Several of Pindar's victory odes contain mythical digressions that include a deceptive female character: the Hera-cloud in Pythian 2, Coronis in Pythian 3, and Hippolyta in Nemean 5. These figures reflect a deceptive, seductive female archetype established in earlier traditions (cf. Hesiod's Pandora, Semonides 7, Potiphar's wife), but the Pindaric examples are striking for the degree to which they are shaped to suit their particular generic context. As a genre predicated on reciprocity as its fundamental principle, epinician poetry depicts the deceptiveness of female figures as detrimental specifically to relationships based on mutual respect and exchange. These relationships parallel that between the poet and his patron. Pindar¹s adaptation of earlier archetypes demonstrates the influence that literary context can have on depictions of gender and suggests that awareness not only of historical but also of generic context must inform our understanding of gender.