Page "Bacchylides" Paragraph 37

Much of Bacchylides's poetry was commissioned by proud and ambitious aristocrats, a dominant force in Greek political and cultural life in the 6th and early part of the 5th centuries, yet such patrons were gradually losing influence in an increasingly democratic Greek world.

The kind of lofty and stately poetry that celebrated the achievements of these archaic aristocrats was within the reach of ' The Cean nightingale ', yet he seems to have been more at home in verses of a humbler and lighter strain, even venturing on folksiness and humour.