Maehler Herwig (ed.) Bacchylides. Carmina cum fragmentis

Monachii: K.G. Saur, 2003. — Editio 11. — lx, 172 p. — (Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana). — ISBN: 9783598711169.The currently definitive scholarly edition of Bacchylides' poems (text in Ancient Greek and app. crit.). Bacchylides (c. 520–450 BCE), a native of Ceos and a nephew of another lyric poet Simonides, was one of the canonical nine lyric poets. A papyrus containing his book of victory odes almost complete and the first half of his book of dithyrambs was found near Al-Kussīah, south of Hermopolis Magna, in 1896 and published by F. G. Kenyon in 1897. Since then, remains of fifteen more papyri have been attributed to him, and two papyri contain scholia on his epinician odes and dithyrambs. Stylistically, his dithyrambs are like ballads, using lively narrative, often allusive and selective, as well as direct speech. They exploit the pathetic potential of the myths, as do those epinician odes which contain a mythical narrative as their centerpiece. Bacchylides also wrote hymns (frs. 1–3), paeans, of which fr. 4 + 22 contain a fine eulogy of peace, processional songs (frs. 11–13), maiden-songs (Plut. De mus. 17), dancing-songs (hyporchemata, frs. 14–16), songs about love (erotica, frs. 17–19), and songs of praise (encomia?, frs. 20–20f).