Page:A History of Ancient Greek Literature.djvu/134

 '110'']served a pretty good account of his outer circumstances. He was born at the village of Kynoskephalae, in Boeotia; he was descended from the Aegidae, a clan of conquering invaders, probably 'Cadmean,' since the name 'Pindar' is found in Ephesus and Thera. The country-bred Boeotian boy showed early a genius for music. The lyre, doubtless, he learned as a child: there was one Skopelinus at home, an uncle of the poet, or perhaps his step-father, who could teach him flute-playing. To learn choir-training and systematic music he had to go to Athens, to 'Athenocles and Apollodorus.' Tradition insisted on knowing something about his relation to the celebrities of the time. He was taught by Lasus of Hermione; beaten in competition by his country-woman Corinna, though some extant lines of that poetess make against the story: "I praise not the gracious Myrtis, not I, for coming to contest with Pindar, a woman born!" And another anecdote only makes Corinna give him good advice-"to sow with the hand, not with the whole sack," when he was too profuse in his mythological ornaments.

The earliest poen we possess (Pyth. x.), written when Pindar was twenty-or possibly twenty-four-was a commission from the Aleudae, the princes of Pharsalus, in Thessaly. This looks as if his reputation was made with astonishing rapidity. Soon afterwards we find him writing for the great nobles of Aegina, patrons after his own heart, merchant princes of the highest Dorian ancestry. Then begins a career of pan-Hellenic celebrity: he is the guest of the great families of Rhodes, Tenedos, Corinth, Athens; of the great kings, Alexander of Macedon, Arkesilaus of Cyrene, Thero of Acragas, and Hiero of Syracuse. It is as distinguished as that of Simonides, though perhaps less sincerely international.

[111]

Pindar in his hear