Bacchylides begins his ode with the tale of Heracles fighting the Nemean lion, employing the battle to explain why pancration tournaments are now held during the Nemean games.
•
Bacchylides's Ode 5 includes, in addition to a brief reference to the victory itself, a long mythical episode on a related theme, and a gnomic or philosophical reflection – elements that occur also in Pindar's ode and that seem typical of the victory ode genre.
He was also the author of scholarly editions of works by the lyric poets Bacchylides and Sappho.
His other principal research interest was the Greek lyric, and he made outstanding contributions on the poets Stesichorus, Bacchylides and Simonides of Ceos.