The series publishes important new editions of and commentaries on texts from Greco-Roman antiquity, especially annotated editions of texts surviving only in fragments. Due to its programmatically wide range the series provides an essential basis for the study of ancient literature.
Pindar's Pythian Eleven is a miniature masterpiece: a poem praising a young athlete which presents a vivid and important account of the Agamemnon legend. Yet it contains so many difficulties (of text, metre, dating and interpretation) that even Wilamowitz regarded it as one of Pindar's most obscure poems. This 2007 edition (the first full-scale treatment that the poem had ever received) provides answers to the problems that have prevented proper appreciation of the work. In addition to the full introduction and commentary, the book also has a text based on re-examination of the manuscripts, detailed metrical discussion, and a translation.
The Greek poet Pindar (c. 518-428 BC) composed victory odes for winners in the ancient Games, including the Olympics. The Odes contain versions of some of the best known Greek myths and are also a valuable source for Greek religion and ethics. Verity's lucid translations are complemented by insights into competition, myth, and meaning. - ;'we can speak of no greater contest than Olympia' The Greek poet Pindar (c. 518-428 BC) composed victory odes for winners in the ancient Games, including the Olympics. He celebrated the victories of athletes competing in foot races, horse races, boxing, wrestling, all-in fighting and the pentathlon, and his Odes are fascinating not only for their poetic qualities, but for what they tell us about the Games. Pindar praises the victor by comparing him to mythical heroes and the gods, but also reminds the athlete of his human limitations. The Odes contain versions of some of the best known Greek myths, such as Jason and the Argonauts, and Perseus and Medusa, and are a valuable source for Greek religion and ethics. Pindar's startling use of language - striking metaphors, bold syntax, enigmatic expressions - makes reading his poetry a uniquely rewarding experience. Anthony Verity's lucid translations are complemented by an introduction and notes that provide insight into competition, myth, and meaning. -
Pindar is one of the greatest Greek poets, but while the metre of half of his poems is easy to grasp, that of the other half has so far remained obscure. Kiichiro Itsumi presents a new account of their metre. He separates the metre into two types and identifies a series of precise entities from which the verses are made, in this way imposing a new clarity and discipline on what had previously seemed a much vaguer process. Itsumi's analyses of individual poems include a discussion ofstanzaic structure, of textual problems, and of particular lines in the stanza and their exploitation within the text. These analyses will be an invaluable resource for serious scholars of Pindar.
Olympian Nine celebrates the wrestling victory in 468 of Epharmostus of Opous. Although one of PindarAes longer odes, it has received less scholarly attention than others of comparable size. The present commentary fills this gap. A significant portion of the ode is devoted to EpharmostusAe previous victories and an appendix analyses how victory catalogues are treated elsewhere by Pindar as well as by Bacchylides and agonistic epigrams. "There are a thousand things to treasure here; details are a steep path and require too much discussion to give a sense of the whole. IAell put it simply: Gerber makes hard scholarship look easy. The wise will store up against future need." Classical World
The essays in On the Writing of New Testament Commentaries survey relevant questions related to the writing of commentaries on the books of the New Testament.
Recent years have witnessed a revival of interest in the influence of archaic lyric poetry on Hellenistic poets. However, no study has yet examined the reception of Pindar, the most prominent of the lyric poets, in the poetry of this period. This monograph is the first book to offer a systematic examination of the evidence for the reception of Pindar in the works of Callimachus of Cyrene, Theocritus of Syracuse, Apollonius of Rhodes and Posidippus of Pella. Through a series of case studies, it argues that Pindaric poetry exercised a considerable influence on a variety of Hellenistic genres: epinician elegies and epigrams, hymns, encomia, and epic poetry. For the poets active at the courts of the first three Ptolemies, Pindar's poetry represented praise discourse in its most successful configuration. Imitating aspects of it, they lent their support to the ideological apparatus of Greco-Egyptian kingship, shaped the literary profile of Pindar for future generations of readers, and defined their own role and place in Greek literary history. The discussion offered in this book suggests new insights into aspects of literary tradition, Ptolemaic patronage, and Hellenistic poetics, placing Pindar's work at the very heart of an intricate nexus of political and poetic correspondences.
This is the first large-scale edition with introduction and commentary of Pindar’s First Pythian Ode. Composed for Hieron of Syracuse to mark his Delphic chariot victory of 470 BC and his recent foundation of the city of Aetna, the poem is not only a literary masterpiece, but also of central importance for our understanding of Greek history and culture in the early fifth century BC. As our only contemporary written source for the Sicilian Wars against the Carthaginians and Etruscans, it stands on a level with Simonides’ Plataea Elegy and Aeschylus’ Persians on the Persian Wars. This is a period where epoch-making Greek victories in the east and west were celebrated by the greatest poets in a way that reveals much about the atmosphere in which their works were created and received. The book offers a new edition of the text with a detailed introduction and commentary, which discuss textual problems, language, metre and transmission as well as a variety of literary questions, the historical background and the early performance and reception history of the ode. It will be of interest to scholars and students of archaic and classical Greek poetry and of Greek history of the early fifth century BC.
Simon Hornblower argues for a relationship between Thucydides and Pindar not so far acknowledged in modern scholarship. He argues that ancient critics were right to detect stylistic similarities between these two great exponents of the `severe style' in prose and verse. In Part One he explores the background of epinikian poetry and athletics, the values shared by the two authors, and religion and colonization myths, and presents a geographically organized survey of Pindar's Mediterranean world, exploiting onomastic evidence. Part Two includes an analysis of Thucydides' account of the Olympic games of 420 BC; discussions of the four components of Thucydides' history in their relation to Pindar; statements of method, excursuses, speeches, and narrative, especially the Sicilian books; and a stylistic-literary comparison of Thucydides and Pindar.