This book offers a detailed examination of all the relevant passages in Pindar, as well as a generous amount of examples from other authors. It takes a firm stand against the communis opinio that first person futures in Pindar merely express a present intention: the so-called "encomiastic" or "performative" future. It demonstrates that the reference to a future moment is relevant in every single instance of a future verb in Pindar and concludes that there is no such thing as an "encomiastic" future.

Inhalt: Futures with a text internal reference – Futures referring to a later moment in the ode – "Fictional" futures – Generic futures – Futures with a specific text external reference – The case of Olympian XI – First person futures in Theocritus' second Idyll & magical texts