Description

Pindar and the Cult of Heroes combines a study of Greek culture and religion (hero cult) with a literary-critical study of Pindar's epinician poetry. It looks at hero cult generally, but focuses especially on heroization in the 5th century BC. There are individual chapters on the heroization of war dead, of athletes, and on the religious treatment of the living in the 5th century. Hero cult, Bruno Currie argues, could be anticipated, in different ways, in a person's lifetime. Epinician poetry too should be interpreted in the light of this cultural context; fundamentally, this genre explores the patron's religious status. The book features extensive studies of Pindar's Pythians 2, 3, 5, Isthmian 7, and Nemean 7.

Features

• Offers a re-evaluation of hero cult in ancient Greece
• Puts forward a new interpretation of Pindar's epinician poetry
• Combines cultural-historical with literary perspectives

Reviews

"In his thorough reexamination of the uses of the word 'hero,' the practice of hero-cult, and the religious honors paid to some living people during the Archaic and Classical periods, the author offers important correctives to the common idea that hero cult was exclusively a cult of the dead and a way of promoting solidarity within the polis community.... A major contribution to Pindar scholarship and to the study of religious attitudes in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. Highly recommended."--Choice

Product Details

512 pages; 9 line illus.; ISBN13: 978-0-19-927724-7ISBN10: 0-19-927724-9

About the Author(s)