Calendar Parents
Contact Us Alumni Members Directors Log Out Log In
×

Log In

Username

Password

Forgot Password?

The University High School Band
The History and Theory of Music

Music in Ancient Greece

μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος
οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκε...

Sing, goddess, the rage of Achilles, son of Peleus,
which brought innumerable woes upon the Achaeans…


- opening lines of the Iliad

With these words began the Western literary tradition. Homer's Iliad tells the story of the Trojan War, and its continuation, the Odyssey, tells of the legendary return of the Greek warrior Odysseus. These texts are some of the oldest surviving literature in world history and represent the beginning of the Western canon. They are beautiful texts which contain masterful insights into human nature, with all its pride, greed, heroism, and honor. Homer's stories are referenced in hundreds of other works of literature.

Though otherwise fiercely independent and often in conflict with each other, the Greek city-states were united by a common literary traditions, language, and other cultural activities like the Olympic Games.

The city-states were also united by their religious traditions. The pantheon ("all the gods") of Greek mythology included many figures reverenced throughout the area, though each city had its local favorites. The Greek gods were believed to reside on Mount Olympus. Some of the important figures included:

  • Zeus, god of the sky and king over the other gods
  • Poseidon, god of the sea
  • Hades, god of the underworld
  • Hera, goddess of marriage and mothers
  • Ares, the god of war
  • Athena, goddess of war and wisdom
  • Apollo, god of the sun
  • Artemis, goddess of hunting
  • Dionysius, god of wine
  • Aphrodite, goddess of love
  • Hephaestus, god of fire
  • Hermes, the gods' messenger
  • Nike, the goddess of victory
  • Nemesis, the goddess of revenge

The very word music comes from the nine Muses (Μοῦσαι), daughters of Apollo who inspired artists. The Greek language is inflected with musical qualities like pitch and duration, and so “music” covered a broad range of disciplines. Calliope, Erato, and Polyhymnia inspired different types of poetry; Thalia and Melpomene inspired comedy and tragedy; Clio inspired history, and Terpsichore dance. Only one of the Muses, Euterpe, inspired what we today limit the word “music” to.

The Epitaph of Seikilos

The most famous musician in the Greek legendarium is Orpheus, the son of King Oeagrus of Thrace and the Muse Calliope. He was taught to play the lyre by Apollo and figures in many important myths. In one story, Orpheus saved the Argonauts from the Sirens by performing a song more alluring than theirs. In another, Orpheus (nearly) rescued his dead wife Eurydice from the Underworld by so charming the god Hades with his music that he agreed to let her go. The lyre of Orpheus became the symbol for music in Western culture and his myths have been the subject of many compositions.

Musicologists actually have a decent idea of what ancient Greek music sounded like. The Greeks wrote extensively about music, and a few segments of their ancient letter-based notation system have been preserved, most notably the Epitaph of Seikilos, discovered in Smyrna in 1883, and the Delphic Hymns, discovered in Delphi ten years later.

The text of the Epitaph is a short poem in Greek which reads, "While you live, shine | have no grief at all | life is only for a short time | and time demands his due.” Above each word of the text is a Greek letter indicating a scale degree on which the words would have been sung. The scale is usually interpreted to be a Mixolydian diatonic scale, which will be discussed in the lesson on modes. The Delphic Hymns are songs written in honor of Apollo.

Compositions

Delphic Hymn

Epitaph of Seikilos

Kolon Exasimon