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
The pectis, proud of its barbaric muse,
With its two strings was placed within my hand.
The instrument called pariambis is mentioned by Epicharmus, in his
Periallus, in this way--
But Semele doth dance and he doth sing
Tunefully on his pariambis lyre,
And she rejoices at the rapid song.
Now it was Alexander of Cythera, according to the account given by Juba,
who completed the psaltery with its full number of strings. And he, when
he had grown old in the city of the Ephesians, suspended this instrument
in the temple of Diana, as being the most skilful invention he had made
with reference to his art. Juba mentions also the lyrophœnix and the
Epigonius, which, though now it is transformed into the upright
psaltery, still preserves the name of the man who was the first to use
it. But Epigonius was by birth an Ambraciot, but he was subsequently
made a citizen of Sicyon. And he was a man of great skill in music, so
that he played the lyre with his bare hand without a plectrum. For the
Alexandrians have great experience and skill in all the above-named
instruments and kinds of flutes. And whichever of them you wish me to
try, I will exhibit my own skill before you, though there are many
others in my country more musical and skilful than I am.
82. But Alexander, my fellow-citizen, and he has only lately died;
having given a public exhibition of his skill on the instrument called
the triangle, made all the Romans so music-mad that even now most people
recollect the way in which he used to play. And Sophocles speaks of this
triangle in his Mysians, saying--
The constant music of the Phrygian
Tender triangle, and the concerted strains
Of the shrill Lydian pectis sounded too.
And in his Thamyras he also mentions it. But Aristophanes, in his
Daitaleis, and Theopompus, in his Penelope, likewise speak of it. And
Eupolis, in his Baptæ, says--
Who plays the drum with wondrous skill,
And strikes the strings of the triangle.
And the instrument called the pandurus is mentioned, as has been said
before, by Euphorion, and by Protagorides, in the second book of his
treatise on the Assemblies in honour of Daphne. But Pythagoras, who
wrote a book on the Red Sea, says that the Troglodytæ make the panduri
out of the daphne which grows on the seashore.
But horns and trumpets are the invention of the Etrurians. But
Metrodorus the Chian, in his history of the Affairs of Troy, says that
Marsyas invented the pipe and flute at Celænæ, when all his predecessors
had played on a single reed. But Euphorion the epic poet, in his
treatise on the Modulation of Songs, says that Mercury invented the pipe
which consists of one single reed; but that some say that Seuthes and
Ronaces the Medes did so; and that Sileuus invented the pipe which is
made of many reeds, and that Marsyas invented that one which is joined
together with wax.
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