THE LANGUAGE OF PINDAR

Vita

Suda:
o born in the 65th Olympiad (i.e. 520-517 BC), and was 40 at the time of Xerxes invasion
(i.e. 481-479)
o

Excerpts

Pythian IV, ll.188-198

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Pythian II

And when the flower of sailors

came down to Iolkos, Jason
counted and praised d them all.
And then the prophet Mopsus,
divining by birds and sacred sortilege,
embarked the army readily.
When they had slung
the anchors high above the beak,
taking a golden bowl in his hands
the captain, from the stern, called on
the father of the Uranidae, Zeus the lightningspeared,
for the wavesurge and the winds
to be swift running, for the nights and sea
paths and days to be serene,
and for their homecoming to be fortunate;
and from the clouds Zeus answered him
with an auspicious clap of thunder;
and bright bolts of lighting
broke from the sky. (trans. SJ Willett)

l.28: /
ll.69-71: / /
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ll.79-80: /

Olympian II

ll.19-20: / ,
ll.25-26: /
ll.38-40: / , /
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ll.41-42: / :
ll.87-88: , / .
ll.93-95: /
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The language of choral lyric