Pindar’s Eleventh Nemean Ode:The Limits of Political Power and Victory in Archaic Period

The genre of the eleventh Nemean ode which is placed in Pindar’s corpus of “victory odes” by the earlier scholiasts is disputable since the ode does not praise an athletic prowess. This ode can beroughlycalled an“encomium.”It is a genuine piece from Pindar’s poems in the sense that it has a masterly balance of epinician praise and exhortation. It is crucialto apply both historical and formal methods of interpretation with equal weight. Hence its relation to the prytaneion which has political and religious aspects in Tenedos enforces us to read Nemean 11 with a historical point of view. Nevertheless, the formal texture of Pindar’s praise is as important in understanding the song throughly.This article aims to reread this balance between praise and exhortation within the unique notions applied in Pindaric poetics.The facility to make use of historical data faces an important obstacle due to the uncertainty of the date of the performance.Yet examining the institutions of the archaic period historically provides us with some illuminating information. Furthermore, a formal analysis makes it possible to witness not only the scope of political power and victory, and the limits of the victorious person before the gods, but also the destiny of “universal” man in the Pan-Hellenic world.

Keywords: Gnômai, Hestia, Kleos, Kydos, Limits, Power, Prytanis, Victory.