Olympian and Pythian Odes

comedy, the ἐπινίκια victory odes of Pindar—for these there is no successor, and they live on; and yet it would not be doing justice to the rare genius of Pindar to judge him by the ἐπινίκια alone, and fortunately the fragments of the other poems that remain are long enough to justify a characteristic, or at all events long enough to vindicate his versatility. The Pindar of θρῆνος lament, ὑπόρχημα mimetic dance song, σκολιόν drinking song, is the Pindar of the ἐπινίκια, but now his mood is sweeter, tenderer, now brighter and more sportive, than in the ἐπινίκια.

But a rapid enumeration must suffice here. The Pindaric fragments are arranged under the following heads: 1. Ὕμνοι Hymns, the fundamental notion of which is praise (κλέος fame/renown).

1. Ὕμνοι. The fragment of the Ὕμνος that called forth the counsel of Korinna suggests a κλέος in every line. 2. Παιᾶνες Paeans. The Doric name (Παιάν = Παιών) shows a Doric origin, and the rhythms were Dorian (ordered and temperate Muse, says Plutarch). The theme is either petition or thanksgiving. Pindar's paeans are mainly on Apollo, to whom, with his sister Artemis, the paean originally was exclusively addressed. The paean seldom had orchestic accompaniment, and so forms a contrast to 3. Ὑπορχήματα hyporchemata/mimetic songs, in which the dancing is prominent, and in which there is a close correlation between the theme and the orchestic movement. The greatest master of this mimetic composition was Simonides of Keos, he who is the most powerful of himself original: "αὐτὸς αὐτοῦ κράτιστος". The hyporchemata were more secular than the paean, and represented the exuberant joy of the festival. Pindar composed a hyporchema in honor of Hieron, of which we have fragments; and famous is the passage also from the hyporchemata touching the eclipse of the sun. 4. Of προσόδια processional songs, or processional songs with flute accompaniment, Pindar composed two books, the most considerable fragment of which was prepared for a πομπή procession to Delos, the others for a πομπή to Delphi. 5. Παρθένια songs for maidens, with flute accompaniment in the Dorian mood for choruses of virgins in honor of gods, as Apollo or Pan, in the fragments of Pindar; or of men, as Hieron (P. 2, 19).