II.

Life

Pindar was born in 518 bc in Cynoscephalae, near Thebes, of a distinguished aristocratic family, the Aegeidae. Pindar's wide geographical range, aristocratic tone, and truly Panhellenic spirit can probably be attributed, at least in part, to his family's influence throughout Greece.

He is said to have studied with the Boeotian poet Corinna and to have been defeated by her in a poetic contest, whereupon she advised the youthful poet “to sow with the hand, not with the whole sack,” a reference to his excessive employment of mythological ornament in his early work. In later years, Pindar traveled widely to all parts of the Greek world, and his national reputation brought him numerous commissions. He spent two years in Sicily at the invitation of Hiero I, king of Syracuse, and he composed paeans or encomia for Hiero and other kings and for the noblest Greek families.

No other Greek poet so adequately expressed the underlying spiritual unity preserved by the common language and religion and by the tradition of the great Panhellenic games. So great was Pindar's fame in later years that Alexander the Great, when he sacked Thebes in 335 bc, spared the house of Pindar.