Group B Blog Post

With the reading for this week being based off of sports poetry and articles, I found the tribute to Pindar the most intriguing. Partly because because it boosts my confidence, saying that Pindar is one of the toughest poets to understand, but also because it really makes him seem unique in that his style is yet to be replicated. It mentions that Pindar poems have everything to do with majesty, history, and tradition, but little to do with the athletic event. This is something I really notice when I read Pindar, but the athlete is forever immortalized. Pindar cherishes more than just how good the athlete is, but rather who the athlete is and what he embodies. The theme in modern poetry has now shifted to amplify losing teams are amateurs. I feel this has now become so popular is because everyone loves an underdog, especially if they have a background full of hardships. Often times even when the underdog isn't victorious we praise him for the effort that he gave, and this differs greatly from Pindar's epinician poems. If you weren't a victor that Pindar wasn't writing about you, but if you were your name, city, and family will always be remembered. The article says that modern poems always harp on the fact that the competition always has to come to an end. However, there was no reasoning for this statement and it leaves us to wonder what the significance to the competition ending has. I believe that it must have something to do with sports having a victor and a loser and the competition ending enforces this, but I'd be curious to see what other opinions there are.

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