Praise Poetry in Distress?

Melancholy and Criticism in Pindar’s Isthmian 7

Authors

  • Enno Friedrich University of Graz

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14232/suc.2021.2.9-43

Keywords:

A. Boeckh, B. G. F. Currie, hero cult, Isthmian 7, Pindar, Thebes, Tyrtaeus, D. C. Young

Abstract

I am revisiting the old interpretation of Isthmian 7 by A. Boeckh as a melancholy piece and its refutation by D. C. Young. Three passages of Isthmian 7 are analysed and it is found that there is good reason to hold on to Boeckh’s idea of melancholy. In the following, I am asking what premises could give a unified picture of the ode that we have, and I offer two possibilities: either the ode was presented under conditions of crisis for a victory in sports – a personal crisis of Strepsiades and his family or of the nation of Thebes – and therefore had to be a vindication of the victor rather than praise, or the role of the victor’s uncle has been misunderstood in the past and he is not only a fallen warrior but also a cult hero, like B. Currie has suggested, changing our understanding of the ode gravely.

Author Biography

Enno Friedrich, University of Graz

Enno A. Friedrich has studied Latin, English, French, Italian and Greek at the universities of Potsdam (Germany) and Graz (Austria). He completed a combined PhD in Latin and Religious Studies at the universities of Graz and Erfurt in 2020 with a dissertation on the religious poetry of Venantius Fortunatus. He is starting to work at the University of Graz as a project coordinator of the IGS Resonant Self–World Relations in Ancient and Modern Socio–Religious Practices from November 2021.

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Published

2021-12-15

How to Cite

Friedrich, E. (2021). Praise Poetry in Distress? Melancholy and Criticism in Pindar’s Isthmian 7. Sapiens Ubique Civis, 2, 9–43. https://doi.org/10.14232/suc.2021.2.9-43

Issue

Vol. 2 (2021): Sapiens ubique civis II

Section

Articles