Description
Book SynopsisPindar (ca. 518–438 BC), esteemed lyric poet, commemorates in complex verse the achievements of athletes and powerful rulers at the four great Panhellenic festivals—the Olympic, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian games—against a backdrop of divine favor, human failure, heroic legend, and aristocratic ambition.
Trade Review[A] translation which is modern, accurate, streamlined, and comprehensible… [which preserves], with a surprising degree of success, a sense of Pindar’s artful word order… He may well have produced the best text available… In many respects Race’s edition of the fragments will be even more useful than Snell-Maehler… A landmark contribution. -- Thomas K. Hubbard * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
This excellent Loeb edition of Pindar supersedes the antiquated volume edited by Sandys in 1915. Its most notable feature is clarity: the Greek typeface is a pleasure to read; the translations are crisp and accurate… plentiful notes both explain Pindar’s recherché allusions and bring out how more than one interpretation of the text is often possible… This edition will be of lasting value. -- Stephen Instone * Classical Review *
Race succeeds admirably in furnishing the text and translation with a concise and helpful introduction, thereby elucidating the social and literary background of the poems that follow. Each poem is also accompanied by a succinct introduction and summary. The accompanying index and genealogies are invaluable study aids for students of myth from the primary sources. Most importantly, Race has achieved his aim of creating a readable translation which follows the familiar Loeb format—a feat of considerable ingenuity in the case of Pindar… Race devotes a significant portion of his introduction to a crisp and detailed analysis of the
epinikian genre. Technical issues in Pindar’s composition of the
Odes are equally effectively dealt with… Undergraduates tackling the complexities of this author for the first time will clearly find this volume essential. The more mature devotee will also benefit, thanks to the user-friendly scholarship of these volumes, from a day or two at the races with Race. -- John Weeds * Joint Association of Classical Teachers Review *
