Blog Post 5 - Victory Odes

Victory odes, or epinikia, commemorated the victories of competitors in the PanHellenic athletic games. Though the poems were commissioned for the purpose of celebrating the glory of the victors, it is clear that the prestige of the poets themselves was just as—if not more so—relevant to this genre. Without their own personal fame, poets like Bacchylides and Pindar would have been incapable of conferring fame to the subjects of their poems. As poets of great skill and recognition, however, they managed to preserve the legacies of not only the successful athletes, but also of themselves and the Greek culture as a whole. Various features of victory odes reflect the significance of this poetic power of immortalization, and can be observed in the work of both Bacchylides and Pindar.

Victors or their families paid poets to write victory odes, suggesting the apparently great value placed on the veneration of one’s personal glory. The for-profit nature of these poems is reflected in the poets’ careful treatment of their subjects; they had to offer adequate praise in order to please their customers (who, by mere ability to participate in the competitions and commission poems, were evidently of the noble class), but to refrain from doing so in an excessive manner to ensure that the odes would be well-received by the general public. This concept of due praise is treated as a theme within many victory odes, and is demonstrated by characteristics of the odes themselves. For instance, all victory odes begin by identifying the victor for whom the poem was commissioned, sharing his familial background, where he is from, and his specific accomplishment. This is seen in the opening of Bacchylides’ Ode 13 when he says, “For Pytheas son of Lampon, // from Aigina, victor in pankration,” and in Pindar’s Olympian 1, which starts, “For Hieron son of Deinomenes, from Syracuse, // victor in the horse race.” This identification displays the evident expectation that the athlete and his relations will be directly praised in exchange for their commission fee, even if the poem later divulges into different themes.

As was particularly expressed by Pindar, though, this guarantee of praise did not mean the poet had to abandon his honesty and offer a hyperbolic account of the victor’s glory. True poetic skill required not only the ability to bestow incredible fame and honor to one’s subject, but also the restraint to limit the exaltation to a truly deserved level. In Olympian 13, Pindar expresses this thought when he says, “But I must not, while whirling javelins // on their straight course, impart such power to them // that in great numbers they fly past their mark.” Here he acknowledges that, as an esteemed poet, he could provide his subject with as much glory as he desires, but his job is rather to hit the target dead on, giving only a genuine account of the victor’s achievement.

Praise of the gods and invocation of the Muses are other characteristics of victory odes that further demonstrate the necessity to give adequate credit and honor where they are due—not only in regard to the athlete’s success, but also in relation to the poet’s own power to confer legacies. The poet acknowledges the gods for their various contributions, be they the victor’s triumph or the poet’s skill, and recognizes that the Muses provide him with the ability to write odes. Praise to the gods is exemplified in Pindar’s Pythian 8 when he says, “But when the gleam that Zeus dispenses comes, // then brilliant light rests over men, and life is kindly,” suggesting that Zeus is responsible for all that is positive in human life. Bacchylides’ Ode 3 demonstrates credit to the Muses when he refers to his hymn as “…the violet-crowned // Muses’ sweet gift and ornament.” Thus, it is clear that victory odes did not merely celebrate human achievement, but also offered recognition to the divinities that made those successes possible. In particular, this shows that poetic skill is not simply something that can be learned, but instead must be divinely inspired—once again underscoring the weight of the poet’s power.
              Through their fame, poets like Pindar and Bacchylides were able to immortalize both the subjects of their victory odes and, even more so, their own legacies, as well as preserve various aspects of the Greek cultural identity. Since most victory odes featured narratives of Greek myths that paralleled the athlete’s circumstances, these poems portrayed different customs, values, and traditions of Greek culture. For instance, in Ode 3, Bacchylides calls upon the story of Croesus, a king who was generous with his fortune, to invite a comparison between Croesus and the victor Hieron, and to provide an explicit moral lesson. Narratives such as these offer glimpses into different Greek myths that can inform a modern reader about the society as a whole. Thus, this genre demonstrates that victory odes were not merely a form of self-expression, but a means of immortalizing both human legacy and the identity of a society.

Sources: Greek Lyric