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I know, but thank you. @mdcc_tester asked me to get back to him with the maths having pointed out that my post missed the point a bit.
My original post wasn't saying that you need to consider spokes under compression (although the maths of it are, up to buckling, identical to tension) or bending, just that 'flexy' is a rather dangerous term to use. There are more aspects to an objects stiffness than how much material is in it and that's what I was trying to say.
hamrack
It's great that you know about Euler and his buckling theory, but you just don't get to use it here. The point is that you won't apply compressive forces to spokes in 99% of bicycle wheels (I think there was a Mavic wheel model that used compression, once).
So spokes are under a lot of tension, and the magnitude of tension on each spoke will vary during use (particularly when sprinting & disc braking). However! You will never take a spoke down to 0N tension and start compressing it, as there's so much tension on it to begin with. Nor will you apply a bending moment to a spoke. The spoke ends are not constrained enough to start applying those forces. It is only ever simple tension, and in the direction of the spoke.