Music.—The Greek term μουσική (music) included much more than we mean by music. It was applied to the education of the mind as opposed to γυμναστική (gymnastics), the education of the body. In the narrower sense, however, it corresponded to the modern term, and to this the Greeks from early times attached a high importance. It was the effect of music upon the character which appealed to them above all things, and it was this which caused Plato to banish from his ideal state certain modes of music which would, he thought, be injurious to its well-being. These modes or "harmonies" were named after race-divisions. We find the Dorian, the Aeolic, the Ionic, the Lydian, and the Phrygian. The Dorian was universally approved for its manly qualities, but Plato rejected the Lydian as useless and effeminate.95
Of the stringed instruments used among the Greeks, the lyre was the most prominent. There were two varieties of this, the kithara and the lyre proper. The kithara, an instrument with a large wooden sounding board and upright arms, was played chiefly by professional musicians, such as the kitharist represented on a fine vase in the Third Vase Room, who has won a victory at one of the great musical contests (E 460; Pedestal 7). The illustration (fig. 252), taken from an amphora of the fifth century (E 256, Case H, Third Vase Room), shows Apollo playing on the kithara, which is supported by a band passing round his left wrist, but leaving the fingers of the left hand free to play on the strings. In his right hand he holds the plectrum, which is attached by a cord to the instrument. The plectrum was of various forms, but its most essential part was the tooth for catching and sounding the wires. The lyre proper (fig. 253) is distinguished by its curving arms and sounding board of tortoiseshell (hence called chelys). The wooden framework and parts of the shell of a Greek lyre found in a tomb near Athens are shown in Case 56 (No. 642). As the popular instrument, the lyre was naturally taught in schools. Two interesting Greek vases (Nos. 643 and 644), exhibited in these Cases, give pictures of boys receiving music lessons at a school. In one instance a boy is learning the lyre, in another the boy is playing the flutes, while the master, who holds a plectrum, is playing on a lyre. Domestic animals are freely admitted, and the discipline seems far from severe.
As the school scene shows, flute-playing, though condemned by Plato and Aristotle,96 was commonly taught at Athens. Ancient flutes are distinguished from the modern instruments by the vibrating reed which formed the mouthpiece, and by the fact that they were always played in pairs. Hence the frequency with which pairs of ancient flutes are found. Two of sycamore wood (No. 645; Case 56) were discovered in the same tomb (near Athens) as the lyre described above (No. 642). Another pair of flutes (in bronze) from Italy (No. 646; fig. 254) have their mouthpieces in the form of busts of Maenads. A terracotta shows a pair of female musicians (No. 647) playing with a drum and double flutes. To assist the playing of the two flutes together a mouth-band was often worn, as may be seen from designs on vases, e.g., on a cup of Epiktetos (E 38; Third Vase Room), and on some of the Cypriote sculptures in the Gold Ornament Room passage.
A framed impression from a Greek hymn to Apollo inscribed on stone is here exhibited (No. 648). Musical notes, indicated by letters of the Greek alphabet in various positions, are placed at intervals over the letters to guide the singer. The inscription was found at Delphi, where other inscriptions of a similar character have come to light.
Flute-playing was very popular with the Romans, among whom it was considered the proper accompaniment of every kind of ceremony.97 For military purposes they used several other wind instruments. Two bronze mouthpieces (No. 649) in Case 55 may perhaps come from long straight trumpets (tubae). The Roman curved horn (cornu) is represented by two large specimens in bronze (No. 650) placed at the top of Cases 55, 56. The terracotta bugle in Case 55 is probably a model of the Roman bucina (No. 651).
The simplest of all ancient wind instruments is the rustic Pan's pipe (syrinx), usually formed of seven or eight hollow reeds fastened together with wax. The Greek Pan's pipe has the reeds of equal length, the different notes being produced by the different positions of the natural joints of the reed. An example may be seen among the Cypriote sculptures in the Gold Ornament Room passage. The Roman syrinx had its lower edge sloping, the result of cutting off the reeds immediately below the natural joints. A terracotta statuette in Case 55 (No. 652) represents a shepherd boy playing on a Pan's pipe of the Roman kind, and a marble relief from Ephesus at the top of Case 54 (No. 653) shows a beardless man seated with a large syrinx in his hands. The Greek inscription tells us that the relief was dedicated by Ebenos, a "first flute," to Hierokles his piper.
It was the Pan's pipe which gave Ktesibios of Alexandria (third century B.C.; cf. p. 120) the model on which he constructed his water-organ, an instrument which became popular with the Romans. A Roman "contorniate" shown in Case 58 has one of these water-organs represented upon it. The air was supplied by water pressure and the notes were played by means of a key-board.
Cymbals were largely used by the Greeks and Romans in religious ceremonies of an ecstatic character, such as the mysteries of Demeter and Kore and the worship of Kybele. Among the cymbals in Case 56 is an interesting pair (No. 654; fig. 254) inscribed in Greek with the name of Oata their owner (Ὠάτας εἰμί). They were originally joined together by a chain, part of which still remains. In the lower part of Cases 55-56 is a considerable variety of bells in bronze (No. 655).
(643) and (644) Cat. of Vases, III., E 171, 172; (645) For the structure of the ancient flute, cf. especially Baumeister, Denkmäler, s.v. Flöten; (648) Bull. de Corr. Hell., XVIII., pl. 21; (652) For the syrinx, cf. Tillyard in Journ. Hell. Stud., XXVII. (1907), p. 167 ff.; (653) Cat. of Sculpt., II., 1271.
See in general, Camb. Comp. to Gk. Stud., pp. 370-374; Daremberg and Saglio, s.v. Musica.
Dancing.—Dancing among the Greeks and Romans differed in many ways from our own. In the first place dances (which were generally accompanied by the flutes) were largely associated with religion. Plato in his Laws gave it as his opinion that, in imitation of the Egyptian example, all dancing should be made to take a religious character.98 This ceremonial side of Greek dancing is illustrated by a primitive stone vessel from Cyprus (No. 655), which represents three draped women dancing in a ring. Among the Romans the processions of the Salii or dancing priests of Mars are among the best-known examples of religious dancing.
In private life dancing was regarded by the Greeks rather as an entertainment to be provided by hired performers than as a recreation in which guests could take their part.99 Hence with them men and women did not dance together as in the modern fashion. The demand for dancing girls to entertain the guests at banquets led to the training of large numbers of this class. A vase (No. 656), placed in the lower part of Case 54, shows dancing girls being instructed in their art. They repeatedly appear on Greek vases dancing before the feasting guests (e.g. on E 68 in Case E in the Third Vase Room, the interior of a cup in the style of Brygos). These girls often carried castanets when dancing, as may be seen on the lekythos (No. 657) and in the relief from Melos (No. 658).
Greek women sometimes danced in private among themselves, especially on the occasion of some domestic festival.100 It is with this kind of dancing that we should probably associate the terracotta figurines (fig. 255). They illustrate the important part played by the arms and the drapery in ancient dancing, which was largely mimetic. Ovid notes that supple arms are one of the principal qualifications for a good dancer.101 This tradition was undoubtedly inherited from Greek dancing, for (religious rites apart) the Romans regarded the art as an unseemly one, so much so that Cicero remarked "that practically no one except a madman danced when sober."102
(656) Cat. of Vases, III., E 185; (657) Ibid., E 642: (658) Cat. of Terracottas, B 370. For Greek dancing in general, cf. Emmanuel, La danse grecque.
95: Plat., Rep. iii. 398-9.
96: Plato, Rep. iii. 399 D; Arist., Pol. viii. 6, 5 ff.
97: Ovid, Fasti, vi. 659 f.:
cantabat fanis, cantabat tibia ludis,
cantabat maestis tibia funeribus.
98: Plat., Leg. 799 A.
99: Cf. the famous story of Hippokleides (Herodot., vi. 129), whose dancing lost him a bride.
100: Aristoph., Lys. 408; Athen., xv. 668 D.
101: Ars. Amat. i. 595:
si vox est, canta; si mollia bracchia, salta.
102: Pro Mur. 6; cf. Nepos, Epam. 1.