Bacchylides

Odes have been used throughout time to entertain, engage, inspire, celebrate, and explore. This ranges from odes written by Pindar a classical poet from ancient Greece to odes written in the 19th and 20th century by female poets such as Emily Brontë and Sylvia Plath. The ode is first and foremost a poem that consists of a subject or object being addressed by a narrator; usually the poet themselves. The imperative ‘must’ in the question suggests that the grandness of the ode is necessary for it to be considered an ode and connotations of the word ‘grand’ propose that the ode must endure a feeling of magnificence, spectacle, and importance. Walker’s quote ‘We have constantly looked high, when we should have looked high – and low’ demonstrates the need when analysing poetry to not only consider what’s ‘high’ i.e. grand but to also think about the ‘low’ specifically the subject matter in the ode and not to assume the ostentatious parts are what is most important. The Pindaric ode form owes its title to the Greek lyric poet Pindar who popularised the use of the ‘Victory Ode’. Quitilian writes on Pindar ‘of the nine lyric poets Pindar is by far the greatest… his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich exuberance of his language… and his rolling flood of eloquence’ . Pindar was usually paid by a family member of a victor at the Olympic games to write a song in honour of the champion’s achievements. These victory odes came with a sense of occasion…

“Where is the gratitude of the gods...Things that before were hateful now are dear: to die is the sweetest…But when the fire’s bright force was darting fearsomely about, Zeus brought a black cloud over and quenches the tawny flames” (Bacchylides, 40-55). Through Bacchylides, Herodotus draws the counter conclusion, that if men are not pious to the gods and as Solon also stated, give into their vanities and arrogance and only consider themselves happy with the amount of fortune they have, the…

to offer sacrifices to the gods, in addition to telling others they had been to Olympia. Admiring their city’s treasuries was another reason for going to the games, with the spectators taking pride in its might and riches. Not dissimilar to their modern counterparts, ancient spectators would also go to support great athletes like Milo of Kroton for “…his enormous strength of body” . Since there was no Internet back then, winning athletes would pay sculptors like Myron, Phidias and Polyclitus to…