Pindar's liberal songs

In 2012, London will welcome the notes of the official Olympic Anthem, composed by Spyros Samaras in 1895 to the lyrics of the well-known Greek poet Kostìs Palamàs. This short hymn, officially adopted in Tokyo 1955, is largely reminiscent of Pindar and Pindaric imagery, like so much of Palamàs’ poetry, and like so much of the Olympic celebratory paraphernalia; in a certain way, it represents one station (but by no means the last one) in the trajectory of Pindar’s Greek Nachleben from Byzantium to the present day. This paper will try and draw attention precisely to this trajectory, and especially to the changing social and political (rather than aesthetic) factors that influenced its course.