SOURCE: "Pindar—The Function and Technique of Poetry." Greece and Rome, Vol. 8, No. 24, May, 1939, pp. 144-159.

In the essay below, Freeman surveys Pindar's odes for the poet's own views about his art in many of its aspects.

All writers are to some extent consciously interested in the technique of their art; many of them fare more so than is generally realized. The majority follow the principle Ars maxima celare artem, and do not allow us more than a glimpse into their workshop; many a lyric that delights us by its apparent spontaneity has been hammered out slowly and shaped and altered until its final form contains hardly a trace of the original creation. The late W. B. Yeats in his Autobiography says:

Metrical composition is always very difficult to me. Nothing is done upon the first day, not one rhyme is in its place; and when at last...