Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/55

33 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 33 called ncithara, or, more precisely, phorminx*, an instrument by which dances were also accompanied. When the phorminx was used to lead a dancing-chorus, its music was of course continued as long as the dancing lasted f ; whilst, at the recitation of* epic poetry, it was only em- ployed in the introduction (ava/3o//), and merely served to give the voice the necessary pitch J. A simple accompaniment of this description is very well adapted to the delivery of epic poetry ; and in the present day the heroic lays of the Servians, which have most faithfully retained their original character, are delivered in an elevated tone of voice by wandering minstrels, after a few introductory notes, for which the gurla, a stringed instrument of the simplest construction, is employed. That a musical instrument of this nature was not necessary for the recital of epic poetry is proved by the fact, that Hesiod did not make use of the cithara, and on that account is said to have been excluded from the musical contests at Delphi, where this instrument was held in the highest estimation, as the favourite of Apollo himself. On the other hand, the poets of this Boeotian school merely carried a laurel stafF§, as a token of the dignity bestowed by Apollo and the Muses, as the sceptre was the badge of judges and heralds. In later times, as music was more highly cultivated, the delivery of the two species of poetry became more clearly defined. The rhap- sodists, or chaunters of ep"c poetry, are distinguished from the citharodi, or singers to the cithara ||. The expression papioc6g, papo)Ce7i', signifies nothing more than the peculiar method of epic recitation ; and it is an error which has been the occasion of much perplexity in researches re- specting Homer, and which has moreover found its way into ordinary language, to endeavour to found upon this word conclusions with respect to the composition and connexion of the epic lays, and to infer from it that they consisted of scattered fragments subsequently joined to- only from the expression Qoopiyyi KiSatffyn, which often occurs, hut from the con verse expression, xifupu Qaepiguv, which is used in the Odyssey: — x.rpv V h X'i '^ xUoi^n Tt^ixaWlu. Qnxiv •tv/Aiui, a; p' who's vrccpu. /tvr, uiifiuXXiro Ka?Jv ailhiv. — Od. i. 153 — 5. f See, for example, Od. iv. 17: — //.Ira 2s fftpm ipiXfira 6l7o; aoio'os <pap/jii£at' S«/4i o xv/iitrrvTiisi kcct avrov; ft.oXrriii ti'*-pX ovrii ^/vsi/ov kccto, [tAaaovs. Hence the expression, ipo^'^ut <£vs/3oA.Xst auhiv, Od. i. 1 55 ; viii. 2G6 ; xvii. 2G2 ; Hymn to Hermes, v. 426. tu-x, 11, *"* Xiyius xiPupi&v Vtipuir' ccftfiaXdo'w, fcnn oi ol <r-xiro Qwvri. On upfloXu, in the sense* of prelude, see Pindar, Pyth. i. 7 ; compare Aristoph. Pac. 830 ; Theocrit. vi. 20. I pass over the testimonies of the grammarians. § pu.Sh'oo;, aiffaKo;, also called o-xSjtfTjov. See Hesiod, Theogon. 30 ; Pindar, Isthra iii. 55 ; where, according to Dissen. pd.fco'o;, as the symbolical sign of the poetical office, is also ascribed to Homer, Pausan. ix. 30 ; x. 7 ; Gbttling ad Hesiod, p. 13. note I D
 * That the phorminx and cithara were nearly ihe same instrument appears not
 * See, for example, Plato, Leg. ii. p. 058, and the inscriptions quoted above, p. 32,