BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF

PIND A R.

PINDAR was a native of Thebes in Boeotia, or, as some authors, among whom is the geographical writer Stephanus Byzantinus, affirm, of the town of Cynocephali, which was under the Theban jurisdiction. He was the son of the musician Scopelinus, or, according to Suidas, of Deiphantus and Myrto his birth is stated by the same author to have taken place in the sixty-fifth Olympiad, corresponding nearly with the year 520, A. C. His parents were probably of obscure situations in life, although of illustrious descent; as he asserts in his fifth Pythian ode that they were of the same origin with Arcesilaus, king of Cyrene. It is said of Pindar when verging to manhood, that a presage of his future lyrical eminence was drawn from the circumstance of a swarm of bees having settled on his lips. For his early skill in musical

and poetical composition he is said to have been chiefly indebted to the instructions of Corinna ; against whom, however, when a competitor for the prize, it was his fate to be adjudged inferior in no fewer than five contests: but this perhaps is as much to be attributed to the personal charms of his fair rival as to her poetical superiority; since in the other Grecian assemblies which did not allow of female competitors he was almost invariably declared victorious. He also received instruction from Simonides of Ceos, at that time the most celebrated lyric poet in Greece. He was contemporary with Eschylus, and senior to Bacchylides, having florished one hundred and fifty years later than Alcman, one hundred after Alcæus, and fifty after Stesichorus, and surpassed them all in lyrical excellence. Of his numerous compositions, consisting of hymns in honor of the gods, Pæans to Apollo, Dithyrambics to Bacchus, Funeral Songs, and Odes to the victors at the four great festivals of Greece, the latter only have been preserved to us, with the exception of some considerable fragments, one especially of great poetical beauty on the Solar Eclipse, cited by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and the opening verses of a fine dithyrambic hymn.

One slight effort of Pindar's juvenile muse has also escaped the ravages of time, but not sufficiently considerable to have served like Pope's Ode on Solitude, or Cowley's Constantia and Philetus, as a presage of that future excellence, which placed him, when he had attained his fortieth year, in the first rank of the lyric poets of Greece.

The encomiums which our poet often lavishes on the wealthy have sometimes been mentioned as a subject of reproach; but if Pindar's chaste and decorous muse delighted to panegyrise kings, demigods, and heroes, in common with the poets of his time, we shall not be able to find throughout his odes any instance of vice in high station flattered, or prosperous wickedness enriched by the golden dews of poetical adulation. In the sincere and judicious advice which he fearlessly bestows on Hiero or Arcesilaus, the reader will be reminded of our own Chaucer, who, in the independent spirit of true genius, concludes his Ballade sent to King Richard' by this grave admonition to the reigning monarch:

'Prince, desire to be honorable,

Cherish thy folk, and hate extortion,' &c.

It is to the bold and animated language of the

Theban bard that we are in a great measure indebted for the feeling and interest that accompany the contemplation of those magnificent festivals which, being interwoven with the structure of the popular religion, hailed by the hopes of the religious and the aspirations of the devout, have no parallel in the history of modern solemnities.

His hymns and pæans in honor of Apollo were frequently chanted in the temples of Greece by the poet seated in his iron chair, which was afterwards placed as a venerable relic in the temple at Delphi : and the priestess herself declared it to be the will of the presiding deity that Pindar should be rewarded with one half of the first fruits which were offered at his shrine.*

We are not acquainted with many particulars of his early life, but may collect from the accounts of various authors that the character of the living bard was held in the highest degree of estimation, especially by King Hiero, and his memory after death contemplated with the deepest reverence. It is related of him that he had a particular devotion for the god Pan, and therefore took up his abode near the temple of that deity. He was ap

*

See the note on the tenth Olympic ode, v. 61.

pointed to compose the hymns which were sung by the Theban virgins in honor of that mystic emblem of universal nature. It also appears, from Pyth. iii. 139, that near the dwelling of Pindar stood a shrine or chapel dedicated to the great goddess Rhea, where the nymphs were wont to assemble at the close of day for the purpose of performing their vows to her and to Pan. We farther learn from Aristodemus, quoted by the scholiast on this passage, that Pindar himself raised this shrine to the venerable Mother of the Gods. He likewise cites a fragment of an ode or choral hymn addressed to Pan by our poet, invoking that deity, as president of Arcadia, and companion of the nymphs in their dances, to smile propitiously on his songs. Indeed the piety of the Theban bard is every where conspicuous, and worthy of admiration. It is related by Plutarch, in his Life of Alexander, that when, after a most determined and vigorous defence, the city of Thebes was levelled to the ground by that conqueror, the posterity of Pindar were exempted from the hard fate which attended his captive fellow-townsmen.

The same honor had on a former occasion been paid to the habitation of his descendants by the Lacedæmonians; and Pausanias, the Grecian tra