Editing Pindar (section)

===Sources===
Five ancient sources contain all the recorded details of Pindar's life. One of them is a short biography discovered in 1961 on an Egyptian papyrus dating from at least 200 AD ([[P.Oxy]].2438).<ref>Race, p. 4</ref> The other four are collections that were not finalized until some 1600 years after his death:
* A brief biography of Pindar and his tomb in Boeotia, from Pausanias's “descriptions of Greece” [9.23.2]-[9.23.5].
* ''Commentaries on Pindar'' by [[Eustathius of Thessalonica]];
* ''Vita Vratislavensis'', found in a manuscript at [[Wrocław]], author unknown;
* a text by [[Thomas Magister]];
* some meagre writings attributed to the lexicographer Suidas.
Although these sources are based on a much older literary tradition, going as far back as [[Chamaeleon (philosopher)|Chamaeleon of Heraclea]] in the 4th century BC, they are generally viewed with scepticism today: much of the material is clearly fanciful.<ref name="Greek Lyric Poets' 1997 page 253"/><ref>Morice, pp. 211–15</ref> Scholars both ancient and modern have turned to Pindar's own work{{spaced ndash}}his [[Epinikion|victory odes]] in particular{{spaced ndash}}as a source of biographical information: some of the poems touch on historic events and can be accurately dated. The 1962 publication of Elroy Bundy's ground-breaking work ''Studia Pindarica''<ref>[http://escholarship.org/uc/item/2g79p68q Escholarship.org]</ref> led to a change in scholarly opinion: the Odes were no longer seen as expressions of Pindar's personal thoughts and feelings, but rather as public statements "dedicated to the single purpose of eulogizing men and communities."<ref>E.Bundy, ''Studia Pindarica'', Berkeley (1962), p. 35</ref> It has been claimed that biographical interpretations of the poems are due to a "fatal conjunction" of historicism and Romanticism.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Lloyd-Jones, Hugh|url=http://www.proc.britac.ac.uk/cgi-bin/somsid.cgi?page=68p139&session=479879E&type=header|title=Pindar|journal=Proceedings of the British Academy|volume=68|year=1982|pages=139–163 (145)}}{{Dead link|date=May 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In other words, we know almost nothing about Pindar's life based on either traditional sources or his own poems. However, the pendulum of intellectual fashion has begun to change direction again, and cautious use of the poems for some biographical purposes is considered acceptable once more.{{sfn|Hornblower|2004|p=38}}{{sfn|Hornblower|2004|p=59}}{{sfn|Hornblower|2004|p=67}}<ref>Currie, pp. 11–13</ref>

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{{lang|grc|πολλὰ γὰρ πολλᾷ λέλεκται: νεαρὰ δ᾽ ἐξευ-<br />
ρόντα δόμεν βασάνῳ<br />
ἐς ἔλεγχον, ἅπας κίνδυνος.}}<ref>Nemean 8, lines 20–21</ref>{{sfn|Bowra|1947}}
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Story is vast in range: new ways to find<br />
and test upon the touchstone,<br />
Here danger lies.<ref group="nb">Pindar (1972) p. 212. The three lines here, and in Bowra's Greek, are actually two lines or stichoi in Greek prosody. Stichoi however are often too long to be preserved as single lines in published form, and they are then broken into metrical units, or cola, the break indicated by indentation. This practice is observed both in Greek and in translations, but it is a modern convenience or preference and it has no historical authority: "...nullam habet apud codices auctoritatem neque veri simile est Pindarum ita carmina manu propria conscripsisse."</ref>{{sfn|Bowra|1947|p=9}}
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