Hugh-Lloyd-Jones (1922-2009), "Pindar,"
Greek in a Cold Climate (London: Duckworth, 1991), pp. 22-43 (at 22):
Pindar has always had a reputation for being
difficult. One cannot deny that he is difficult, but the difficulty has been
exaggerated; his style and language, once superficial awkwardnesses
have been overcome, are hardly as difficult as those of Sophocles. His text
is better preserved than that of any of the great tragedians; and though
some of his poems are written in complicated metres, about half are
written in dactylo-epitrite, whose main features can be set out in half a
page.3
3 See P. Maas, Greek Metre (1962), pp. 40-1.
Adrian Hollis, "William Spencer Barrett 1914-2001,"
Proceedings of the British Academy 124,
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows III (2004) 25-36 (at 34):
A former pupil, not particularly academic, once lamented to him how difficult he found Pindar; Spencer's reply came out uncensored: 'Oh no, very easy.'