Olympian and Pythian Odes

above. If the coryphaeus chorus leader or head man speaks, he speaks as the representative of the whole.

Mouthpiece of the poet.

But in Pindar the chorus is the mouthpiece of the poet, and does not represent the people except so far as Pindar, through the chorus, expresses the thought of the Greeks and reflects their nationality. In the tragic chorus old men and young maidens, hardy mariners and captive women are introduced; but under all the dramatic proprieties of expression, we see the beating of the Greek heart, we hear the sound of the Greek voice. In Pindar's epinikion victory ode we never forget Pindar.

The victories in honor of which these epinikia victory odes were composed gave rise to general rejoicing in the cantons of the victors, and a numerous chorus was trained to celebrate duly the solemn festivity. This public character brought with it a grander scale, a more ample sweep, and the epinikion took a wider scope.

Scope of the Epinikion.

It is not limited to one narrow line of thought, one narrow channel of feeling. There is festal joy in the epinikion, wise and thoughtful counsel, the uplifting of the heart in prayer, the inspiration of a fervent patriotism; all these, but none of them constitutes its character. That character is to be sought in the name itself. The epinikion lifts the temporary victory to the high level of the eternal prevalence of the beautiful and the good over the foul and the base, the victor is transfigured into a glorious personification of his race, and the present is reflected, magnified, illuminated in the mirror of the mythic past. Pindar rises to the height of his great argument. A Theban of the Thebans, an Aigeid, a Kadmeian he is, and continues to be, but the games were a pledge and a prophecy of unity, and in the epinikia Pindar is national, is Panhellenic. From the summit of Parnassos he sweeps with impartial eye the horizon that bounds Greek habitation. Far in the west lies Sicily, "the rich," with Syracuse, "the renowned, the mighty city," "sacred pale of warrior Ares," "of heroes and of horses clad in iron, foster-mother divine," and "the fair-built citadel of Akragas, abode of splendor, most beautiful among the cities of men, dwelling-place of Persephone."

Panhellenism of the Epinikion.