CHAP. IX. Pindar. PINDAR was a native of Boeotia, and as some maintain of Thebes; he was a contemporary of Eschylus, and was born in the 65th Olympiad, about 520 years before Christ. He is related to have been the son of Diaphantus a musician, and to have been born during the celebration of the Pythian Games, of a Grecian mother, named Myrtis, who was mistress to Corinna. He professes, however, to have been related to Arcesilaus, king of the Cyreneans, whatever was the rank of his parents. Pindar raised himself above the obscurity of his birth, by his splendid talents, under the tuition, it is said, of Simonides, and he as well as Hesiod must be allowed to have vindicated the climate of Boeotia from the charge of being unfavourable to genius *. His Lyric Odes, composed in honour of the victors in the Grecian games, celebrated events which excited all the enthusiasm of his contemporaries, and procured for him almost divine honours, since by the oracle of Delphi, it was ordered that a portion of the first fruits belonging to the temple should be offered to him, and he recited his verses in the temple, sitting on an iron stool, which was long preserved; and such jealousy prevailed for the distinction which was conferred by his casual praise, that he was fined by the Thebans for celebrating their enemies the Athenians, as the supporters of Greece; upon which that generous people presented him with a sum to double the amount of the fine, and erected a brazen statue to him near the temple of Mars. Being mortified by the magistrates of Thebes, who conferred some prizes on Corinna, when she contended with him, he repaired to the court of Hiero, king of Sy Erasm. Adag. Boeotia. + Pausan, in Baotia et in Phoc. racuse, and employed himself in commemo rating his success in the Grecian games *. The memory of the poet was cherished with great reverence, and became the subject of many fabulous relations, and the ruins of his house, which stood on the banks of the river Dirce, which had been respected by the Lacedemonians and by Alexander, when they captured Thebes, remained till the time of Pausanias. Pindar is related to have composed tragedies, which have perished; four books of his odes remain written in the Doric dialect, with some mixture of the Ionic. Lord Bacon says, that Pindar strikes the mind as with a Divine sceptre; his reflections are carried on in a high strain of moral eloquence, and he celebrates with much effect the excellency of piety towards the gods, and of justice, fortitude, and hospitality towards men; he appears to have embraced the Pythagorean philosophy; he attributes to the deities the same origin as to men, both being derived from a common mother considering both therefore as created Na. Ode 6. 1-3. Clemens. Alex, Strom. lib. v. e. 255. p. 709. beings, formed by the supreme God, whom he stiles elsewhere" the universal Deity "the most powerful," "the Lord of all," and "cause of all things, whose counsels it is difficult to search out," and whom he represents Chiron to have instructed Achilles to worship §. He speaks of the immaterial nature of the soul, and alludes to the happy condition of men in a future state of reward. Plato appears to have drawn many things from him in confirmation of his proofs of the immortality of the soul; and there are passages in the Odes which correspond with parts of the inspired book. Clement of Alexandria affirms, that Pindar borrowed many things from the Sacred Writings, and particularly from the Proverbs of Solo mon. The opening of the 4th Olympic Ode, in which Jove is addressed as borne on the unwearied wings (or feet) of the thunder, reminds us of the passage in the civth Psalm, * Fragm. et Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. v. c. 259. p. 726. + Ibid. et Not. comp. with Isaiah xl. 13. Cudworth, b. 1. c. 4. Пúbia, Ode 6. et Cudworth. in which God is described "as walking upon "the wings of the wind." In speaking of water as a distinguished element, he alludes probably to the creation of the world from a watry chaos, agreeably to a tradition which seems afterwards to have been referred to by St. Peter *. Under the spirit, and just impressions which he cherishes, he ascribes the success of Hiero in the Pythian games to the Divine aid, and asserts that all the qualities of human virtue, wisdom, strength and eloquence are derived from God; and in his Isthmian Odes he affirms the same of fortitude. There are other passages expressive of convictions which might seem to have been derived from the sources of Revelation, teaching man to revere the laws of piety, of justice, and of truth. The defects of heathen morality sometimes appear, as when Pindar asserts, that hostile force is to be destroyed by any means; this is qualified by Plutarch in a subsequent sentence, expressing that the end of injustice is bitter, 2 Pet. iii. 5. OÀYMII. Ode i. 1, 1. ✦ пTIА. Ode ii. 1. 90. and OAYMII, Ode vi. l. 132, &c \ VOL. II. |