omit what happened to Amoebeus, a harp-player of our time, and a man of great science and skill in everything that related to music. He once came late to one of our banquets, and when he heard from one of the servants that we had all finished supper, he doubted what to do himself, until Sophon the cook came to him, and with a loud voice, so that every one might hear, recited to him these lines out of the Auge of Eubulus: O wretched man, why stand you at the doors? For as that delightful writer Antiphanes says, in his Friend of the Thebans,— A. We now are well supplied with everything; Of the ample dish, is warm, and swells, and boils, So rich a fragrance does it yield his senses. B. Say you the cook is living? A. There is near Scaled, wash'd, and stain'd with cochineal, and turn'd; He cracks and hisses; while the servant bastes The fish with vinegar: then there's Libyan silphium, B. Yet there are people found who dare to say A. And the comrade squid ATH.-VOL. III. 3 s The fiery blasts of glowing coal, adorns So, come in Do not delay, but enter: when we've dined We then can best endure what must be borne. And so he, meeting him in this appropriate manner, replies with these lines out of the Harper of Clearchus : Sup on white congers, and whatever else The breath is strengthen'd, and the voice of man And as there was great applause on this, and as every one with one accord called to him to come in, he went in and drank, and taking the lyre, sang to us in such a manner that we all marvelled at his skill on the harp, and at the rapidity of his execution, and at the tunefulness of his voice; for he appeared to me to be not at all inferior to that ancient Amabeus, whom Aristeas, in his History of Harp-players, speaks of as living at Athens, and dwelling near the theatre, and receiving an Attic talent a-day every time he went out singing. 18. And while some were discussing music in this manner, and others of the guests saying different things every day, but all praising the pastime, Masurius, who excelled in everything, and was a man of universal wisdom, (for as an interpreter of the laws he was inferior to no one, and he was always devoting some of his attention to music, for indeed he was able himself to play on some musical instruments,) said, -My good friends, Eupolis the comic poet says— And music is a deep and subtle science, And always finding out some novelty on which account Anaxilas, in his Hyacinthus, says- Brings forth each year some novel prodigy; for, my dear fellows, "Music," as the Harp-player of Theophilus says, "is a great and lasting treasure to all who have learnt it and know anything about it;" for it ameliorates the disposition, and softens those who are passionate and quarrelsome in their tempers. Accordingly, "Clinias the Pythagorean," as Chamaleon of Pontus relates, "who was a most unimpeachable man both in his actual conduct and also in his disposition, if ever it happened to him to get out of temper or indignant at anything, would take up his lyre and play upon it. And when people asked him the reason of this conduct, he used to say, Ia am pacifying myself.' And so, too, the Achilles of Homer was mollified by the music of the harp, which is all that Homer allots to him out of the spoils of Eetion, as being able to check his fiery temper. And he is the only hero in the whole Iliad who indulges in this music." Now, that music can heal diseases, Theophrastus asserts in his treatise on Enthusiasm, where he says that men with diseases in the loins become free from pain if any one plays a Phrygian air opposite to the part affected. And the Phrygians are the first people who invented and employed the harmony which goes by their name; owing to which circumstance it is that the flute-players among the Greeks have usually Phrygian and servile-sounding names, such as Sambas in Alcman, and Adon, and Telus. And in Hipponax we find Cion, and Codalus, and Babys, from whom the proverb arose about men who play worse and worse,-"He plays worse than Babys." But Aristoxenus ascribes the invention of this harmony to Hyagnis the Phrygian. 19. But Heraclides of Pontus, in the third book of his treatise on Music, says-" Now that harmony ought not to. be called Phrygian, just as it has no right either to be called Lydian. For there are three harmonies; as there are also three different races of Greeks-Dorians, Æolians, and Ionians: and accordingly there is no little difference between their manners. The Lacedæmonians are of all the Dorians the most strict in maintaining their national customs; and the Thessalians (and these are they who were the origin of the 1 See Iliad, ix. 186. Τὸν δ ̓ εὗρον φρένα τερπόμενον φόρμιγγι λιγείῃ, Which is translated by Pope : Amused at ease the godlike man they found, Of polish'd silver was its costly frame,) With this he soothes his angry soul, and sings Th' immortal deeds of heroes and of kings.-Iliad, ix. 245. Folian mes have preserved in 1 times very nearly the same Customs and instimees: ben me pugulamin of the Indians ans been a great deal changed and has que tirost many transitions, because they have in nations of tartarians have from mes rosebud whatever me do tme been their Masters. Accordingly, that species of many which the Dorians composed they called the Doraz hairy, and that which the Hollans used to sing they named the Lolan harmony, and the third they called the Imm, because they heard the Ionians sing it «Now the Dorian harmony is a manly and high-sounding strain, having nothing relaxed or mavy in IL but, rather, it is stern and vehement, not admitting any great variations or any sudden changes. The character of the Bolan harmony is pompons and inflated, and full of a sort of pride; and these Characteristics are very much in keeping with the fondness for Weeching, horses and for entertaining strangers which the people Half exhibits. There is nothing mean in it, but the style is elevated and fearless; and therefore we see that a fondness for banquets and for amorous indulgences is common to the whole nation, and they indulge in every sort of relaxation: which wecount they cherish the style of the Sub-Dorian vetemy; for that which they call the Eolian is, says Herafree, sort of modification of the Dorian, and is called And we may collect the character of this Eolian kave wowy also from what Lasus of Hermione says in his hymn Wythe Ceres in Hermione, where he speaks as follows:Ing the praise of Ceres and of Proserpine, Tus sacred wife of Clymenus, Melibea; But these Sub-Dorian songs, as they are called, are sung by Arly everybody. Since, then, there is a Sub-Dorian melody, it is with great propriety that Lasus speaks of Æolian harony. Pratinas, too, somewhere or other says Aim not at too sustain'd a style, nor yet At the relax'd Ionian harmony; But draw a middle furrow through your ground, And follow the Eolian muse in preference. And in what comes afterwards he speaks more plainly But to all men who wish to raise their voices, The Aolian harmony's most suitable. "Now formerly, as I have said, they used to call this the Æolian harmony, but afterwards they gave it the name of the Sub-Dorian, thinking, as some people say, that it was pitched lower on the flute than the Dorian. But it appears to me that those who gave it this name, seeing its inflated style, and the pretence to valour and virtue which was put forth in the style of the harmony, thought it not exactly the Dorian harmony, but to a certain extent like it: on which account they called it rodópiov, just as they call what is nearly white vólλEUKOV: and what is not absolutely sweet, but something near it, we call iлóуλvкu; so, too, we call what is not thoroughly Dorian ὑπόδωριον. 20. "Next in order let us consider the character of the Milesians, which the Ionians display, being very proud of the goodly appearance of their persons; and full of spirit, hard to be reconciled to their enemies, quarrelsome, displaying no philanthropic or cheerful qualities, but rather a want of affection and friendship, and a great moroseness of disposition: on which account the Ionian style of harmony also is not flowery nor mirthful, but austere and harsh, and having a sort of gravity in it, which, however, is not ignoble-looking; on which account that tragedy has a sort of affection for that harmony. But the manners of the Ionians of the present day are more luxurious, and the character of their present music is very far removed from the Ionian harmony we have been speaking of. And men say that Pythermus the Teian wrote songs such as are called Scolia in this kind of harmony; and that it was because he was an Ionian poet that the harmony got the name of Ionian. This is that Pythermus whom Ananius or Hipponax mentions in his Iambics in this way : Pythermus speaks of gold as though all else were nought. And Pythermus's own words are as follows:— All other things but gold are good for nothing. Therefore, according to this statement, it is probable that Pythermus, as coming from those parts. adapted the character of his melodies to the disposition of the Ionians; on which account I suppose that his was not actually the Ionian harmony, but that it was a harmony adapted in some admirable manner to the purpose required. And those are contemptible |