Pindar’s Treatment of Boy Victors

Rachel Bruzzone (University of Virginia)

Pindar’s victory odes tend to praise a similar constellation of virtues in all victors, offering descriptions that fit with the characteristics sought in strong kurioi: heterosexual dominance, wisdom, and aggressive protection of ones’ oikos and reputation. This is suprising in the boy victor odes, which describe the boy as if he were a fully grown man embodying these same virtues. In some cases it is impossible to differentiate between adult and boy poems without epigraphical evidence. Commentators have been troubled by the fact that adult poems are not priveleged over those for boy laudandi, one expressing surprise that Nemean 7, “such a long, complex, and often beautiful poem should have been written for a boy athlete” (Race [1997] 68). Perhaps the most striking way Pindar treats his boy victors as adults is the absence, except for one instance, of pederastic compliments. This is especially surprising given that Athenaeus tells us that Pindar was an immoderate lover (13.601C) and that these boys would have embodied all of the characteristics most prized in young lovers. The poet, however, does not make the boys’ youth a significant part of their poems. In many cases avoids the topic altogether, neglecting even to use youthful imagery and mythology in boy victor poems despite his willingness to use these themes in odes for adults, such as in Nemean 1 and Nemean 3.

I will argue that Pindar adopted the language and ideology of heroization in order to impress upon his audience the significance of athletic victory, as has been suggested by modern scholarship (see, e.g., Bruno Currie 2005). This heroization takes a special form in the boy victor poems. Although child heroes existed they were normally, like Demophon or Opheltes, passive victims of fate or spite. Unlike these children, Pindar’s young laudandi have earned their heroized status through their accomplishments, the feat of an adult hero. To appropriately heroize the boy victors, then, Pindar must poetically age them and attribute to them all the vitues of powerful adult men, supressing their youthful characteristics and even avoiding mythology that would draw attention to their age.