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...