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An intermediate Figure in the Transformation of Mythic History into Scientific History: Pindaros

Year 2025, Volume: 17 Issue: 2, 471 - 490, 10.05.2025
https://doi.org/10.9737/historystudies.1552481

Abstract

Myths, the oldest narratives of human history, have an important function in the ancient world. Myths are the basic historical sources used in the early periods when people could not understand and understand what had happened and was happening yet. Although the historical value of these sources is controversial, it is generally accepted that they provide information about the cultural values and mentality of a society. It can be seen that mythical narratives, produced in almost all civilizations, had a special importance in Ancient Greece. So much so that the early periods of Ancient Greek historiography were built on mythical narratives and these narratives were attributed to Homer and Hesiod. However, the mythical history tradition of Ancient Greece began to transform with Pindar. Pindar, known for his poems called Epinikia, also known as Victory Songs, is the first person to evaluate historical events in a time dimension and lay the foundations for the transformation of the historical narrative dominated by the mythical style into the scientific history tradition. In addition, Pindar saw and explained historical events as interconnected. However, the influence of mythical narratives is still seen to a great extent in the subjects he deals with. For this reason, Pindar is considered as a transition period in the transformation of mythical history into scientific history. The full realization of this transition process became possible with Herodotus and Thucydides.

References

  • Aristotales. Atinalıların Devleti. (Çev. Ari Çokana, İstanbul: İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2021) 20-23.
  • Bowra, C. M. The Odes of Pindar. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1969.
  • Burnett, A. P. Pindar’s Songs for Young Athletes of Aigina. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  • Bury, John B. The Nemean Odes of Pindar. Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert Publisher, 1965.
  • Charles, Segal. Aglaia: the Poetry of Alcman, Sappho, Pindar, Bacchylides, and Corinna. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 1936.
  • Croce, Benedetto. History its Theory and Practice. Trans: Douglas Ainslie, New York: Brace and Company Published, 1921.
  • Darbo, Peschansk C. The Origin of Greek Historiography. A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography. Ed. John Marincola, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing 2007.
  • Davison J. A. - W. B. Stanford, From Archilochus to Pindar Papers on Greek Literature of the Archaic Period. New York: ST Martin's Press, 1968.
  • Dawson William Turner, The Odes of Pindar. London: Henry G. Bohn Published, 1852.
  • Efe Aydın - Gözlü, Ahmet. Historia Kavramı ve Antikitede Efsaneye Dayalı Tarih Anlayışı. Korkut Ata Türkiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, 12, (2023) 1367.
  • Farnell, L. R. The Works of Pindar. London: Macmillan Limited Published, 1930.
  • Farnell, Lewis R. The Works of Pindar. London: Macmillan Limited Published, 1930.
  • Fennell, C. A. M. Pindar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1916.
  • Finley, Moses I. The Use and Abuse of History. Harmondsworth: Penguin Published, 1987.
  • Fowler, Robert. Early Greek Mythography: Texts and Introduction. Vol. I: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
  • Gantz, Timothy. Early Greek Myth. A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources. Baltimore & London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
  • Gehrke, H. J. Myth, History, and Collective Identity: Uses of the Past in Ancient Greece and Beyond. The Historian’s Craft in the Age of Herodotus. Ed. Nino Luraghi, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  • Gören, Erman. Homerosçu İlahiler’den Pindaros’a Arkaik Yunan Şiiri Antolojisi. İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2018.
  • Gözlü, Ahmet- Efe, Aydın. “Antik Bir Savaş Kuramcısı: Thukydides,” Kafkas Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi 31, (2023): 393-414.
  • Gözlü, Ahmet. “Antik Yunan (Hellen)’da Koloniler ve Bunların Nitelikleri,”. Folklor/Edebiyat Dergisi 21, no: 81, (2015): 179-190.
  • Gözlü, Ahmet. “Klasik Mitolojide Eskatolojik İnsanın Trajedisi.,” Tarih Araştırmaları V. Editör Aydın Efe-Neval Akça Berk, Ankara: Akademisyen Yayınevi, 2022.
  • Haarmann, Harald. Myth as Source of Knowledge in Early Western Thought: The Quest for Historiography, Science and Philosophy in Greek Antiquity. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag Published, 2015.
  • Henrichs, Albert. Three Approaches to Greek Mythography. In Bremmer Interpretations of Greek Mythology. London: Routledge Press, 1990.
  • Herodotos. Tarih. Çeviren Müntekim Ökmen, İstanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Yayınları, 2017.
  • Hornblower, Simon. Thucydides and Pindar Historical Narrative and the World of Epinikian Poetry. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
  • Hubbard, T. K. The Pindaric Mind: A Study of Logical Structure in Early Greek Poetry. Netherlands: Leiden E. J. Brill Press, 1985.
  • Huxley, George L. Greek Epic Poetry from Eumelos to Panyassis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969.
  • Ilja L. Pfeijffer, First Person Futures in Pindar. Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag Publisher, 1999.
  • Kirk, Geoffrey S. Myth: its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and other Cultures. London: Cambridge University Press, 1970.
  • Kurke, Lesley. The Traffic in Praise: Pindar and the Poetics of Social Economy. California: Cornell University Press, 2013.
  • Lamberton, Robert. Homer the Theologian: Neoplatonist Allegorical Reading and the Growth of the Epic Tradition. London: University of California Press, 1989.
  • Lattimore, Richmond A. The Odes of Pindar. London: The University of Chicago Press, 1947.
  • Lloyd, William W. The History of Sicily to the Athenian War; with Elucidations of the Sicilian Odes of Pindar. London: J. Murray Publishers, 1872.
  • Mackie, Hilary. Graceful Errors: Pindar and the Performance of Praise. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003.
  • Marincola, John. Approaching Classical Historiography. Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography. Editor John Marincola, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
  • Marincola, John. Approaching Classical Historiography. Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography. Editor John Marincola, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
  • Morice, Francis D. Pindar. Edinburgh: Blackwood Published, 1879.
  • Morice, Francis. D. Ancient Classics for English Readers: Pindar. London: William Blackwood and Sons Published, 1878.
  • Myers, Ernest. The Extant Odes of Pindar. London: Macmillan Press, 1874.
  • Partenie, Catalin. Plato. Selected Myths. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
  • Pindar. The Olympian and Pythian Odes. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1885.
  • Pindaros. Bütün Zafer Şarkıları. Çeviren Erman Gören, İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2015.
  • Plato, Theaetetus. Trans: John Mcdowell. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1973.
  • Race, William W. Pindar. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1986.
  • Rhodes, P. J. Documents and the Greek Historians. A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography. V. I. Editor John Marincola, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
  • Ross, Carne D. Pindar. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.
  • Ross, D. S Carne. Pindar. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.
  • Said, S. Myth and Historiography. A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography. Editor John Marincola, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
  • Scanlon, Thomas F. Greek Historiography. London: Wiley Blackwell Published, 2015.
  • Seymour, Thomas D. Selected Odes of Pindar. Boston: Heath Publisher, 1882.
  • Slater, P. E. The Glory of Hera. Greek Mythology and the Greek Family. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992.
  • Starr, Chester G. “Pindar and The Greek Historical Spirit”. Hermes Studies 95, no.4, (1967) 393-403.
  • Starr, Chester G. The Awakening of the Greek Historical Spirit. New York: Knopf Published, 1968.
  • Stoneman, Richard. Pindar. New York: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd Published, 2014.
  • Thukydides. Peloponnessos Savaşları. (Çev: Furkan Akderin). İstanbul: Belge Yayınları, 2017.
  • Toulmin, Stephen E. The Discovery of Time. New York: Harper & Row Publishers 1965.
  • Trasures, Breviary. The Olympic and Pythian Odes of Pindar. Boston: Nathan Haskell Dole Publisher, 1903.
  • Uhlig, Anna. A Poetic Possession: Pindar’s Lives of the Poets. Creative Lives in Classical Antiquity: Poets, Artists and Biographys. Editor Richard Fletcher-Johanna Hanink, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.
  • Westlake, H. D. Essays on the Greek Historians and Greek History. New York: Manchester University Press Barnes & Noble, 1969.
  • Wheelwright, C. A. -Bourne Thomas. Pindar and Anacreon. New York: Harper & Brothers Published, 1841.

Mitik Tarihin Bilimsel Tarihe Dönüşümünde Bir Ara Figür: Pindaros

Year 2025, Volume: 17 Issue: 2, 471 - 490, 10.05.2025
https://doi.org/10.9737/historystudies.1552481

Abstract

İnsanlık tarihinin en eski anlatıları olan mitler, eskiçağ dünyasında önemli bir işleve sahiptir. Mitler insanın henüz olanı ve olmakta olanı anlamlandıramadığı ve kavrayamadığı erken dönemlerde başvurulan temel tarihsel kaynaklardır. Bu kaynakların tarihsel değeri tartışmalı olmakla birlikte bir toplumun kültürel değerleri ve düşünce yapısı hakkında bilgi verdiği çoğunlukla kabul edilmektedir. Hemen hemen bütün uygarlıklarda üretilmiş olan mitik anlatıların Eski Yunan’da özel bir öneme sahip olduğu görülmektedir. Öyle ki Eski Yunan tarihçiliğinin özellikle erken dönemleri mitik anlatılar üzerinden inşa edilmiş ve bu anlatılar ise Homeros ve Hesiodos’a atfedilmiştir. Fakat Eski Yunan’ın mitik tarih geleneği Pindaros ile birlikte dönüşmeye başlamıştır. Zafer Şarkıları olarak bilinen Epinikia adlı şiirleriyle tanınan Pindaros, tarihsel olayları zaman boyutunda değerlendiren ve mitik tarzın baskın olduğu tarih anlatımının bilimsel tarih geleneğine dönüşmesinin temellerini atan ilk isimdir. Ayrıca Pindaros tarihsel olayları birbiriyle bağlantılı olarak görmüş ve açıklamıştır. Ancak ele aldığı konularda mitik anlatıların etkisi hala büyük ölçüde görülmektedir. Bu nedenle Pindaros mitik tarihin bilimsel tarihe dönüşümünde bir geçiş dönemi olarak değerlendirilmektedir. Söz konusu geçiş sürecinin tam anlamıyla gerçekleşmesi ise Herodotos ve Thukydides ile mümkün olmuştur.

References

  • Aristotales. Atinalıların Devleti. (Çev. Ari Çokana, İstanbul: İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2021) 20-23.
  • Bowra, C. M. The Odes of Pindar. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1969.
  • Burnett, A. P. Pindar’s Songs for Young Athletes of Aigina. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  • Bury, John B. The Nemean Odes of Pindar. Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert Publisher, 1965.
  • Charles, Segal. Aglaia: the Poetry of Alcman, Sappho, Pindar, Bacchylides, and Corinna. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 1936.
  • Croce, Benedetto. History its Theory and Practice. Trans: Douglas Ainslie, New York: Brace and Company Published, 1921.
  • Darbo, Peschansk C. The Origin of Greek Historiography. A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography. Ed. John Marincola, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing 2007.
  • Davison J. A. - W. B. Stanford, From Archilochus to Pindar Papers on Greek Literature of the Archaic Period. New York: ST Martin's Press, 1968.
  • Dawson William Turner, The Odes of Pindar. London: Henry G. Bohn Published, 1852.
  • Efe Aydın - Gözlü, Ahmet. Historia Kavramı ve Antikitede Efsaneye Dayalı Tarih Anlayışı. Korkut Ata Türkiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, 12, (2023) 1367.
  • Farnell, L. R. The Works of Pindar. London: Macmillan Limited Published, 1930.
  • Farnell, Lewis R. The Works of Pindar. London: Macmillan Limited Published, 1930.
  • Fennell, C. A. M. Pindar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1916.
  • Finley, Moses I. The Use and Abuse of History. Harmondsworth: Penguin Published, 1987.
  • Fowler, Robert. Early Greek Mythography: Texts and Introduction. Vol. I: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
  • Gantz, Timothy. Early Greek Myth. A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources. Baltimore & London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
  • Gehrke, H. J. Myth, History, and Collective Identity: Uses of the Past in Ancient Greece and Beyond. The Historian’s Craft in the Age of Herodotus. Ed. Nino Luraghi, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  • Gören, Erman. Homerosçu İlahiler’den Pindaros’a Arkaik Yunan Şiiri Antolojisi. İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2018.
  • Gözlü, Ahmet- Efe, Aydın. “Antik Bir Savaş Kuramcısı: Thukydides,” Kafkas Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi 31, (2023): 393-414.
  • Gözlü, Ahmet. “Antik Yunan (Hellen)’da Koloniler ve Bunların Nitelikleri,”. Folklor/Edebiyat Dergisi 21, no: 81, (2015): 179-190.
  • Gözlü, Ahmet. “Klasik Mitolojide Eskatolojik İnsanın Trajedisi.,” Tarih Araştırmaları V. Editör Aydın Efe-Neval Akça Berk, Ankara: Akademisyen Yayınevi, 2022.
  • Haarmann, Harald. Myth as Source of Knowledge in Early Western Thought: The Quest for Historiography, Science and Philosophy in Greek Antiquity. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag Published, 2015.
  • Henrichs, Albert. Three Approaches to Greek Mythography. In Bremmer Interpretations of Greek Mythology. London: Routledge Press, 1990.
  • Herodotos. Tarih. Çeviren Müntekim Ökmen, İstanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Yayınları, 2017.
  • Hornblower, Simon. Thucydides and Pindar Historical Narrative and the World of Epinikian Poetry. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
  • Hubbard, T. K. The Pindaric Mind: A Study of Logical Structure in Early Greek Poetry. Netherlands: Leiden E. J. Brill Press, 1985.
  • Huxley, George L. Greek Epic Poetry from Eumelos to Panyassis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969.
  • Ilja L. Pfeijffer, First Person Futures in Pindar. Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag Publisher, 1999.
  • Kirk, Geoffrey S. Myth: its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and other Cultures. London: Cambridge University Press, 1970.
  • Kurke, Lesley. The Traffic in Praise: Pindar and the Poetics of Social Economy. California: Cornell University Press, 2013.
  • Lamberton, Robert. Homer the Theologian: Neoplatonist Allegorical Reading and the Growth of the Epic Tradition. London: University of California Press, 1989.
  • Lattimore, Richmond A. The Odes of Pindar. London: The University of Chicago Press, 1947.
  • Lloyd, William W. The History of Sicily to the Athenian War; with Elucidations of the Sicilian Odes of Pindar. London: J. Murray Publishers, 1872.
  • Mackie, Hilary. Graceful Errors: Pindar and the Performance of Praise. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003.
  • Marincola, John. Approaching Classical Historiography. Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography. Editor John Marincola, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
  • Marincola, John. Approaching Classical Historiography. Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography. Editor John Marincola, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
  • Morice, Francis D. Pindar. Edinburgh: Blackwood Published, 1879.
  • Morice, Francis. D. Ancient Classics for English Readers: Pindar. London: William Blackwood and Sons Published, 1878.
  • Myers, Ernest. The Extant Odes of Pindar. London: Macmillan Press, 1874.
  • Partenie, Catalin. Plato. Selected Myths. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
  • Pindar. The Olympian and Pythian Odes. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1885.
  • Pindaros. Bütün Zafer Şarkıları. Çeviren Erman Gören, İstanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2015.
  • Plato, Theaetetus. Trans: John Mcdowell. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1973.
  • Race, William W. Pindar. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1986.
  • Rhodes, P. J. Documents and the Greek Historians. A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography. V. I. Editor John Marincola, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
  • Ross, Carne D. Pindar. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.
  • Ross, D. S Carne. Pindar. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.
  • Said, S. Myth and Historiography. A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography. Editor John Marincola, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
  • Scanlon, Thomas F. Greek Historiography. London: Wiley Blackwell Published, 2015.
  • Seymour, Thomas D. Selected Odes of Pindar. Boston: Heath Publisher, 1882.
  • Slater, P. E. The Glory of Hera. Greek Mythology and the Greek Family. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992.
  • Starr, Chester G. “Pindar and The Greek Historical Spirit”. Hermes Studies 95, no.4, (1967) 393-403.
  • Starr, Chester G. The Awakening of the Greek Historical Spirit. New York: Knopf Published, 1968.
  • Stoneman, Richard. Pindar. New York: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd Published, 2014.
  • Thukydides. Peloponnessos Savaşları. (Çev: Furkan Akderin). İstanbul: Belge Yayınları, 2017.
  • Toulmin, Stephen E. The Discovery of Time. New York: Harper & Row Publishers 1965.
  • Trasures, Breviary. The Olympic and Pythian Odes of Pindar. Boston: Nathan Haskell Dole Publisher, 1903.
  • Uhlig, Anna. A Poetic Possession: Pindar’s Lives of the Poets. Creative Lives in Classical Antiquity: Poets, Artists and Biographys. Editor Richard Fletcher-Johanna Hanink, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.
  • Westlake, H. D. Essays on the Greek Historians and Greek History. New York: Manchester University Press Barnes & Noble, 1969.
  • Wheelwright, C. A. -Bourne Thomas. Pindar and Anacreon. New York: Harper & Brothers Published, 1841.
There are 60 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language Turkish
Subjects Classical Greek and Roman History
Journal Section Research Articles
Authors

Ahmet Gözlü 0000-0001-7146-3932

Defne Yılmazcan 0000-0003-3381-6965

Early Pub Date May 10, 2025
Publication Date May 10, 2025
Submission Date September 18, 2024
Acceptance Date March 24, 2025
Published in Issue Year 2025 Volume: 17 Issue: 2

Cite

Chicago Gözlü, Ahmet, and Defne Yılmazcan. “Mitik Tarihin Bilimsel Tarihe Dönüşümünde Bir Ara Figür: Pindaros”. History Studies 17, no. 2 (May 2025): 471-90. https://doi.org/10.9737/historystudies.1552481.