The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 1 (of 3)Athenaeus, of Naucratis
General
The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 1 (of 3)
Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Civilization, Greco-Roman; Dinners and dining -- Greece; Greece -- Social life and customs; Homosexuality -- Greece
There is also an instrument called the triangle, which Juba mentions in
the fourth book of his Theatrical History, and says it is an invention
of the Syrians; as is also the sambuca, which is called λυροφοίνιξ. But
this instrument Neanthes the Cyzicene, in the first book of his Seasons,
says is an invention of Ibycus the Rhegian poet; as also the lyre called
barbitos was of Anacreon. But since you are running all us Alexandrians
down as unmusical, and keep mentioning the monaulos as our only national
instrument, listen now to what I can tell you offhand about that.
78. For Juba, in the before-mentioned treatise, says that the Egyptians
call the monaulos an invention of Osiris, just as they say that kind of
plagiaulos is, which is called photinx, and that, too, I will presently
show you is mentioned by a very illustrious author; for the photinx is
the same as the flute, which is a national instrument. But Sophocles, in
his Thamyras, speaks of the monaulos, saying--
For all the tuneful melodies of pipes πήκτιδες
Are lost, the lyre, and monaulos too.
* * * * *
And Araros, in his Birth of Pan, says--
But he, can you believe it? seized at once
On the monaulos, and leapt lightly forth.
And Anaxandrides, in his Treasure, says--
I the monaulos took, and sang a wedding song.
And in his Bottle-bearer he says--
_A._ What have you done, you Syrian, with your monaulos?
_B._ What monaulos?
_A._ The reed.
And Sopater, in his Bacchis, says--
And then he sang a song on the monaulos.
But Protagorides of Cyzicus, in the second book of his treatise on the
Assemblies in Honour of Daphne, says, "He touched every kind of
instrument, one after another, castanets, the weak-sounding pandurus,
but he drew the sweetest harmony from the sweet monaulos. And Posidonius
the Stoic philosopher, in the third book of his Histories, speaking of
the war of the Apameans against the Larissæans, writes as
follows--"Having taken short daggers sticking in their waists, and small
lances covered with rust and dirt, and having put veils and curtains
over their heads which produce a shade but do not hinder the wind from
getting to their necks, dragging on asses laden with wine and every sort
of meat, by the side of which were packed little photinges and little
monauli, instruments of revelry, not of war." But I am not ignorant that
Amerias the Macedonian, in his Dialects, says, that the monaulos is
called tityrinus. So here you have, O excellent Ulpian, a man who
mentions the photinx. But that the monaulos was the same instrument
which is now called calamaules, or reedfife, is clearly shown by
Hedylus, in his Epigrams, where he says--
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