Martin Hose, "The Journey as Device for Structuring Poetic Knowledge: A Poetic Method in Pindar's Epinicia", in: Chiara Ferella and Cilliers Breytenbach (Eds.), Paths of Knowledge. Interconnection(s) between Knowledge and Journey in the Greco-Roman World, Berlin: Edition Topoi, 2018, 35–46

Abstract

This paper analyzes the usage of the journey (incl. the different modes of moving: going, sailing, jumping, flying) as a metaphor or image for poetry in Pindar’s epinician odes. It suggests that especially the notorious problems of composition and unity in some Pindaric songs can be if not solved but at least softened by taking more seriously the metaphor of the song as path and the poet as traveler. This is exemplified by a reading of Nem. 9, an ode in which the journey from the place of victory to the home of the victor serves as an instrument in generating the poem’s unity. The image of the poem as journey or path shapes also the concept of the ‘materiality’ of Pindaric poetry in contrast to later Greek literature where the book determines the concept.

Published In

Chiara Ferella and Cilliers Breytenbach (Eds.), Paths of Knowledge. Interconnection(s) between Knowledge and Journey in the Greco-Roman World, Berlin: Edition Topoi, 2018