Pindar's Paeans A Reading of the Fragments with a Survey of the Genre

The paean, or sacred hymn to Apollo, had a central place in the song-dance culture of classical Greece. The most celebrated examples of the genre in antiquity were Pindar's paeans, which became known to scholars in this century thanks to the discovery of papyrus fragments, some published asrecently as 1989. Long overdue, this book offers the first comprehensive re-evaluation of the poems. It includes a text and translation of all the paeans of Pindar, newly classified, with a supplement comprising fragments from poems of uncertain genres. Dr Rutherford accompanies each fragment withan interpretation dealing with issues of religion, performance, and genre. A two-part comprehensive introduction looks at general aspects of the genre, including early history, functions, performance, form, eidographic determinacy, use in Greek tragedy, and paeanic ambiguity - as well as offering anoverview of the Pindaric paeans and their Hellenistic edition.

Ian Rutherford is Reader in Greek and Head of the Classics Department, Reading University.