These convivial songs were divided by the ancients into several kinds, with reference sometimes to their nature, sometimes to the manner in which they were chaunted: the most remarkable they denominated Scolia, or zig-zag songs,[828] for a reason somewhat difficult of explanation. Several of the later Greek writers appear to have been greatly at a loss to account for the appellation, which is, no doubt, a singular one; but the learning and diligence of Ilgen[829] may be said to have fully resolved this curious question. After determining the antiquity of the Scolion, which Pindar[830] supposes to have been an invention of Terpander, or, at least, the verses of the song, but which Ilgen dates as far back as the heroic period, he observes, that the name itself was known in very remote ages, since they formed a separate class among the works of Pindar, and are mentioned by Aristophanes and Plato,[831] and that, like the Cyclic chorus, it arose out of the circumstances under which it was sung. For as this chorus was called Cyclic, or circular, because chaunted by persons moving in a circle round the altar of Bacchos, so the Scolion, or zig-zag song,[832] received its name from the myrtle branch, or the cithara, to which it was sung, being passed from one guest to another in a zig-zag[833] fashion, just as those who possessed the requisite skill happened to sit at table. ----- Footnote 827: Conf. Hom. Hymn. in Herm. 52, sqq. Pind. Olymp. i. 24. Footnote 828: Poll. vi. 108, with the notes of Seber and Jungermann, t. v. p. 142. Footnote 829: Who has published a collection of these songs, accompanied by very interesting and instructive notes. Σκολια· hoc est, Carmina Convivalia Græcorum. Jenæ, 1798. Footnote 830: Apud Plut. de Musica, § 28. Footnote 831: Pind. Fragm. Dissen. t. i. p. 234, with the Commentary, t. ii. p.639, sqq. Aristoph. Vesp. 1222, 1240. Acharn. 532. Pac. 1302. Plat. Gorg. t. iii. p. 13. Bekk. Footnote 832: Suidas, v. σκολίον, t. ii. p. 759, e. sqq. Etym. Mag. 718, 35, sqq. Eustath. ad Odyss. η. 276, 49. Footnote 833: Mr. Müller, however, disapproves of this etymology. “It is much more likely,” he says, “that in the melody to which the scolia were sung, certain liberties and irregularities were permitted, by which the extempore execution of the song was facilitated.”—History of Greek Literature, pt. i. chap. xiii. § 16, seq. -----