Studia Pindarica - by Elroy Bundy (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Studia Pindarica by Elroy L. Bundy is a landmark in classical philology that reshaped modern understandings of Pindar's victory odes. Originally published in 1962 and reissued in this combined edition, the book distills Bundy's methodological innovations into close readings of two key epinician poems: the Eleventh Olympian and the First Isthmian. Rejecting centuries of interpretive traditions that had cast Pindar as a fragmented or obscure poet, Bundy demonstrates that these odes are tightly governed by rhetorical and enkomiastic conventions. His analysis highlights devices such as the priamel and the crescendo, showing how apparent digressions or abrupt transitions instead operate as conventional structures designed to amplify praise.

What makes Bundy's work enduring is not only its rigorous analysis of two odes but also its larger argument for a "grammar" of choral style, a shared repertoire of motifs, sequences, and rhetorical strategies that bound poet and audience together. With clarity and precision, Bundy situates Pindar within an oral, public tradition dedicated to eulogy, thereby overturning the so-called "Pindaric problem" of incoherence. The result is a reconceptualization of Pindar as a poet of unified artistry rather than scattered brilliance. Essential for classicists, literary critics, and historians of rhetoric, Studia Pindarica remains a foundational resource for understanding Greek lyric and its conventions of praise.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1986.