The poetry of Bacchylides, Simonides' nephew, was unfavourably compared to that of his contemporary, Pindar, by Ps. Longinus (περὶ ὕψους 33.5), and even after the publication of the great London papyrus by F. G. Kenyon in 1897 modern commentators have tended to criticize Bacchylides for not being sufficiently like Pindar. In truth, however, the two poets are very different stylistically, even in their victory odes where they necessarily conform to the same set of conventions; comparison of their dithyrambs is scarcely possible, as none of Pindar's are preserved complete. In fact, the first five of Bacchylides' dithyrambs are the only complete (or nearly complete) specimens of this important genre from the first half of the fifth century bce.

To do justice to the qualities of Greek choral lyric poetry, one has to bear in mind the function of the respective literary genre (victory ode, praise poem, cult song, etc.) and the aims which the poet was expected to achieve within each genre. An unbiased approach to Bacchylides' poems will show him not as a lesser Pindar, but as an imaginative, original and highly accomplished poet in his own right.

The present selection is based on my complete edition with commentary in two parts: Die Lieder des Bakchylides:iDie Siegeslieder (1982), iiDie Dithyramben und Fragmente (1997). That commentary has here been revised and adapted to the interests and needs of an English-speaking academic but non-specialist readership.