Pindar and the Cult of Heroes [Hardcover]

Pindar and the Cult of Heroescombines a study of Greek culture and religion (hero cult) with a literary-critical study of Pindar's epinician poetry. It looks at hero cult generally, but focuses especially on heroization in the 5th century BC. There are individual chapters on the heroization of war dead, of athletes, and on the religious treatment of the living in the 5th century. Hero cult, Bruno Currie argues, could be anticipated, in different ways, in a person's lifetime. Epinician poetry too should be interpreted in the light of this cultural context; fundamentally, this genre explores the patron's religious status. The book features extensive studies of Pindar's Pythians 2, 3, 5, Isthmian 7, and Nemean 7.

1. Introduction
I. Some Themes in Hero Cult: Homer and Pindar
2. Views of Death
3. Mortality and Immortality
4. Hero Cult
5. Uses of the word `heros'
6. Immortality in renown: Kleos
II. Heroization in the Fifth Century BC
7. Heroization of the War Dead
8. Heroization of Athletes
9. Theios aner: Religious Attitudes to the Living in the Fifth Century
III. Five Odes of Pindar
10. Isthmian 7: Pankration victor and the war dead
11. Pythian 5: The king and his royal forebears
12. Pythian 2: Locrian saviour and Cyprian hero
13. Nemean 7: Boy pentathlete and Delphian hero
14. Pythian 3: Fire and immortality
15. Epilogue

In his thorough reexamination of the uses of the word 'hero,' the practice of hero-cult, and the religious honors paid to some living people during the Archaic and Classical periods, the author offers important correctives to the common idea that hero cult was exclusively a cult of the dead and a way of promoting solidarity within the polis community.... A major contribution to Pindar scholarship and to the study of religious attitudes in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. Highly recommended. --Choice