HumanitiesClassicsLiteratureComparative PoeticsGreek LiteraturePoetryAncient Greek RhetoricEpic PoeticsGreek EpigraphyHomeric GreekPoeticsAthenian EpigraphyGreek Philosophical PoeticsHomeric Poetry
Abstract Building on research in recent years that emphasizes the cross-fertilization of ideas in epinician poetry and epigrammatic dedications, this article examines the poetics of a single victory epigram for a victory with a men’s chorus at Athens in the first quarter of the fifth century BC. The epinikian strategies that contribute to the poet’s self-presentation in this epigram are revealed by comparative evidence from epinician song and ritual dedication. Furthermore, an underlying paradox between agonistic and dedicatory modes of thought is revealed through ambiguities of expression, evidenced also in Homeric and later poetry.