Pindar's Sixth Pythian and the Tradition of Advice Poetry

Abstract

Pythian 6 has long been derogated by commentators2 and largely ignored by critics.3 The poem labors still under the magisterial pronouncements of Wilamowitz, who concluded, on the basis of the mention of Aphrodite and the Graces at the opening of Pythian 6, that the poem was gar kein Epinikion, but rather Pindar's freely offered and erotically inspired tribute to the young Thrasyboulos, son of the victor Xenocrates. Wilamowitz went on to censure the final praise of Thrasyboulos (47-54) and the choice of the myth of Antilochus as the excesses of the poet's besotted fancy.4 It is perhaps not surprising that Wilamowitz's biographical construct was accepted and followed by Burton and Bowra.5 What is more surprising is that, even in the wake of Bundy's revisionism, modern critics continue to echo Wilamowitz's conclusions. Nisetich, in the introduction to his translation of the poem, observes:

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