Pindar (c. 518–c. 438 BC)

Greek lyric poet. He is noted for his surviving choral songs, or odes, written in honour of victors in the Greek athletic games at Delphi, Olympia, Nemea, and the Isthmus of Corinth. Only fragments of his other works survive; these include hymns, processional songs, and dirges.

Born at Cynoscephalae in Boeotia, in his youth Pindar was defeated in a poetical contest by Corinna, who is said to have warned him to sow his mythological detail ‘by the handful, not the sackful’. His earliest surviving poem, ‘Pythian Ode X’, dates from 498 BC, and during the next 20 years he became well known throughout the Greek world. Pindar's strength lies not in his ideas, which are often naive and muddled, but in an amazing splendour of language, rhythm, and imagery, which has made his poetry impossible to translate.