Page "Bacchylides" Paragraph 7

Bacchylides's career as a poet probably benefitted from the high reputation of his uncle, Simonides, whose patrons, when Bacchylides was born, already included Hipparchus, tyrant of Athens 527 – 14 BC.

Simonides later introduced his nephew to ruling families in Thessaly and to the Sicilian tyrant, Hieron of Syracuse, whose glittering court attracted artists of the calibre of Pindar and Aeschylus.

Bacchylides's first notable success came sometime after 500 BC with commissions from Athens for the great Delian festival ( Ode 17 ) and from Macedonia for a song to be sung at a symposium for the young prince, Alexander I ( fr.

20B ).

Soon he was competing with Pindar for commissions from the leading families of Aegina and, in 476 BC, their rivalry seems to have reached the highest levels when Bacchylides composed an ode celebrating Hieron's first victory at the Olympian Games ( Ode 5 ).

Pindar celebrated the same victory but used the occasion to advise the tyrant of the need for moderation in one's personal conduct ( Pindar's Olympian Ode 1 ), whereas Bacchylides probably offered his own ode as a free sample of his skill in the hope of attracting future commissions.

Bacchylides was commissioned by Hieron in 470 BC, this time to celebrate his triumph in the chariot race at the Pythian Games ( Ode 4 ).

Pindar also composed a celebratory ode for this victory ( Pindar's Pythian Ode 1 ), including however stern, moral advice for the tyrant to rule wisely.

Pindar was not commissioned to celebrate Hieron's subsequent victory in the chariot race at the Olympic Games in 468 BC – this, the most prestigious of Hieron's victories, was however celebrated by Bacchylides ( Ode 3 ).

The tyrant's apparent preference for Bacchylides over Pindar on this occasion might have been partly due to the Cean poet's simpler language and not just to his less moralizing posture, and yet it is also possible that Bacchylides and his uncle were simply better suited to palace politics than was their more high-minded rival.

Alexandrian scholars in fact interpreted a number of passages in Pindar as hostile allusions to Bacchylides and Simonides and this interpretation has been endorsed by modern scholars also.