Scholars both ancient and modern have turned to Pindar's own work – his victory odes in particular – as a source of biographical information: some of the poems touch on historic events and can be accurately dated. some meagre writings attributed to the lexicographer Suidas.Īlthough these sources are based on a much older literary tradition, going as far back as Chamaeleon of Heraclea in the 4th century BC, they are generally viewed with scepticism today: much of the material is clearly fanciful.Vita Vratislavensis, found in a manuscript at Breslau, author unknown.Commentaries on Pindar by Eustathius of Thessalonica.brief biography of Pindar and his tomb in Boeotia, from Pausanias’s “descriptions of Greece”.The other four are collections that weren't finalized until some 1600 years after his death: One of them is a short biography discovered in 1961 on an Egyptian papyrus dating from at least 200 AD ( P.Oxy.2438). Like other poets of the Archaic Age, he has a profound sense of the vicissitudes of life, but he also articulates a passionate faith in what men can achieve by the grace of the gods, most famously expressed in the conclusion to one of his Victory Odes: įive ancient sources contain all the recorded details of Pindar's life. His poetry illustrates the beliefs and values of Archaic Greece at the dawn of the Classical period. Pindar was the first Greek poet to reflect on the nature of poetry and on the poet's role. His poetry, while admired by critics, still challenges the casual reader and his work is largely unread among the general public. Some scholars in the modern age also found his poetry perplexing, at least until the 1896 discovery of some poems by his rival Bacchylides comparisons of their work showed that many of Pindar's idiosyncrasies are typical of archaic genres rather than of only the poet himself. The Athenian comic playwright Eupolis once remarked that they 'are already reduced to silence by the disinclination of the multitude for elegant learning'. Quintilian wrote, 'Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar is by far the greatest, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich exuberance of his language and matter, and his rolling flood of eloquence, characteristics which, as Horace rightly held, make him inimitable.' His poems can also, however, seem difficult and even peculiar. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. 438 BC) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. This is my first time dabbling into anything country influenced.Pindar ( / ˈ p ɪ n d ər/ Greek: Πίνδαρος Pindaros, Latin: Pindarus c. It’s like you’re getting respect from people who’ve been doing this for some time. Even after they did take it off, I was like, “Okay, at least I’m still on Billboard.” Then, I started to think about, I was like, “Why?” After listening to other songs that’s actually on that chart, it’s like, “Wait a minute, something’s not right, basically.” Then it felt amazing to get support from country stars because it’s like this is their lane. If they don’t, then they don’t.” Before it was even taken off the country charts, I was just happy to be on Billboard at all.

I’m going to make the music I want to make, and if people like it, then they like it. I’m not going to lie and say I’m this huge country fan, but I respect the genre, because I respect every genre of music.Īt first, I thought, “I’m just going to rap,” but then later on down the line, literally probably two, three songs before “Old Town Road,” it’s like, “I’m going to do what I want to do.

Old town horse song structure strophes