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Only Mostly Dead: Immortality and Related States in Pindar's Victory Odes

Eisenfeld, Hanne Ellen
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1402919442

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Greek and Latin.
Pindar's victory odes have long been the subject of frustration, admiration, and bafflement - often all at the same time. Their perceived obscurity, however, derives largely from a lack of the contexts that surrounded fifth century audiences. In this study I argue that an important element of that context lies in the complex religious landscapes inhabited by Pindar and his contemporaries. The communities of fifth century Greece were shaped by their experiences - communal and individual - of the divine. Interaction with the gods was as much a part of life as interaction with one's neighbors or the state. Despite the integration of what we, as modern scholars, would call 'religious' experience into every aspect of fifth century life, the importance of the divine in Pindar's victory songs has been insufficiently appreciated. Epinician representations of the divine draw on the stories and hymns that the audience already knew, the festivals they attended, the traditions of their cities and families. These contexts are now fragmentary, but by looking to the many types of evidence we have - from visual representations to cult inscriptions to mythical narratives - I have tried to glimpse the interwoven frameworks that expressed contemporary conceptions of the divine. When Pindar sings about gods and heroes he is neither simply repeating tired scripture nor telling empty stories for entertainment. Instead, representations of these beings in the odes articulate the order of the world and (re)constitute the appropriate relationships between humans and the gods. As part of the project of asserting order Pindar introduces into the odes figures who exist in a borderland between mortality and immortality. The elements of ambiguity inherent to these beings constitute a challenge to which the surrounding material of the ode responds, reaffirming the validity of the human/divine distinction. Four of these figures - Amphiaraos, Herakles, and the Dioskouroi - are examined here within the contexts of their individual odes and with reference to the broader epinician project.
Sarah Iles Johnston (Advisor)
326 p.
Classical Studies
Pindar; epinician; Greek religion

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Eisenfeld, H. E. (2014). Only Mostly Dead: Immortality and Related States in Pindar's Victory Odes [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1402919442

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Eisenfeld, Hanne. Only Mostly Dead: Immortality and Related States in Pindar's Victory Odes. 2014. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1402919442.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Eisenfeld, Hanne. "Only Mostly Dead: Immortality and Related States in Pindar's Victory Odes." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1402919442

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1402919442
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.