Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies lecture theatre, 66 St Giles, Oxford
Professor Robert de Brose (Fortaleza, Brazil)
Abstract: This lecture offers a re-reading of Olympian 1.8–9, focusing on the phrase ὅθεν ὁ πολύφατος ὕμνος ἀμφιβάλλεται | σοφῶν μητίεσσι. Against the standard interpretation, in which the "much-famed hymn" encompasses the thoughts of wise men, the lecture argues that ἀμφιβάλλεται should be read in its middle or passive voice, with μητίεσσι as an instrumental dative, so that the hymn is "clothed" or "clothes itself" with the artistry of the poets. This reading gains coherence once ὁ πολύφατος ὕμνος is identified with Archilochus' traditional victory refrain, the τήνελλα καλλίνικη (fr. 324 West), suggesting that Pindar presents the epinician as a creative reworking of a universally known but modest hymn, made magnificent through the poet's μήτις, a gesture consistent with his broader self-representation as a craftsman who transforms inherited material into enduring song.
Mini-bio: Robert de Brose is Professor of Classics and Translation at the Federal University of Fortaleza in Brazil and Alexander von Humboldt Fellow for Experienced Researchers at the Humboldt Universität in Berlin, where he researches Pindar's poetics of orality. He was Visiting Scholar at Oxford in 2018-19 with a grant from CNPq/Brasil. He has published extensively on Pindar and Greek Lyric poetry, including an annotated translation of Pindar’s complete poems and fragments into Portuguese in five volumes.
