1. Some scholars in the modern age found his poetry perplexing, at least until the 1896 discovery of some poems by his rival Bacchylides; comparisons of their work showed that many of Pindar's idiosyncrasies are typical of archaic genres rather than of only the poet himself.
Pindar was the first Greek poet to reflect on the nature of poetry and on the poet's role.
In other words, we know almost nothing about Pindar's life based on either traditional sources or his own poems.
Pindar was born circa 518 BC in Cynoscephalae, a village in Boeotia, not far from Thebes.
Pindar studied the art of lyric poetry in Athens, where his tutor was Lasos of Hermione, and he is said to have received some helpful criticism from Corinna.
The early to middle years of Pindar's career coincided with the Greco-Persian Wars during the reigns of Darius and Xerxes.
Thrasybulus had driven the winning chariot; and he and Pindar were to form a lasting friendship, paving the way for his subsequent visit to Sicily.
Lyric verse was conventionally accompanied by music and dance, and Pindar himself wrote the music and choreographed the dances for his victory odes.
Simonides was known to charge high fees for his work and Pindar is said to have alluded to this in Isthmian 2, where he refers to the Muse as "a hireling journeyman".
Pindar said he would come to her soon and compose one then.
Pindar died around 438 BC while attending a festival at Argos.
Pindar's ashes were taken back home to Thebes by his musically gifted daughters, Eumetis and Protomache.
Some of Pindar's verses were inscribed in letters of gold on a temple wall in Lindos, Rhodes.
Pindar justified and exalted choral poetry at a time when society was turning away from it.
Pindar seems indifferent to the intellectual reforms that were shaping the theology of the times.
Pindar selects and revises traditional myths so as not to diminish the dignity and majesty of the gods.
Pindar's gods are above such ethical issues and it is not for men to judge them by ordinary human standards.
Indeed, the finest breeds of men resulted from divine passions: "For Pindar a mortal woman who is loved by a god is an outstanding lesson in divine favours handsomely bestowed".
Some of his patrons claimed divine descent, such as Diagoras of Rhodes, but Pindar makes all men akin to gods if they realize their full potential: their innate gifts are divinely bestowed, and even then success still depends on the gods' active favour.
In honouring such men, therefore, Pindar was honouring the gods too.
Pindar's poems are indifferent to the ordinary mass of people.
Whereas the Muses inspired Homer with relevant information and with the language to express it, Pindar seems to receive only their inspiration: his role is to shape that inspiration with his own wisdom and skill.
Pindar's dithyrambs are an exuberant display of religious feeling, capturing the wild spirit of Dionysus and pointing forward to the ecstatic songs of Euripides' Bacchae.
Pindar makes rich use of decorative language and florid compound adjectives.
Pindar has that force of imagination which can bring clear-cut and dramatic figures of gods and heroes into vivid relief.
Pindar's verses have come down to us in a variety of ways.
Pindar described it in one of his Sapphic poems, addressed to a friend, Iullus Antonius:.