CHAPTER X.
THEBES.—ÆGINA.
Four of Pindar's extant Odes are addressed to victors from his own native city, Thebes. These are, the Eleventh Pythian, and three out of the seven Isthmians—the first, the third, and the sixth. All, as might be expected, abound in indications of Pindar's deep attachment to his native city, and the interest which he felt in all events, at home or abroad, in which her weal was concerned. Yet, for several reasons, the frequent political allusions which these Odes contain tend rather to perplex than to enlighten us as to Theban politics in Pindar's age, and the part, if any, which the poet took in them. It so happens that we are unable to fix, with anything like certainty, the date of any one of these four Odes. It is not surprising, then, that commentators who have endeavoured to identify the events to which they seem to allude with historical occurrences known to us from other sources, should have come to widely different conclusions. Again, our existing evidences as to Theban affairs at this period are at once defective, and in many points mutually contradictory. And, for
