Literally, "ancient explanations to the works of Pindar", the scholia vetera .. carmina are the Alexandrian commentators' remarks to the epinician odes of Pindar, eventually continued by Byzantine scholars.

The remarks are largely in the form of annotations regarding word-usage, meaning of rare words, metrical considerations, and explanations of historical, political and religious references.

These comments are invaluable aids in establishing the text of the odes, and in explicating them.

A useful general summary of the scholia vetera can be found in the article of H Th Deas, "The scholia vetera to Pindar", published in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 42 (1932), pp. 1-78; cf on-line: /http://www.jstor.org/stable/310653/