Group A blog post #3

Dean Noll

In this weeks reading of The Pindar,  I asked myself the question of why Hieron's victory is a good sign for the future of the city's success. On page 217, the book states," The poet asks for Zues' favor and tells of Hierton's victory in the Pythian Chariot race, which he considers a promising sign of the city's future success". Hieron won a chariot race at the Pythian games earlier in the chapter and is also the ruler of Syracuse which shows that he is athletic. Since Hieron won the chariot race, it proves that Hieron is still athletic and noble. Since Hieron is still athletic, I believe that this is symbol for showing that there is still hope and it is a promising sign for the city's future success.

Another question that I asked myself is why doesnt Cryne like typical girl activities? In Pythian ode 9 the book says,"the daughter of Hypseus, king of the Lapithae, disliked the typical activities of girls". I found the answer to the question by searching through Ode 9 and saw that she does not like the typical activities of girls because she prefers to protect her father's herds from wild predators.

Comments

  1. Kate McNultySeptember 23, 2018 at 6:52 PM

    I agree that his athleticism and nobility is a sign of future success for the city because when athletes won in Ancient Greece, they were glorified and given a lot of status. Therefore, the city would have more power because it looked like it raised champions. Also, if it did have more athletic people, that could have been a sign that their warriors were better and then they could be better in war.

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  2. Dylan WietfeldtSeptember 23, 2018 at 8:09 PM

    For the first part of your answer, I definitely think that Hieron and the city's success are connected, and I think you could go even further by looking at all of his positive athletic activities and connecting it to his sophrosyne. Because of the city's success, it shows that he is well balanced as a leader. I found the next part of your post very interesting because I am also confused why Cryne doesn't like "girly" activities. Because this is a male dominated society, it could definitely be that Cryne grew up to protect her father's herds.

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  3. AnonymousSeptember 23, 2018 at 8:39 PM

    I had the same question that you had stated. The information that you have found is very interesting. You would think that since she is royalty she may be interested in "typical activities of girls" but yet she prefers "to protect her father's herds". This piece of information is very interesting and I am glad that you did research on it.

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  4. AnonymousSeptember 24, 2018 at 6:08 PM

    Based off of how much the games are valued in this era it absolutely means good fortune for the city. I believe that's a big part of why the athletes do it, to represent their city and gain the glory not just for themselves. Another reason is if you win the Gods are going to bless you and your city as you mentioned in the quote you picked. In the case of Hieron, he's very beloved by his city and Pindar says he does well as a rule so this does mean a good fortune for the city.

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  5. Jordan SilversmithSeptember 30, 2018 at 12:10 PM

    I believe that a major reason that this means good fortune for the city is that the victory indicates that the gods favor Hieron. If he is blessed with a victory in the race, then the gods will bless the entire city with good fortune as well. By bringing positive favor on the city, Hieron has done his city a service, and the people of the city are repaying him for this.

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