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P I N 
pher Paufanias. The honours which were paid him while 
alive were alfo (hared by his pofterity; and, as a mark of 
their high attention and reverence, at the celebration of 
one of the feftivals of the Greeks, a portion of the viXim 
which had been offered in facrifice was referved for the 
defendants of the poet. Even the mod inveterate ene¬ 
mies of the Thebans (howed a regard for his memory; 
and the Spartans (pared the houfe which the prince of 
the Lyrics had inhabited, when they deltroyed the houfes 
and the walls of Thebes. The fame fort of refpeX was 
likewife paid him by Alexander the Great, when Thebes 
was reduced to afhes. 
He died in the public theatre at the age of 55, about 
the year 440 B. C. The greateft part of his works has 
perifiied. He had compofed fome hymns to the gods, 
poems in honour of Apollo, dithyrambics to Bacchus, 
and odes on feveral victories obtained at the four greateft 
feftivals of the Greeks, the Olympic, Ifthmian, Pythian, 
and Nemean, games. Of all the!e, the Odes are the only 
compofitions extant, admired forfublimity of fentiments, 
grandeur of exprefiion, energy and magnificence of ftyle, 
boldnefs of metaphors, harmony of numbers, and elegance 
of diction. Horace has called our poet inimitable; and 
this panegyric will not, perhaps, appear too ftrong, fince 
fucceeding critics have agreed in extolling his beauties, 
the fire, animation, and enthufiafm, of his genius. Horace 
refers likewife to his pathetic and moral commemorations 
of departed excellence. It was probably by ftrains of this 
kind that he acquired the epithets of wife and divine 
from Plato. Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus fpeaks of Pindar 
as the chief model among the lyric poets of what lie de¬ 
nominates “ fevere and antique harmony and he alfo 
extols his loftinefs, energy, fertility, art, and ftrength of 
diXion mixed with l'weetnefs. Quintilian repeats thefe 
praifes ; but Longinus reprefents him as fometimes, when 
glowing with the brighteft flame, undergoing a fudden 
extinXion; and a more modern critic feems to join ifl'ue 
with the author of the Sublime.” Speaking of his Odes, 
he fays, “ they have indeed thofe charaXerillics of fire, 
rapidity, and variety, for which he is fo much celebrated 
by the critics of antiquity; but that fire is frequently 
obfcured in fmoke, and that variety is produced by di- 
greffions fo excurfive, that it is often fcarcely poffible to 
follow him, and trace their relation to his propofed fub- 
jeX.” Yet Pindar is full of force and fire; his thoughts 
are fententious, his ftyle impetuous, his failies daring, and 
frequently running, as it were, at random; heaffeXsa 
beautiful diforder, which, however, is faid to be the 
effeX of the greateft art. His Odes are remarkable not 
only for the powerful imagination they difplay, but for 
the illuftrations of the moft elegant and moral kind, 
which the author continually derives from liiftory or 
mythology, and with the utmoft fkill interweaves with 
the narratives of common occurrences. The profeffed 
(ubjedfs of his poems, the praife of conquerors in the 
games, or of kings, are of_.aH fubjedls moft deftitute of 
variety. In every language the terms of mere adulation 
are few, and of no force : and there is of courfe little 
diverfity in the defcription of Angle combats. But the 
mind of our poet foars above the mere narrative or praife. 
He every-where draws from the previous liiftory of the 
combatants, from the exploits of their anceftry, or from 
fome fimilarity between the fight itfelf and fome previoufly 
celebrated combat, food for digreflion. Thefe digreflions, 
however tedious they might have been in themfelves, 
would not appear fo to thole to whom they were addreffed, 
fince national exploits are with all mankind a favourite 
topic. But thefe digreflions were not tedious, becaufe 
the poet managed them fo (kilfully, and contrived that 
they fiiould bear fo naturally and accurately on the fub- 
jedf ol his poem. Thus, his patron Hiero was fuffering 
under a painful difeafe when he had occafion to celebrate 
one of his victories. To a man in fuch a ftate how fick- 
ening would have been the common language of praife! 
therefore Pindar fkilfully opens the poem with a with for 
-VOL. XX. No. 1383. 
D A R. 
his better health, and that the Centaurs were again 
alive to heal him. A fhort epifode, in which he relates 
the Centaur’s punifliment for attempting to reftore the 
dead to life, brings him to appolite reflexions on the 
neceffity of moderating our defires ; on the comparative 
liappinefs of mortals ; and, laftly, upon the many blefiings 
(not forgetting'the recent victory) with which heaven 
had favoured Hiero himfelf. Now this is a fit and confo- 
ling addrefs to fuch a man, at the fame time that it gives 
fcope for much beauty in the traditions and hiftorical 
anecdotes by which the precept is enforced. In another 
inftance, (fee the tenth„ 01 ympic Ode,) he has to celebrate 
the viXory of one of whom or of whole country little 
could be faid, and who moreover had either been defeated 
in a previous coined, or had nearly been conquered in 
tlie beginning of the one in queftion. Now with great 
ability the poet turns their difgrace to the greateft praife ; 
for he fays that the mighty Hercules was firlt overpowered 
by Cycnus, whom yet he afterwards flew; and, if Agefi- 
damus (the fubjeX of the Ode) were indebted to the 
fkill and encouragement of his mafter Has, who rallied 
him to viXory, fo was Patroclus to Achilles. At this 
point we fee lie has hinted at two fonrces of tradition, 
upon either of which he was at liberty to enlarge. He 
prefers Hercules of courfe, not only becaufe he was 
the founder of the games, but becaufe his was a life 
of labour and difappointment crowned by fuccefs: and 
lienee his mention was the fulled encomium that could 
be devifed on a viXory gained after defeat and fevere lofs. 
It has been truly remarked of Pindar’s Odes, that they 
every-where urge, moft forcibly and feducingly, the pre¬ 
cepts of morality and piety; and that, in ail his mytho¬ 
logical allufions, he rejeXs the coarfer, and, if we may be 
allowed the term, profane anecdotes of the celeftial vices, 
and urges only the benevolence, power,juftnefs, and luch- 
like dignified and appropriate attributes, of the gods. 
The fuppofed irregularity of his numbers has made feveral 
of his imitators imagine themfelves Pindaric poets, by 
the mere wildnefs and irregularity of their verfes. Nona 
of our writers feem-tohave fucceeded in the Pindaric 
ciiaraXer better than Cowley. 
The editions of Pindar are numerous. Thofe of 
Heyne, Gr. Lat. Gotting. 1773, 4to. 1798, 8vo. are in 
high efteem; the latter contains the Greek Scholia. 
The Odes were tranflated intoEnglifh by Weft about the 
middle of the laft century; and, in 1822, all the Olympic 
and the firft feven Pythian Odes were tranflated, with 
much accuracy, by Mr. Abraham Moore, whofe verlion 
falls fhort in that only which no tranflation can reach, 
the fire and fpirit of the original. 
PINDAR'IC,/'. An irregular ode ; fo named from a 
pretended imitation of the odes of the Grecian poet 
Pindar.—Can any thing be more ridiculous than for 
men of a fober and moderate fancy to imitate this poet’s 
way of writing in thofe monftrous compofitions which go 
among us under the name of Pindarics? Addilbn's Spiel. 
N° 160. 
PINDAR'IC, adj. After the ftyle or manner of Pindar. 
—If the Pindaric ityle be, what Cowley'thinks it, the 
higheft and nobleft kind of writing in verfe, it can be 
adapted only to high and noble fpirits. Juhnjon’s Life of 
Cowley. 
PINDARREE'S, a tribe of plunderers who long infeft- 
ed Central India, but were totally reduced, in the year 
1818, by the exertions of the marquis of Haftings while 
governor-general. 
The Pindarrees are, in faX, the reliques of the cavalry 
originally belonging to the Mahratta ftates ; but, in con- 
fequence of the overthrow of their regular fovereign, 
they confederated in bands of independent warriors. 
The name of Pindarree may be found in Indian liiftory as 
early as the commencement of the laft century; feveral 
bands of thefe freebooters followed the Mahratta armies 
in their early wars in Hindooftan; and they are men¬ 
tioned by Ferifhta as having fought againft Zoolfeccar 
6 A Khan, 
