Pindar's Victory Songs

by Frank Nisetich

Pindar's victory odes, written in the fifth century B.C. to honor the heroes of the great athletic festivals, are some of the most powerful and intricate works of ancient Greek poetry—and among the most difficult to bring to modern readers. With precise translations that retain Pindar's poetic intentions, Frank Nisetich provides the only contemporary English version that captures the brilliance and density of the original odes without sacrificing their subtlety and clarity. In his comprehensive introduction, Nisetich explains the genre of the vistory song and reviews Pindar's life and times. He also prefaces each of the Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian odes with a description of its historical background. For students of Greek civilization, mythology, and lyric poetry—and for readers of poetry in general—this highly acclaimed translation justifies the praise of the ancients who called Pindar "far and away the best of the nine lyric poets."

Genres: Poetry

384 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1980

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pindar composed poems to commemorate the achievements of athletes in the ancient Greek world's olympian games. Of the many early Greek non-epic poets his works have survived better than any others. Whereas only fragments remain of some of the more highly influential poets - such as Sappho and Anacreon - Pindar's works have remain in a more complete form. But unlike those other famous poets, Pindar did not write love poems, funerary epigrams, or philosophical aphorisms, rather he wrote "for hire" to celebrate the achievement of an olympian athlete. Despite this seemingly limited subject matter his poems do indeed provide us a great deal of insight into the world view of those in this ancient culture.

With Pindar, every achievement he celebrates is reigned in by modesty - which his audience seems to share - that is wary of hero worship. There seems to be an aversion they had to lauding excessive praise onto a mere man, no matter how great his achievement. Over the course of these odes and through the detailed introduction of the author an intriguing picture emerges of this tempered enthusiasm. By comparison, modern western culture would seem to them to celebrate people (celebrities) as if they are as worthy of praise as the deities and thereby tempt the heavenly powers to knock them down a notch. It's not that the works of people are not celebrated, it's just it usually needs excuse and even then it is done with the ever-present fear of developing an unhealthy level of pride.

Also, each ode is a chance to honor a deity or remember a demigod and in that way readers get a further look into the myths and religious/psychological beliefs of the ancient Greeks through Pindar's athletic odes. As expected, he does not link the athletes to the deities or demigods he remembers, and when it seems to even come close to doing so it is because he has managed to separate the athletic achievement from the athlete to which (in our modern view) it belongs. It seems those who commissioned him to remember their own or their family member's achievements this way greatly appreciated this technique as it allowed for them to remember and relive the feeling of competing and achieving victory rather than being personally praised like a king for their achievements.

I enjoyed this work for the information it provided on the Greek worldview, however I found it hard to connect with the poems in an aesthetically appealing way. The author took great pains to tell the reader how difficult Pindar is in his lengthy introduction and how obscure the references are to the many gods and heroes in these odes, however I found this to be exaggerated. Readers who have made it through Homer, the Greek playwrights, and a few versions of the Greek myths themselves will not find the sudden references to a name from these sources to be confusing. Starting one's ancient Greek adventures with Pindar would be a mistake, but even if doing so this author has probably furnished enough information between the intro, the glossary, and each poem's preface to allow them to do so. I am not completely sure if this translator simply chose to stick to as literal an interpretation of the language as possible, but whatever he did I did not find it to appeal to any modern sense of poetic rhythm or grace. Comparing this translation to those of other Greek playwrights and poets by Guy Davenport, Gordon Fain, Philip Vellacott, Jules Cashford, E.F. Watling, and even M.L. West, this translation lacked aesthetic appeal more than any other. It's not that it he used an obscure or antiquated English dialect, it simply seemed to lack creativity. If accepting the translator's reasoning for this, it is simply that Pindar doesn't translate well into English. But regardless of any shortcomings, it was an informative read.

[Rodney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pindar’s world, and the circumstances of his writing, are so foreign to ours that it’s hard to expect any translation to bring over the features of his Victory Odes into English. Nisetich himself is the first to clue you into this, with a thorough apparatus of explication, history, metrical analysis, and gloss that prepares you for exactly what not to expect from Pindar—business-as-usual “my heart sings” lyricism that Pindar, writing for pay for elaborate choral events, had little time for. Instead, the sudden shifts in reference, narrative gaps, and apparently oddball approach to commemoration (whole victory odes where the victor’s not mentioned; the hero celebrated negatively only by the qualities he lacks) are explained as features of an archaic worldview that was already antique by Euripides’s time. The translations are direct and adequate, broken up like modern free verse, and framed with ode-by-ode intros that make this book a helpful combination of poetry and archaeology.