Some Aspects of Pindar's Style Author(s): Lawrence Henry Baker Reviewed work(s): Source: The Sewanee Review, Vol.

31, No. 1 (Jan., 1923), pp. 100-110 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27533621 . Accessed: 29/01/2013 11:05
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SOME ASPECTS
There

OF PINDAR'S

STYLE

was once a time when Pindar was regarded by moderns a queer jumble of contests, as of gnomic of myths, and sayings, The blending of all these ele self-esteem. of almost arrogant not the very reason for presenting them in poetry at ments?if not easily to be explained and men long held, therefore, all?was ; that Pindar was not only difficult but also of questionable value. The of the works in 1896, however, of Bacchylides, to change this feeling. is far easier Bacchylides helped greatly to follow than is Pindar, and very much more translucent; there a simpler model whereby to study Pindar's fore he furnished discovery department, namely that of Choral-Lyric?the lyric written A comparison of the two poets the song and the dance. thrown much light on what was not so clear before, and suspected.?that proved what was previously of Pindar are manifestations peculiarities for has has

many of the striking of the tradition and

of his department. precedent But the removal of the departmental difficulties could not lighten the task of reading Pindar to make him more sufficiently generally remained and personal individualistic difficulties so that we may call Pindar one of the infre ; a limited authors, and one who beyond quently read classical is to-day practically circle of Greek students unknown. and his fame in Greece was unquestionably Pindar's greater, studied. behind The

circle of readers larger than it is in the modern world, although we can hardly ascribe to him all the popularity which Plutarch, from Pindar, a fellow-citizen whose of Bceo frequent quotation lead us to think he had. The very nature of his tia, would or Songs of Victory, which the Epinicia, choicest compositions, were written to celebrate in contests at the rewards of success the great was Nemea, circulation. cia were gates at Olympia, and Corinth, Delphi, to preclude the possibility of very wide works of art though they are, the epini Admirable not entirely floods of poetic inspiration which burst the national such festivals as restraint Inspired and demanded they were; expression merely but unfortunately for the

of the poet's sake. expression's

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Some

Aspects

of Pindar's

Style

101

gold, or the inspiration was often the yellow light of gleaming was of favor and patronage. Each exultant hope epinicion success. to celebrate a given man's It was of particular written to him and his immediate circle alone; and interest, therefore, if we add to this fact that in each instance the man celebrated was a member limitation ers. theme national Much of of the Greek we can see an even greater aristocracy, hearers or read the number of Pindar's about the poet's but a art of making the personal

patron's victory; of appeal, for narrowness poetry certainly made even though we must admit that Pindar's of a specific treatment not to end lines calculated victory proceeds on broad and general his in the immediate The ancients Pindar who too busy family of the victor. as to the problem have agreed with the moderns on Greek to the reader. To the writers presented in the post-classical flourished period, when men

upon placed has been written event out of a given

which rhetoric were

to write of classical Attic learning the intricacies as a representative of the he stood original, anything largely a specimen to be collected rugged style of composition?merely and put into the same preserving-jar his counter with Thucydides,

part

in prose. Some modern critic dubbed Pindar "the scholar's and the evil effects of this name he has never been able poet" ; to live down. Few people now read him, and fewer still are inti of the fact perhaps, because in the minds of most modern which they fancy requires for that Hesiod element hard work. to be denied

familiar with him, largely, mately that he has come to be surrounded students with an aura of exoticism of its penetration too much for the ascent prescribed That Pindar is difficult student who has been

the primitive to read is not

to Arete?namely,

; for the the carefully constructed, smooth, reading sentences of Lysias, for example, would find a easily-flowing addi two are?in contrast in Pindar. These painful decidedly tion to the fact that one quite widely is perhaps the world's art; and in his works smoothly removed is a prose writer, the other a poet? in their positions in Greek style. Lysias of the art that conceals finest master be found passages that read along as current of a mighty are the guilelessness

will

and easily as the imperceptible that for all their apparent river?passages

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102

The

Sewanee

Review

is a strikingly of imitators. illustra excellent despair Lysias tion of clear, transparent whereas the Pindar writing; typifies as harsh?the the ancients which themselves regarded style
auorrrjpb? ?p^ovia, or the severe style.

of Pindar could perhaps be characteristics an account best described of the avorrrjpbs ap?xov?a. by giving noun pre is a style This in which the virile, concept-bearing at the expense of the lighter, more unifying dominates verb. The troublesome of ideas is far more than a predication frequent Juxtaposition means of the copula; and a rugged massing facilitated of by our minds seems the thought that almost beats into substantives to lie under, through, and over them all, yet not in any single
one of these substantives.

Dionysius and perhaps

made an

a writer of the time of Augustus, of Halicarnassus, the greatest student of literary style in all ages, has
analysis of this severe manner of compo

unsurpassable

sition.

In.elucidation

I quote

him

as follows:1?

"It [the austere that the words should be style] requires like columns firmly planted and placed in strong positions, so that each word should be seen on every side, and that the distances from one another, parts should be at appreciable It does not in the intervals. being separated by perceptible harsh least shrink from using frequently sound-clashings which that are jar on the ear; like blocks of building-stone that are not square and laid together blocks unworked, smooth, but preserve their natural roughness and irregularity. It is prone for the most part to expansion by means of great to being confined It objects to short sylla words. spacious stress of necessity. bles, except under occasional "In respect of the words, then, these are the aims which In its clauses it it strives to attain, and to these it adheres. not only these objects, but also and pursues impressive its clauses not parallel in and tries to make stately rhythms,
structure or sound, stir periods, nor slaves to a rigid than as sequence, but noble,

brilliant,
art, And and as

free.
to to

It wishes
emotion it does

them to suggest
rather not, to a rule,

nature
reflect even

rather
attempt

than
to

character.

them compose in itself: plete

1 De Compositione

in such a way that the sense of each is com it seeks if it ever drifts into this accidentally,
pp. 211 ff. Roberts's translation.

Verborum,

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Some

Aspects

of Pindar's

Style

103

to emphasize its own unstudied and simple character, neither in no way aid the words which any supplementary using in order that the period may be fully rounded sense, merely off, nor being anxious that the period should move smoothly or showily, nor nicely calculating them so as to be just suffi for the speaker's cient (if you please) breath, nor taking the arrange about any other such trifles. Further, pains in its use of the ment is marked in question by flexibility of figures, few connec cases, variety in the employment it lacks articles; it often disregards natural sequence; tions; it is anything rather than florid, it is aristocratic, plain an old-world mellowness constitutes spoken, unvarnished; its beauty." farther Other critics, men who have been than was Dionysius, and who, from Pindar childhood but to other have substituted the substitution tongues, the term archaism knew removed accustomed than did in time from he, ;

far less Greek

for his old-worldmellowness

has brought a loss rather than a gain. To call Pindar archaic is to admit an ignorance of the conventions of orto overlook the fact that he post-dates Homer, his department, who who of Aischylos, is always modern, and that he is the contempory term stands at the bud and flower of Greece's The prime.

archaic, in plastic art, has come to be applied to works character to the law of frontality and by the 'type' ized by adherence manner of production before the work of Myron. It prevalent is doubtful whether Pindar fits in this category; for, although of epinicia, they are not the whole are their and metres Besides, productions. language and this term which fills a prominent greatly diversified; place to in material when applied art, has but doubtful significance his of extant poems types his
literature.

are

The world
Theban,2

is somewhat for the "old language of Pindar responsible that is to be found in his works. mellowness" It is not
as a recent author seems to imagine, who asserts that

Bceotia duced

grace

developed and ease.

stiffness

whereas Athens bombast, pro It is not bombastic nor yet is language,

and

2Dornseiff: Philology, XLIII,

Pindar's p. 376.

Stil,

p. 8.

See

my

review,

American

Journal

of

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104 it characterized remotely spoken

the

The

Sewanee

Review It is, rather, a language a literary vehicle, and no said that his dreams were
of Homer;3 and Pindar,

by Athenian fluency. to that of Spenser, comparable at all.

scraps,

speech
or

Aischylos
from the

has
feast

re/Lia^r),

as well

as all the other

Greece?partook dar's language each of

heavily is a mixture these

not a few prose writers of poets?and the fare of their blind host. of Pin of the Epic, MoWc, varied according and Doric to the mood dia

of lects, seems more in evidence the particular poem. the Doric Perhaps can be naturally than the other dialects; but this predominance as caused by the handling of Stesichorus, the Doric explained
pioneer in choral-lyric.

elements

to mood according to the personality tions according of that Pindar was a member membered To the variations would,

must

be added

on the one hand, feel the right and, on the other, would feel himself not bound to avoid diction, He is conscious of the security of his position, giving offence. and for that reason does not recoil from expressing the common
place, even the unseemly.

It the poet. who of the aristocracy, to assume a lofty and terse

the varia is to be re

of the difficulty is the intricacy which he uses. of the metres reading Pindar The division of his works and cola has come into their metres down to us in a long tradition based upon metrical scholia which the influence of -Hephsestion This tra show and Aristoxenus. Another which has contributed dition was discarded followed turn was the poems. by the scholar Boeckh with his neat by Schmidt, is perhaps best known Schmidt (1811-21), who in of systematization to students to-day

matter

to

of his Rhythmic and White's translation through John Williams in 1878. the latest scansion of Pindar which Metric, Probably is that of Schroeder, has sought authenticity by publication 1908. That he none of these cepted has what in toto is attested considers on Greek ac has been universally the fact that Professor Wilamowitz by some upon them in his improvements treatments We may say that the odes of

latest work

metrics.4

2Athen us,34l^ 4 Griechische Verskunst,

1921.

See

my

review,

Classical

Weekly,

IV,

204.

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Some Pindar

Aspects

of Pindar's

Style

105

are composed in dactylo-epitrite, logacedic, and paionian two of these terms are now theformer rhythms ; but unfortunately so that our information is not as enlighten involved in dispute, as it seems. Whatever term applied to be the technical may ing with their the

a his rhythms, however, reading of the poems, sympathetic one feel due regard for long and short syllables, will make and it will movement; mood of each poem. do more than this?it will bring

out

the dictates of his depart Pindar's metres, Possibly possibly his personality alone will account and possibly for the ment, of his poems. characteristics Of any one of these we know less works. who from his than we might wish; but we can draw our inferences was aristocratic. We have said that his personality The of his department have been surveyed conventions by Dornseiff, was seems to think that the purpose of choral-lyric largely to convey the effect of turgidity and bombast. however, This, a sympathetic can hardly be considered should be view. We if we adhered more closely to the information fairer to Pindar of Halicarnassus. but
It is

given by Dionysius rhetorical element;

avo-TTipbs ap/jLovia.

In Pindar

this
not

element
the art

find a large is in keeping with the we

smooths away all

which

difficulties the author worker The

ness.

from the path of the reader; but it is the art in which solicits the help of the reader and makes him a co of his ideas. with
occurs

in the elaboration diction

As would

of Pindar
be

is lofty and elevated,

circumlocution

much
very

full
fre

expected,

influence the speech of the quently. priests, who, more because they were guided Delphic by tradi than because tional and religious impulses they sought to insure a means of escape, if their prophecies refrained from failed, a spade a spade, but resorted to giving of descriptions calling the objects meant As in sentence nation, The chief so in his in their divinations.5 structure Pindar shows a fondness coordination for coordi

There

is seen

in it an

of

of words, arrangement indication of its presence here

prevails. is a large use of appo

sBergk Herodotus

:Griechische 7, 141.

Litteraturgeschichte,

I, p. 332.

Dornseiff,

p. 29, quotes

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io6 sition, which

out cJ?, or some

The often
sign

Sewanee to equal
simile.

Review the use of a comparison with

comes
of the

Similes present highly which

are and perhaps all the figures known to rhetoricians in the odes of Pindar; and his diction may be called are the objects Manifold and imaginative. figurative serve as the basis for these figures; but the very first Olympian

Ode will present the best epitome of comparison. Here we find water, objects the sun that shines by day, fire, lordly wealth, gold, gleaming at night, the broad expanse the stars that gleam of the sky or love for figures which Pindar's portray flashing and masterly has been the subject of much swiftness this the outcome of which has been to attribute consideration, to his aristocratic inheritance. The aristocrat must predilection the ether. brilliance be manifestations are and brilliant and swiftness strong; display of wealth and strength.6 The Odes of Pindar are so strongly ornamented with figures that their author has often been charged with mixing his meta rich and (p. 66) seems one another, to find and are in him figures that coil to difficult extremely

strophe of the First of Pindar's favorite

Dornseiff phors. about and uncoil

follow :?

is continually "Pindar mingling is continually back and hovering between the and the portrayal, The archaic veil for the object. phorical speech is so intensified as cross each other so frequently the end of his flourishes." To me, should ing of Pindar the term archaic do better used here

and reality, or picture forth between the concept itself and a pretty object to strong meta tendency in Pindar that his figures to make it difficult to see

to maintain

with great rapidity; and his of figures is but another objective of indication quick succession his love of swiftness. too, his readers have read into Perhaps, as the result of omission him a fault by taking his asyndeton rather than of commission.
7 Ibid.,

the poet the attitude from view to view slides

and I feel that we is odious; this apparent shortcom stated by Professor Gildersleeve.7 toward

6Gildersleeve

: Olympian

and Pythian

Odes,

p. xxxix.

p. xliv.

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Some In

Aspects

of Pindar's

Style over

107 the

not pass Pindar's work, we must considering Each of these itself. form of the epinicion general was merely another variation of the same theme, victory the conventions should

songs of in which

seemed to dictate of the department that there the hymnic, the personal, the be four elements?namely, and the epic-mythical. gnomic, consisted in the giving of of course, The personal element, to the victor who commissioned the poet. and praise publicity This the artistic certainly must have severely menaced whole poem; but if the given hero were suffi of the perfection back to a member of the famous, or traced his genealogy ciently element as most of them seem tc have done, then this element an approach to the poet's business of making the poem to the height of general and abiding interest. rise The holding of the games was not merely Greece's means of

Pantheon, furnished

caused the difficulty of modern by the absence surmounting to mark the flight of time, as I was once told by a fresh clocks man studying Ancient but it was the expression of re History; or fame that either Back of the pleasure, joy, ligious impulses. or contestants there was the feeling that the spectator gained, to do honor to some potent patron all present were convened a victory won at any celebrated The poem which and deity. not entirely overlook the rendering of honor of these games must cover god whose worship himself with glory. the poems words through to the gave For the victor this the opportunity to reason, we find scattered for the gods?for Zeus, the hymnic ele

Poseidon, Apollo, ment takes the form of a proemium.8 rich in gnomic is particularly Pindar

and Heracles.

of praise Sometimes

but in this expression; the general he merely emphasizes respect tendency of ancient is rarely free from the morally didactic strain. which literature, to escape to him, "If any man hopeth the eye of According "Few have gained God, he is grievously wrong";9 pleasure adorned with virtues is the true light without toil" ;10 "Wealth "The is he that knoweth much by gift of man";11 truly wise "Praise is attacked Sometimes the of nature";12 by envy".13
8 O. nO. IV, II, iff. 53 f. 90. laO. II, 64. 10O.XI, 130. 22. II, 95.

11,86.

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io8 outlook
pian tells

The on life
us:?

Sewanee

Review for the Second Olym

is somewhat

melancholy,

for mortal men at least, the time when their life "Verily, will end in the bourne of death is not clearly marked ; no, nor the time when we shall bring a calm day, the Sun's 14 own child, to its close amid happiness that is unimpaired." And tion the Eighth that "man reflec Pythian (96) adds to this the mournful is but the dream of a shadow", a statement which seems to echo inHamlet, in the form, "Man is but

Shakespeare the shadow

We are given the consolation, however, the power of noble joys, a cruel trouble is quelled and dieth away, whenever is lifted on high by a good fortune is that of the man who sees The melancholy fate."15 god-sent sweet dream; life as no bright, but who, on the other hand, to take the bitter with the sweet and to stand up is willing that "Under like a man There mental against the trial that will prove his true genuineness. is in Pindar nothing that approaches senti the morbid, in his City of melancholia which Thomson shows

of a dream".

Dreadful Night. of the epinicion element is perhaps The mythic that which to the whole cohesion structure, and for most people adds gives touch of beauty. The tendency used to be to as the strongest cribe reverse to the epic influence; but now we the presence of the myth the process because we think that there can be detected the rudiments of the old heroic sagas which must In the growth of poetry, the epic.16 lyric must shows the other departments but our evidence ; must have of crystallization of the departments

in choral-lyric have preceded have preceded that been the order

Hence there may be some truth in the epic, lyric, drama. shows effects above statement ; and the epic, instead of affecting,
itself.

greatest poem, both in size and in aesthetic It deals with the Argonautic expedition, appeal. of an epic theme in a lyric manner. and is a famous handling The Fourth Pythian
u0. 15 O. 11, ff. II, 19 f. The translations p. 121. are from Sandys, Loeb Classical Series. op. cit.,

is Pindar's

16Dornseii?,

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Some Next

Aspects

of Pindar's

Style

109

to this I personally like the Second Olympian, the Eighth and the First Olympian, in the order named. Pythian, The appreciation of Pindar has varied somewhat with the ages. Dionysius fragment of Halicarnassus of Pindar's:17? remarks apropos of a dithyrambic

"These lines are vigorous, weighty, and dignified, and are marked much of style. rugged, by Though severity they are not unpleasantly harsh to the ear, are so, and though only so in due measure. They are slow in their rhythm, and present broad effects of harmony, and they exhibit not the showy and decorative of our own day, but the prettiness severe beauty of a distant past." 18 Horace "is says of Pindar that he?

like a river rushing down from the mountains and over its banks. He is worthy of Apollo's flowing bay, whether or he rolls down new words daring through dithyrambs, sings of gods and kings, or of those whom the palm of Elis some youthful or laments makes inhabitants of heaven, to the stars his prowess, hero and exalts and his courage, 19 his golden virtue." Qufritilian "Of deur,
of

And

declares

that? is the peerless master, in gran of speech, and in the full stream

lyric poetry Pindar in figures in maxims,

eloquence."20

a number of odes to show le moyen de Ronsard, 1550, wrote and this action was followed by along succession suivre Pindare-, to be the of English poets who adopted what they considered Pindaric in the method seventeenth of constructing century, of Poesy
"That Sailing Thru

odes,21?Cowley and Congreve speaks

and Shadwell and Gray in the and

eighteenth. In his Progress the ample pinion?

Gray,

indeed,

of the pride

the Theban with the

eagle

bear dominion

supreme azure deep

of air."

1775 Schroeder. 19 IV, Odes, 21 S. R. Shafer

18The 2. :The English

translation

is that

of Roberts,

p. Press,

217.

20Quintilian Ode to 1660.

1. 61. X, Princeton

University

1918.

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no Matthew Arnold

The

Sewanee

Review

and paid him opinion of Pindar, he him in passages. of imitating the compliment "Pindar", says, "is the poet above all others on whom the power of style an inspiring and intoxicating seems to have exercised effect."22 His Merope
"

had a high

is a copy of Pindar's
Droops all his nearer o'er curtains his of

O. 6, 54 ff. ; and his eagle who?

neck,

Nestling While The

brown, deep-feathered sheeny, to Jove's feet, sovereign the blue eye films slowly meet,"

is from the First said

isa sort of Australian poet; Tennyson tracts of gravel with im has large nuggets long immensely as "the inflated The Voltaire bedded." thought of Pindar only were ban" ; but even these characterizations than less unkind the remarks
gambols of

of Pindar. Pythian "He of Pindar:

of

those who

saw in Pindar's
some

lyric flights
and

the crude

a mastodon.23 however, scholars critics?unprofes

Fortunately,

as professional?have to possess found Pindar charm and grace in his massive smoothness, gambols. Delicacy, ease are not his; but he has a satisfying which is substantiality sional at once welcomed Translation of him of him re-reading of Wagnerian ings finds him. capable of understanding by the mind is, at best, but a travesty; but a reading and in the original Greek is like successive hear it strange at first, but music?one thinks at each successive
Lawrence The Johns Hopkins University.

as well

in it new enjoyment

hearing.
Henry Baker.

Macmillan, 1890, p. 420. be augmented to here given may my index by consulting Brief American p. 374, s. v. Pindar. Mention, XLII, Journal of Philology, to acknowledge It is my privilege that this essay is the result of my having Professor Gildersleeve read with Pindar's Stil, Berlin, by Franz Dornseiff, 1921.

22 Poetical Works, 23 The estimates

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