Pindar

(c. 518 BC - c. 438 BC)

The Greek poet Pindar was renowned for his victory odes celebrating successes at the popular pan-Hellenic games. So great was his fame, it’s said that when Alexander the Great razed the city of Thebes in 335 bc, the only building he left intact was the poet’s family home. Only the poet’s odes about the Hellenic games are extant, preserved because of a second-century Roman teacher’s inclusion of them in a textbook.