The Beast and the Sovereign: Pindar fr. 169a M

Pindar fr. 169a M begins with a bold, gnomic declaration: “nomos, king of all, mortals and immortals…” These lines have a storied career in the history of political thought, from Herodotus to Kleanthes, from Carl Schmitt to Giorgio Agamben. The challenging ambiguity and forceful rhetoric of the poem’s notorious opening has remained the obsessive focus of its literary interpretation, more or less to the neglect of the rest of the poem. In this talk, I aim to consider the argumentative structure and narrative logic of fr. 169a M anew, paying special attention to the animals and monarchs in its mythic narrative, which feature prominently even in the poem’s highly fragmentary state.