Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/44

 28 HISTORY OF ART IN ANTIQUITY. however, the nature of their legendary lore would be enough to prove their rare artistic gifts. They certainly were a vigorous, impassioned race, whose imagination, by turn graceful, tender, melancholy, and lively, is reflected in the myths which go by their name. They were great lovers of music, and, as the inventors of the flute, gave proof of real originality of mind. If not the first who had brought sounds out of the reed, as the Hellenes said, they had shown how much could be made of the simple instrument. On the margin of Lake Aulokrene, "the spring of the flute," 1 it was further alleged, hard by Kelaense, grew reeds of superior quality, emitting the most resonant sounds. The close relationship between Armenians and Phrygians has been referred to ; now, in the Armenian language elegen signifies reed, a word Greek lexicographers were unable to explain, albeit rendered familiar to them from about the seventh century B.C. by the elegos (whence elegy), poems of Callinus of Ephesus, and Archilochus of Paros, 2 which were heard throughout the cities of Ionia with due accompaniment of the flute. The Greeks passed readily from one mood to another, and took great delight in opposing the lyre to the flute ; the deep dulcet tones of the former lulled the soul, whilst the shrill penetrating notes of the latter excited the nerves to quick resolve, often to deadly strife. 3 ' 1 DUNCKER, Geschichte des Alterthums, torn. i. p. 384. BERNHARDY (Grundriss der Griechischen Litteratur, 101, nn.) discusses at length the more or less absurd derivations put forth by Greek grammarians, in their vain attempts to prove the Greek origin of eA.eyos. He is of opinion that it was an old Asiatic word, the real meaning of which was lost in its passage across Asia Minor and the yEgean. BOETTICHER (Arica, 34) derives ?Aeyos from elegn, reed, and elegnery, a flute made of reeds. On the other hand, HANS FLACH (Geschichte des Griechischen Lyrik, etc., 8, 1883, torn. i. p. 158, note 2) connects eXeyos with a different group of Armenian words : jegern orjetern, misfortune; jejerakan,jelarakan, tragic, fatal, whence elegy, funeral song, to weep, to lament, etc. In our estimation Boetticher's theory, which would connect elegos with flute, is more likely to be right ; for the word, at the out- set, had not the exclusive meaning of plaintive poetry, and elegn comes nearer elegos han. jelern,jererakan, and the like adduced by Flach. The hypothesis, too, is more consonant with what we know of elegiac poetry, in which Callinus (778 B.C.), Archilochus (685), Tyrtaeus (684), Mimnermus, and Solon (558) excelled. Elegy was sometimes melancholy and mournful, sometimes amorous and martial; used, too, by moralists and politicians to air their ideas, or explain away their public action. The themes might be divergent, but the rhythm never varied, and as long as such pieces were sung, it was to music expressly composed for the flute. 3 ARISTOTLE, Politico, VIII. vii. 8, 9. 8 PLATO, Republic, iii. p. 399.