By Kathryn A. Morgan
This groundbreaking publication makes an attempt an absolutely contextualized interpreting of the poetry written through Pindar for Hieron of Syracuse within the 470s BC. It argues that the victory odes and different occasional songs composed by means of Pindar for the Sicilian tyrant have been a part of an in depth cultural application that incorporated athletic pageant, coinage, structure, sanctuary commitment, urban origin, and masses extra. within the tumultuous years following the Persian invasion of Greece in 480, elite Greek leaders and their towns struggled to capitalize at the Greek victory and to outline themselves as unfastened peoples who triumphed over the specter of Persian monarchy. Pindar's victory odes are a major contribution to Hieron's target of panhellenic pre-eminence, redescribing modern tyranny as an instantiation of golden-age kingship and consonant with top Greek culture. In a fragile means of cultural legitimation, the poet's compliment deploys athletic victories as a symptoms of extra common preeminence. 3 preliminary chapters set the degree by means of offering the heritage and tradition of Syracuse lower than the Deinomenid tyrants, exploring problems with functionality and patronage, and juxtaposing Hieron to rival Greek leaders at the mainland. next chapters study in flip all Pindar's preserved poetry for Hieron and contributors of his courtroom, and contextualizes this poetry through evaluating it to the songs written for Hieron by means of Pindar's poetic modern, Bacchylides. those odes enhance a in particular "tyrannical" mythology within which a hero from the earlier enjoys strange closeness with the gods, simply to carry spoil on him or herself by way of failing to control this closeness properly. Such damaging exemplars counterbalance Hieron's success and current the risks opposed to which he needs to (and does) shield himself by means of regal advantage. The readings that emerge are marked by means of unprecedented integration of literary interpretation with the political/historical context.
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Additional info for Pindar and the Construction of Syracusan Monarchy in the Fifth Century B.C.
Sample text
What traditions of monarchy and material glorification did Hieron inherit? How did he embed himself in Syracusan culture and make a place for himself in the broader Sicilian and Greek world? To answer these questions, we must start by looking backward to the imposing achievements of his elder brother, Gelon, and the rise to prominence of his family, the Deinomenids. It is fortunate that Deinomenid political activity and its related cultural production are reflected in a number of media. We survey their military activity, their programs of city foundation and dynastic alliance, their architecture and urban development, their coinage, their religious policy, their participation in athletic contests, and their dedications.
I do not suggest that there existed at Syracuse a constitutionally recognized form of kingship, nor that, as was sometimes suggested, Gelon was ever declared “king” of Syracuse or passed this title on to Hieron. 30 The absence of contemporary sources on Hieron other than Pindar and Bacchylides deprives us of any control group of vocabulary (notably, Bacchylides never calls Hieron king). Hieron was doubtless called a tyrant regularly by other Greeks. Yet when the need arose he could equally well have been called king.
Vocabulary from this stem occurs only three times in the epinicians. , and they all occur in gnomic passages. 53, an ode addressed to a Theban victor, Pindar “blames the lot of tyrannies” while arguing for an ideology of limited ambition and social harmony. The other two passages are from odes to Hieron. 87, the poet states that a man of straight speech excels under any type of government, whether it is a tyranny, a democracy, or rule by “the wise” (see Chapter 5). In this passage tyranny remains neutral.