Olympian Ode 1 by Pindar
"Olympian Ode 1" by Pindar is a celebrated victory ode composed to honor Hieron of Syracuse after his win in a horse race at the Olympic Games in 476 BCE. As the first poem in Pindar's collection of victory odes, it sets a precedent for the style and themes found in his subsequent works. The ode begins with a reference to the significance of water and transitions into a tribute to the Olympic festival and its deity, Zeus. Pindar praises Hieron and the city of Syracuse while intertwining their contemporary achievements with historical and mythical narratives.
Central to the poem is the myth of Tantalus and Pelops, which Pindar retells with modifications to downplay its darker elements, emphasizing the importance of moderation and respect for the divine. This moral lesson resonates with Hieron's position as a ruler, reminding him of the virtues expected from a leader. The ode also briefly references Pelops's legendary chariot race, linking these mythic events to the origins of the Olympic tradition. Pindar concludes with a call to the Muse, expressing a desire for lasting friendships with the victors. This work not only celebrates athletic triumph but also reflects on themes of governance, virtue, and the relationship between mortals and the divine.
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Olympian Ode 1 by Pindar
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 498-446 b.c.e. (English translation, 1656)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
Olympian 1, which opens the collection of Pindar’s forty-five victory odes, sets the template for all of his subsequent poems in this genre. It was produced to celebrate the victory in the horse race at the Olympia of Hieron of Syracuse in 476 b.c.e. At this time, Hieron was master of most of the Greek settlements on the island of Sicily and was establishing himself as a patron of the arts, especially poetry. Pindar, who was invited to Syracuse in 476, was an eyewitness to the magnificence of Hieron’s court and to his benevolent, if autocratic, rule. Olympian 1 is a response to what he saw and contains a mixture of praise and advice to the victor.
The ode opens with the famously impenetrable phrase “Best of all is water” and celebratory remarks on the Olympic festival and its patron deity, Zeus. Then Pindar moves to praise of Hieron and his city of Syracuse as worthy subjects for poetic song, along with the horse who was ridden to victory, Pherenikos (“Victory-bringer”). By interweaving references to Olympia and Sicily and deploying a connected series of metaphors and images, Pindar is able to link Hieron and his present-day actions with a long tradition of historical and mythical events.
After the introduction, the central part of the poem consists of the myth of Tantalus and Pelops, which Pindar retells in his own unique fashion. His purpose is to sanitize the story of its most disturbing—and, to Pindar, immoral—details, especially the notion that Tantalus tried to feed his son Pelops to the gods in a stew and that they replaced his shoulder with a piece of ivory when they put his chopped up body together again. The implication, of course, is that the gods actually ate part of his flesh before they discovered what Tantalus had done.
In Pindar’s version, this is dismissed as a mere tale invented by envious humans. Tantalus’s crime becomes the less horrifying act of stealing divine ambrosia and nectar to give to his mortal friends. Nonetheless, the behavior of Tantalus is an instance of hubris, namely an arrogant disregard for the laws of the gods. Thus the moral message of the myth is clear: One’s conduct should be guided by moderation in all things and by respect for the gods. This has direct applicability to Hieron, who although a popular and generally benign ruler, was an autocrat, or in Greek terminology, a “tyrant.” As Pindar knew well, many tyrants had turned out to be abusive and violent rulers (hence the negative connotations of the word today).
The story of Pelops’s famous chariot race for the hand of King Oenomaus’s daughter, which ultimately led to the foundation of the Olympic festival, is given only in a truncated form because Pindar has run out of time and space. He does, however, include Pelops’s prayer to the god Poseidon, which is a model of what Pindar would consider religious piety and heroic virtue. This leads readers back to Hieron, who is now praised for a second time but reminded that a god now watches over his labors. The ode concludes with an invocation of the Muse, who watches over Pindar’s poetic labors, and with a wish that he can share in friendship with the victors in the games.
Bibliography
Carne-Ross, D. S. Pindar. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985.
Conway, Geoffrey S. The Odes of Pindar. London: J. M. Dent, 1972.
Currie, Bruno. Pindar and the Cult of Heroes. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Gerber, Douglas E. Pindar’s Olympian 1, a Commentary. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982.
Hornblower, Simon, and Catherine Morgan. Pindar’s Poetry, Patrons, and Festivals: From Archaic Greece to the Roman Empire. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Instone, Stephen. Pindar: The Complete Odes. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Steiner, Deborah. The Crown of Song: Metaphor in Pindar. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1986.