The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Philosophy
The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned of Athenæus, Vol. 3 (of 3)
Athenaeus, of Naucratis
Civilization, Greco-Roman; Dinners and dining -- Greece; Greece -- Social life and customs; Homosexuality -- Greece
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."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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