5. Literary Sources
- APOLLONIUS "RHODIUS" (AP. RH.)
-
- IV.891-911: And soon
they saw a fair island, Anthemoessa, where the
clear-voiced Sirens, daughters of Achelous, used to
beguile with their sweet songs whoever cast anchor there,
and they destroy him. /(vv. 895-6) Them lovely
Terpsichore, one of the Muses, bare, united with
Achelous/; and once they tended Demeter's noble daughter
still unwed, and sang to her in chorus; and at that time
they were fashioned in part like birds and in part like
maidens to behold. And ever on the watch from their place
of prospect with its fair haven, often from many had they
taken away their sweet return, consuming them with the
waste desire; and suddenly to the heroes, too, they sent
forth from their lips a lily-like voice (opa leirion).
And they were already about to cast from the ship the
hawesers to the shore, had not Thracian Orpheus, son of
Oeagrus, stringing in his hands his Bistonian lyre (phorminx),
rung forth the hasty snatch of a rippling melody so that
their ears might be filled with the sound of his
twanging; and the lyre (phorminx) overcame the
maidens' voice. And the west wind and the sounding wave
rushing astern bore the ship on; and the Sirens kept
uttering their ceaseless song. (Translation: Seaton 1980)
- DIODORUS SICULUS (DIOD. SIC.)
-
- V.49: This wedding of Cadmus
and Harmonia was the first, we are told, for which the
gods provided the marriage-feast, and Demeter, becoming
enamoured of Iasion, presented him with the fruit of the
corn, Hermes gave a lyre (lyra), Athena the
renowed necklace and a robe and a flute (auloi),
and Electra the sacred rites of the Great Mother of the
Gods, as she is called, together with cymbals (kymbala)
and kettledrums (tympana) and the instruments of
her ritual; and Apollo played upon the lyre (kitharisai)
and the Muses upon their flutes (aulesai), and the
rest of the gods spoke them fair and gave the pair their
aid in the celebration of the wedding. After this Cadmus,
they say, in accordance with the oracle he had received,
founded Thebes in Boeotia, while Iasion married Cybelê
and beget Corybas. And after Iasion had been removed into
the circle of the gods, Dardanus and Cybelê and Corybas
conveyed to Asia the sacred rites of the Mother of the
Gods and removed with them to Phrygia. Thereupon Cybelê,
joining herself to the first Olympus, begat Alcê and
called the goddess Cybelê after herself; and Corybas
gave the name of Corybantes to all who, in celebrating
the rites of his mother, acted like men possessed, and
married Thebê, the daughter of Cilix. In like manner he
also transferred the flute (auloi) from Samothrace
to Phrygia and to Lyrnessus the lyre (lyra) which
Hermes gave and which at a later time Achilles took for
himself when he sacked that city. (Translation: Oldfather
1970)
- HERODOTUS (Hdt.)
-
- VI.60: Moreover the
Lacedaemonians are like the Egyptians, in that their
heralds and flute-players (auletai) and cooks
inherit the craft from their fathers, a flute-player's
son (auletes) being a flute-player, and a cook's
son a cook, and a herald's son a herald (auletes te
auleteo ginetai kai mageiros mageirou kai keryx kerykos),
no others usurp their places, making themselves heralds
by loudness of voice; they ply their craft by right of
birth. (Translation: Godley 1971)
HOMER (Hom.)
- Iliad (Il.)
- II.594-600: There
were the men of Pteleos and Helos, and of Dorion,
where the Muses met Thamyris the Thracian and put a
stop to his singing, even as he was going /(v. 596)
from the home of Oechalian Eurytus in Oechalia./ For
he has boasted that he would be victoroius even if
the Muses themselves, daughters of aegis-bearing
Zeus, were singing. In their fury they struck him
blind: /(vv. 599-600) they took away his divine gift
of song (aoiden thespesien aphelonto), and
made him forget his kitharist's skill (eklelathon
kitharistyn)/. (Translation: Barker 1984)
- II.688-691: For he
lay in idleness among the ships, the swift-fooded,
goodly Achilles, in wrath because of the fair-haired
girl Briseïs, whom he had taken out of Lyrnessus
after sore toil, when he wasted Lyrnessus and the
walls of Thebe. (Translation: Murray 1976)
- IX.186-189: [...]
they (sc.: Myrmidons) found him beguiling his heart
with the clear-sounding phorminx. It was
beautiful and skilfully decorated, and the crossbar
on it was silver: Achilles had chosen it from the
spoils when he sacked the city of Eëtion.
(Translation: Barker 1984)
- XVI.152-154: And
in the side-traces he set the godley Pedasus that on
a time Achilles had brought away, when he took the
city of Eëtion. (Translation: Murray 1976)
- XIX.54-59: But when
all the Achaeans were gathered together, Achilles,
swift of foot, arose among them and said: "Son
of Atres, was this then the better for us twain, for
thee and for me, what time with grief ar heart /(v.
58) we raged in soul-devouring strife for the sake of
a girl?/ Would that amid the ships Artemis had slain
her with an arrow on the day when I took her from out
the spoil after I had laid waste Lyrnessus!"
(Translation: Murray 1976)
- XXIII.826-829:
Then the son of Peleus set forth a mass of rough-cast
iron, which of old the mighty strength of Eëtion was
wont to hurl; but him had swift-footed goodly
Achilles slain, and bare this away on his ships with
his other possessions. (Translation: Murray 1976)
- Odyssey (Od.)
- VIII.223-229:
[Odysseus said:] "Yet with men of former days I
will not seek to vie, with Heracles or with Eurytus
of Oechalia, who strove even with the immortals in
archery. Wherefore great Eurytus died soon, nor did
old age come upon him in his halls, for Apollo waxed
wroth and slew him, because he had challenged him to
a contest with the bow." (Translation: Murray
1976-1980)
- PAUSANIAS (Paus.)
-
- X.7.2-3: The oldest
contest and the one for which they first offered prizes,
was, according to tradition, the singing of a hymn to the
god. The man who sang and won the prize was Chrysothemis
of Crete, whose father Carmanor is said to have cleansed
Apollo. After Chrysothemis, says tradition, Philammon won
with a song, and after him his son Thamyris. But they say
that Orpheus, a proud man and conceited about his
mysteries, and Musaeus, who copied Orpheus in everything,
refused, it is said, to submit to the competition in
musical skill (mousike). (Translation: Jones 1954)
- PINDAR
-
- Pythian
(Pyth.) 3, 86-92: But a life
free from reverses was the fate neither of Pêleus, son
of Aeacus, nor of god-like Cadmus. Yet we learn that they
attained /(v. 89) the highest happiness of all mortal
men, in that they heard the Muses of the golden snood
singing on mount Pêlion, and in seven-gated Thebes, what
time Cadmus took to wife Harmonia, with those full-orbed
eyes; and when Peleus wedded Thetys, the famous daughter
of wise Nêreus. (Translation: Sandys 1978)
- PSEUDO-PLUTARCH (ps.-Plut.)
-
- De musica
(Mus.) 1145e-1146a: Thus to
show that music is of value in many situations, his poem
describes Achilles digesting his anger with the help of
music which he has learned from the wise Cheiron:
"They found him beguiling his heart with the
clear-sounding phorminx. It was beautiful and
skilfully decorated, and the crossbar on it was silver:
he had chosen it from the spoils when he sacked the city
of Eëtion. With it he was giving delight to his heart,
and singing the famous deeds of men."
- "Notice," Homer is saying, "how music
should be used, since it was suitable for Achilles, son
of the most upright Peleus, to sing of the glories of men
and the deeds of demigods." [f]
Homer as also shown us the occasion which accords with
its use, revealing it as a valuable and pleasant exercise
for a man not actively occupied. Achilles was a man of
war and action, but he was taking no part in the perils
of war because of his anger with Agamemnon: hence Homer
thought it suitable for the hero to sharpen his spirit
with the noblest songs, so that he should be prepared to
go out into battle, as he was soon to do; and this is
plainly what he was doing as he recounted deeds of long
ago.
- ‘That is what the ancient music was like, [1146a] and what it was useful for. Thus
we hear of Heracles, Achilles, and many others making use
of music, and their teacher, according to tradition, was
the wise Cheiron, who gave instruction not only in music
but in justice and in medicine as well. (Translation:
Barker 1984)
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