Book contents
- Pindar and Greek Religion
- Pindar and Greek Religion
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Editions, Abbreviations, and Frequent References
- Chapter 1 Pindar Mythologus and Theologus
- Chapter 2 Herakles Looks Back at the World
- Chapter 3 The Dioskouroi in Existential Crisis
- Chapter 4 Exaltation at Akragas: Herakles, the Dioskouroi, and Theron
- Chapter 5 The Isolation of Amphiaraos
- Chapter 6 Asklepios and the Limits of the Possible
- Chapter 7 An Invitation
- References
- Subject Index
- Index Locorum
Chapter 5 - The Isolation of Amphiaraos
(Nemean 9, Pythian 8)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 November 2022
- Pindar and Greek Religion
- Pindar and Greek Religion
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Editions, Abbreviations, and Frequent References
- Chapter 1 Pindar Mythologus and Theologus
- Chapter 2 Herakles Looks Back at the World
- Chapter 3 The Dioskouroi in Existential Crisis
- Chapter 4 Exaltation at Akragas: Herakles, the Dioskouroi, and Theron
- Chapter 5 The Isolation of Amphiaraos
- Chapter 6 Asklepios and the Limits of the Possible
- Chapter 7 An Invitation
- References
- Subject Index
- Index Locorum
Summary
“The Isolation of Amphiaraos,” argues that Pindar generates tensions between Amphiaraos’ contemporary status as a Theban oracle and his identity as the noble Argive seer portrayed in epic and tragedy, in order to establish Amphiaraos as a site of contestation between modes of human and divine exaltation. In Nemean 9, Pindar contrasts Amphiaraos as underdetermined oracle with two figures defined by types of immortality also potentially available to the victor: Adrastos, who enjoys immortality in cult and Hektor, who enjoys poetic immortality in epic song. In Pythian 8, Pindar localizes this modeling more explicitly in the exaltation of epinician praise by first setting up Amphiaraos as a disoriented oracular voice, removed from the reciprocal systems of epinician exaltation, then reestablishing his right to participate in those systems by assimilating him to the contemporary model of the Aiginetan pater laudandi, thus reorienting him to his humanity.
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- Pindar and Greek ReligionTheologies of Mortality in the Victory Odes, pp. 152 - 199Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022