Bacchylides

Douglas L. Cairns

J. Gordon Howie

The fifth-century BC Greek lyric poet Bacchylides, like his contemporary Pindar, composed epinician odes celebrating victories in the Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian, and Nemean Games---occasions of immense political, cultural, and religious significance in the Hellenic world. Fourteen of Bacchylides' epinician odes survive wholly or in part. This volume covers the five that have come down to us in the fullest form; they have great importance for the study of epinician poetry in particular and of early fifth-century lyric in general. The introductory essays and commentary explicate the social, ethical, cultural, and artistic features of Bacchylidean epinician within the contexts in which it is so deeply embedded. The text is presented with facing prose translation, and the commentary is keyed to the translation as well as to the Greek text. While technical aspects of language and metre are not ignored, more emphasis is given throughout to contextual and literary interpretation. The volume will be of primary value to students and scholars with an advanced knowledge of the Greek language, but it is also designed to be accessible to readers with little or no Greek.

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