epinicia

Updated: May 15, 2025

Although a Theban, he was always a great favourite with the Athenians, whom he frequently praised in his poems, and who testified their gratitude by making him their public guest, and by giving him 10,000 drachmas. The only poems of Pindar which have come down to us entire are his Epinicia or triumphal odes, composed in commemoration of victories gained in the great public games.

Sir William Smith - A Smaller history of Greece : From the earliest times to the Roman conquest

Greek lyric poetry reaches the climax in Simonides and Pindar. The latter was a Boeotian, but of Dorian descent. Simonides was tender and polished; Pindar, fervid and sublime The extant works of Pindar are the Epinicia, or odes of victory. HISTORICAL WRITING. This age witnesses the beginnings of historical writing. But the logographers, as they were called, only wrote prose epics.

George Park Fisher - Outline of Universal History