Thucydides and Pindar : Historical Narrative and the World of Epinikian Poetry

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. "The thesis of this book is twofold. First, it argues for a relationship between the worlds described or presupposed by Thucydides in his History, and by Pindar, chiefly but not only in his 'epinikian' poetry - the odes he wrote for victors in the great games. Second, it argues that ancient literary critics were right to detect stylistic similarities between Thucydides and Pindar, the two great exponents of the 'severe style' in prose and verse respectively."--Jacket Simon Hornblower demonstrates a thematic and literary kinship between Thucydides, one of the greatest of the ancient Greek historians, and Pindar, one of the greatest Greek poets who specialized in celebratory odes for victors in the Olympic Games