BOOK XIV.

1. MOST people, my friend Timocrates, call Bacchus frantic, because

those who drink too much unmixed wine become violent.

To copious wine this insolence we owe,

And much thy betters wine can overthrow

The great Eurytion, when this frenzy stung,

Pirithous' roofs with frantic riot rung:

Boundless the Centaur raged, till one and all

The heroes lose and dragg'd him from the hall;

His nose they shorten'd, and his ears they slit,

And sent him sober'd home with better wit.[61]

For when the wine has penetrated down into the body, as Herodotus says,

bad and furious language is apt to rise to the surface. And Clearchus

the comic poet says in his Corinthians—

If all the men who to get drunk are apt,

Had every day a headache ere they drank

The wine, there is not one would drink a drop:

But as we now get all the pleasure first,

And then the drink, we lose the whole delight

In the sharp pain which follows.

And Xenophon represents Agesilaus as insisting that a man ought to shun

drunkenness equally with madness, and immoderate gluttony as much as

idleness. But we, as we are not of the class who drink to excess, nor

of the number of those who are in the habit of being intoxicated by

midday, have come rather to this literary entertainment; for Ulpian,

who is always finding fault, reproved some one just now who said, I

am not drunk (ἔξοινος), saying,—Where do you find that word

ἔξοινος? But he rejoined,—Why, in Alexis, who, in his play

called the New Settler, says—

He did all this when drunk (ἔξοινος).

[Sidenote: JESTERS.]

2. But as, after the discussion by us of the new topics which arise,

our liberal entertainer Laurentius is every day constantly introducing

different kinds of music, and also jesters and buffoons, let us have

a little talk about them. Although I am aware that Anacharsis the

Scythian, when on one occasion jesters were introduced in his company,

remained without moving a muscle of his countenance; but afterwards,

when a monkey was brought in, he burst out laughing, and said, "Now

this fellow is laughable by his nature, but man is only so through

practice." And Euripides, in his Melanippe in Chains, has said—

But many men, from the wish to raise a laugh,

Practise sharp sayings; but those sorry jesters

I hate who let loose their unbridled tongues

Against the wise and good; nor do I class them

As men at all, but only as jokes and playthings.

Meantime they live at ease, and gather up

Good store of wealth to keep within their houses.

And Parmeniscus of Metapontum, as Semus tells us in the fifth book of

his Delias, a man of the highest consideration both as to family and

in respect of his riches, having gone down to the cave of Trophonius,

after he had come up again, was not able to laugh at all. And when he

consulted the oracle on this subject, the Pythian priestess replied to

him—

You're asking me, you laughless man,

About the power to laugh again;

Your mother 'll give it you at home,

If you with reverence to her come.

So, on this, he hoped that when he returned to his country he should be

able to laugh again; but when he found that he could laugh no more now

than he could before, he considered that he had been deceived; till,

by some chance, he came to Delos; and as he was admiring everything he

saw in the island, he came into the temple of Latona, expecting to see

some very superb statue of the mother of Apollo; but when he saw only a

wooden shapeless figure, he unexpectedly burst out laughing. And then,

comparing what had happened with the oracle of the god, and being cured

of his infirmity, he honoured the goddess greatly.

3. Now Anaxandrides, in his Old-Man's Madness, says that it was

Rhadamanthus and Palamedes who invented the fashion of jesters; and his

words are these:—

And yet we labour much.

But Palamedes first, and Rhadamanthus,

Sought those who bring no other contribution,

But say amusing things.

Xenophon also, in his Banquet, mentions jesters; introducing Philip, of

whom he speaks in the following manner:—"But Philip the jester, having

knocked at the door, told the boy who answered, to tell the guests who

he was, and that he was desirous to be admitted; and he said that he

came provided with everything which could qualify him for supping at

other people's expense. And he said, too, that his boy was in a good

deal of distress because he had brought nothing, and because he had had

no dinner." And Hippolochus the Macedonian, in his epistle to Lynceus,

mentions the jesters Mandrogenes and Strato the Athenian. And at Athens

there was a great deal of this kind of cleverness. Accordingly, in the

Heracleum at Diomea[62] they assembled to the number of sixty, and they

were always spoken of in the city as amounting to that number, in such

expressions as—"The sixty said this," and, "I am come from the sixty."

And among them were Callimedon, nicknamed the Crab, and Dinias, and

also Mnasigeiton and Menæchmus, as Telephanes tells us in his treatise

on the City. And their reputation for amusing qualities was so great,

that Philip the Macedonian heard of it, and sent them a talent to

engage them to write out their witticisms and send them to him. And

the fact of this king having been a man who was very fond of jokes is

testified to us by Demosthenes the orator in his Philippics.

[Sidenote: JESTERS.]

Demetrius Poliorcetes was a man very eager for anything which could

make him laugh, as Phylarchus tells us in the sixth book of his

History. And he it was who said, "that the palace of Lysimachus was

in no respect different from a comic theatre; for that there was no

one there bigger than a dissyllable;"[63] (meaning to laugh at Bithys

and Paris, who had more influence than anybody with Lysimachus, and at

some others of his friends;) "but that his friends were Peucesteses,

and Menelauses, and Oxythemises." But when Lysimachus heard this, he

said,—"I, however, never saw a prostitute on the stage in a tragedy;"

referring to Lamia the female flute-player. And when this was reported

to Demetrius, he rejoined,—"But the prostitute who is with me, lives in

a more modest manner than the Penelope who is with him."

4. And we have mentioned before this that Sylla, the general of the

Romans, was very fond of anything laughable. And Lucius Anicius, who

was also a general of the Romans, after he had subdued the Illyrians,

and brought with him Genthius the king of the Illyrians as his

prisoner, with all his children, when he was celebrating his triumphal

games at Rome, did many things of the most laughable character

possible, as Polybius relates in his thirtieth book:—"For having

sent for the most eminent artists from Greece, and having erected a

very large theatre in the circus, he first of all introduced all the

flute-players. And these were Theodorus the Bœotian, and Theopompus,

and Hermippus, surnamed Lysimachus, who were the most eminent men in

their profession. And having brought these men in front of the stage

after the chorus was over, he ordered them all to play the flute. And

as they accompanied their music with appropriate gestures, he sent to

them and said that they were not playing well, and desired them to be

more vehement. And while they were in perplexity, one of the lictors

told them that what Anicius wished was that they should turn round

so as to advance towards each other, and give a representation of a

battle. And then the flute-players, taking this hint, and adopting a

movement not unsuited to their habitual wantonness, caused a great

tumult and confusion; and turning the middle of the chorus towards

the extremities, the flute-players, all blowing unpremeditated notes,

and letting their flutes be all out of tune, rushed upon one another

in turn: and at the same time the choruses, all making a noise to

correspond to them, and coming on the stage at the same time, rushed

also upon one another, and then again retreated, advancing and

retreating alternately. But when one of the chorus-dancers tucked up

his garment, and suddenly turned round and raised his hands against

the flute-player who was coming towards him, as if he was going to box

with him, then there arose an extraordinary clapping and shouting on

the part of the spectators. And while all these men were fighting as

if in regular battle, two dancers were introduced into the orchestra

with a symphony, and four boxers mounted the stage, with trumpeters

and horn-players: and when all these men were striving together, the

spectacle was quite indescribable: and as for the tragedians," says

Polybius, "if I were to attempt to describe what took place with

respect to them, I should be thought by some people to be jesting."

5. Now when Ulpian had said thus much, and when all were laughing

at the idea of this exhibition of Anicius, a discussion arose about

the men who are called πλάνοι. And the question was asked, Whether

there was any mention of these men in any of the ancient authors? for

of the jugglers (θαυματοποιοὶ) we have already spoken: and Magnus

said,—Dionysius of Sinope, the comic poet, in his play entitled the

Namesakes, mentions Cephisodorus the πλάνος in the following terms:—

They say that once there was a man at Athens,

A πλάνος, named Cephisodorus, who

Devoted all his life to this pursuit;

And he, whenever to a hill he came,

Ran straight up to the top; but then descending

Came slowly down, and leaning on a stick.

And Nicostratus also mentions him in his Syrian—

They say the πλάνος Cephisodorus once

Most wittily station'd in a narrow lane

A crowd of men with bundles of large faggots,

So that no one else could pass that way at all.

There was also a man named Pantaleon, who is mentioned, by Theognetus,

in his Slave devoted to his Master—

Pantaleon himself did none deceive (ἐπλάνα)

Save only foreigners, and those, too, such

As ne'er had heard of him: and often he,

After a drunken revel, would pour forth

All sorts of jokes, striving to raise a laugh

By his unceasing chattering.

[Sidenote: JESTERS.]

And Chrysippus the philosopher, in the fifth book of his treatise on

Honour and Pleasure, writes thus of Pantaleon:—"But Pantaleon the

πλάνος, when he was at the point of death, deceived every one of his

sons separately, telling each of them that he was the only one to whom

he was revealing the place where he had buried his gold; so that they

afterwards went and dug together to no purpose, and then found out

that they had been all deceived."

6. And our party was not deficient in men fond of raising a laugh

by bitter speeches. And respecting a man of this kind, Chrysippus

subsequently, in the same book, writes as follows:—"Once when a man

fond of saying bitter things was about to be put to death by the

executioner, he said that he wished to die like the swan, singing a

song; and when he gave him leave, he ridiculed him." And Myrtilus

having had a good many jokes cut on him by people of this sort, got

angry, and said that Lysimachus the king had done a very sensible

thing; for he, hearing Telesphorus, one of his lieutenants, at an

entertainment, ridiculing Arsinoe (and she was the wife of Lysimachus),

as being a woman in the habit of vomiting, in the following line—

You begin ill, introducing τηνδεμουσαν,[64]—

ordered him to be put in a cage (γαλεάγρα) and carried about like a

wild beast, and fed; and he punished him in this way till he died. But

if you, O Ulpian, raise a question about the word γαλεάγρα, it occurs

in Hyperides the orator; and the passage you may find out for yourself.

And Tachaos the king of Egypt ridiculed Agesilaus king of Lacedæmon,

when he came to him as an ally (for he was a very short man), and lost

his kingdom in consequence, as Agesilaus abandoned his alliance. And

the expression of Tachaos was as follows:—

The mountain was in labour; Jupiter

Was greatly frighten'd: lo! a mouse was born.

And Agesilaus hearing of this, and being indignant at it, said, "I will

prove a lion to you." So afterwards, when the Egyptians revolted (as

Theopompus relates, and Lyceas of Naucratis confirms the statement in

his History of Egypt), Agesilaus refused to cooperate with him, and, in

consequence, Tachaos lost his kingdom, and fled to the Persians.

7. So as there was a great deal of music introduced, and not always

the same instruments, and as there was a good deal of discussion and

conversation about them, (without always giving the names of those

who took part in it,) I will enumerate the chief things which were

said. For concerning flutes, somebody said that Melanippides, in

his Marsyas, disparaging the art of playing the flute, had said very

cleverly about Minerva:—

Minerva cast away those instruments

Down from her sacred hand; and said, in scorn,

"Away, you shameful things—you stains of the body!

Shall I now yield myself to such malpractices?"

And some one, replying to him, said,—But Telestes of Selinus, in

opposition to Melanippides, says in his Argo (and it is of Minerva that

he too is speaking):—

It seems to me a scarcely credible thing

That the wise Pallas, holiest of goddesses,

Should in the mountain groves have taken up

That clever instrument, and then again

Thrown it away, fearing to draw her mouth

Into an unseemly shape, to be a glory

To the nymph-born, noisy monster Marsyas.

For how should chaste Minerva be so anxious

About her beauty, when the Fates had given her

A childless, husbandless virginity?

intimating his belief that she, as she was and always was to continue a

maid, could not be alarmed at the idea of disfiguring her beauty. And

in a subsequent passage he says—

But this report, spread by vain-speaking men,

Hostile to every chorus, flew most causelessly

Through Greece, to raise an envy and reproach

Against the wise and sacred art of music.

And after this, in an express panegyric on the art of flute-playing, he

says—

And so the happy breath of the holy goddess

Bestow'd this art divine on Bromius,

With the quick motion of the nimble fingers.

And very neatly, in his Æsculapius, has Telestes vindicated the use of

the flute, where he says—

And that wise Phrygian king who first poured forth

The notes from sweetly-sounding sacred flutes,

Rivalling the music of the Doric Muse,

Embracing with his well-join'd reeds the breath

Which fills the flute with tuneful modulation.

[Sidenote: CONCERTS.]

8. And Pratinas the Phliasian says, that when some hired flute-players

and chorus-dancers were occupying the orchestra, some people were

indignant because the flute-players did not play in tune to the

choruses, as was the national custom, but the choruses instead

sang, keeping time to the flutes. And what his opinion and feelings

were towards those who did this, Pratinas declares in the following

hyporchema:—

What noise is this?

What mean these songs of dancers now?

What new unseemly fashion

Has seized upon this stage to Bacchus sacred,

Now echoing with various noise?

Bromius is mine! is mine!

I am the man who ought to sing,

I am the man who ought to raise the strain,

Hastening o'er the hills,

In swift inspired dance among the Naiades;

Blending a song of varied strain,

Like the sweet dying swan.

You, O Pierian Muse, the sceptre sway

Of holy song:

And after you let the shrill flute resound;

For that is but the handmaid

Of revels, where men combat at the doors,

And fight with heavy fists.[65]

* * * * *

And is the leader fierce of bloody quarrel.

Descend, O Bacchus, on the son of Phrynæus,

The leader of the changing choir,—

Chattering, untimely, leading on

The rhythm of the changing song.

* * * * *

King of the loud triumphal dithyrambic,

Whose brow the ivy crowns,

Hear this my Doric song.

9. And of the union of flutes with the lyre (for that concert has often

been a great delight to us ourselves), Ephippus, in his Traffic, speaks

as follows:—

Clearly, O youth, the music of the flute,

And that which from the lyre comes, does suit

Well with our pastimes; for when each resound

In unison with the feelings of those present,

Then is the greatest pleasure felt by all.

And the exact meaning of the word συναυλία is shown by Semus

the Delian, in the fifth book of his Delias, where he writes—"But

as the term 'concert' (συναυλία) is not understood by many

people, we must speak of it. It is when there is a union of the flute

and of rhythm in alternation, without any words accompanying the

melody." And Antiphanes explains it very neatly in his Flute-player,

where he says—

Tell me, I pray you, what this concert (ἡ συναυλία αὕτη) was

Which he did give you. For you know; but they

Having well learnt, still played[66]....

* * * * *

A concert of sweet sounds, apart from words,

Is pleasant, and not destitute of meaning.

But the poets frequently call the flute "the Libyan flute," as Duris

remarks in the second book of his History of Agathocles, because

Seirites, who appears to have been the first inventor of the art of

flute-playing, was a Libyan, of one of the Nomad tribes; and he was the

first person who played airs on the flute in the festival of Cybele.

And the different kinds of airs which can be played on the flute (as

Tryphon tells us in the second book of his treatise on Names) have

the following names:—the Comus, the Bucoliasmus, the Gingras, the

Tetracomus, the Epiphallus, the Choreus, the Callinicus, the Martial,

the Hedycomus, the Sicynnotyrbe, the Thyrocopicum, which is the same as

the Crousithyrum (or Door-knocker), the Cnismus, the Mothon. And all

these airs on the flute, when played, were accompanied with dancing.

10. Tryphon also gives a list of the different names of songs, as

follows. He says—"There is the Himæus, which is also called the

Millstone song, which men used to sing while grinding corn, perhaps

from the word ἱμαλίς. But ἱμαλὶς is a Dorian word, signifying a return,

and also the quantity of corn which the millers gave into the bargain.

Then there is the Elinus, which is the song of the men who worked

at the loom; as Epicharmus shows us in his Atalantas. There is also

the Ioulos, sung by the women who spin. And Semus the Delian, in his

treatise on Pæans, says—"They used to call the handfuls of barley taken

separately, ἀμάλαι; but when they were collected so that a great many

were made into one sheaf, then they were called οὔλοι and ἴουλοι. And

Ceres herself was called sometimes Chloe, and sometimes Ioulo; and, as

being the inventions of this goddess, both the fruits of the ground and

also the songs addressed to the goddess were called οὖλοι and ἴουλοι:

and so, too, we have the words δημήτρουλοι and καλλίουλοι, and the line—

πλεῖστον οὖλον οὖλον ἵει, ἴουλον ἵει.

[Sidenote: SONGS.]

But others say that the Ioulis is the song of the workers in wool.

There are also the songs of nurses, which are called καταβαυκαλήσεις.

There was also a song used at the feast of Swings,[67] in honour of

Erigone, which is called Aletis. At all events, Aristotle says, in

his treatise on the Constitution of the Colophonians—"Theodoras also

himself died afterwards by a violent death. And he is said to have

been a very luxurious man, as is evident from his poetry; for even now

the women sing his songs on the festival of the Swing."

There was also a reaper's song called Lityerses; and another song

sung by hired servants when going to the fields, as Teleclides tells

us in his Amphictyons. There were songs, too, of bathing men, as we

learn from Crates in his Deeds of Daring; and a song of women baking,

as Aristophanes intimates in his Thesmophoriazusæ, and Nicochares in

his Hercules Choregus. And another song in use among those who drove

herds, and this was called the Bucoliasmus. And the man who first

invented this species of song was Diomus, a Sicilian cowherd; and it is

mentioned by Epicharmus in his Halcyon, and in his Ulysses Shipwrecked.

The song used at deaths and in mourning is called Olophyrmus; and the

songs called Iouli are used in honour of Ceres and Proserpine. The

song sung in honour of Apollo is called Philhelias, as we learn from

Telesilla; and those addressed to Diana are called Upingi.

There were also laws composed by Charondas, which were sung at Athens

at drinking parties; as Hermippus tells us in the sixth book of his

treatise on Lawgivers. And Aristophanes, in his catalogue of Attic

Expressions, says—"The Himæus is the song of people grinding; the

Hymenæus is the song used at marriage-feasts; and that employed in

lamentation is called Ialemus. But the Linus and the Ælinus are not

confined to occasions of mourning, but are in use also in good fortune,

as we may gather from Euripides."

11. But Clearchus, in the first book of his treatise on matters

relating to Love, says that there was a kind of song called Nomium,

derived from Eriphanis; and his words are these:—"Eriphanis was a

lyric poetess, the mistress of Menalcas the hunter; and she, pursuing

him with her passions, hunted too. For often frequenting the mountains,

and wandering over them, she came to the different groves, equalling

in her wanderings the celebrated journeys of Io; so that not only

those men who were most remarkable for their deficiency in the tender

passion, but even the fiercest beasts, joined in weeping for her

misfortunes, perceiving the lengths to which her passionate hopes

carried her. Therefore she wrote poems; and when she had composed them,

as it is said, she roamed about the desert, shouting and singing the

kind of song called Nomium, in which the burden of the song is—

The lofty oaks, Menalcas."

And Aristoxenus, in the fourth book of his treatise on Music,

says—"Anciently the women used to sing a kind of song called Calyca.

Now, this was a poem of Stesichorus, in which a damsel of the name

of Calyca, being in love with a young man named Euathlus, prays in a

modest manner to Venus to aid her in becoming his wife. But when the

young man scorned her, she threw herself down a precipice. And this

disaster took place near Leucas. And the poet has represented the

disposition of the maiden as very modest; so that she was not willing

to live with the youth on his own terms, but prayed that, if possible,

she might become the wedded wife of Euathlus; and if that were not

possible, that she might be released from life." But, in his Brief

Memoranda, Aristoxenus says—"Iphiclus despised Harpalyce, who was in

love with him; but she died, and there has been a contest established

among the virgins of songs in her honour, and the contest is called

from her, Harpalyce." And Nymphis, in the first book of his History

of Heraclea, speaking of the Maryandyni, says—"And in the same way

it is well to notice some songs which, in compliance with a national

custom, they sing, in which they invoke some ancient person, whom they

address as Bormus. And they say that he was the son of an illustrious

and wealthy man, and that he was far superior to all his fellows in

beauty and in the vigour of youth; and as he was superintending the

cultivation of some of his own lands, and wishing to give his reapers

something to drink, he went to fetch some water, and disappeared.

Accordingly, they say that on this the natives of the country sought

him with a kind of dirge and invocation set to music, which even to

this day they are in the habit of using frequently. And a similar kind

of song is that which is in use among the Egyptians, and is called

Maneros."

[Sidenote: RHAPSODISTS.]

12. Moreover, there were rhapsodists also present at our

entertainments: for Laurentius delighted in the reciters of Homer to

an extraordinary degree; so that one might call Cassander the king of

Macedonia a trifler in comparison of him; concerning whom Carystius, in

his Historic Recollections, tells us that he was so devoted to Homer,

that he could say the greater part of his poems by heart; and he had a

copy of the Iliad and the Odyssey written out with his own hand. And

that these reciters of Homer were called Homeristæ also, Aristocles

has told us in his treatise on Choruses. But those who are now called

Homeristæ were first introduced on the stage by Demetrius Phalereus.

Now Chamæleon, in his essay on Stesichorus, says that not only the

poems of Homer, but those also of Hesiod and Archilochus, and also of

Mimnermus and Phocylides, were often recited to the accompaniment of

music; and Clearchus, in the first book of his treatise on Pictures,

says—"Simonides of Zacynthus used to sit in the theatres on a lofty

chair reciting the verses of Archilochus." And Lysanias, in the first

book of his treatise on Iambic Poets, says that Mnasion the rhapsodist

used in his public recitations to deliver some of the Iambics of

Simonides. And Cleomenes the rhapsodist, at the Olympic games, recited

the Purification of Empedocles, as is asserted by Dicæarchus in his

history of Olympia. And Jason, in the third book of his treatise on the

Temples of Alexander, says that Hegesias, the comic actor, recited the

works of Herodotus in the great theatre, and that Hermophantus recited

the poems of Homer.

13. And the men called Hilarodists (whom some people at the present day

call Simodists, as Aristocles tells us in his first book on Choruses,

because Simus the Magnesian was the most celebrated of all the poets

of joyous songs,) frequently come under our notice. And Aristocles

also gives a regular list of them in his treatise on Music, where he

speaks in the following manner:—"The Magodist—but he is the same as

the Lysiodist." But Aristoxenus says that Magodus is the name given to

an actor who acts both male and female characters;[68] but that he who

acts a woman's part in combination with a man's is called a Lysiodist.

And they both sing the same songs, and in other respects they are

similar.

The Ionic dialect also supplies us with poems of Sotades, and with what

before his time were called Ionic poems, such as those of Alexander

the Ætolian, and Pyres the Milesian, and Alexas, and other poets

of the same kind; and Sotades is called κιναιδόλογος. And

Sotades the Maronite was very notorious for this kind of poetry, as

Carystius of Pergamus says in his essay on Sotades; and so was the son

of Sotades, Apollonius: and this latter also wrote an essay on his

father's poetry, from which one may easily see the unbridled licence of

language which Sotades allowed himself,—abusing Lysimachus the king

in Alexandria,—and, when at the court of Lysimachus, abusing Ptolemy

Philadelphus,—and in different cities speaking ill of different

sovereigns; on which account, at last, he met with the punishment that

he deserved: for when he had sailed from Alexandria (as Hegesander,

in his Reminiscences, relates), and thought that he had escaped all

danger, (for he had said many bitter things against Ptolemy the king,

and especially this, after he had heard that he had married his sister

Arsinoe,—

He pierced forbidden fruit with deadly sting,)

Patrocles, the general of Ptolemy, caught him in the island of Caunus,

and shut him up in a leaden vessel, and carried him into the open sea

and drowned him. And his poetry is of this kind: Philenus was the

father of Theodorus the flute-player, on whom he wrote these lines:—

And he, opening the door which leads from the back-street,

Sent forth vain thunder from a leafy cave,

Such as a mighty ploughing ox might utter.

[Sidenote: MAGODI.]

14. But the Hilarodus, as he is called, is a more respectable kind of

poet than these men are; for he is never effeminate or indecorous, but

he wears a white manly robe, and he is crowned with a golden crown: and

in former times he used to wear sandals, as Aristocles tells us; but

at the present day he wears only slippers. And some man or woman sings

an accompaniment to him, as to a person who sings to the flute. And a

crown is given to a Hilarodus, as well as to a person who sings to the

flute; but such honours are not allowed to a player on the harp or on

the flute. But the man who is called a Magodus has drums and cymbals,

and wears all kinds of woman's attire; and he behaves in an effeminate

manner, and does every sort of indecorous, indecent thing,—imitating

at one time a woman, at another an adulterer or a pimp: or sometimes

he represents a drunken man, or even a serenade offered by a reveller

to his mistress. And Aristoxenus says that the business of singing

joyous songs is a respectable one, and somewhat akin to tragedy; but

that the business of a Magodus is more like comedy. And very often it

happens that the Magodi, taking the argument of some comedy, represent

it according to their own fashion and manner. And the word μαγῳδία

was derived from the fact that those who addicted themselves to the

practice, uttered things like magical incantations, and often declared

the power of various drugs.

15. But there was among the Lacedæmonians an ancient kind of comic

diversion, as Sosibius says, not very important or serious, since

Sparta aimed at plainness even in pastimes. And the way was, that some

one, using very plain, unadorned language, imitated persons stealing

fruit, or else some foreign physician speaking in this way, as Alexis,

in his Woman who has taken Mandragora, represents one: and he says—

If any surgeon of the country says,

"Give him at early dawn a platter full

Of barley-broth," we shall at once despise him;

But if he says the same with foreign accent,

We marvel and admire him. If he call

The beet-root σεύτλιον, we disregard him;

But if he style it τεύτλιον, we listen,

And straightway, with attention fix'd, obey;

As if there were such difference between

σεύτλιον and τεύτλιον.

And those who practised this kind of sport were called among the

Lacedæmonians δικηλισταὶ, which is a term equivalent to σκευοποιοὶ or

μιμηταί.[69] There are, however, many names, varying in different

places, for this class of δικηλισταί; for the Sicyonians call them

φαλλοφόροι, and others call them αὐτοκάβδαλοι, and some call them

φλύακες, as the Italians do; but people in general call them Sophists:

and the Thebans, who are very much in the habit of giving peculiar

names to many things, call them ἐθελονταί. But that the Thebans do

introduce all kinds of innovations with respect to words, Strattis

shows us in the Phœnissæ, where he says—

You, you whole body of Theban citizens,

Know absolutely nothing; for I hear

You call the cuttle-fish not σηπία,

But ὀπισθότιλα. Then, too, you term

A cock not ἀλεκτρύων, but ὀρτάλιχος:

A physician is no longer in your mouths

ἰατρὺς—no, but σακτάς. For a bridge,

You turn γέφυρα into βλέφυρα.

Figs are not σῦκα now, but τῦκα: swallows,

κωτιλάδες, not χελιδόνες. A mouthful

With you is ἄκολος; to laugh, ἐκριδδέμεν.

A new-soled shoe you call νεοσπάτωτον.

16. Semos the Delian says in his book about Pæans—"The men who were

called αὑτοκάβδαλοι used to wear crowns of ivy, and they

would go through long poems slowly. But at a later time both they and

their poems were called Iambics. And those," he proceeds, "who are

called Ithyphalli, wear a mask representing the face of a drunken man,

and wear crowns, having gloves embroidered with flowers. And they

wear tunics shot with white; and they wear a Tarentine robe, which

covers them down to their ancles: and they enter at the stage entrance

silently, and when they have reached the middle of the orchestra, they

turn towards the spectators, and say—

Out of the way; a clear space leave

For the great mighty god:

For the god, to his ancles clad,

Will pass along the centre of the crowd.

And the Phallophori," says he, "wear no masks; but they put on a sort

of veil of wild thyme, and on that they put acanthi, and an untrimmed

garland of violets and ivy; and they clothe themselves in Caunacæ, and

so come on the stage, some at the side, and others through the centre

entrance, walking in exact musical time, and saying—

For you, O Bacchus, do we now set forth

This tuneful song; uttering in various melody

This simple rhythm.

It is a song unsuited to a virgin;

Nor are we now addressing you with hymns

Made long ago, but this our offering

Is fresh unutter'd praise.

And then, advancing, they used to ridicule with their jests whoever

they chose; and they did this standing still, but the Phallophorus

himself marched straight on, covered with soot and dirt."

[Sidenote: HARP-PLAYERS.]

17. And since we are on this subject, it is as well not to omit what

happened to Amœbeus, a harp-player of our time, and a man of great

science and skill in everything that related to music. He once came

late to one of our banquets, and when he heard from one of the servants

that we had all finished supper, he doubted what to do himself, until

Sophon the cook came to him, and with a loud voice, so that every one

might hear, recited to him these lines out of the Auge of Eubulus:—

O wretched man, why stand you at the doors?

Why don't you enter? Long ago the geese

Have all been deftly carvèd limb from limb;

Long the hot pork has had the meat cut off

From the long backbone, and the stuffing, which

Lay in the middle of his stomach, has

Been served around; and all his pettitoes,

The dainty slices of fat, well-season'd sausages,

Have all been eaten. The well-roasted cuttle-fish

Is swallow'd long ago; and nine or ten

Casks of rich wine are drain'd to the very dregs.

So if you'd like some fragments of the feast,

Hasten and enter. Don't, like hungry wolf,

Losing this feast, then run about at random.

For as that delightful writer Antiphanes says, in his Friend of the

Thebans,—

_A._ We now are well supplied with everything;

For she, the namesake of the dame within,

The rich Bœotian eel, carved in the depths

Of the ample dish, is warm, and swells, and boils,

And bubbles up, and smokes; so that a man,

E'en though equipp'd with brazen nostrils, scarcely

Could bear to leave a banquet such as this,—

So rich a fragrance does it yield his senses.

_B._ Say you the cook is living?

_A._ There is near

A cestreus, all unfed both night and day,

Scaled, wash'd, and stain'd with cochineal, and turn'd;

And as he nears his last and final turn

He cracks and hisses; while the servant bastes

The fish with vinegar: then there's Libyan silphium,

Dried in the genial rays of midday sun:—

_B._ Yet there are people found who dare to say

That sorcerers possess no sacred power;

For now I see three men their bellies filling

While you are turning this.

_A._ And the comrade squid

Bearing the form of the humpback'd cuttle-fish,

Dreadful with armed claws and sharpen'd talons,

Changing its brilliant snow-white nature under

The fiery blasts of glowing coal, adorns

Its back with golden splendour; well exciting

Hunger, the best forerunner of a feast.

So, come in—

Do not delay, but enter: when we've dined

We then can best endure what must be borne.

And so he, meeting him in this appropriate manner, replies with these

lines out of the Harper of Clearchus:—

Sup on white congers, and whatever else

Can boast a sticky nature; for by such food

The breath is strengthen'd, and the voice of man

Is render'd rich and powerful.

And as there was great applause on this, and as every one with one

accord called to him to come in, he went in and drank, and taking the

lyre, sang to us in such a manner that we all marvelled at his skill on

the harp, and at the rapidity of his execution, and at the tunefulness

of his voice; for he appeared to me to be not at all inferior to that

ancient Amœbeus, whom Aristeas, in his History of Harp-players, speaks

of as living at Athens, and dwelling near the theatre, and receiving an

Attic talent a-day every time he went out singing.

18. And while some were discussing music in this manner, and others

of the guests saying different things every day, but all praising

the pastime, Masurius, who excelled in everything, and was a man of

universal wisdom, (for as an interpreter of the laws he was inferior

to no one, and he was always devoting some of his attention to music,

for indeed he was able himself to play on some musical instruments,)

said,—My good friends, Eupolis the comic poet says—

And music is a deep and subtle science,

And always finding out some novelty

For those who're capable of comprehending it;

on which account Anaxilas, in his Hyacinthus, says—

For, by the gods I swear, music, like Libya,

Brings forth each year some novel prodigy;

[Sidenote: MUSIC.]

for, my dear fellows, "Music," as the Harp-player of Theophilus says,

"is a great and lasting treasure to all who have learnt it and know

anything about it;" for it ameliorates the disposition, and softens

those who are passionate and quarrelsome in their tempers. Accordingly,

"Clinias the Pythagorean," as Chamæleon of Pontus relates, "who was

a most unimpeachable man both in his actual conduct and also in

his disposition, if ever it happened to him to get out of temper or

indignant at anything, would take up his lyre, and play upon it. And

when people asked him the reason of this conduct, he used to say, 'I am

pacifying myself.' And so, too, the Achilles of Homer was mollified by

the music of the harp, which is all that Homer allots to him out of the

spoils of Eetion,[70] as being able to check his fiery temper. And he

is the only hero in the whole Iliad who indulges in this music."

Now, that music can heal diseases, Theophrastus asserts in his treatise

on Enthusiasm, where he says that men with diseases in the loins

become free from pain if any one plays a Phrygian air opposite to the

part affected. And the Phrygians are the first people who invented

and employed the harmony which goes by their name; owing to which

circumstance it is that the flute-players among the Greeks have usually

Phrygian and servile-sounding names, such as Sambas in Alcman, and

Adon, and Telus. And in Hipponax we find Cion, and Codalus, and Babys,

from whom the proverb arose about men who play worse and worse,—"He

plays worse than Babys." But Aristoxenus ascribes the invention of this

harmony to Hyagnis the Phrygian.

19. But Heraclides of Pontus, in the third book of his treatise on

Music, says—"Now that harmony ought not to be called Phrygian, just

as it has no right either to be called Lydian. For there are three

harmonies; as there are also three different races of Greeks—Dorians,

Æolians, and Ionians: and accordingly there is no little difference

between their manners. The Lacedæmonians are of all the Dorians the

most strict in maintaining their national customs; and the Thessalians

(and these are they who were the origin of the Æolian race) have

preserved at all times very nearly the same customs and institutions;

but the population of the Ionians has been a great deal changed, and

has gone through many transitions, because they have at all times

resembled whatever nations of barbarians have from time to time been

their masters. Accordingly, that species of melody which the Dorians

composed they called the Dorian harmony, and that which the Æolians

used to sing they named the Æolian harmony, and the third they called

the Ionian, because they heard the Ionians sing it.

"Now the Dorian harmony is a manly and high-sounding strain, having

nothing relaxed or merry in it, but, rather, it is stern and vehement,

not admitting any great variations or any sudden changes. The character

of the Æolian harmony is pompous and inflated, and full of a sort of

pride; and these characteristics are very much in keeping with the

fondness for breeding horses and for entertaining strangers which the

people itself exhibits. There is nothing mean in it, but the style

is elevated and fearless; and therefore we see that a fondness for

banquets and for amorous indulgences is common to the whole nation, and

they indulge in every sort of relaxation: on which account they cherish

the style of the Sub-Dorian harmony; for that which they call the

Æolian is, says Heraclides, a sort of modification of the Dorian, and

is called ὑποδώριος. And we may collect the character of this

Æolian harmony also from what Lasus of Hermione says in his hymn to the

Ceres in Hermione, where he speaks as follows:—

I sing the praise of Ceres and of Proserpine,

The sacred wife of Clymenus, Melibœa;

Raising the heavy-sounding harmony

Of hymns Æolian.

But these Sub-Dorian songs, as they are called, are sung by nearly

everybody. Since, then, there is a Sub-Dorian melody, it is with great

propriety that Lasus speaks of Æolian harmony. Pratinas, too, somewhere

or other says—

Aim not at too sustain'd a style, nor yet

At the relax'd Ionian harmony;

But draw a middle furrow through your ground,

And follow the Æolian muse in preference.

And in what comes afterwards he speaks more plainly—

But to all men who wish to raise their voices,

The Æolian harmony's most suitable.

[Sidenote: MUSIC.]

"Now formerly, as I have said, they used to call this the Æolian

harmony, but afterwards they gave it the name of the Sub-Dorian,

thinking, as some people say, that it was pitched lower on the flute

than the Dorian. But it appears to me that those who gave it this name,

seeing its inflated style, and the pretence to valour and virtue which

was put forth in the style of the harmony, thought it not exactly the

Dorian harmony, but to a certain extent like it: on which account they

called it ὑποδώριον, just as they call what is nearly white

ὑπόλευκον: and what is not absolutely sweet, but something

near it, we call ὑπόγλυκυ; so, too, we call what is not

thoroughly Dorian ὑπόδωριον.

20. "Next in order let us consider the character of the Milesians,

which the Ionians display, being very proud of the goodly appearance

of their persons; and full of spirit, hard to be reconciled to

their enemies, quarrelsome, displaying no philanthropic or cheerful

qualities, but rather a want of affection and friendship, and a great

moroseness of disposition: on which account the Ionian style of harmony

also is not flowery nor mirthful, but austere and harsh, and having a

sort of gravity in it, which, however, is not ignoble-looking; on which

account that tragedy has a sort of affection for that harmony. But the

manners of the Ionians of the present day are more luxurious, and the

character of their present music is very far removed from the Ionian

harmony we have been speaking of. And men say that Pythermus the Teian

wrote songs such as are called Scolia in this kind of harmony; and that

it was because he was an Ionian poet that the harmony got the name of

Ionian. This is that Pythermus whom Ananius or Hipponax mentions in his

Iambics in this way:—

Pythermus speaks of gold as though all else were nought.

And Pythermus's own words are as follows:—

All other things but gold are good for nothing.

Therefore, according to this statement, it is probable that Pythermus,

as coming from those parts, adapted the character of his melodies

to the disposition of the Ionians; on which account I suppose that

his was not actually the Ionian harmony, but that it was a harmony

adapted in some admirable manner to the purpose required. And those are

contemptible people who are unable to distinguish the characteristic

differences of these separate harmonies; but who are led away by the

sharpness or flatness of the sounds, so as to describe one harmony as

ὑμερμιξολύδιος, and then again to give a definition of some

further sort, refining on this: for I do not think that even that which

is called the ὑπερφρύγιος has a distinct character of its

own, although some people do say that they have invented a new harmony

which they call Sub-Phrygian (ὑποφρύγιος). Now every kind of

harmony ought to have some distinct species of character or of passion;

as the Locrian has, for this was a harmony used by some of those who

lived in the time of Simonides and Pindar, but subsequently it fell

into contempt.

21. "There are, then, as we have already said, three kinds of harmony,

as there are three nations of the Greek people. But the Phrygian and

Lydian harmonies, being barbaric, became known to the Greeks by means

of the Phrygians and Lydians who came over to Peloponnesus with Pelops.

For many Lydians accompanied and followed him, because Sipylus was a

town of Lydia; and many Phrygians did so too, not because they border

on the Lydians, but because their king also was Tantalus—(and you may

see all over Peloponnesus, and most especially in Lacedæmon, great

mounds, which the people there call the tombs of the Phrygians who came

over with Pelops)—and from them the Greeks learnt these harmonies: on

which account Telestes of Selinus says—

First of all, Greeks, the comrades brave of Pelops,

Sang o'er their wine, in Phrygian melody,

The praises of the mighty Mountain Mother;

But others, striking the shrill strings of the lyre,

Gave forth a Lydian hymn."

[Sidenote: MUSIC.]

22. "But we must not admit," says Polybius of Megalopolis, "that

music, as Ephorus asserts, was introduced among men for the purposes

of fraud and trickery. Nor must we think that the ancient Cretans and

Lacedæmonians used flutes and songs at random to excite their military

ardour, instead of trumpets. Nor are we to imagine that the earliest

Arcadians had no reason whatever for doing so, when they introduced

music into every department of their management of the republic; so

that, though the nation in every other respect was most austere in its

manner of life, they nevertheless compelled music to be the constant

companion, not only of their boys, but even of their youths up to

thirty years of age. For the Arcadians are the only people among whom

the boys are trained from infancy to sing hymns and pæans to regular

airs, in which indeed every city celebrates their national heroes and

gods with such songs, in obedience to ancient custom.

"But after this, learning the airs of Timotheus and Philoxenus, they

every year, at the festival of Bacchus, dance in their theatres to

the music of flute-players; the boys dancing in the choruses of boys,

and the youths in those of men. And throughout the whole duration of

their lives they are addicted to music at their common entertainments;

not so much, however, employing musicians as singing in turn: and to

admit themselves ignorant of any other accomplishment is not at all

reckoned discreditable to them; but to refuse to sing is accounted a

most disgraceful thing. And they, practising marches so as to march

in order to the sound of the flute, and studying their dances also,

exhibit every year in the theatres, under public regulations and at the

public expense. These, then, are the customs which they have derived

from the ancients, not for the sake of luxury and superfluity, but

from a consideration of the austerity which each individual practised

in his private life, and of the severity of their characters, which

they contract from the cold and gloomy nature of the climate which

prevails in the greater part of their country. And it is the nature of

all men to be in some degree influenced by the climate, so as to get

some resemblance to it themselves; and it is owing to this that we find

different races of men, varying in character and figure and complexion,

in proportion as they are more or less distant from one another.

"In addition to this, they instituted public banquets and public

sacrifices, in which the men and women join; and also dances of the

maidens and boys together; endeavouring to mollify and civilize the

harshness of their natural character by the influence of education and

habit. And as the people of Cynætha neglected this system (although

they occupy by far the most inclement district of Arcadia, both as

respects the soil and the climate), they, never meeting one another

except for the purpose of giving offence and quarrelling, became at

last so utterly savage, that the very greatest impieties prevailed

among them alone of all the people of Arcadia; and at the time when

they made the great massacre, whatever Arcadian cities their emissaries

came to in their passage, the citizens of all the other cities at once

ordered them to depart by public proclamation; and the Mantineans even

made a public purification of their city after their departure, leading

victims all round their entire district."

23. Agias, the musician, said that "the styrax, which at the Dionysiac

festivals is burnt in the orchestras, presented a Phrygian odour

to those who were within reach of it." Now, formerly music was an

exhortation to courage; and accordingly Alcæus the poet, one of the

greatest musicians that ever lived, places valour and manliness before

skill in music and poetry, being himself a man warlike even beyond what

was necessary. On which account, in such verses as these, he speaks in

high-toned language, and says—

My lofty house is bright with brass,

And all my dwelling is adorn'd, in honour

Of mighty Mars, with shining helms,

O'er which white horse-hair crests superbly wave,

Choice ornament for manly brows;

And brazen greaves, on mighty pegs suspended,

Hang round the hall; fit to repel

The heavy javelin or the long-headed spear.

There, too, are breastplates of new linen,

And many a hollow shield, thrown basely down

By coward enemies in flight:

There, too, are sharp Chalcidic swords, and belts,

Short military cloaks besides,

And all things suitable for fearless war;

Which I may ne'er forget,

Since first I girt myself for the adventurous work—

although it would have been more suitable for him to have had his house

well stored with musical instruments. But the ancients considered manly

courage the greatest of all civil virtues, and they attributed the

greatest importance to that, to the exclusion of other good qualities.

Archilochus accordingly, who was a distinguished poet, boasted in the

first place of being able to partake in all political undertakings,

and in the second place he mentioned the credit he had gained by his

poetical efforts, saying,—

[Sidenote: MUSIC.]

But I'm a willing servant of great Mars,

Skill'd also in the Muses' lovely art.

And, in the same spirit, Æschylus, though a man who had

acquired such great renown by his poetry, nevertheless preferred having

his valour recorded on his tomb, and composed an inscription for it, of

which the following lines are a part:—

The grove of Marathon, and the long-hair'd Medes,

Who felt his courage, well may speak of it.

24. And it is on this account that the Lacedæmonians, who are a most

valiant nation, go to war to the music of the flute, and the Cretans

to the strains of the lyre, and the Lydians to the sound of pipes and

flutes, as Herodotus relates. And, moreover, many of the barbarians

make all their public proclamations to the accompaniment of flutes

and harps, softening the souls of their enemies by these means. And

Theopompus, in the forty-sixth book of his History, says—"The Getæ

make all their proclamations while holding harps in their hands and

playing on them." And it is perhaps on this account that Homer, having

due regard to the ancient institutions and customs of the Greeks, says—

I hear, what graces every feast, the lyre;[71]

as if this art of music were welcome also to men feasting.

Now it was, as it should seem, a regular custom to introduce music,

in the first place in order that every one who might be too eager

for drunkenness or gluttony might have music as a sort of physician

and healer of his insolence and indecorum, and also because music

softens moroseness of temper; for it dissipates sadness, and produces

affability and a sort of gentlemanlike joy. From which consideration,

Homer has also, in the first book of the Iliad, represented the gods

as using music after their dissensions on the subject of Achilles; for

they continued for some time listening to it—

Thus the blest gods the genial day prolong

In feasts ambrosial and celestial song:

Apollo tuned the lyre,—the Muses round,

With voice alternate, aid the silver sound.[72]

For it was desirable that they should leave off their quarrels and

dissensions, as we have said. And most people seem to attribute the

practice of this art to banquets for the sake of setting things

right, and of the general mutual advantage. And, besides these other

occasions, the ancients also established by customs and laws that at

feasts all men should sing hymns to the gods, in order by these means

to preserve order and decency among us; for as all songs proceed

according to harmony, the consideration of the gods being added to this

harmony, elevates the feelings of each individual. And Philochorus

says that the ancients, when making their libations, did not always

use dithyrambic hymns, but "when they pour libations, they celebrate

Bacchus with wine and drunkenness, but Apollo with tranquillity and

good order." Accordingly Archilochus says—

I, all excited in my mind with wine,

Am skilful in the dithyrambic, knowing

The noble melodies of the sovereign Bacchus.

And Epicharmus, in his Philoctetes, says—

A water-drinker knows no dithyrambics.

So, that it was not merely with a view to superficial and vulgar

pleasure, as some assert, that music was originally introduced into

entertainments, is plain from what has been said above. But the

Lacedæmonians do not assert that they used to learn music as a science,

but they do profess to be able to judge well of what is done in the

art; and they say that they have already three times preserved it when

it was in danger of being lost.

[Sidenote: DANCING.]

25. Music also contributes to the proper exercising of the body and

to sharpening the intellect; on which account, every Grecian people,

and every barbarian nation too, that we are acquainted with, practise

it. And it was a good saying of Damon the Athenian, that songs and

dances must inevitably exist where the mind was excited in any

manner; and liberal, and gentlemanly, and honourable feelings of the

mind produce corresponding kinds of music, and the opposite feelings

likewise produce the opposite kinds of music. On which account, that

saying of Clisthenes the tyrant of Sicyon was a witty one, and a sign

of a well-educated intellect. For when he saw, as it is related,[73]

one of the suitors for his daughter dancing in an unseemly manner

(it was Hippoclides the Athenian), he told him that he had danced

away his marriage, thinking, as it should seem, that the mind of the

man corresponded to the dance which he had exhibited; for in dancing

and walking decorum and good order are honourable, and disorder and

vulgarity are discreditable. And it is on this principle that the poets

originally arranged dances for freeborn men, and employed figures only

to be emblems of what was being sung, always preserving the principles

of nobleness and manliness in them; on which account it was that they

gave them the name of ὑπορχήματα (accompaniment to the dance). And if

any one, while dancing, indulged in unseemly postures or figures, and

did nothing at all corresponding to the songs sung, he was considered

blameworthy; on which account, Aristophanes or Plato, in his

Preparations (as Chamæleon quotes the play), spoke thus:—

So that if any one danced well, the sight

Was pleasing; but they now do nothing rightly,

But stand as if amazed, and roar at random.

For the kind of dancing which was at that time used in the choruses was

decorous and magnificent, and to a certain extent imitated the motions

of men under arms; on which account Socrates in his Poems says that

those men who dance best are the best in warlike exploits; and thus he

writes:—

But they who in the dance most suitably

Do honour to the Gods, are likewise best

In all the deeds of war.

For the dance is very nearly an armed exercise, and is a display not

only of good discipline in other respects, but also of the care which

the dancers bestow on their persons.

26. And Amphion the Thespiæan, in the second book of his treatise on

the Temple of the Muses on Mount Helicon, says that in Helicon there

are dances of boys, got up with great care, quoting this ancient

epigram:—

I both did dance, and taught the citizens

The art of music, and my flute-player

Was Anacus the Phialensian;

My name was Bacchides of Sicyon;

And this my duty to the gods perform'd

Was honourable to my country Sicyon.

And it was a good answer which was made by Caphesias the flute-player,

when one of his pupils began to play on the flute very loudly, and was

endeavouring to play as loudly as he could; on which he struck him,

and said, "Goodness does not consist in greatness, but greatness in

goodness." There are also relics and traces of the ancient dancing in

some statues which we have, which were made by ancient statuaries;

on which account men at that time paid more attention to moving

their hands with graceful gestures; for in this particular also

they aimed at graceful and gentlemanlike motions, comprehending what

was great in what was well done. And from these motions of the hands

they transferred some figures to the dances, and from the dances to

the palæstra; for they sought to improve their manliness by music

and by paying attention to their persons. And they practised to the

accompaniment of song with reference to their movements when under

arms; and it was from this practice that the dance called the Pyrrhic

dance originated, and every other dance of this kind, and all the

others which have the same name or any similar one with a slight

change: such as the Cretan dances called ὀρσίτης and ἐπικρήδιος; and

that dance, too, which is named ἀπόκινος, (and it is mentioned

under this name by Cratinus in his Nemesis, and by Cephisodorus in

his Amazons, and by Aristophanes in his Centaur, and by several other

poets,) though afterwards it came to be called μακτρισμός; and

many women used to dance it, who, I am aware, were afterwards called

μαρκτύπιαι.

27. But the more sedate kinds of dance, both the more varied kinds

and those too whose figures are more simple, are the following:—The

Dactylus, the Iambic, the Molossian, the Emmelea, the Cordax, the

Sicinnis, the Persian, the Phrygian, the Nibatismus, the Thracian, the

Calabrismus, the Telesias (and this is a Macedonian dance which Ptolemy

was practising when he slew Alexander the brother of Philip, as Marsyas

relates in the third book of his History of Macedon). The following

dances are of a frantic kind:—The Cernophorus, and the Mongas, and

the Thermaustris. There was also a kind of dance in use among private

individuals, called the ἄνθεμα, and they used to dance this

while repeating the following form of words with a sort of mimicking

gesture, saying—

Where are my roses, and where are my violets?

Where is my beautiful parsley?

Are these then my roses, are these then my violets?

And is this my beautiful parsley?

[Sidenote: DANCES.]

Among the Syracusans there was a kind of dance called the Chitoneas,

sacred to Diana, and it is a peculiar kind of dance, accompanied

with the flute. There was also an Ionian kind of dance practised at

drinking parties. They also practised the dance called ἀγγελικὴ at

their drinking parties. And there is another kind of dance called the

Burning of the World, which Menippus the Cynic mentions in his Banquet.

There are also some dances of a ridiculous character:—the Igdis,

the Mactrismus, the Apocinus, and the Sobas; and besides these, the

Morphasmus, and the Owl, and the Lion, and the Pouring out of Meal, and

the Abolition of Debts, and the Elements, and the Pyrrhic dance. And

they also danced to the accompaniment of the flute a dance which they

called the Dance of the Master of the Ship, and the Platter Dance.

The figures used in dances are the Xiphismus, the Calathismus, the

Callabides, the Scops, and the Scopeuma. And the Scops was a figure

intended to represent people looking out from a distance, making an

arch over their brows with their hand so as to shade their eyes. And it

is mentioned by Æschylus in his Spectators:—

And all these old σκωπεύματα of yours.

And Eupolis, in his Flatterers, mentions the Callabides, when he says—

He walks as though he were dancing the Callabides.

Other figures are the Thermastris, the Hecaterides,[74] the Scopus, the

Hand-down, the Hand-up, the Dipodismus, the Taking-hold of Wood, the

Epanconismus, the Calathiscus, the Strobilus. There is also a dance

called the Telesias; and this is a martial kind of dance, deriving its

title from a man of the name of Telesias, who was the first person who

ever danced it, holding arms in his hands, as Hippagoras tells us in

the first book of his treatise on the Constitution of the Carthaginians.

28. There is also a kind of satyric dance called the Sicinnis, as

Aristocles says in the eighth book of his treatise on Dances; and the

Satyrs are called Sicinnistæ. But some say that a barbarian of the name

of Sicinnus was the inventor of it, though others say that Sicinnus

was a Cretan by birth; and certainly the Cretans are dancers, as is

mentioned by Aristoxenus. But Scamon, in the first book of his treatise

on Inventions, says that this dance is called Sicinnis, from being

shaken (ἀπὸ τοῦ σείεσθαι), and that Thersippus was the first person

who danced the Sicinnis. Now in dancing, the motion of the feet was

adopted long before any motion of the hands was considered requisite;

for the ancients exercised their feet more than their hands in games

and in hunting; and the Cretans are greatly addicted to hunting, owing

to which they are swift of foot. But there are people to be found who

assert that Sicinnis is a word formed poetically from κινησις,[75]

because in dancing it the Satyrs use most rapid movements; for this

kind of dance gives no scope for a display of the passions, on which

account also it is never slow.

Now all satyric poetry formerly consisted of choruses, as also did

tragedy, such as it existed at the same time; and that was the chief

reason why tragedy had no regular actors. And there are three kinds

of dance appropriate to dramatic poetry,—the tragic, the comic,

and the satyric; and in like manner, there are three kinds of lyric

dancing,—the pyrrhic, the gymnopædic, and the hyporchematic. And the

pyrrhic dance resembles the satyric; for they both consist of rapid

movements; but the pyrrhic appears to be a warlike kind of dance, for

it is danced by armed boys. And men in war have need of swiftness to

pursue their enemies, and also, when defeated,

To flee, and not like madmen to stand firm,

Nor be afraid to seem a short time cowards.

But the dance called Gymnopædica is like the dance in tragedy which

is called Emmelea; for in each there is seen a degree of gravity and

solemnity. But the hyporchematic dance is very nearly identical with

the comic one which is called Cordax. And they are both a sportive kind

of figure.

29. But Aristoxenus says that the Pyrrhic dance derives its name from

Pyrrhichus, who was a Lacedæmonian by birth; and that even to this day

Pyrrhichus is a Lacedæmonian name. And the dance itself, being of a

warlike character, shows that it is the invention of some Lacedæmonian;

for the Lacedæmonians are a martial race, and their sons learn military

marches which they call ἐνόπλια. And the Lacedæmonians themselves in

their wars recite the poems of Tyrtæus, and move in time to those

airs. But Philochorus asserts that the Lacedæmonians, when owing to

the generalship of Tyrtæus they had subdued the Messenians, introduced

a regular custom, in their expeditions, that whenever they were at

supper, and had sung the pæan, they should also sing one of Tyrtæus's

hymns as a solo, one after another; and that the polemarch should

be the judge, and should give a piece of meat as a prize to him who

sang best. But the Pyrrhic dance is not preserved now among any other

people of Greece; and since that has fallen into disuse, their wars

also have been brought to a conclusion; but it continues in use among

the Lacedæmonians alone, being a sort of prelude preparatory to war:

and all who are more than five years old in Sparta learn to dance the

Pyrrhic dance.

[Sidenote: DANCES.]

But the Pyrrhic dance as it exists in our time, appears to be a sort

of Bacchic dance, and a little more pacific than the old one; for the

dancers carry thyrsi instead of spears, and they point and dart canes

at one another, and carry torches. And they dance in figures having

reference to Bacchus, and to the Indians, and to the story of Pentheus:

and they require for the Pyrrhic dance the most beautiful airs, and

what are called the "stirring" tunes.

30. But the Gymnopædica resembles the dance which by the ancients

used to be called Anapale; for all the boys dance naked, performing

some kind of movement in regular time, and with gestures of the hand

like those used by wrestlers: so that the dancers exhibit a sort of

spectacle akin to the palæstra and to the pancratium, moving their feet

in regular time. And the different modes of dancing it are called the

Oschophoricus,[76] and the Bacchic, so that this kind of dance, too,

has some reference to Bacchus. But Aristoxenus says that the ancients,

after they had exercised themselves in the Gymnopædica, turned to the

Pyrrhic dance before they entered the theatre: and the Pyrrhic dance

is also called the Cheironomia. But the Hyporchematic dance is that in

which the chorus dances while singing. Accordingly Bacchylides says—

There's no room now for sitting down,

There's no room for delay.

And Pindar says—

The Lacedæmonian troop of maidens fair.

And the Lacedæmonians dance this dance in Pindar. And the

Hyporchematica is a dance of men and women. Now the best modes are

those which combine dancing with the singing; and they are these—the

Prosodiacal, the Apostolical (which last is also called παρθένιος), and

others of the same kind. And some danced to the hymn and some did not;

and some danced in accompaniment to hymns to Venus and Bacchus, and to

the Pæan, dancing at one time and resting at another. And among the

barbarians as well as among the Greeks there are respectable dances and

also indecorous ones. Now the Cordax among the Greeks is an indecorous

dance, but the Emmelea is a respectable one: as is among the Arcadians

the Cidaris, and among the Sicyonians the Aleter; and it is called

Aleter also in Ithaca, as Aristoxenus relates in the first book of his

History of Sicyon. And this appears enough to say at present on the

subject of dances.

31. Now formerly decorum was carefully attended to in music, and

everything in this art had its suitable and appropriate ornament: on

which account there were separate flutes for each separate kind of

harmony; and every flute-player had flutes adapted to each kind of

harmony in their contests. But Pronomus the Theban was the first man

who played the three different kinds of harmony already mentioned

on the same flute. But now people meddle with music in a random and

inconsiderate manner. And formerly, to be popular with the vulgar was

reckoned a certain sign of a want of real skill: on which account

Asopodorus the Phliasian, when some flute-player was once being much

applauded while he himself was remaining in the hyposcenium,[77]

said—"What is all this? the man has evidently committed some great

blunder:"—as else he could not possibly have been so much approved

of by the mob. But I am aware that some people tell this story as if

it were Antigenides who said this. But in our days artists make the

objects of their art to be the gaining the applause of the spectators

in the theatre; on which account Aristoxenus, in his book entitled

Promiscuous Banquets, says—"We act in a manner similar to the people

of Pæstum who dwell in the Tyrrhenian Gulf; for it happened to them,

though they were originally Greeks, to have become at last completely

barbarised, becoming Tyrrhenians or Romans, and to have changed their

language, and all the rest of their national habits. But one Greek

festival they do celebrate even to the present day, in which they meet

and recollect all their ancient names and customs, and bewail their

loss to one another, and then, when they have wept for them, they

go home. And so," says he, "we also, since the theatres have become

completely barbarised, and since music has become entirely ruined

and vulgar, we, being but a few, will recall to our minds, sitting

by ourselves, what music once was." And this was the discourse of

Aristoxenus.

[Sidenote: MUSIC.]

32. Wherefore it seems to me that we ought to have a philosophical

conversation about music: for Pythagoras the Samian, who had such

a high reputation as a philosopher, is well known, from many

circumstances, to have been a man who had no slight or superficial

knowledge of music; for he indeed lays it down that the whole universe

is put and kept together by music. And altogether the ancient

philosophy of the Greeks appears to have been very much addicted to

music; and on this account they judged Apollo to have been the most

musical and the wisest of the gods, and Orpheus of the demi-gods. And

they called every one who devoted himself to the study of this art a

sophist, as Æschylus does in the verse where he says—

And then the sophist sweetly struck the lyre.

And that the ancients were excessively devoted to the study of music is

plain from Homer, who, because all his own poetry was adapted to music,

makes, from want of care, so many verses which are headless, and weak,

and imperfect in the tail. But Xenophanes, and Solon, and Theognis, and

Phocylides, and besides them Periander of Corinth, an elegiac poet,

and the rest of those who did not set melodies to their poems, compose

their verses with reference to number and to the arrangement of the

metres, and take great care that none of their verses shall be liable

to the charge of any of the irregularities which we just now imputed to

Homer. Now when we call a verse headless (ἀκέφαλος), we mean

such as have a mutilation or lameness at the beginning, such as—

Ἐπειδὴ νῆάς τε καὶ Ἑλλήσποντον ἵκοντο.[78]

Ἐπίτονος τετάνυστο βοὸς ἶφι κταμένοιο.[79]

Those we call weak (λαγαρὸς) which are defective in the

middle, as—

Αἶψα δ' ἄρ' Αἰνείαν υἱὸν φίλον Ἀγχίσαο.[80]

Τῶν δ' αὖθ' ἡγείσθην Ἀσκληπιοῦ δύο παῖδες.

Those again are μείουροι, which are imperfect in the tail or

end, as—

Τρῶες δ' ἐῤῥίγησαν ὅπως ἴδον αἴολον ὄφιν.[81]

Καλὴ Κασσιέπεια θεοῖς δέμας ἐοικυῖα.[82]

Τοῦ φέρον ἔμπλησας ἀσκὸν μέγαν, ἐν δὲ καὶ ἤϊα.[83]

33. But of all the Greeks, the Lacedæmonians were those who preserved

the art of music most strictly, as they applied themselves to the

practice a great deal: and there were a great many lyric poets among

them. And even to this day they preserve their ancient songs carefully,

being possessed of very varied and very accurate learning on the

subject; on which account Pratinas says—

The Lacedæmonian grasshopper sweetly sings,

Well suited to the chorus.

And on this account the poets also continually styled their odes—

President of sweetest hymns:

and—

The honey-wing'd melodies of the Muse.

For owing to the general moderation and austerity of their lives,

they betook themselves gladly to music, which has a sort of power of

soothing the understanding; so that it was natural enough that people

who hear it should be delighted. And the people whom they called

Choregi, were not, as Demetrius of Byzantium tells us in the fourth

book of his treatise on Poetry, those who have that name now, the

people, that is to say, who hire the choruses, but those who actually

led the choruses, as the name intimates: and so it happened, that the

Lacedæmonians were good musicians, and did not violate the ancient laws

of music.

[Sidenote: MUSIC.]

Now in ancient times all the Greeks were fond of music; but when in

subsequent ages disorders arose, when nearly all the ancient customs

had got out of fashion and had become obsolete, this fondness for music

also wore out, and bad styles of music were introduced, which led all

the composers to aim at effeminacy rather than delicacy, and at an

enervated and dissolute rather than a modest style. And perhaps this

will still exist hereafter in a greater degree, and will extend still

further, unless some one again draws forth the national music to the

light. For formerly the subjects of their songs used to be the exploits

of heroes, and the praises of the Gods; and accordingly Homer says of

Achilles—

With this he soothes his lofty soul, and sings

Th' immortal deeds of heroes and of kings.[84]

And of Phemius he says—

Phemius, let acts of gods and heroes old,

What ancient bards in hall and bower have told,

Attemper'd to the lyre your voice employ,

Such the pleased ear will drink with silent joy.[85]

And this custom was preserved among the barbarians, as Dinon tells us

in his history of Persia. Accordingly, the poets used to celebrate the

valour of the elder Cyrus, and they foresaw the war which was going to

be waged against Astyages. "For when," says he, "Cyrus had begun his

march against the Persians, (and he had previously been the commander

of the guards, and afterwards of the heavy-armed troops there, and then

he left;) and while Astyages was sitting at a banquet with his friends,

then a man, whose name was Angares, (and he was the most illustrious

of his minstrels,) being called in, sang other things, such as were

customary, and at last he said that—

A mighty monster is let loose at last

Into the marsh, fiercer than wildest boar;

And when once master of the neighbouring ground

It soon will fight with ease 'gainst numerous hosts.

And when Astyages asked him what monster he meant, he said—'Cyrus

the Persian.' And so the king, thinking that his suspicions were well

founded, sent people to recal Cyrus, but did not succeed in doing so."

34. But I, though I could still say a good deal about music, yet, as I

hear the noise of flutes, I will check my desire for talking, and only

quote you the lines out of the Amateur of the Flute, by Philetærus—

O Jove, it were a happy thing to die

While playing on the flute. For flute-players

Are th' only men who in the shades below

Feel the soft power and taste the bliss of Venus.

But those whose coarser minds know nought of music,

Pour water always into bottomless casks.

After this there arose a discussion about the sambuca. And Masurius

said that the sambuca was a musical instrument, very shrill, and that

it was mentioned by Euphorion (who is also an Epic poet), in his book

on the Isthmian Games; for he says that it was used by the Parthians

and by the Troglodytæ, and that it had four strings. He said also that

it was mentioned by Pythagoras, in his treatise on the Red Sea. The

sambuca is also a name given to an engine used in sieges, the form and

mechanism of which is explained by Biton, in his book addressed to

Attalus on the subject of Military Engines. And Andreas of Panormus,

in the thirty-third book of his History of Sicily, detailed city by

city, says that it is borne against the walls of the enemy on two

cranes. And it is called sambuca because when it is raised up it

gives a sort of appearance of a ship and ladder joined together, and

resembles the shape of the musical instrument of the same name. But

Moschus, in the first book of his treatise on Mechanics, says that the

sambuca is originally a Roman engine, and that Heraclides of Pontus was

the original inventor of it. But Polybius, in the eighth book of his

History, says,—"Marcellus, having been a great deal inconvenienced

at that siege of Syracuse by the contrivances of Archimedes, used to

say that Archimedes had given his ships drink out of the sea; but that

his sambucæ had been buffeted and driven from the entertainment in

disgrace."

35. And when, after this, Æmilianus said,—But, my good friend

Masurius, I myself, often, being a lover of music, turn my thoughts to

the instrument which is called the magadis, and cannot decide whether

I am to think that it was a species of flute or some kind of harp. For

that sweetest of poets, Anacreon, says somewhere or other—

I hold my magadis and sing,

Striking loud the twentieth string,

Leucaspis, as the rapid hour

Leads you to youth's and beauty's flower.

But Ion of Chios, in his Omphale, speaks of it as if it were a species

of flute, in the following words—

And let the Lydian flute, the magadis,

Breathe its sweet sounds, and lead the tuneful song.

[Sidenote: MUSIC.]

And Aristarchus the grammarian, (a man whom Panætius the Rhodian

philosopher used to call the Prophet, because he could so easily divine

the meanings of poems,) when explaining this verse, affirms that the

magadis was a kind of flute: though Aristoxenus does not say so either

in his treatise on the Flute-players or in that on Flutes and other

Musical Instruments; nor does Archestratus either,—and he also wrote

two books on Flute-players; nor has Pyrrhander said so in his work on

Flute-players; nor Phillis the Delian,—for he also wrote a treatise on

Flute-players, and so did Euphranor. But Tryphon, in the second book

of his essay on Names, speaks thus—"The flute called magadis." And in

another place he says—"The magadis gives a shrill and deep tone at

the same time, as Anaxandrides intimates in his Man fighting in heavy

Armour, where we find the line—

I will speak to you like a magadis,

In soft and powerful sounds at the same time.

And, my dear Masurius, there is no one else except you who can solve

this difficulty for me.

36. And Masurius replied—Didymus the grammarian, in his work entitled

Interpretations of the Plays of Ion different from the Interpretations

of others, says, my good friend Æmilianus, that by the term μάγαδις

αὐλὸς he understands the instrument which is also called κιθαριστήριος;

which is mentioned by Aristoxenus in the first book of his treatise on

the Boring of Flutes; for there he says that there are five kinds of

flutes; the parthenius, the pædicus, the citharisterius, the perfect,

and the superperfect. And he says that Ion has omitted the conjunction

τε improperly, so that we are to understand by μάγαδις αὐλὸς the flute

which accompanies the magadis; for the magadis is a stringed (ψαλτικὸν)

instrument, as Anacreon tells us, and it was invented by the Lydians,

on which account Ion, in his Omphale, calls the Lydian women ψάλτριαι,

as playing on stringed instruments, in the following lines—

But come, ye Lydian ψάλτριαι, and singing

Your ancient hymns, do honour to this stranger.

But Theophilus the comic poet, in his Neoptolemus, calls playing on the

magadis μαγαδίζειν, saying—

It may be that a worthless son may sing

His father or his mother on the magadis (μαγαδίζειν),

Sitting upon the wheel; but none of us

Shall ever play such music now as theirs.

And Euphorion, in his treatise on the Isthmian Games, says, that the

magadis is an ancient instrument, but that in latter times it was

altered, and had the name also changed to that of the sambuca. And,

that this instrument was very much used at Mitylene, so that one of the

Muses was represented by an old statuary, whose name was Lesbothemis,

as holding one in her hand. But Menæchmus, in his treatise on Artists,

says that the πηκτὶς, which he calls identical with the magadis, was

invented by Sappho. And Aristoxenus says that the magadis and the

pectis were both played with the fingers without any plectrum; on which

account Pindar, in his Scolium addressed to Hiero, having named the

magadis, calls it a responsive harping (ψαλμὸν ἀντίφθογγον), because its

music is accompanied in all its keys by two kinds of singers, namely,

men and boys. And Phrynichus, in his Phœnician Women, has said—

Singing responsive songs on tuneful harps.

And Sophocles, in his Mysians, says—

There sounded too the Phrygian triangle,

With oft-repeated notes; to which responded

The well-struck strings of the soft Lydian pectis.

37. But some people raise a question how, as the magadis did not exist

in the time of Anacreon (for instruments with many strings were never

seen till after his time), Anacreon can possibly mention it, as he does

when he says—

I hold my magadis and sing,

Striking loud the twentieth string,

Leucaspis.

But Posidonius asserts that Anacreon mentions three kinds of melodies,

the Phrygian, the Dorian, and the Lydian; for that these were the only

melodies with which he was acquainted. And as every one of these is

executed on seven strings, he says that it was very nearly correct

of Anacreon to speak of twenty strings, as he only omits one for the

sake of speaking in round numbers. But Posidonius is ignorant that the

magadis is an ancient instrument, though Pindar says plainly enough

that Terpander invented the barbitos to correspond to, and answer the

pectis in use among the Lydians—

[Sidenote: MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.]

The sweet responsive lyre

Which long ago the Lesbian bard,

Terpander, did invent, sweet ornament

To the luxurious Lydian feasts, when he

Heard the high-toned pectis.

Now the pectis and the magadis are the same instrument, as Aristoxenus

tells us, and Menæchmus the Sicyonian too, in his treatise on

Artists. And this last author says that Sappho, who is more ancient

than Anacreon, was the first person to use the pectis. Now, that

Terpander is more ancient than Anacreon, is evident from the following

considerations:—Terpander was the first man who ever got the victory

at the Carnean[86] games, as Hellanicus tells us in the verses in which

he has celebrated the victors at the Carnea, and also in the formal

catalogue which he gives us of them. But the first establishment of the

Carnea took place in the twenty-sixth Olympiad, as Sosibius tells us in

his essay on Dates. But Hieronymus, in his treatise on Harp-players,

which is the subject of the fifth of his Treatises on Poets, says

that Terpander was a contemporary of Lycurgus the lawgiver, who, it

is agreed by all men, was, with Iphitus of Elis, the author of that

establishment of the Olympic games from which the first Olympiad is

reckoned. But Euphorion, in his treatise on the Isthmian Games, says

that the instruments with many strings are altered only in their names;

but that the use of them is very ancient.

38. However, Diogenes the tragic poet represents the pectis as

differing from the magadis; for in the Semele he says—

And now I hear the turban-wearing women,

Votaries of th' Asiatic Cybele,

The wealthy Phrygians' daughters, loudly sounding

With drums, and rhombs, and brazen-clashing cymbals,

Their hands in concert striking on each other,

Pour forth a wise and healing hymn to the gods.

Likewise the Lydian and the Bactrian maids

Who dwell beside the Halys, loudly worship

The Tmolian goddess Artemis, who loves

The laurel shade of the thick leafy grove,

Striking the clear three-corner'd pectis, and

Raising responsive airs upon the magadis,

While flutes in Persian manner neatly join'd

Accompany the chorus.

And Phillis the Delian, in the second book of his treatise on Music,

also asserts that the pectis is different from the magadis. And his

words are these—"There are the phœnices, the pectides, the magadides,

the sambucæ, the iambycæ, the triangles, the clepsiambi, the scindapsi,

the nine-string." For, he says that "the lyre to which they sang

iambics, they called the iambyca, and the instrument to which they sang

them in such a manner as to vary the metre a little, they called the

clepsiambus,[87] while the magadis was an instrument uttering a diapason

sound, and equally in tune for every portion of the singers. And

besides these there were instruments of other kinds also; for there was

the barbitos, or barmus, and many others, some with strings, and some

with sounding-boards."

39. There were also some instruments besides those which were blown

into, and those which were used with different strings, which gave

forth only sounds of a simple nature, such as the castanets (κρέμβαλα),

which are mentioned by Dicæarchus, in his essay on the Manners and

Customs of Greece, where he says, that formerly certain instruments

were in very frequent use, in order to accompany women while dancing

and singing; and when any one touched these instruments with their

fingers they uttered a shrill sound. And he says that this is plainly

shown in the hymn to Diana, which begins thus—

Diana, now my mind will have me utter

A pleasing song in honour of your deity,

While this my comrade strikes with nimble hand

The well-gilt brazen-sounding castanets.

And Hermippus, in his play called The Gods, gives the word for rattling

the castanets, κρεμβαλίζειν, saying—

And beating down the limpets from the rocks,

They make a noise like castanets (κρεμβαλίζουσι).

[Sidenote: MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.]

But Didymus says, that some people, instead of the lyre, are in the

habit of striking oyster-shells and cockle-shells against one another,

and by these means contrive to play a tune in time to the dancers, as

Aristophanes also intimates in his Frogs.[88]

40. But Artemon, in the first book of his treatise on the Dionysian

System, as he calls it, says that Timotheus the Milesian appears

to many men to have used an instrument of more strings than were

necessary, namely, the magadis, on which account he was chastised by

the Lacedæmonians as having corrupted the ancient music. And when

some one was going to cut away the superfluous strings from his lyre,

he showed them a little statue of Apollo which they had, which held

in its hand a lyre with an equal number of strings, and which was

tuned in the same manner; and so he was acquitted. But Douris, in his

treatise on Tragedy, says that the magadis was named after Magodis, who

was a Thracian by birth. But Apollodorus, in his Reply to the Letter

of Aristocles, says—"That which we now call ψαλτήριον is the same

instrument which was formerly called magadis; but that which used to

be called the clepsiambus, and the triangle, and the elymus, and the

nine-string, have fallen into comparative disuse." And Alcman says—

And put away the magadis.

And Sophocles, in his Thamyras, says—

And well-compacted lyres and magadides,

And other highly-polish'd instruments,

From which the Greeks do wake the sweetest sounds.

But Telestes, in his dithyrambic poem, called Hymenæus, says that

the magadis was an instrument with five strings, using the following

expressions—

And each a different strain awakens,—

One struck the loud horn-sounding magadis,

And in the fivefold number of tight strings

Moved his hand to and fro most rapidly.

I am acquainted, too, with another instrument which the Thracian kings

use in their banquets, as Nicomedes tells us in his essay on Orpheus.

Now Ephorus and Scamon, in their treatise on Inventions, say that

the instrument called the Phœnix derives its name from having been

invented by the Phœnicians. But Semus of Delos, in the first book of

the Delias, says that it is so called because its ribs are made of the

palm-tree which grows in Delos. The same writer, Semus, says that the

first person who used the sambuca was Sibylla, and that the instrument

derives its name from having been invented by a man named Sambyx.

41. And concerning the instrument called the tripod (this also is a

musical instrument) the before-mentioned Artemo writes as follows—"And

that is how it is that there are many instruments, as to which it is

even uncertain whether they ever existed; as, for instance, the tripod

of Pythagoras of Zacynthus. For as it was in fashion but a very short

time, and as, either because the fingering of it appeared exceedingly

difficult, or for some other reason, it was very soon disused, it has

escaped the notice of most writers altogether. But the instrument was

in form very like the Delphian tripod, and it derived its name from

it; but it was used like a triple harp. For its feet stood on some

pedestal which admitted of being easily turned round, just as the legs

of movable chairs are made; and along the three intermediate spaces

between the feet, strings were stretched; an arm being placed above

each, and tuning-pegs, to which the strings were attached, below. And

on the top there was the usual ornament of the vase, and of some other

ornaments which were attached to it; all which gave it a very elegant

appearance; and it emitted a very powerful sound. And Pythagoras

divided the three harmonies with reference to three countries,—the

Dorian, the Lydian, and Phrygian. And he himself sitting on a chair

made on the same principles and after the same pattern, putting out his

left hand so as to take hold of the instrument, and using the plectrum

in his other hand, moved the pedestal with his foot very easily, so

as to use whichever side of the instrument he chose to begin with;

and then again turning to the other side he went on playing, and then

he changed to the third side. And so rapidly did the easy movement of

the pedestal, when touched by the foot, bring the various sides under

his hand, and so very rapid was his fingering and execution, that if

a person had not seen what was being done, but had judged only by his

ear, he would have fancied that he was listening to three harp-players

all playing on different instruments. But this instrument, though it

was so greatly admired, after his death rapidly fell into disuse."

[Sidenote: MUSIC.]

42. Now the system of playing the harp without any vocal accompaniment,

was, as Menæchmus informs us, first introduced by Aristonicus the

Argive, who was a contemporary of Archilochus, and lived in Corcyra.

But Philochorus, in the third hook of his Atthis, says—"Lysander the

Sicyonian harp-player was the first person who ever changed the art

of pure instrumental performance, dwelling on the long tones, and

producing a very rich sound, and adding also to the harp the music of

the flute; and this last addition was first introduced by Epigonus;

and taking away the jejuneness which existed in the music of those

who played the harp alone without any vocal accompaniment, he first

introduced various beautiful modifications[89] on that instrument; and

he played on the different kinds of harp called iambus and magadis,

which is also called συριγμός. And he was the first person who

ever attempted to change his instrument while playing. And afterwards,

adding dignity to the business, he was the first person to institute

a chorus. And Menæchmus says that Dion of Chius was the first person

who ever played on the harp an ode such as is used at libations to the

honour of Bacchus. But Timomachus, in his History of Cyprus, says that

Stesander the Samian added further improvements to his art, and was

the first person who at Delphi sang to his lyre the battles narrated

in Homer, beginning with the Odyssey. But others say that the first

person who ever played amatory strains on his harp was Amiton the

Eleuthernæan, who did so in his own city, whose descendants are all

called Amitores.

But Aristoxenus says that just as some men have composed parodies on

hexameter verses, for the sake of exciting a laugh; so, too, others

have parodied the verses which were sung to the harp, in which pastime

Œnopas led the way. And he was imitated by Polyeuctus the Achæan, and

by Diocles of Cynætha. There have also been poets who have composed a

low kind of poems, concerning whom Phænias the Eresian speaks in his

writings addressed to the Sophists; where he writes thus:—"Telenicus

the Byzantian, and also Argas, being both authors of low poems, were

men who, as far as that kind of poetry could go, were accounted clever.

But they never even attempted to rival the songs of Terpander or

Phrynis." And Alexis mentions Argas, in his Man Disembarked, thus—

_A._ Here is a poet who has gained the prize

In choruses.

_B._ What is his style of poetry?

_A._ A noble kind.

_B._ How will he stand comparison

With Argas?

_A._ He's a whole days journey better.

And Anaxandrides, in his Hercules, says—

For he appears a really clever man.

How gracefully he takes the instrument,

Then plays at once....

When I have eaten my fill, I then incline

To send you off to sing a match with Argas,

That you, my friend, may thus the sophists conquer.

43. But the author of the play called the Beggars, which is attributed

to Chionides, mentions a certain man of the name of Gnesippus as a

composer of ludicrous verses, and also of merry songs; and he says—

I swear that neither now Gnesippus, nor

Cleomenes with all his nine-string'd lyre,

Could e'er have made this song endurable.

And the author of the Helots says—

He is a man who sings the ancient songs

Of Alcman, and Stesichorus, and Simonides;

(he means to say Gnesippus):

He likewise has composed songs for the night,

Well suited to adulterers, with which

They charm the women from their doors, while striking

The shrill iambyca or the triangle.

And Cratinus, in his Effeminate Persons, says—

Who, O Gnesippus, e'er saw me in love?

I am indignant; for I do think nothing

Can be so vain or foolish as a lover.

[Sidenote: LOVE SONGS.]

. . . . . . . and he ridicules him for his poems; and in his Herdsmen

he says—

A man who would not give to Sophocles

A chorus when he asked one; though he granted

That favour to Cleomachus, whom I

Should scarce think worthy of so great an honour,

At the Adonia.

And in his Hours he says—

Farewell to that great tragedian

Cleomachus, with his chorus of hair-pullers,

Plucking vile melodies in the Lydian fashion.

But Teleclides, in his Rigid Men, says that he was greatly addicted to

adultery. And Clearchus, in the second book of his Amatory Anecdotes,

says that the love-songs, and those, too, which are called the Locrian

songs, do not differ in the least from the compositions of Sappho and

Anacreon. Moreover, the poems of Archilochus, and that on fieldfares,

attributed to Homer, relate to some division or other of this passion,

describing it in metrical poetry. But the writings of Asopodorus about

love, and the whole body of amorous epistles, are a sort of amatory

poetry out of metre.

44. When Masurius had said this, the second course, as it is called,

was served up to us; which, indeed, was very often offered to us, not

only on the days of the festival of Saturn,[90] when it is the custom

of the Romans to feast their slaves, while they themselves discharge

the offices of their slaves. But this is in reality a Grecian custom.

At all events, in Crete, at the festival of Mercury, a similar thing

takes place, as Carystius tells us in his Historic Reminiscences;

for then, while the slaves are feasting, the masters wait upon them

as if they were the servants: and so they do at Trœzen in the month

Geræstius. For then there is a festival which lasts for many days,

on one of which the slaves play at dice in common with the citizens,

and the masters give a banquet to the slaves, as Carystius himself

tells us. And Berosus, in the first book of his History of Babylon,

says that on the sixteenth day of the month Lous, there is a great

festival celebrated in Babylon, which is called Sakeas; and it lasts

five days: and during those days it is the custom for the masters to

be under the orders of their slaves; and one of the slaves puts on a

robe like the king's, which is called a zoganes, and is master of the

house. And Ctesias also mentions this festival in the second book of

his History of Persia. But the Coans act in an exactly contrary manner,

as Macareus tells us in the third book of his History of Cos. For when

they sacrifice to Juno, the slaves do not come to the entertainment; on

which account Phylarchus says—

Among the Sourii, the freemen only

Assist at the holy sacrifice; none else

The temples or the altars dare approach;

And no slave may come near the sacred precincts.

45. But Baton of Sinope, the orator, in his treatise on Thessaly and

Hæmonica, distinctly asserts that the Roman Saturnalia are originally

a very Greek festival, saying that among the Thessalians it is called

Peloria. And these are his words:—"When a common festival was being

celebrated by all the Pelasgi, a man whose name was Pelorus brought

news to Pelasgus that there had been some violent earthquakes in

Hæmonia, by which the mountains called Tempe had been rent asunder,

and that the water of the lake had burst through the rent, and was

all falling into the stream of the Peneus; and that all the country

which had formerly been covered by the lake was now laid open, and

that, as the waters were now drained off, there were plains visible

of wondrous size and beauty. Accordingly, Pelasgus, on hearing this

statement, had a table loaded with every delicacy set before Pelorus;

and every one else received him with great cordiality, and brought

whatever they had that was best, and placed it on the table before the

man who had brought this news; and Pelasgus himself waited on him with

great cheerfulness, and all the rest of the nobles obeyed him as his

servants as often as any opportunity offered. On which account, they

say that after the Pelasgi occupied the district, they instituted a

festival as a sort of imitation of the feast which took place on that

occasion; and, sacrificing to Jupiter Pelor, they serve up tables

admirably furnished, and hold a very cordial and friendly assembly, so

as to receive every foreigner at the banquet, and to set free all the

prisoners, and to make their servants sit down and feast with

every sort of liberty and licence, while their masters wait on them.

And, in short, even to this day the Thessalians celebrate this as their

chief festival, and call it Peloria."

[Sidenote: SWEETMEATS.]

46. Very often, then, as I have said, when such a dessert as this is

set before us, some one of the guests who were present would say—

Certainly, second thoughts are much the best;

For what now can the table want? or what

Is there with which it is not amply loaded?

'Tis full of fish fresh from the sea, besides

Here's tender veal, and dainty dishes of goose,

Tartlets, and cheesecakes steep'd most thoroughly

In the rich honey of the golden bee;

as Euripides says in his Cretan Women: and, as Eubulus said in his Rich

Woman—

And in the same way everything is sold

Together at Athens; figs and constables,

Grapes, turnips, pears and apples, witnesses,

Roses and medlars, cheesecakes, honeycombs,

Vetches and law-suits; bee-strings of all kinds,

And myrtle-berries, and lots for offices,

Hyacinths, and lambs, and hour-glasses too,

And laws and prosecutions.

Accordingly, when Pontianus was about to say something about each

of the dishes of the second course,—We will not, said Ulpian, hear

you discuss these things until you have spoken about the sweetmeats

(ἐπιδορπίσματα). And Pontianus replied:—Cratinus says that

Philippides has given this name to the τραγήματα, in his

Miser, where he says—

Cheesecakes, ἐπιδορπίσματα, and eggs,

And sesame; and were I to endeavour

To count up every dish, the day would fail me.

And Diphilus, in his Telesias, says—

Τράγημα, myrtle-berries, cheesecakes too,

And almonds; so that with the greatest pleasure

I eat the second course (ἐπιδορπίζομαι).

And Sophilus, in his Deposit, says—

'Tis always pleasant supping with the Greeks;

They manage well; with them no one cries out—

Here, bring a stronger draught; for I must feast

With the Tanagrian; that there, lying down,

* * * * *

And Plato, in his Atlanticus, calls these sweetmeats μεταδόρπια;

saying—"And at that time the earth used to produce all sorts of

sweet-smelling things for its inhabitants; and a great deal of

cultivated fruit, and a great variety of nuts; and all the

μεταδόρπια which give pleasure when eaten."

47. But Tryphon says that formerly before the guests entered the

supper-room, each person's share was placed on the table, and that

afterwards a great many dishes of various kinds were served up in

addition; and that on this account these latter dishes were called

ἐπιφορήματα. But Philyllius, in his Well-digger, speaking of

the second course, says—

Almonds, and nuts, and ἐπιφορήματα.

And Archippus, in his Hercules, and Herodotus, in the first book of

his History, have both used the verb ἐπιδορπίζομαι for eating

after supper. And Archippus also, in his Hercules Marrying, uses the

word ἐπιφορήματα; where he says—

The board was loaded with rich honey-cakes

And other ἐπιφορήματα.

And Herodotus, in the first book of his History, says—"They do not

eat a great deal of meat, but a great many ἐπιφορήματα." But

as for the proverbial saying, "The ἐπιφόρημα of Abydos,"

that is a kind of tax and harbour-due; as is explained by Aristides

in the third book of his treatise on Proverbs. But Dionysius, the

son of Tryphon, says—"Formerly, before the guests came into the

banqueting-room, the portion for each individual was placed on the

table, and afterwards a great many other things were served up in

addition (ἐπιφέρεσθαι); from which custom they were called

ἐπιφορήματα." And Philyllius, in his Well-digger, speaks of

what is brought in after the main part of the banquet is over, saying—

Almonds, and nuts, and ἐπιτραπεζώματα.

But Plato the comic poet, in the Menelaus, calls them ἐπιτραπέζαις, as

being for eatables placed on the table (ἐμὶ ταῖς τραπέζαις), saying—

_A._ Come, tell me now,

Why are so few of the ἐπιτραπεζώματα

Remaining?

_B._ That man hated by the gods

Ate them all up.

And Aristotle, in his treatise on Drunkenness, says that sweetmeats

(τραγήματα) used to be called by the ancients τρωγάλια; for that they

come in as a sort of second course. But it is Pindar who said—

And τρώγαλον is nice when supper's over,

And when the guests have eaten plentifully.

[Sidenote: THE DIFFERENT COURSES AT DINNER.]

And he was quite right. For Euripides says, when one looks on what is

served up before one, one may really say—

You see how happily life passes when

A man has always a well-appointed table.