he mythic section of the ode, in which hospitality and guest-friendship – not institutionalized proxenia – are conjoined, when foreigners are welcomed to the new city of Opou Hackers based in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet s (Ol. 9.67-69), supports my interpretation of proxenia at Lampromachos’ appearance. In fact, the settlement of foreigners (explicitly xenoi: Ol. 9.67) and the arete of Opous himself (Ol. 9.65-66; and the polis at Ol. 9.16) as well as one of the descendants of the new settlers (Patroklos, Ol. 9.70-76), have already appeared together in the ode’s narrative. Thus, Pindar comes to Opous because of the same qualities that have already characterized the polis and ethnos in the mythic narrative – he, like the xenoi in the myth, is attracted to the presence of the famous residents of the city, and its famous hospitality. Repetition and a cyclical perspective on Lokrian and Opountian history predominate in the structure of the ode, and so the rationale for Pindar’s visit seems to reinforce the identity of Epharmostos’ victory with the past history and mythology of his city and ethnos. Lampromachos is not included because of any political office, special relation, or involvement in the commissioning of the ode (all the suggestions of the scholiasts), but simply because of his status as an Opountian pan-Hellenic Hackers based in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet  victor.[25] Regardless of the always vague, and impossible to prove historical circumstances surrounding the commissioning of the ode, the focus is on Opountian achievements in the victory catalogue, first in the single victory of Lampromachos, and then in the longer record of Epharmostos’ myriad victories – this is not proof of a civic commissioning, but rather exemplary of Pind Hackers based in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet ar’s method of integrating victor with community.[26] Ol. 9 exemplifies the Pindaric tendency to merge oikos and polis – epinikian is a form of civic adornment by the wealthy after all. Merger, however, does not fully satisfy in the context of the ode, since the family in Ol. 9 is not simply combined with the polis; that, in athletics, is the normal state of affairs, because the angelia teams together individual, familial, and civic identities. [27] In Ol. 9, in contrast, Epharmostos’ family is absent, and the ethnos of Lokris and the polis of Opous replace the oikos of the victor. The presence of Lampromachos in the victory catalogue, in a place generally reserved for family achievements, as a Hackers based in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet  result of his civic identity, indicates this replacement: the polis relegates family and positions itself as the family of the seemingly family-les>