The victory odes of Pindar

[Part 2]

Last week, in discussing Pindar's victory odes I made the point that they have to be understood as commissioned works of literature that are tied to specific occasions; often he was offered money by the victor or members of his family for the labour of his compositions. And Pindar did not shy away from this fact; indeed, in some of his odes he states as much. For example in the ode titled Pythian 2, he asserts that

Muse, you have made a bargain to him

Your tongue foe silver

And have got to keep it agog, now here, now there,

For the father, the Pythian victor

Or the Thrasydaeus today.

However, it is important to bear in mind the fact that although he was most often paid for his compositions that did not prevent him from maintaining his integrity and avoiding unjustifiable compromises. He never sacrificed his convictions or evaluations for economic expediency. Indeed, in my judgment, one of the true strengths of Pindar's poetry resides in his uncanny ability to work within the accepted codes, conventions, cultural practices of the time while displaying unquestionable individual talent.

Reading Pindar's odes I am struck by his deep sincerity. It was his declared intention to state the truth as he saw it. At the same time, if there were overwhelming reasons arrayed against such a move, he was satisfied in stating only a part of the truth. He was unwilling to proclaim the darker side of his privileged divinities or heroes, as some ancient Greek poets were wont to do, if on balance, he though such restraint was more preferable. For example in his ode titled Pythian 6, he says

Reveal not to strangers what trouble

is born towards us. This I will say;

A portion of lovely and pleasant things

Must be shown to the whole people in their midst

But if, at the god’s giving, befalls to men

any unendurable evil,

It is right to hide it in darkness.

What we find here is his call to judgment tempered by a sense of sympathy.

Pindar was not the kind of poet who delighted in wallowing in unpalatable truths

It seems to me, one of the predominant and guiding themes of Pinda’s victory odes is the idea of glory. Indeed, this was a cultural value that was held in the highest esteem by ancient Greeks. He was convinced that human beings were granted only a short span of life on earth, and therefore they should put it to the best use. The concept of glory, according to Pindar, was what gave point and direction to earthly existence. In Olympian 1, he makes Pelops utter the following sentiment, as he entreats the blessing of Poseidon, prior to his effort to win a kingdom and obtain a bride.

The danger is great

And calls not the coward, but of us who must die,

Why should a man sit in darkness

And cherish to no end

An old age without a name

Letting go all lovely things.

It was Pindar’s considered judgment that what mattered most was not the anticipations of a glorious life after death, but the glory achieved in the present life by dint of perseverance, diligence and commitment. The idea of glory was regarded as the highest recognition of human effort. It is indeed this conviction that courses through his victory odes giving them a purposive unity. Pindar posited a close relationship between gods and human beings “ a thought commonly found among ancient Greek texts. What is interesting about Pindar’s poetry is that he saw the intervention of god’s in human activities as a positive sign ad that god’s provide a norm against which human efforts could be fruitfully measured. His notion of glory is inextricably linked with the idea of glory. He adhered passionately to the kinship between gods and human beings;

Single is the race, single

Of men and of gods;

From a single mother we both draw breath.

The idea of glory runs though Pindar’s odes; the affinities between divinities and human beings that Pindar describes are closely related to the role of myths in his poetry.

Indeed myths play a pivotal role in the structuring of the victory odes and forwarding their sentiments. Bowra, who has examined this topic in depth says that, myths abound in Greek poetry because they play an essential part in Greek thinking., an even so austere and so abstract a thinker as Parmenides opens his poem on the nature of being with a myth of his own creation. To poetry myth brought abundant advantages. It enabled a poet to concentrate on a single, vivid, example, thoughts which could otherwise be expressed only in abstractions, and to gain much from a higher particular and dramatic presentation of them.

Traditional myths

Pindar frequently made use of traditional myths in his victory odes; but at the same time he took care to present tem in his own distinctive way, which was often allusive. This is because he was convinced of the fact that his potential hearers and readers were reasonably well acquainted with these myths with the result that he did not have to depict them expansively. In addition, he sought to add a note of mystery to his poetry through this compressed myths. Although some of Pindar’s victory odes are fairly long, as for example the fourth Pythian ode, he was able to maintain his preferred compactness. The allusiveness of the myths aided in this effort. For example in Olympian 7, three myths are invoked memorably.

The sun was away, and no lot was declared for him;

They left him without a portion of earth,

A god undefiled.

When he spoke of it, Zeus was for ordering

A second cast, but the Sun forbade;

Pindar’s myths are connected to the even under immediate consideration, but he makes use of myths to invest these events with a longer temporal perspective and thereby invest a certain timeless quality to them. His objective is to deploy the myths as bridges to a transcendental world and establish the harmonious relationship that he always looked for between gods and human beings. This harmony between divinities and humans was one that he extolled as illustrating the power of glory that we discussed earlier.

As a commentator has insightfully suggested, the myths clarify and underline the many thoughts which success awakens in Pindar’s mind and enable him to see more clearly what they mean and what conclusions can be drawn from them. Even when his myths delight for their own sake, as they nearly always do, it is less because of the human feelings which they arouse, and these feelings cover a whole, wide range.

As I stated earlier, myths play an important role in classical Sinhala poetry giving it a deeper resonance. In works such as Sasadavata or Kavya shekarya Salaluhini Sandeshaya, one comes across various ancient Indian myths that have ignited the poetic imagination of the poets. However, despite the fact that they add to the power of poetic locutions, they are not central to the structure and the fabric of the texts as in Pindar’s odes.

Poetics

Another aspect of Pindar’s odes that invites close and sustained attention is the poetics guiding his textual production. His poetics, as in all good literature, is vitally connected to his understanding of the world and vision of society. In his victory odes, the focus of interest is not the heroic action themselves, as in many ancient epics, but in the meaning of these triumphs in terms of human effort and the idea of glory. It is the metaphysical and moral dimensions, rather than the physical actions, that stirs his deepest interest. What mattered to Pindar were not so much the athletic contests themselves a the discipline of the body, the unflinching will and the grateful response of the audiences. For example in Olympian 9, he valorizes the wrestling of Epharmostus precisely for these reasons.

In his fast, crafty twists

He slipped not, and bear down his rivals,

And to what cheers he went round the ring

Being young and beautiful,

And most beautiful were his doings.

In examining Pindar’s assessments of victories in athletic contests, it seems to me, two important points emerge. First he was moved to value the innate talents of a person with unconcealed enthusiasm..

But now in the destiny of his blood

Has set him again in the bright daylight of old

The trope of destiny of blood indexes the innate gifts as well as the destiny that they are linked with. Second, Pindar underlines the need for discipline, hard work and diligence. Ultimately, what Pindar is suggesting is that the triumph over an opponent at an athletic contest should be seen as a form of control over oneself. This movement from the external to the internal is one that he values very highly in his writings.

The idea that these sport events were a test of man’s strength and character permeates Pindar’s writings.

There they were pit to the test

And came not home without garlands, whose fruit is fame.

Idea of glory

The idea of glory, which is central to Pindar’s worldview, works in two ways. First, the triumph at an athletic context confers glory on the victor, while commemorating this event in elegant verse confers glory on the poet. Both are important as representations of human effort. This vision of Pindar is embedded in, and guided by, his poetics. His poetics, as he sees it, refers not only to the formal elements of his odes but also to the content and vision and how they are connected to his orchestrating powers.

Next we need to consider Pindar’s use of imagery in his victory odes. It illuminates both his understanding of the world and understanding of poetry in interesting ways. Very often Pindar starts off with visual images, but very quickly transits to other types of sensory images which ultimately lead to the opening up of new pathways of comprehension. Very often he deployed imagery in ways that opened up interesting thought-worlds. For example in Pythian 5 he says;

Let no stormy wind

Of autumn overwhelm his days.

The great mind of Zeus

Is pilot of the doom of men whom he loves.

Here while the poet through his powerful imagery invoking the harmful effects of bad fortune is also pointing to the availability of courage as a countervailing force. Pindar uses forces of nature to good effect in his odes in extending our cognitive horizons.

I beg you, daughter if Zeus the deliverer

Which over Himera’s wide dominion,

Savior fortune. At your will

Fast ships are steered on the sea

And on the land stormy wars and assemblies at council.

The hope of men are now thrown up,

Now down again, as they cleave

The wind-tossed sea of lies.

An aspect of Pindar’s use of imagery that merits close study is the way in which he infuses his imagers with diverse layers of meaning. Let us consider the following passage from Olympian 10,

The Epieans king, cheater of stranger Soon afterwards saw his rich land in stubborn flame,

And under strokes of iron

Into a deep pit of doom

His own city sinking.

Vivid image

Through this vivid image Pindar transits from a physical level to a metaphysical one. Indeed this is a trait that is discernible in many of his victory odes. The following passage is another example of this characteristic trait.

But to all comes

The wave of death, and falls unforeseen

Even on him who foresees it

.

Another feature of poetry and the use of imagery that stands out is his penchant for root images that guide the poetic discourse and hold the diverse emotions intact. He has a select dominant and root tropes such as weather, the road, the journey. They play a centrifugal role in holding together the various elements and not allowing them to fly off in various directions. This use of root metaphors is a strategy found in many texts, both classical and modern. For example, some years ago, I wrote an essay on the tropological analysis of the Buddhist poem The Dhammapada; it is collected in by book,˜Self and Body in Asian Theory and Practice (State University of New York Press). In it I pointed out how the two dominant topes in the poem are motion (journey) and tranquility. Similarly, Pindar deploys frequently the images of the journey as a dominant image. For example in Pythian 11 he says

My friend, I have been in confusion

At the crossroads where the ways divide

Though I went on a straight path before.

The way Pindar deploys root images of the road and the journey is not confined to physical directions. They carry deeper moral and metaphysical meanings. They also signpost the limits of human endeavor, and the need to test oneself against those imposed limits.

Let me illustrate what I have been saying so far about Pidar’s odes by focusing in a specific ode “ Olympian 14. This idea can be regarded as a celebration of the Graces, the patrons of wisdom and beauty and glory, and their shadow falls across the entire length of the ode. This ode deals with the triumph of Asopichos in a foot-race, and it was sung to memorialize his return to native place of birth. It is a relatively short poem that begins in the following manner.

The waters of Kaphisos belong

To the place of horses where you dwell

Queens of song, in sparkling Orchomemos,

Graces, who watch

Over the ancient race of the Mynyans

Here I pray, by your help

All sweet and delightful things

Belong to men.

Three charities

In the first stanza, the three charities are collective presences; in the second, they are seen as making connections with the specific occasion depicted in the poem. The poem ends with a reference to the victor’s father; he has died recently, but it is Pinda’s belief, on the evidence of this ode that he can most certainly hear of the triumph of his son.

The poem could have ended on the joyful note of Asopichos victory; however, the poet does not wish to stop there. He wants to introduce a note of human complexity to the ode by invoking the dead father of Asopichos. The glowing scene is darkened by his memory, but it ultimately leads to a deeper recognition.

Go now, echo, to the black walls

Of Persephona’s house

And bring the fine news to his father;

See Kleodamos all tell him

How his son

In the famous valleys of Pytho

Has crowned his your hair

With the wings of a glorious triumph.

This ending invests this ode with a greater complexity.

By focusing on this ode, I wish to recapitulate some of the main points I made earlier .First, Pindar’s primary interest in these victory odes is not in the contests themselves but on their effect on the participants. How they manifest and give concrete shape to the idea of glory. Second, the idea of glory, human destiny, as inflected by Pindar, runs through these poems making them sparkle. Third, his poems are full of vivid images that serve to add diverse layers of meaning to the poetic text. Fourth, as I stated earlier, there is clearly a complex unity, a multi-faceted convergence of elements, discernible in the victory odes. Fifth, while Pindar worked within codes and conventions and poetics he had inherited, he was able to introduce innovations into them and introduce a new note of human complexity, thereby enhancing the literary value of his products. Sixth, through his odes Pindar emerged as a poet with a public authority; he made himself into a magisterial voice.

These odes, which were written some 2500 years ago in the depth of Western culture have much to offer us by way of re-imagining the nature of poetic texts and how we should make greater sense of them. The eminent philosopher Nietzsche once remarked, it would be a pity, if the classics should speak to us less clearly because a million words stood in the way. This is indeed a real danger as attested by voluminous interpretations of classical texts. However, many of them are intended for professionals and deal with technical matters. Hence there is a compelling need for interpretive writings on the classics that would serve the interests of ordinary educated readers.

What I propose to do in the next column is to focus on the ˜hatan kavi (poems of battle) found in the Sinhala literary tradition and locate points of similarity and divergence between them and Pindar’s poems as a way of shedding light on both poetic genres.

(To be continued)