Roles in relation: The poetic I in different genres in Pindar

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Thomas Kuhn-Treichel
• Subject Area: Greek and Latin Philology
• Term: from 2018 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 394803053

This project is concerned with the speaking persona in the poems of the early Greek lyric poet Pindar (henceforth labelled poetic I). Early Greek lyric is characterized by a highly present poetic I; how the poetic I is to be understood, is therefore a question of great importance for the interpretation of the poems. This question, however, is debated among scholars, and it is especially debated with regard to Pindar, whose extant corpus is by far the largest in early Greek lyric. This project aims to offer a new perspective on the problem, investigating a neglected, but nevertheless crucial aspect, viz. how the poetic I establishes relations to other figures mentioned or implied in the text, this way defining its own role. The study will not only deal with the completely preserved epinicia but with the whole of Pindar's poetry, including all known genres. Consequently, a special focus will be on the fragments, which amount to only one quarter of the preserved text but represent the by far larger portion of Pindar's original production (13 out of 17 books, according to the catalogue in the Vita Ambrosiana) and are still forming a respectable corpus (177 Teubner pages according to Maehler's edition). The comparative study of the different genres will, at the same time, shed new light on the question of unity and diversity in Pindar's oeuvre.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants