Before considering the probable character and form of ancient Hellenic compositions we must record that music hardly existed among the Greeks as an independent art. The word [Greek: mousikê] held a much broader meaning than our own word music; it included poetry, at least in its narrower sense, and in a measure dancing and mimetics. Likewise it was closely allied, through their philosophy, to mathematics and astronomy. But to say that music was subordinate to poetry is inaccurate, for, while vocal compositions, both solo and choral, made up the bulk of Greek music, instrumental music was practised not only in accompaniment, but independently also, and virtuosity on the _kithara_ and _aulos_ was developed to a considerable degree. The great musicians of Greece, however, were at the same time its great poets. Homer and Hesiod may be thought of as musicians, no less than Pindar, the adored creator of the first dithyramb, and Æschylus, the greatest of dramatists. It may be interesting at this point to reproduce the table compiled by Aristides Quintilianus (second century A. D.), one of the most eminent Greek theoreticians of the Roman era, to show the various branches of musical science as then understood. This illustrates clearly the union of poetry and music, the perfect fusion of two arts in which neither predominated, but was only an inherent part of the other. │ │ a) Arithmetic (musical │ A. Natural │ mathematics) │ Science <│ │ │ b) Physics (acoustics and I. Theoretical │ │ physiology of hearing) Part <│ │ │ c) Harmonics │ │ │ B. Musical <│ d) Rhythmics │ Technology │ │ │ e) Metrical Science (Prosody) │ │ f) Melodic invention │ │ │ C. Composition <│ g) Formation of stanzas II. Practical │ │ Part │ │ h) Poetry <│ (Applied Music) │ │ j) Instrumental practice │ │ │ D. Musical <│ k) Singing │ Practice │ │ │ l) Mimetics