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The ‘Theban Eagle’*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Richard Stoneman
Affiliation:
Christ Church, Oxford

Extract

The eagle has always been recognized as one of Pindar's most potent and characteristic images. Horace borrowed it to construct the first four stanzas of his Pindaric imitation in Carm. 4.4, and he presents both himself and Pindar as soaring birds: see Carm. 4.2.25 and 2.20, where the swan outflies Daedalus and Icarus in a way that the imitators of Pindar cannot hope to do. It is standard doctrine that Pindar often describes himself as an eagle, and that Bacchylides ‘imitates’ the notion in his fifth ode (e.g. CM. Bowra, Pindar (1964), p.l).

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1976

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