Pindar

Pindar (c. 518 BC - c. 438 BC), the greatest lyric poet of Greece, and for virgin purity of imagination ranked by Ruskin along with Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Scott. He was born near Thebes, in Boeotia, of a musical family, and began his musical education by practice on the flute, while he was assisted in his art by the example of his countrywoman Corinna, who competed with and defeated him more than once at the public festivals. He was a welcome visitor at the courts of all the Greek princes of the period, and not the less honoured that he condescended to no flattery and attuned his lyre to no sentiment but what would find an echo in every noble heart. Pindar excelled in every department of lyric poetry, hymns to the gods, the praises of heroes, pæans of victory, choral songs, festal songs and dirges, but of these only a few remain, his Epinikia, a collection of triumphal odes in celebration of the successes achieved at the great national games of Greece.

Pindar was not only esteemed the greatest of lyric poets by his countrymen, but is without a rival still. When Alexander destroyed Thebes he spared the house of Pindar because of the respect he commanded.

Wisdom & Quotes

• Custom is King over all.

- Fragment

• Water is best.

- Olympian Odes

• For lawless joys a bitter ending awaits.

- Olympian Odes

• Creatures of a day! What is anyone?

What is anyone not? A dream of a shadow
Is our mortal being. But when there comes to men
A gleam of splendour given of heaven,
Then rests on them a light of glory
And blessed are their days. (Pythian 8)

• The days that are still to come are the wisest witnesses.
• Learn what you are and be such.
• A graceful and honorable old age is the childhood of immortality.
• Even wisdom has to yield to self-interest.
• Every gift which is given, even though it be small, is in reality great, if it is given with affection.
• Seek not, my soul, the life of the immortals; but enjoy to the full the resources that are within thy reach.
• But in one short span of time winds quickly shift direction, veering back and forth.
• Not every truth is the better for showing its face undisguised; and often silence is the wisest thing for a man to heed.
• Great deeds give choice of many tales. Choose a slight tale, enrich it large, and then let wise men listen.
• The test of any man lies in action.
• The present will not long endure.
• Whatever is beautiful is beautiful by necessity.
• O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life,

but exhaust the limits of the possible.

• War is sweet to those who have no experience of it. But the experienced man trembles exceedingly in his heart at its approach.
• Steer your boat with justice: forge

A tongue on truth's anvil.

Mo-Tse