Author Description

The paean, or sacred hymn to Apollo, had a central place in the song-dance culture of classical Greece. The most celebrated examples of the genre in antiquity were Pindar's paeans. These became known to twentieth century scholars thanks to the discovery of papyrus fragments; this book offers the first comprehensive re-evaluation of the poems. It includes the Greek text and translation of all the paeans of Pindar with a supplement comprising fragments from poems of uncertain genres. Ian Rutherford accompanies each fragment with an interpretation regarding issues of religion, performance, and genre.