostle Paul quoted Pindar in his speech in Athens, which is recorded in the 17th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles : “Like some of your poets said:“ we are His kind ”(Acts 17:28). (according to other versions, Paul quotes the seer Epimenides , or the philosopher Cleanthus ).

The epinikias of Pindar influenced the development of the ode genre in modern European literature. Despite the fact that in modern times Pindar was still considered a great master, some writers were perplexed why Pindar used a highly complicated pile of images and structures to describe the victory of such a runner, boxer or rider. Voltaire wrote:

Rise from the grave, divine Pindar, you who glorified the horses of the most worthy bourgeois from Corinth or from Megara in the olden days, you, who possessed an incomparable gift to speak endlessly, did not say anything, you who knew how to measure verses that were not understandable to anyone but subject to rigorous delight ...

Original text (Fr.)

Sort du tombeau, divin Pindare, Toi qui célébras autrefois Les chevaux de quelques bourgeois Ou de Corinthe ou de Mégare; Toi qui possédas le talent De parler beaucoup sans rien dire; Toi qui modulas savamment Des vers que personne n'entend, Et qu'il faut toujours qu'on admire.

- Voltaire. Ode XVII

The German translations of Pindar by Hölderlin are widely known. Pindar was translated into Russian by M.S. Grabar-Passek , V.I. Vodovozov , and Vyach. I. Ivanov , G. R. Derzhavin (it is believed that he made the first translation from Pindar, “The First Pindar Pythic Song to Etnyanin Chiron, King of Syracuse, to the victory of his chariot”, 1800 ).

According to the reports of late antique biographers of Pindar, the body of his works, stored in the Alexandria Library, totaled 17 books ^[5] :

• 1 book of hymns ( ὕμνοι ) - hymns
• 1 book of peans ( παιάνες ) - peans
• 2 books of praises ( διθύραμβοι ) - praises
• 2 books of prosody ( προσῳδίαι ) - prosody (songs during the processions)
• 3 Parthenian books ( παρθένεια ) - maiden songs
• 2 books hyporham ( ὑπορχήματα ) - dance songs
• 1 book of encomies ( ἐγκώμια ) - songs of praise
• 1 book of frens, or tren ( θρῆνοι ) - lament songs
• 4 books of epinicius ( ἐπινίκια ) - odes for sports victories

Modern scholars (e.g. Snell and Maehler), based on ancient sources, have attempted to reconstruct the dates of the epinicius writing:

• 498 year BC e. : Pythian Odes 10
• 490 year BC e. : Pythian Odes 6, 12
• 488 BC e. : Olympic Odes 14 (?)
• 486 BC e. : Pythian Odes 7
• 485 year BC e. : Nemean Odes 2 (?), 7 (?)
• 483 BC e. : Nemean Odes 5 (?)
• 480 BC e. : Isthmian Odes 6
• 478 BC e. : Isthmian Odes 5 (?); Isthmian Odes 8
• 476 BC e. : Olympic Odes 1, 2, 3, 11; Nemean Odes 1 (?)
• 475 BC e. : Pythian Odes 2 (?); Nemean Odes 3 (?)
• 474 BC e. : Olympic Odes 10 (?); Pythian Odes 3 (?), 9, 11; Nemean Odes 9 (?)
• 474/473 year BC e. : Isthmian Odes 3/4 (?)
• 473 BC e.: Nemean Odes 4 (?)
• 470 BC e. : Pythian Odes 1; Isthmian Odes 2 (?)
• 468 BC e. : Olympic Odes 6
• 466 BC e. : Olympic Odes 9, 12
• 465 BC e. : Nemean Odes 6 (?)
• 464 year BC e. : Olympic Odes 7, 13
• 462 year BC e. : Pythian Odes 4
• 462/461 year BC e. : Pythian Odes 5
• 460 year BC e. : Olympic Odes 8
• 460/456 BC e. : Olympic Odes 4 (?), 5 (?)
• 459 BC e. : Nemean Odes 8 (?)
• 458 BC e. : Isthmian Odes 1 (?)
• 454 BC e. : Isthmian Odes 7 (?)
• 446 BC e. : Pythian Odes 8; Nemean Odes 11 (?)
• 444 BC e. : Nemean Odes 10 (?)

• In the Loeb classical library series, the compositions are published in two volumes (No. 56, 485).
• In the Collection Budé series, essays are published in 4 volumes (including fragments).

Russian translations:

• Pindar's creations. / Per. P. Golenishchev-Kutuzov. M., 1804 .
  • Part 1. Containing Olympic odes. 135 p.
  • Part 2. Containing pythic odes. 123 p.
• Pindar . / Per. prose I. Martynov. Part 1-2. SPb., 1827 . (in Greek and Russian.)
  • Part 1. Olympic odes. Pythian odes. 483 p.
  • Part 2. Odes of the Nemean. The odes are ismphic. 276 p.
• Pindar . Odes. Fragments. / Per. M. L. Gasparova. // Bulletin of ancient history. 1973. No. 2-4. 1974. No. 1-3.
• Pindar. Bacchilis. Odes. Fragments / Ed. sub. M. Gasparov; open ed. F. Petrovsky. - M .: Nauka, 1980 .-- 504 p. - (Literary monuments).
• Pindar . Victory songs . / Per. M.A. Ameline. // New world. 2004. No. 9. P. 92-104.

Research

• Bowra C M. Pindar. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964 (and many reprints).
• Yarkho V.N., Polonskaya K.P. Antique lyrics. - M., 1967.
• Greenbaum N.S. Language of Ancient Greek Choral Lyrics: (Pindar). - Chisinau, Shtiintsa, 1973.- 282 p.
• Gasparov M.L. Ancient Greek choral lyrics // Pindar. Bacchilis . Odes. Fragments / Ed. sub. M. Gasparov; open ed. F. Petrovsky. - M .: Nauka, 1980 .-- S. 331-360. - 504 s. - (Literary monuments).
• Gasparov M.L. Poetry of Pindar // Pindar. Bacchilis . Odes. Fragments / Ed. sub. M. Gasparov; open ed. F. Petrovsky. - M .: Nauka, 1980 .-- S. 361-383. - 504 s. - (Literary monuments).
• Greenbaum N. S. Early Classics of Ancient Greece in the Economic Terms of Pindar // Antiquity as a Type of Culture. - M., 1988.
• Greenbaum N. S. The Art World of Ancient Poetry: Pindar's Creative Search: On the 2500th Anniversary of the Poet. - M .: Nauka, 1990, 166 p. ISBN 5-02-010956-8 .
• Toporov V.N. Pindar and Rig Veda: Pindar anthems and Vedic hymns as the basis for the reconstruction of the Indo-European anthem tradition. - M .: RGGU, 2012. ISBN 978-5-7281-1275-4 .

Scholia to Pindar

• Beck Edition with the Scholi (1811)
• Scholia for the "Olympic Songs" by Pindar, published by Drachmann (1903) .
• Subsequent Reprints:
  • Scholia vetera in Pindari carmina - vol I: Scholia in Olympionicas. Recensuit AB Drachmann. 1969.
  • Scholia vetera in Pindari carmina - vol. II. Scholia in Pythionicas. Recensuit AB Drachmann. 1903
  • Scholia vetera in Pindari carmina - vol III: Scholia in Nemeonicas et Isthmionicas epimetrum, indices. Recensuit AB Drachmann. 1997.
• Scholia Metrica Vetera In Pindari Carmina (Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana). 1989.
• Scholia to Pindar (information about Scythia and the Caucasus). // Bulletin of ancient history. 1947. No. 1. P. 311-314.

Music Studies

• Rome A. L'origine de la prétendue mélodie de Pindare // Les Études Classiques 1 (1932), p. 3-11.
• Rome A. Pindare ou Kircher // Les Études Classiques 4 (1935), p. 337-350.
• Pöhlmann E. Denkmäler altgriechischer Musik. Nürnberg, 1970, SS. 47-49.
• Barker A. Pindar // Greek musical writings. Part I: The musician and his art. Cambridge, 1984, p. 54-61.
• Mathiesen T. Apollo's lyre. Greek music and music theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Lincoln & London, 1999.
• Documents of ancient Greek music. The extant melodies and fragments edited and transcribed with commentary by Egert Pöhlmann and Martin L. West. Oxford, 2001.

• F. G. Mishchenko . Pindar, poet // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Texts and English translations of "Od"
• All Pindar in Russian
• Sample of creativity: lib.perm.ru: Pindar. Isthmian ode. Translation M.E. Grabar-Passek (inaccessible link)
• Zhukovsky, Crying about Pindar