The Odes

Number 3 in my ancient Greek literature Odyssey. This collection of poems in praise of sporting success serendipitously coincided with the 2024 Paris Olympics. Makes you wonder what the original Olympians would have thought of our modern version of their event. Too many clothes and not enough chariot-racing, probably.

These are songs that would have likely been accompanied by music and dance, so it's almost impossible to get a true idea of their original intent just by reading from a book, especially in translation.

Additionally, the works are so thick with references to people, places and myths that they can be difficult to parse from 2000+ years in the future. Praise for Pindar tends to focus on the momentum in his poetry, but my show more reading was slow and jerky as I checked the notes and tried to interpret his lines.

As I continued, I made a conscious effort to read faster, and didn't have to stop so often to double-check the names and references. The work turned out to be much easier to appreciate that way. show less

If you judged this book by its cover and picked it up hoping for some rough man-love, think again, Buster.

What we have here are the texts of commissioned chorus pieces. Divorced from the original Greek poetry, music and performance, I'm not sure that you could call them literature. There is the occasional great turn of phrase. It's worth underlining them, hidden as they are amongst the chaff. Personally I don't think there's enough of them to rescue Pindar as a poet. The fact that rich athletes would buy poems comparing them to the gods I find unspeakably vulgar.

On the other hand the paper used for this edition is nice. There is a good introduction and notes. The translation is clear. It's essentially prose which has had it's lines show more broken so that it looks like poetry. Happily Verity makes no further pretence towards poetry.

The 5 star rating is for the amount of time the poems have survived. Well done, boys! show less

This was an extremely intriguing and interesting ancient Greek text (odes based on mythology and so forth.) Pindar's style stands out as a epitome of what ancient Greece was capable of nurturing and bringing forth amongst its ranks. Pindar is quite a poet, and his inventive and powerful focus brings a deeper sense of meaning to what he is writing about. Overall, a great book for those interested in the classics- and those into poetry in general.

4 stars.

For some reason Charlton Griffin has read most of my favorite books for audio, and most of them are available only with him reading them. Unfortunately, Charlton Griffin is about my least favorite reader. Much as I love the various works he reads, it's always a struggle for me to pay attention to his reading. He sounds like an Edwardian gentleman full of ennui, as though he can barely be bothered to pay attention to the book he's reading. Also, audiobook publishers have a bad habit of not disclosing the translators of the books being read. This is beginning to change, but it drives me stark raving mad. I've read some Pindar in Greek and have a couple of different translations of his Odes, so this, fortunately, isn't my only approach to show more his poems.

That said, I'm thrilled to be able to listen to Pindar ktl. while on long drives, which are usually to work. show less

I got this because the other translation of Pindar I was reading had no notes and often made little sense without them.

2016 (review can be found at the link - which is a LibraryThing page)
read both the Richmond Lattimore & Roy Arthur Swanson translations
https://www.librarything.com/topic/226898#5842048

Edition: // Descr: xii, 170 p. 20.5 cm. // Series: Call No. { 888 P65 2 } Translated by Richmond Lattimore Contains Glossary of Names. // //