It was to be sung at a grand musical festival, celebrating Hiero of Syracuse's achievements and the founding of the new city, Aetna.
Pindar utilizes religion, local mythology, and his poetic genius to create an ode that outlasts the occasion itself.
He had founded the settlement near Mount Etna for his son Deinomenes the Younger to rule and proclaimed himself one of its citizens upon winning the chariot race at Delphi.
Pythian 1 features the story of Typhon, a mythical giant who challenged Zeus' primacy and was consequently buried beneath Mount Etna.
Overall structure follow: Str.1 - Ant.1 - Ep.1; Str.2 - Ant.2 - Ep.2; Str.3 - Ant.3 - Ep.3; Str.4 - Ant.4 - Ep.4; Str.5 - Ant.5 - Ep.5 Musical phrases within the larger rhythmic period of the strophe and anti-strophe are uniformly balanced off against one another in points of constituent metrical feed, in the pattern: