INTRODUCTION.

1. The Interpretation of Pindar.

Those who desire to study the Greek mind as revealed in literary art will probably find that there are more secrets to be learned in Pindar than in any other writer. For of all Greek poets he is the most Greek; or, rather, in his poems those distinctive qualities of the Greek temper which are alien to modern sentiments and ideas are more clearly reflected than, for instance, in the tragedians. The Greek tragedies deal with forms of human emotion which are universal; as we read them, the stress of common humanity tends to eliminate the differences between the modern and the ancient spirit; and hence we even find it difficult to avoid the importation of modern emotions into our reading of Sophocles and Euripides.

Whereas there is no temptation to falsify Pindar in this way, or, as we might say, to modernize him. He is the poet of 'the delightful things in Hellas', τὰ τερπνὰ ἐν Ἑλλάδι Original: "ta terpna en Helladi.", and his works reflect the authentic quality of the Hellenic spirit. This is the secret of his charm, and to this, too, is due the fact that he is less generally read than other Greek poets. For the complicated structure of his Odes—demanding from the reader a close searching attention, to apprehend the unity of the whole and grasp the punctual meaning of every part—cannot be regarded as a completely independent cause of unpopularity; inasmuch as this elaborate art is likewise a revelation of the Hellenic spirit, here carrying the desire of artistic perfection to the extreme limit of achievement.

For recognizing that with nature their power was small, the Greeks determined that over art at least their control should be complete, and they left little to chance. The saying of the poet Agathon that art and chance loved each other,