Synopses & Reviews
Simon Hornblower argues for a relationship between Thucydides and Pindar not so far acknowledged in modern scholarship. He argues that ancient critics were right to detect stylistic similarities between these two great exponents of the "severe style" in prose and verse. In Part One he explores the background of epinikian poetry and athletics, the values shared by the two authors, and religion and colonization myths, and presents a geographically organized survey of Pindar's Mediterranean world, exploiting onomastic evidence. Part Two includes an analysis of Thucydides' account of the Olympic games of 420 BC; discussions of the four components of Thucydides' history in their relation to Pindar; statements of method, excursuses, speeches, and narrative, especially the Sicilian books; and a stylistic-literary comparison of Thucydides and Pindar.
Review
"[H]er sympathetic analysis is clear-sighted, stimulating, and authoritative. This book is an excellent example of what revisionist Irish history, much debated in recent years, ought to be about."--American Historical Review
"Curtin offers the most exhaustive analysis to date of the expansion of the movement from Northeast Ulster and Dublin in the mid-1790s...Curtin's study should caution historians against dismissing United Irish propaganda as irrelevant to the majority of the population. Nevertheless, the critical
importance that it attaches to English language printed materials in explaining the unprecedented success of the movement in attracting recruits will be debated for some time to come."--Albion
Synopsis
Ancient literary critics detected a link between the poetry of Pindar, especially his epinikian poetry which was composed for the victors in the great games, and Thucydides' History, but more recent scholars have been slow to explore this in any detail. In this book Simon Hornblower seeks to form and characterise an intertextual relationship between the two by tracing stylistic, thematic and linguistic similarities within the works of these two exponents of what is termed the severe style'. The first part of the book provides the historical background to Pindar's odes and the Greek athletic festivals of which they were a part, as well as exploring the values and attitudes shared by Pindar and Thucydides. The second part comprises a detailed analysis of Thucydides' description of the Olympic Games in 420 BC, as Hornblower sees it, in the Pindaric style. The question of whether Thucydides knew of Pindar's work is addressed as Hornblower examines the components of Thucydides' History in relation to Pindar.
About the Author
Simon Hornblower is Professor of Classics and Ancient History at University College London.
Table of Contents
I 1. Introduction
2. Could Thucydides have known Pindar, and did he?
3. Content and outlook
4. Myths, religion, women, colonization
5. People, places, prosopography, and politics
II. Thucydides Pindaricus
6. Introduction to Part II
7. The clearest example of Thucydides Pindaricus: 5.49-50, the Olympic Games of 420 BC
8. Statements of method; causation
9. `Antiquarian' excursions
10. Speeches
11. Narrative
12. Thucydides and Pindar: a stylistic comparison
Conclusion