A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

3613 PINDARUS. PINDARUS.
in Thebes. It was sprung from the ancient race still she herself is said to have contended with him
of the Aegids, cwho claimed descent from the Cad- five times, and on each occasion to have gained the
mids, who settled at Thebes and Sparta, whence prize. Pausanias indeed does not speak (ix. 22.
part emigrated to Thera and Cyrene at the com- ~ 3) of more than one victory, and mentions a
mand of Apollo. (Pind. Pyth. v. 72, &c.) We picture which he saw at Tanagra, in which Coalso learn from the biography by Eustathius, that rinna was represented binding her hair with a
Pindar wrote the aqpvargpopLKoYV,o'tCa for his son fillet in token of her victory, which he attributes
Daiphantus, when he was elected daphnephoiaos to as much to her beauty and to the circumstance that
conduct the festival of the daphnephorisa; a fact she wrote in the Aeolic dialect as to her poetical
which proves the dignity of the family, since only talents.
youths of the most distinguished families at Thebes Pindar commenced his professional career as a
were eligible to this office. (Paus. ix. 10. ~ 4.) poet at an early age, and acquired so great a reThe family seems to have been celebrated for its putation, that he was soon employed.by different
skill in music; though there is no authority for states and princes in all parts of the Hellenic world
stating, as BMckh and Miller have done, that they to compose for them choral songs for special occawere hereditary flute-players, and exercised their sions. He received money and presents for his
profession regularly at certain great religious fes- works; but he never degenerated into a common
tivals. The ancient biographies relate that the mercenary poet, and he continued to preserve to
father or uncle of Pindar was a flute-player, and his latest days the respect of all parts of Greece.
we are told that Pindar at an early age received His earliest poem which has come down to us (the
instruction in the art from the flute-player Scope- 10th Pythian) lie composed at the age of twenty.
linus. But the youth soon gave indications of a It is an Epinican ode in. honour of Hippocles, a
genius for poetry, which induced his father to Thessalian youth belongiing to the powerful Aleuad
send him to Athens to receive more perfect in- family, who had gained the prize at the Pythian
struction in the art; for it must be recollected that games. Supposing Pindar to have been born in
lyric poetry among the Greeks was so intimately B. c. 522, this ode was composed in B. c. 502. The
connected with music, dancing, and the whole next ode of Pindar in point of time is the 6th
training of the chorus that the lyric poet required Pythian, which he wrote in. his twenty-seventh
no small amount of education to fit him for the year, B. C. 494, in honour of Xenocrates of Agriexercise of his profession. Later writers tell us gentum, who had gained the prize at the chariotthat his future glory as a poet was miraculously race at the Pythllian games, by means of his son
foreshadowed by a swarm of bees which rested Thrasybulus. It would be tedious to relate at
upon his lips while he was asleep, and that this length the different occasions on which he composed
miracle first led him to compose poetry. (Colmp. his other odes. It may suffice to mention that he
Paus. ix. 23. ~ 2; Aelian, F. I-. xii. 45.) At composed poems for Hieron, tyrant of Syracuse,
Athens Pindar became the pupil of Lasus of Her- Alexander, son of Amyntas, king of Macedonia,
miole, the founder of the Athenian school of dithy- Theron, tyrant of Agrigentum, Arcesilaus, king of
rambic poetry, and who was at that time residing Cyrene, as well as for many other free states and
at Athens under the patronage of Hipparchus. private persons. He was courted especially by AlexLasus was well skilled in the different kinds of ander, king of Macedonia, and Hieron, tyrant of Symusic, and from him Pindar probably gained con- racuse; and the praises which he bestowed upon the
siderable knowledge in the theory of his art. former are said to have been the chief reason which
Pindar also received instruction at Athens from led his descendant, Alexander, the son of Philip,.to
Agathocles and Apollodorus, and one of them spare the house of the poet, when he destroyed the
allowed him to instruct the cyclic choruses, though rest of Thebes (Dion Chrysost. Orat. de Regs2o, ii.
he was still a mere youth. He returned to Thebes p. 25). About B. c. 473, Pindar visited the court
before he had completed his twentieth year, and is of Hieron, in consequence of the pressing invitation
said to have received instruction there from Myrtis of the monarch; but it appears that he did not reand Corinna of Tanagra, two poetesses, who then main more than four years at Syracuse, as he loved
enjoyed great celebrity in Boeotia. Corinna ap- an independent life, and did not care to cultivate
pears to have exercised considerable influence upon the courtly arts which rendered his contemporary,
the youthfill poet, and he was not a little in- Simonides, a more welcome guest at the table of
debted to her example and precepts. It is related their patron. But the estimation in which Pindar
by Plutarch (De Glor. Athenz. 14), that she re- was held by his contemporaries is still more strikcommended Pindar to introduce mythical narra- ingly shown by the honours conferred upon him by
tions into his poems, and that when in accordance the free states of Greece. Although a Theban, he
with her advice he composed a hymn (part of was always a great favourite with the Athenians,
which is still extant), in which he interwove al- whom he frequently praised in his poems, and
most all the Theban mythology, she smiled and whose city he often visited. In one of his dithysaid, "We ought to sow with the hand, and not rambs (Dithiyr. fr. 4) he called it " the support
with the whole sack" (s'/i XEpl &ezv orefspsev, dAAXX (eperTeua) of Greece, glorious Athens, the divine
/o'As,kAT TW auXsc). With both these poetesses city." The Athenians testified their gratitude by
Pindar contended for the prize in the musical con- making him their public guest (Orpodesos), and
tests at Thebes. Although Corinna found fault giving to him tens thousand drachinas (Isocr. 7repl
with Myrtis for entering into the contest with dimss. p. 304, ed. Dind.); and at a later period
Pindar, saying," I blame the clear-toned Myrtis, they erected a statue to his honour (Pans. i. 8. ~
that she, a woman born, should enter the lists with 4), but this was not done in his lifetime, as the
Pindar," pseudo-Aeschines states (Eluist. 4). The inhabitants of Ceos employed Pindar to compose for them
It.,~~po~c, a Kj, hl~lAn,O~PTI~),;SYa a 7rpoaOiLoov or processional song, although they had
OI Oafiic(rt gupsa Mvs fl poi OTis ea'P' two celebrated poets of their own, Bacchylides and