Although Pindar’s victory songs, or epinikia, were commissioned and performed to celebrate athletic victories, they present persistent reflections on the narrow limits of human prosperity, the inexorable cycle of success and failure, and the impossibility of appropriating any aspect of a godly nature. The present work provides a close reading of the Pythian series to illustrate how Pindar uses prayer, myth and gnomai to secure the moral and psychological reintegration of the athletic victor back into his close-knit community upon his homecoming (νόστος). As a re-integration rite, the challenging and dark elements of mortal limitation and failure are read as prophylactic statements against the destructive effects of hybris (ὕβρις). The Odes rest upon an archaic cosmology of reciprocal and harmonious exchange between humans themselves and between humans and the gods which is captured by the principle of charis or grace (χάρις). Ὕβρις is a breach of this reciprocity and the antithesis of χάρις since it is the unilateral claim of property, prestige, or privilege as well as the transgression against the divine dispensation which governs the cosmos (κόσμος). Modern psychological research shows how such concern for, and such precaution against, ὕβρις may be prudent given that victory fosters a drive for dominance. / Graduate / 0294 / gebeauva@uvic.ca
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/6587 |
| Date | 27 August 2015 |
| Creators | Beauvais, Glenn E. |
| Contributors | Holmberg, Ingrid E. |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ |
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