, usually styled the prince of Lyric poets, was a contemporary of Æschylus,
, usually styled the prince of Lyric poets, was
a contemporary of Æschylus, and born somewhat above
forty years before the expedition of Xerxes, against the
Greeks, and more than 500 B. C. His birth-place was
Thebes, the capital of Bceotia; a country, the air of which
was esteemed gross, and the stupidity of its inhabitants
proverbial. We find the poet, in his sixth Olympic, confessing the disadvantage of his climate, yet resolving to
exempt himself from the general censure. His parents are
supposed to have been of low condition, so that he was
more indebted for his attainments to his genius than to any
advantages of education. We hrtve, however, few particulars of his life, amidst the numerous panegyrics to be
found in ancient writers. He was highly courted and respected by most of the princes and states of Greece, and
even allowed a share with the gods in their gifts and offerings, by the command of the oracle itself. For the priestess
at Delphi ordered the people to give a part of thrir (irstfruits, which they brought thither, as a present to Pindar: and he had an iron stool set on purpose for him in that temple, on which he used to sit and sing verses in honour of Apollo. His countrymen, the Thebans, were irritated at his commending their enemies, the men of Athens; and fined him, for this affront to the state. Out of spleen too, they determined a poetical prize against him, in favour of a
woman, the ingenious and beautiful Corinna. In the mean
time, the Athenians made him a present of double the
value of his fine; and erected a noble statue in honour of
him. His greatest patron was Hiero king of Syracuse,
whom he has celebrated in his poems, and it is supposed
he left Thebes to attend the court of that prince. He is
thought to have passed his whole time in the ease and tranquillity commonly allowed to men of his profession, without intermeddling in affairs of state: for we find him, in
his “Isthmics,
” defending this way of life. His death is
said to have been an answer to his wishes: for, having
prayed the gods to send him the greatest happiness of
which a mortal is capable, he expired immediately after in
the public theatre, in his fifty-fifth year. His relations
were highly respected after his decease, and such was the
veneration for his memory, that the Lacedemonians, at
the taking of Thebes, saved his house; a mark of respect
which was afterwards repeated by Alexander the Great.
The ruins of this house were to be seen in the time of
Pausanias, who lived under the reign of Antoninus the
philosopher.