Pindar and the Sublime: Greek Myth, Reception, and Lyric Experience

ISBN-13: 9781788311144 / Angielski / Twarda / 2022 / 280 str.

UK) Professor Robert L. Fowler (University of Bristol

Opis

The best of Greek lyric poetry pushes at the very limits of what is possible with language and meaning. As its rhythms, cadences and metaphors touch on the ineffable, it attempts to draw its audience ever closer to divinity. Of all the ancient Greek writers, it is Pindar who arguably best exhibits this preoccupation with the sublime. Yet as Robert Fowler suggests, in his much-anticipated new book, there is a pressing need for a reappraisal of Pindar as a poet. An overriding emphasis on orality - the performance of hymns of praise at various ancient Olympic and Panhellenic games - has sidelined any aesthetic appreciation of the poems as works of artistic literature. It is that neglect which this important work addresses. Concentrating on the central idea of sublimity, the author binds together all the most important themes of his subject's poetry to show how Pindar's creative mythmaking is deeply religious in character. He offers subtle reflection on topics such as time, transcendence and eternity; on the poet's skilful use of imagery; and on the connections between Pindar and the early Romantic period.