Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology (Facts on File Library ...

either at the festival following the victory or at
the victor’s city on his return. Pindar’s style is
dense, difficult, at times dazzling; in metrical
terms, his victory odes are complex <strong>and</strong> highly
dem<strong>and</strong>ing, <strong>and</strong> no ode follows exactly the same
pattern as any other. Pindar conceives his poetic
work simultaneously as a reward, memorial, <strong>and</strong>
compensation for the efforts <strong>of</strong> the successful
athlete. The poem, like the athlete’s feat, is an
intense, agonistic endeavor; it partakes <strong>of</strong> the
same spirit <strong>of</strong> struggle <strong>and</strong> competition (agon).
In Pindar’s view, the life <strong>of</strong> mortals is dark <strong>and</strong>
difficult, but in rare moments, bright flashes <strong>of</strong>
greatness <strong>and</strong> fame are granted by the gods to
extraordinary individuals such as athletic victors,
heroes, <strong>and</strong>, presumably, poets.
The typical epinician ode praises the victor
<strong>and</strong> his home city, while the central section
contains a myth that relates in some way to the
victor, his family, his city, <strong>and</strong>/or his accomplishment.
The relation between myth <strong>and</strong>
victor may not be obvious or direct. Heroes
such as Perseus, Heracles, Peleus, Achilles,
Ajax <strong>and</strong> his father, Telamon, are treated in
the mythic section <strong>of</strong> Pindar’s odes. To take
one example, Aeacus, father <strong>of</strong> Peleus <strong>and</strong>
gr<strong>and</strong>father <strong>of</strong> Achilles, was the son <strong>of</strong> Zeus
<strong>and</strong> the nymph Aegina, after whom the city
Aegina is named. Pindar received many commissions
from victors from Aegina; thus, he
<strong>of</strong>ten stresses the nobility <strong>of</strong> their heroic, <strong>and</strong>
ultimately divine, ancestry by including myths
involving Aeacus <strong>and</strong> his descendants.
In some cases, Pindar asserts his independence
in relation to the mythological tradition.
In a famous instance in Olympians 1, written for
the victory <strong>of</strong> Hieron <strong>of</strong> Syracuse in the horse
race, Pindar vehemently rejects the more familiar
story: Tantalus, in an attempt to deceive
the gods, chopped up his own son Pelops,
cooked him in a stew, <strong>and</strong> served him to the
gods; Demeter ate Pelops’s shoulder, distracted
as she was by the loss <strong>of</strong> her daughter. The
other gods were not fooled, according to this
version <strong>of</strong> the myth, <strong>and</strong> Zeus brought Pelops
back to life <strong>and</strong> replaced his shoulder with an
Pirithous
ivory one. Pindar expresses moral indignation
at the idea that Demeter would have gluttonously
devoured Pelops’s shoulder. He admits
that Tantalus was punished by the gods, but
for stealing the gods’ nectar <strong>and</strong> ambrosia, not
for serving them his murdered son. Pelops,
moreover, was shown divine favor in a different
way: Poseidon became enamored <strong>of</strong> him <strong>and</strong>
swept him <strong>of</strong>f to the home <strong>of</strong> the gods, just as
Zeus abducted Ganymede. Pindar goes on to
tell how Pelops fell in love with Hippodamia
<strong>and</strong> defeated her father, Oenomaus, in a chariot
race, thereby winning her h<strong>and</strong>. Pindar makes
no mention <strong>of</strong> the usual story, in which Pelops
bribes <strong>and</strong> later murders Oenomaus’s charioteer.
Instead, Pelops wins the race through
Poseidon’s gift <strong>of</strong> horses. The myth <strong>of</strong> Pelops,
then, is refashioned to stress his status as a hero
favored by the gods <strong>and</strong> to remove the taint
<strong>of</strong> moral turpitude. In general, although not
always, Pindar stresses the glories <strong>and</strong> triumphs
<strong>of</strong> heroes in keeping with his glorification <strong>of</strong>
athletic victory.
Pirithous (Peirithous) A Lapith. Son <strong>of</strong> Zeus
<strong>and</strong> Dia (Ixion’s wife), or son <strong>of</strong> Ixion <strong>and</strong> Dia.
Classical sources are Apollodorus’s Library (1.8.2,
2.5.12), Diodorus Siculus’s Library <strong>of</strong> History
(4.63), Homer’s iLiad (2.740–744, 14.317–318)
<strong>and</strong> odyssey (11.630–631), Hyginus’s Fabulae
(33, 79), Ovid’s MetaMorpHoses (12.210–535),
<strong>and</strong> Pausanias’s Description <strong>of</strong> Greece (1.2.1, 1.17.4,
2.22.6). Pirithous generally enters mythological
stories as the companion <strong>of</strong> Theseus. Their
friendship was proverbial, like the friendship <strong>of</strong>
Pylades <strong>and</strong> Orestes. Thus he participated in
Theseus’s abduction <strong>of</strong> Helen, the Calydonian
Boar hunt, <strong>and</strong> the war with the Amazons. When
Pirithous married Hippodamia, the centaurs
were invited, presumably because <strong>of</strong> their descent
from Ixion; they became drunk <strong>and</strong> attempted to
rape Hippodamia. A battle between the Lapiths
<strong>and</strong> centaurs broke out, narrated with comic relish
by Ovid (Metamorphoses 12), <strong>and</strong> the Lapiths
won. Theseus accompanied Pirithous to the