Colloquium, Department of Classical Studies
Jan 30, 2025
4:45pm - 6:15pm
402 Cohen Hall, 249 South 36th St.
We are accustomed today to speak of Pindar's poems as accomplishing (or aiming to accomplish) various kinds of political work, e.g., the promotion of civic identity, or the legitimation of regimes. These poems were indeed finely calibrated to their different epichoric contexts; at the same time, they drew heavily on the resources of abstraction and gnomic generality, and often appealed to a certain consistent, regime-independent ideal of civic order. What kind of political thought do we find in Pindar's poetry? And how does it relate to emerging discourses of "political theory" in the fifth century BCE? This talk will approach these questions via a reading of Pindar's second Paean, composed for Abdera sometime in the first third of the fifth century. In particular, I will focus on the close association of civic order with duration, and the various strategies the song deploys to produce a smooth, continuous texture of time, encompassing the city’s past, present, and future.
*4:15-4:45 pm: Coffee and cookies in Cohen Hall 2nd Floor Lounge. All are welcome.