Zur Prophetischen Metaphorik in der Sechsten Olympischen ode Pindars

Every Pindaric ode poses the question of literary unity, which is the main issue of Pindaric scholarship. But every ode presents a specific form of unity, and so does the Sixth Olympian, one of Pindar’s most accomplished poems, whose ways of achieving unity are the chief concern of this paper. I argue that unity in O. 6 comes about by dint of a metaphoric parallel between the poet (Pindar) and the prophet (Hagesias, the victor, and Iamos, the mythic protagonist). This parallel is based on two significant moments, which are typical of both the prophet and the poet: the moment of inspiration and that of the utterance (of the oracle viz. poem). The same moments are brought to the fore in vv. 58–70 concerning the prophet Iamos, then in vv. 82–91 (the main stumbling block in the interpretation of the poem) concerning the poet Pindar. From this core metaphors of prophetic-poetic activity permeate the whole epinician ode