Pindar

c. 518–438 BCE

Pindar of Thebes was the greatest of the Greek choral poets. Of his seventeen books four survive: the victory odes for winners at the Olympian, Pythian, Nemean and Isthmian games, written for kings of Sicily and Cyrene and for the noble houses of Aegina and Thebes. Each sets the victor's moment beside a myth and a reflection on human excellence, its divine source and its limits.