The Odes of Pindar

1969

Brasch PA4275 E5 BS55

Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin

The site at Olympia, though remote and uninhabited, was easily accessible by sea, being only 15 kilometres from the coast; and because it was a major religious site many roads converged on the area. A truce was set up prior to each Games to ensure the safety of travelling athletes and spectators through warring Greek states. Buildings at Olympia included a stadium, temples, altars, a gymnasium, a swimming pool and a hippodrome. The poet, Pindar (c. 522-433 BC), wrote many epinikia or ‘victory odes’ in which he extolled the virtues of victorious athletes, not only in the Olympics but in all Panhellenic Games of the time.  This is a familiar scene to the modern reader – the Olympic flame, reintroduced to the modern Olympics in 1928 at Amsterdam.