The Odes

'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 spectrum of the Greek moral order, from earthly competition to fate and mythology. But in C. M. Bowra's clear translation his one central image stands out—the successful athlete transformed and transfigured by the power of the gods.

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Introduction
Main Events in the Games

Pythian X
Pythian VI
Pythian XII
Olympian XIV
Pythian VII
Nemean II
Nemean V
Isthmian VI
Isthmian V
Isthmian VIII
Isthmians III-IV
Olympian XI
Olympian I
Nemean I
Olympian III
Olympian II
Pythian IX
Pythian III
Nemean III
Olympian X
Nemean IV
Nemean IX
Olympian VI
Olympian XII
Pythian I