The Odes of Pindar

'What Pindar catches is the joy beyond ordinary emotions as it transcends and transforms them' - C. M. Bowra Arguably the greatest Greek lyric poet, Pindar (518-438 B. C.) was a controversial figure in fifth-century Greece - a conservative Boiotian aristocrat who studied in Athens and a writer on physical prowess whose interest in the Games was largely philosophical. Pindar's Epinician Odes - choral songs extolling victories in the Games at Olympia, Delphi, Nemea and Korinth - cover the whole sp