The great lyric poet of Thebes (518 - post 446 BC) is depicted elderly man, perhaps playing a lyre, as the rotation of the face to the left would indicate. The characteristic small knot centrally placed below the beard, which held the beard to prevent it being tangled in the strings, has been interpreted as a sign of a singer. Pindar went to Sicily many times, guest in Syracuse of Hiero I and of Theron in Agrigento, whose Olympic and Pythian victories are the subject of some of his finest odes.