Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 1 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"Plutarch
Philosophy
Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 1 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"
Plutarch
Classical literature; Essays; Ethics; Philosophy
3. This the scholar propounded; to which Lysias made reply. Noble
Onesicrates, said he, you desire the solution of a hard question, that
has been by many already proposed. For of the Platonics the most, of
the Peripatetic philosophers the best, have made it their business to
compile several treatises concerning the ancient music and the reasons
why it came to lose its pristine perfection. Nay, the very grammarians
and musicians themselves who arrived to the height of education have
expended much time and study upon the same subject, whence has arisen
great variety of discording opinions among the several writers.
Heraclides in his Compendium of Music asserts, that Amphion, the son
of Jupiter and Antiope, was the first that invented playing on the
harp and lyric poesy, being first instructed by his father; which is
confirmed by a small manuscript, preserved in the city of Sicyon,
wherein is set down a catalogue of the priests, poets, and musicians
of Argos. In the same age, he tells us, Linus the Euboean composed
several elegies; Anthes of Anthedon in Boeotia was the first author of
hymns, and Pierus of Pieria the first that wrote in the praise of the
Muses. Philammon also, the Delphian, set forth in verse a poem in honor
of the nativity of Latona, Diana, and Apollo, and was the first that
instituted dancing about the temple of Delphi. Thamyras, of Thracian
extraction, had the best voice and the neatest manner of singing of
any of his time; so that the poets feigned him to be a contender with
the Muses. He is said to have described in a poem the Titans’ war
against the Gods. There was also Demodocus the Corcyraean, who is said
to have written the Destruction of Troy, and the Nuptials of Vulcan
and Venus; and then Phemius of Ithaca composed a poem, entitled The
Return of those who came back with Agamemnon from Troy. Not that any
of these stories before cited were compiled in a style like prose
without metre; they were rather like the poems of Stesichorus and other
ancient lyric poets, who composed in heroic verse and added a musical
accompaniment. The same Heraclides writes that Terpander, the first
that instituted the lyric _nomes_,[53] set verses of Homer as well as
his own to music according to each of these nomes, and sang them at
public trials of skill. He also was the first to give names to the
lyric nomes. In imitation of Terpander, Clonas, an elegiac and epic
poet, first instituted nomes for flute-music, and also the songs called
Prosodia.[54] And Polymnestus the Colophonian in later times used the
same measure in his compositions.
4. Now the measures appointed by these persons, noble Onesicrates,
in reference to such songs as are to be sung to the flutes or pipes,
were distinguished by these names,—Apothetus, Elegiac, Comarchius,
Schoenion, Cepion, Tenedius, and Trimeles (or of three parts).
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