Pindar Quotes

“Things of a day! what are we and what not? A dream of a shaddow is man; yet when some god-given splendor falls, a glory of light comes over him and his life is sweet

(Pindar)”
― Gilbert Murray, History of Ancient Greek Literature

“The stars and the rivers
and waves call you back.”
― Pindar

“He never did his dumb-bells or played in his school fifteen. But the muscles came. He thinks they came while he was reading Pindar.”
― E.M. Forster, Collected Short Stories

“Leave your sacred cave, son of Philyra, and marvel at the spirit and great strength of this woman; look at what a struggle she is engaged in, with a fearless head, this young girl with a heart more than equal to any toil; her mind is not shaken with the cold wind of fear. From what mortal was she born? From what stock has this cutting been taken, that she should be living in the hollows of the shady mountains and putting to the test her boundless valor? Is it lawful to lay my renowned hand on her? And to cut the honey-sweet grass of her bed?”

-Pythian 9
For Telesicrates of Cyrene Hoplite Race”
― Pindar, The Odes

“I am convinced that there is no host in the world today who is both knowledgeable about fine things and more sovereign in power, whom we shall adorn with the glorious folds of song.”
― Pindar, The Olympian and Pythian Odes of Pindar

“God has in his power
to make dazzling unmixed light
spring from the somber depths
of evening. He can also
enclose the white explosion of day
under the gloom of black clouds.”
― Pindar

“Pindar said, neither by land nor by sea shall you find us. Maybe you will have to fly to discover us. Or slither under the earth. Perhaps a great subterranean tunnel – the Underworld – will bring you to us. You must go down before you can come up. Katabasis, the going down, precedes anabasis, the going up. By the same token, the advance is followed by the retreat, the march forward so often turns into the march back. Even great Alexander learned that. Does descent precede ascent, or ascent precede descent?”
― David Sinclair, The Church of the Serpent: The Philosophy of the Snake and Attaining Transcendent Knowledge