Pindar’s Songs of Victory

Catalog description

This course focuses on verse celebrations by Pindar (c. 518 - c. 438 BCE) of victories in ancient Greek athletic contests such as the famous games at Olympia and Delphi. A rich trove of mythic lore, these commissioned songs for public performance participated in fascinating constructions of personal, civic, and ethnic identities while at the same time speaking more broadly to humanity’s relationship with the divine, our individual capacity for heroism greater than human, and the very real limitations our mortality imposes upon us. Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement. Counts towards the Classical Languages and Literature major and as an elective for the Classical Studies major. Counts toward the interdisciplinary minor in Global Literary Theory. Satisfies the Language requirement. Prerequisites & Notes GRE 201. Students who have not yet taken a Greek course at the 200 level beyond 201 should enroll in GRE 216. Not offered 2026-2027