| It has long been recognized that "archaic" Greek thought translates its perception of reality into certain dominant verbal and conceptual oppositions. The present study of Pindar is an attempt to elucidate the thought of this difficult and "obscure" poet through the analysis of his favored polar expressions and their connotative implications within each ode. By examining the odes in terms of their deep structural frameworks, we can elucidate their internal "logic," associative connection of thought, and thus their ultimate unity; in this manner, it becomes possible to discuss "meaning" (which formalist criticism since Bundy has declined to do) as a polyvalent network of interacting relations, and thus avoid the naive intentionalist reductionism of the long discredited Grundgedanke-, symbolist, and historicist approaches to Pindar.; The first part of the dissertation systematically examines the primary polar infrastructures which are to be found in Pindar, and illustrates their development and transformation through the course of individual odes. It is my argument that Pindaric antinomies such as near/far, brachus/makros, oikeion/allotrion, early/late, peras/apeiron, malthakos/trachus, euthus/skolios, physis/techne, merit/reward are not ossified valorizations of one term above another (as they have often been viewed), but are dynamic and dialectical tensions which play on the semantic fluidity of the Greek language in this formative period. It is precisely this tendency toward ambivalence and paradox which makes Pindar's language so complex and so interesting.; It is further argued that these oppositions are themselves characterized by the overriding Pindaric opposition of subject (laudator) and object (laudandus): e.g., concepts such as physis and techne are used in such a way as to refer equally to poet and athlete, and thus serve to unify the subjective and objective concerns of the ode. The second part of this dissertation argues that it is the special feature of Pindaric odes to emphasize the parallelism of poet and athlete, and thus the identity of their interests; herein lies the correct approach to the problem of coexisting subjective and objective "programs" which has bedevilled Pindaric scholarship since the time of Boeckh. Subject and object are unified through the ambiguity of myth, prayer, gnome, first-person statement, metaphor, and through themes such as ploutos and xenia. This section is concluded by an interpretation of Nemean 7, which stands as a test-case for the theory as a whole.; The third part of the dissertation draws upon Heraclitus' logic of coincident opposition for a contemporary analogue to the implicit logical formulations which determine Pindar's poetry. Regardless of any direct influence, it can be said that both Heraclitus and Pindar reflect the same stage in the history of Greek thought. Ambiguity and paradox are central to the cognition and expression of both. |
