Pindar, a Theban, was famous for his poetry in the period before and after the Persian Wars in the first half of the fifth century BCE. He wrote in many genres, but, by an accident of history, virtually all the poetry that survives complete celebrates victors in the Games at Olympia, Nemea, Delphi and the Isthmus of Corinth, who enjoyed enormous prestige throughout the Greek world.
Pindar, and this poem in particular, had influence on Roman poets including Horace and Catullus. It was commissioned in 462 BCE to celebrate the victory of Arkesilas, King of Cyrene, a Greek city in North Africa, in the chariot race at Delphi (he was the chariot’s owner, not the driver). The poem contains the first surviving version of the story of Jason and the Argonauts. Aeaetes is the King of Colchis, the location of the golden fleece. Jason has won over Medeia, the King’s daughter, with the help of a love-charm from Aphrodite, and it is thanks to the princess’s help that his mission will succeed. Pelias is the King of Iolchus, who has usurped his throne from Jason’s family and now, many years later, has challenged him to find and bring back the fleece.
When composed, the poem was sung to music, so no modern recitation will be fully authentic. Its Roman admirers, centuries on, would presumably have known it as a written or recited piece.
See more about Pindar on his poet page here; see what Horace said about him here; see the illustrated blog post here.
Metre: a lyric form known as dactylo-epitrite, in triads of three stanzas, two metrically identical and one different.
To listen, press play.