Simon Hornblower argues for a relationship between Thucydides and Pindar not so far acknowledged in modern scholarship. He argues that ancient critics were right to detect stylistic similarities between these two great exponents of the "severe style" in prose and verse. In Part One he explores the background of epinikian poetry and athletics, the values shared by the two authors, and religion and colonization myths, and presents a geographically organized survey of Pindar's Mediterranean world, exploiting onomastic evidence. Part Two includes an analysis of Thucydides' account of the Olympic games of 420 BC; discussions of the four components of Thucydides' history in their relation to Pindar; statements of method, excursuses, speeches, and narrative, especially the Sicilian books; and a stylistic-literary comparison of Thucydides and Pindar.

Table of Contents

I
1. Introduction
2. Could Thucydides have known Pindar, and did he?
3. Content and outlook
4. Myths, religion, women, colonization
5. People, places, prosopography, and politics
II. Thucydides Pindaricus
6. Introduction to Part II
7. The clearest example of Thucydides Pindaricus: 5.49-50, the Olympic Games of 420 BC
8. Statements of method; causation
9. `Antiquarian' excursions
10. Speeches
11. Narrative
12. Thucydides and Pindar: a stylistic comparison
Conclusion