Zambelis Spyros
Παλαιό Μέλος
Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 51 (2011) 26–48
2011
Cecilia Nobili
Threnodic Elegy in Sparta
OST STUDIES concerning the new elegy of Simonides
for the fallen at Plataea acknowledge the Spartan
commission of the ode and the role played by the
Spartan leader Pausanias in the extant fragments. It has been
argued that the poem was composed to celebrate the Spartan
soldiers who died at Plataea and was performed at a public
festival which involved cultic ceremonies at the common
graves.1 The Spartans, in fact, were buried on the battlefield
according to the Spartan custom, and Thucydides testifies that
they received offerings by the inhabitants of Plataea and were
venerated as heroes.2 Later sources attest that an annual festival
called Eleutheria was instituted, possibly by the Athenian
Aristides, in order to honour the Plataiomachoi, but the fifth-
1 A. Aloni, “L’elegia di Simonide dedicata alla battaglia di Platea,” ZPE
102 (1994) 9–22, and “The Proem of Simonides’ Plataea Elegy and the
Circumstances of its Performance,” in D. Boedeker and D. Sider (eds.), The
New Simonides: Contexts of Praise and Desire (New York 2001) 86–105; C. O.
Pavese, “Elegia di Simonide agli spartiati per Platea,” ZPE 107 (1995) 1–26;
G. Burzacchini, “Note al nuovo Simonide,” Eikasmos 6 (1995) 21–38; L.
Sbardella, “Achille e gli eroi di Platea,” ZPE 129 (2000) 1–11; D. Asheri,
“Simonide, Achille e Pausania figlio di Cleombroto,” QUCC 77 (2004) 67–
73. A. Schachter, “Simonides’ Elegy on Plataia: the Occasion of its Performance,”
ZPE 123 (1998) 25–30, and P.-J. Shaw, “Lords of Hellas, Old
Men of the Sea: The Occasion of Simonides’ Elegy on Plataea,” in The New
Simonides 164–183, acknowledge the Spartan commission but locate the performance
in other contexts, the Isthmian games or the shrine of Achilles
near Sigeum.
2 Thuc. 3.58.4; Isoc. Plat. 14.61. On Spartan burial customs see M.
Nafissi, La nascita del kosmos. Studi sulla storia e la società di Sparta (Perugia 1991)
290–341; N. Richer, “Aspect des funérailles à Sparte,” CCG 5 (1994) 51–96.
M
CECILIA NOBILI 27
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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 51 (2011) 26–48
century origin of this festival is not certain and has often been
questioned.3 As a matter of fact, we cannot confidently state for
which occasion the poem was composed; nevertheless, the
literary genre to which this poem seems to belong requires a
public occasion such as a festival or a musical agon.
The discovery of the papyrus has confirmed a thesis advanced
well before by Bowie, according to whom elegy could
have been performed not only in the private setting of the
symposium but also at public occasions.4 Several features of the
Plataea elegy recur in odes performed before large audiences:
the mythic content, the substantial length, the proem dedicated
to a semi-god, and, finally, the epic language. A poem like this
certainly had the function to recall to everyone’s memory the
events that took place during the battle, yet a strong threnodic
character cannot be denied. The poet laments the death of
those who died young and declares that by assuring them
eternal kleos he will provide a compensation for the grief of
their families and city. The funeral origin of elegy and its
mournful character has often been denied by scholars, since no
attested elegy has overt threnodic function.5 Nevertheless, as
3 Plut. Arist. 21; Diod. 11.29.1–2; Strab. 9.2.31; Paus. 9.25.5. See the
objections of J. N. Bremmer, “The Rise of the Hero Cult and the New
Simonides,” ZPE 158 (2006) 15–26, and previously L. Prandi, Platea, momenti
e problemi della storia di una polis (Padua 1988) 153–179.
4 E. L. Bowie, “Early Greek Elegy, Symposium, and Public Festival,”
JHS 106 (1986) 13–35; cf. A. Aloni and A. Iannucci, L’elegia e l’epigramma
dalle origini al V secolo (Florence 2007) 74–85, 199–203.
5 T. G. Rosenmeyer, “Elegiac and Elegos,” CSCA 1 (1968) 217–231;
Bowie, JHS 106 (1986) 13–35; K. Bartol, Greek Elegy and Iambus. Studies in
Ancient Literary Sources (Poznan 1993) 25–28; L. K. Kowerski, Simonides on the
Persian Wars. A Study on the Elegiac Verses of the “New Simonides” (New York
2005) 115–119. The existence of some form of threnodic elegy connected
with ἔλεγος and with funerary epigram is substantially accepted by B.
Gentili, “Epigramma ed elegia,” in L’épigramme grecque (Vandoevres/Geneva
1967) 37–81; M. L. West, Studies in Greek Elegy and Iambus (Berlin/New York
1974) 4–7. The problem of threnodic elegy has been recently reexamined:
C. Nobili, “Omero e l’elegia trenodica,” Acme 59 (2006) 3–24; Aloni and
28 THRENODIC ELEGY IN SPARTA
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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 51 (2011) 26–48
Page stated, a primeval form of funeral elegy was performed in
the Peloponnese in archaic times and was recalled by later
authors such as Euripides in the elegiac lament of Andromache
and Callimachus in the Bath of Pallas.6 Aloni argued that this
form of elegy might represent the best antecedent for Simonides’
elegy, given also its Spartan commission.7 In this paper I
investigate the characteristics of this obscure school of elegiac
poets and try to show to what extent they might be connected
with Sparta.
The first aulodes
The scanty sources concerning the origins of elegy attest that
it was first performed by aulodes. Elegy developed side by side
with the aulodic and auletic nomoi and was originally conceived
as an aulodic nomos, i.e. as a kind of song in elegiac
distichs, performed to the accompaniment of the aulos. The
pseudo-plutarchean treatise On Music says that ἐν ἀρϱχῇ γὰρϱ
ἐλεγεῖα μεμελοποιημένα οἱ αὐλῳδοὶ ᾖδον8 and lists a series of
aulodic nomoi, including a nomos called Ἔλεγοι:9 it must have
___
Iannucci, L’elegia 13–19, 203–204; A. Aloni, “Elegy,” in F. Budelmann (ed.),
The Cambridge Companion to Greek Lyric (Cambridge 2009) 168–188.
6 D. Page, “The Elegiacs in Euripides’ Andromache,” in Greek Poetry and Life.
Essays Presented to Gilbert Murray (Oxford 1936) 206–230.
7 Aloni, ZPE 102 (1994) 9–22 and in The New Simonides 86–105. On other
similarities between the fragments in the Plataea papyrus and various kinds
of laments (elegies and epigrams) see Kowerski, Simonides 130–145.
8 [Plut.] Mus. 8, Mor. 1134A. Other authors do not mention the original
connection between aulody and elegy but consider either Mimnermus, Callinus,
or Archilochus as the inventors of elegy (Marius Plot. Sacerd.,
Gramm.Lat. VI 509–510 = Mimn. test. 20 G.-P.; Didym. fr.1, p.387 Schmidt
ap. Orion s.v. ἔλεγος). Cf. Aloni and Iannucci, L’elegia 111–114.
9 Mus. 3, 1132C: οἱ δὲ νόμοι οἱ κϰατὰ τούτους, ἀγαθὲ Ὀνησίκϰρϱατες,
αὐλῳδικϰοὶ ἦσαν· Ἀπόθετος, Ἔλεγοι, Κωμάρϱχιος, Σχοινίων, Κηπίων τε κϰαὶ
†Δεῖος κϰαὶ Τρϱιμερϱής· ὑστέρϱῳ δὲ χρϱόνῳ κϰαὶ τὰ Πολυμνήστεια κϰαλούμενα
ἐξευρϱέθη. The corrupt Δεῖος might stand for Ἐπικϰήδειος, as Westphal suggests.
Cf. F. Lasserre, Plutarque. De la musique (Lausanne 1954) 22–27; A.
Barker, Greek Musical Writings I (New Brunswick 1984) 251–252; M.
Paterlini, “I nomoi di Clona,” RCCM 43 (2001) 105–108.
CECILIA NOBILI 29
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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 51 (2011) 26–48
been a threnodic nomos and have shared many features with
the ἐλεγεῖα. The gloomy character of early aulody is confirmed
by a passage of Plutarch: ἡ θρϱηνῳδία κϰαὶ ὁ ἐπικϰήδειος αὐλὸς ἐν
ἀρϱχῇ πάθος κϰινεῖ κϰαὶ δάκϰρϱυον ἐμβάλλει.10 As we shall see,
many of the sources on primeval forms of elegy and aulody
allude to their threnodic features.
The first reported aulode is Olympus, who lived in Phrygia
and was credited with being the pupil of Marsyas; he was
believed the first to teach the musical nomoi to the Greeks.11
According to some sources there was a second aulete named
Olympus who was a descendant of the former, but there is no
good reason to think that they originally were two distinct
figures.12 The most famous invention attributed to the latter
was an auletic nomos (musical piece for solo aulos) for Apollo,
called polykephalos, while the first one invented an aulodic
nomos (solo or choral song accompanied by the aulos), called
harmateion. Olympus was also considered the inventor of the
synaulia, the unison playing of two or more auloi at funerals.
The Suda (s.v. Ὄλυμπος) says that he was a ποιητὴς μελῶν κϰαὶ
ἐλεγείων, but what constantly recurs in the testimonies is the
funerary character of his playing: he wrote either θρϱηνητικϰοὶ
νόμοι or ἐπιτυμβίδιοι.13 Moreover, the polykephalos nomos
certainly had a gloomy melody, for Pindar attests that it was
first invented by Athena: it imitated the threnos sung by the
heads of the Gorgons over the killing of Medusa by Perseus
and took its name from this episode;14 the same can be said of
10 Plut. Quest.conv. 657A. Cf. also [Arist.] Prob. 19.1, 917b19–21.
11 [Plut.] Mus. 5, 1132F; 7, 1133D–F; Suda s.v. Ξυναυλίαν and Ὄλυμπος;
schol. Ar. Eq. 9. Cf. H. Flach, Geschichte der griechischen Lyrik (Tübingen 1883)
118–146; on the history of ancient aulody, M. L. West, Ancient Greek Music
(Oxford 1992) 327–340.
12 Cf. R. Ballerio, Plutarco. La musica (Milan 2000) 32–33.
13 Suda s.v. Ξυναυλίαν; Poll. 4.78. Cf. Flach, Geschichte 118–146.
14 Pind. Pyth. 12.7–27; schol. Pind. Pyth. 12.39. See West, Ancient Greek
Music 214; E. Cingano, Pindaro. Le Pitiche (Milan 1995) 672–680; J.-P.
30 THRENODIC ELEGY IN SPARTA
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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 51 (2011) 26–48
the harmateion, which appears in a passage of Euripides’ Orestes
and is unequivocally explained by the the glossae and scholia as
the threnos sung as the chariot dragged Hector’s body.15
Olympus inaugurated a school of Phrygian aulody, whose
most renowned member was Mimnermus; he was both a
famous aulete (coming from a family of auletes) and a composer
of elegies.16 Mimnermus himself composed threnodic
nomoi, as is shown by Ps.-Plutarch’s mention of the nomos
kradias (fig-branch nomos) performed during the Ionian festival
of the Thargelia: the mournful sound of the aulos accompanied
the flagellation of the φαρϱμακϰός with fig-branches.17
Another important school of aulodes developed in the
Peloponnese, and even though it is often connected to the
Pythian musical contests, it had many contacts with Sparta.18
The first exponent of this school was the aulode Clonas, who
lived in the second half of the seventh century, i.e. a short time
later than Terpander.19 Ps.-Plutarch says that both Tegea and
Thebes claimed the paternity of Clonas; but the Arcadian
origin is far more probable, as Arcadia played a major role in
the development of music in the seventh and sixth centuries, as
shown by the creation of the musical contest of the Apodeixeis
(see below) and by the Pythian victory of the Arcadian Echem-
___
Vernant, “La voce della Gorgone,” in D. Restani (ed.), Musica e mito nella
Grecia antica (Bologna 1995) 189–202.
15 Eur. Or. 1384 and schol., which records also another version according
to which it was a form of hymenaios, sung when the bride was led to the
groom’s house on the chariot.
16 Strab. 14.1.28–29: ἄνδρϱες δ᾽᾿ ἐγένοντο Κολοφώνιοι τῶν μνημονευο-
μένων Μίμνερϱμος αὐλητὴς ἅμα κϰαὶ ποιητὴς ἐλεγείας.
17 [Plut.] Mus. 8, 1134A; Hesych. s.v. κϰρϱαδίης νόμος; Suda s.v. φαρϱμακϰός.
18 Sparta was traditionally considered one of the most important centres
for aulos performances: cf. F. Berlinzani, “Sparta e la mousiké,” in F. Berlinzani
and F. Cordano (eds.), La cultura a Sparta classica (Milan forthcoming).
19 According to Hellanicus (FGrHist 4 F 85) Terpander won the first competition
of the Karneia in 676/5 B.C.; on his chronology cf. A. Gostoli,
Terpander (Rome 1990) ix–xi. For Clonas see [Plut.] Mus. 3–5, 1132C–
1133B; Poll. 4.78; Abert, “Klonas,” RE 11 (1921) 875–876.
CECILIA NOBILI 31
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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 51 (2011) 26–48
brotus in aulody. Clonas is said to have composed aulodic
nomoi, elegies, prosodia, and epe: τὸν πρϱῶτον συστησάμενον τοὺς
αὐλῳδικϰοὺς νόμους κϰαὶ τὰ πρϱοσόδια, ἐλεγείων τε κϰαὶ ἐπῶν
ποιητὴν γεγονέναι.20 It is difficult to establish the exact meaning
of epe in this passage since, as has been recognized by
Gentili, the term does not refer exclusively to hexametric
poetry, but also to elegy and, in general, to every form of
dactylic poetry.21 Much clearer is the term prosodion, which
refers to songs performed during processions: at the time of
Clonas they were accompanied by the flute and composed in
dactylic metra, as the much-discussed prosodion of Eumelus
shows.22
Clonas was credited with being the inventor of the nomoi
Apothetos and Schoinion:23 the first must be connected with Sparta,
because in Sparta there was a place called Apothetai, on the
slopes of Taygetus, where the newly-born who presented any
malformation or weakness were exposed and abandoned to
die.24 This cruel practice in its ritual manifestation was accompanied
by the mournful sound of the flute; it is not hard to
recognize in this early musical genre a strict relation with
threnodic elegy. About the Schoinion little can be said: it is probably
evoked by Pindar in his second dithyramb, where it means
20 Heraclid. Pont. fr.157 Wehrli = [Plut.] Mus. 3, 1132C.
21 B. Gentili, “Preistoria e formazione dell’esametro,” QUCC 26 (1977) 7–
37, at 35–36.
22 PMG fr.696. Cf. A. Debiasi, L’epica perduta. Eumelo, il Ciclo, l’occidente
(Rome 2004) 39–48; M. Caprioli, “Considerazioni sul prosodio a Delo di
Eumelo di Corinto,” ARF 9 (2007) 19–38; G. B. D’Alessio, “Defining Local
Identities in Greek Lyric Poetry,” in R. Hunter, I. Rutherford (eds.),
Wandering Poets in Ancient Greek Culture (Cambridge 2009) 137–167, at 137–
145. On the aulos accompaniment of earlier prosodia cf. Poll. 4.82.
23 A problem arises since Ps.-Plutarch repeatedly affirms that they were
aulodic nomoi, whereas Poll. 4.79 and Hesych. s.v. σχοίνων call them
auletic.
24 Plut. Lyc. 16.1. Cf. Flach, Geschichte 257–259; Lasserre, Plutarque 23. For
a different interpretation cf. Barker, Greek Musical Writings I 252.
32 THRENODIC ELEGY IN SPARTA
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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 51 (2011) 26–48
“contorted like a rope.”25
What seems certain is that Clonas operated in Sparta a short
time after Terpander and performed aulody at Spartan festivals
and rituals; we might even wonder whether he was involved in
the first musical katastasis, which was inaugurated by Terpander
and involved monodic songs. The activity of Terpander is
usually connected with the institution of the kitharodic contests
at the Karneia, which came to have great success and attracted
famous kitharodes like Arion and Timotheus.26 In addition to
the kitharodic competitions, other musical performances are
attested at the Karneia: Euripides mentions ἄλυρϱοι ὕμνοι
performed in praise of Alcestis at the Spartan Karneia.27 The
word ἄλυρϱος must be intended as a reference to aulos
performances, possibly of threnodic character;28 this whole
passage of the tragedy, in fact, is a lament by the chorus over
the death of Alcestis, and Euripides elsewhere explicitly calls
ἄλυρϱος ἔλεγος the funeral lament accompanied by the aulos.29
It is tempting to associate Clonas’ presence in Sparta at the
25 Cf. J. I. Porter, “Lasus of Hermione, Pindar and the Riddle of S,” CQ
57 (2007) 1–21, at 18–21. It could also derive its name from a bird (Arist.
Hist.An. 610a): cf. Ballerio, Plutarco 24. But Lasserre, Plutarque 23, argued
that the term could mean “nomos of the reeds” and may have been related
to the Spartan ritual of the collecting of reeds (Plut. Lyc. 16.13).
26 On the Karneia see M. Pettersson, Cults of Apollo at Sparta: The Hyakinthia,
the Gymnopaidiai and the Karneia (Stockholm 1992) 57–72; N. Richer,
“Les Karneia de Sparte (et la date de la bataille de Salamine),” in W. G.
Cavanagh et al. (eds.), Sparta and Laconia. From Prehistory to Pre-modern (Athens
2009) 213–224.
27 Eur. Alc. 445–451. On the meaning of ἄλυρϱος as “accompanied by the
flute” cf. Arist. Rhet. 1408a.
28 Cf. A. Brelich, Paides e parthenoi (Rome 1969) 152–153; D. Susanetti,
Euripide. Alcesti (Venice 2001) 215–216.
29 Eur. Hel. 185, IT 146. Cf. R. Kannicht, Euripides, Helena II (Heidelberg
1969) 73; A. Allan, Euripides. Helen (Cambridge 2008) 173. In other tragedies
the word ἄλυρϱος is connected with a mournful and tragic situation (Soph.
OC 1221–1224; Eur. Phoen. 1028). On the meaning of ἔλεγος cf. West,
Studies 4–6.
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time of the first katastasis with the introduction of threnodic
aulodic songs at the Karneia.
Another aulode closely linked to Clonas, although much
younger, was Polymnestus, who lived at the end of the seventh
century: he may have been a contemporary of Alcman, who
mentions him.30 He was born in Colophon, so that we cannot
exclude that he had early contacts with the Phrygian school of
aulodes inaugurated by Olympus.31 After youth he moved to
Sparta, as the evidence on many of his works implies: he was
thus one of the several foreign poets and musicians who were
invited to Sparta in archaic times.32 Heraclides Ponticus affirms
that he composed the same kind of poems as his predecessor
Clonas (including aulodic nomoi and elegies), which establishes
a clear relationship between the two aulodes.33 Polymnestus
was considered the inventor of the nomos Polymnesteion, which
was quite popular and was often mentioned by playwrights
because of its lascivious and relaxed tone.34 He also composed
the aulodic nomoi Orthioi, which bear the same name as the
kitharodic ones.35
His ties to Sparta are of various kinds: Alcman, as well as
30 On Polymnestus of Colophon cf. [Plut.] Mus. 3–5, 1132C–1133B; 8–10,
1134A–E; 12, 1135D; Hesych. s.v. Πολυμνήστειον ᾄδειν; Strab. 14.1.28–29
= Pind. fr.188; schol. Ar. Eq. 1287a; Suda s.v. Πολύμνηστος; Paus. 1.14.4.
31 His father was Meles; according to a Colophonian tradition ([Plut.] Vit.
Hom. 1.4) Homer’s father had the same name, so that we can argue that
even Polymnestus belonged to a family of poets. Cf. Flach, Geschichte 172–
178.
32 On foreign poets in Sparta see D’Alessio, Wandering Poets 137–167.
33 Heraclid. Pont. fr.157 Wehrli = [Plut.] Mus. 3, 1132C–D; 5, 1133A.
34 Ar. Eq. 1287; Cratin. fr.338.
35 [Plut.] Mus. 10, 1134D. On aulodic nomoi called Orthioi cf. Poll. 4.73;
schol. Ar. Ach. 16; Suda s.v. Ὀρϱθιασμάτων. Polymnestus was also considered
the inventor of the hypolydian nomos (probably corresponding to the
Lydian mode, cf. West, Ancient Greek Music 227–228) and widened the
intervals called ἔκϰλυσις (release, ¾ tone falling) and ἐκϰβολή (discharge, ¼
tone rising). Cf. [Plut.] Mus. 29, 1141B.
34 THRENODIC ELEGY IN SPARTA
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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 51 (2011) 26–48
Pindar, mentions him,36 and Polymnestus himself composed a
hexametric or more probably elegiac poem (ἔπη) for the Spartans
dedicated to Thaletas, the well-known Cretan musician
who was brought to Sparta by Lycurgus (Paus. 1.14.4). Most
importantly, he participated in the second musical katastasis,
which took place between the end of the seventh century and
the first half of the sixth and involved the reform of some major
musical festivals such as the Endymatia at Argos, the Apodeixeis
in Arcadia, and the Gymnopaidiai at Sparta ([Plut.]
Mus. 1134). This musical reform was promoted by important
authors of paeans of the time such as Thaletas of Gortyn,
Xenocritus of Locri, and Xenodamus of Cythera, and by two
aulodes, Polymnestus of Colophon and Sacadas of Argos.
Sacadas was a famous aulete and aulode of Argos which
during the sixth center was renowned for its musicians and for
the musical experiments they carried out:37 Herodotus says that
at the time of Polycrates, the Argives were considered the first
amongst the Greeks in musical practice.38 Sacadas won three
times consecutively the newly-instituted Pythian musical contests
(586, 582, and 578 B.C.)39 with an auletic nomos, the
famous nomos Pythikos that was ever after performed at Delphi
by generations of auletes. It was divided into five movements
36 [Plut.] Mus. 5, 1133B = Alcm. fr.225 Calame; Pind. fr.188. The Doric
form of his name used by Pindar, Πολύμναστος, is a trace of the Spartan
adoption of this poet.
37 On Sacadas see [Plut.] Mus. 8–10, 1134A–E; 12, 1135C; Paus. 2.22.8,
6.14.9, 9.30.2 (= Pind. fr.269), 10.7.4; Strab. 9.3.10. Abert, “Sakadas,” RE
1A (1920) 68–69; E. Hiller, “Sakadas der Aulet,” RhM 31 (1876) 76–88;
Page, in Greek Poetry 206–230; Porter, CQ 57 (2007) 1–21; J. C. Franklin,
“Songbenders of Circular Choruses: Dithyramb and the Demise of Music,”
in B. Kowalzig and P. Wilson (eds.), Dithyramb and Social Change (Oxford
forthcoming).
38 Hdt. 3.131. Cf. B. Kowalzig, Singing for the Gods. Performances of Myth and
Ritual in Archaic and Classical Greece (Oxford 2007) 129–131; Franklin, in
Dithyramb.
39 On the date of the first Pythian festival see K. Brodersen, “Zur Datierung
der ersten Pythien,” ZPE 82 (1990) 25–31.
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and imitated the duel between Apollo and the serpent with
innovative musical effects that recalled the phases of the
struggle, such as the final syrigmos to represent the hisses uttered
by the dying serpent.40 At the first festival in 586 there was also
an aulodic competition; it was won by another member of the
Peloponnesian aulodic school, Echembrotus of Arcadia, who
performed some threnodic elegies, so sad and gloomy that the
aulodic contest was suspended after that:41
In the third year of the forty-eighth Olympiad, in which
Glaucias of Crotona was victorious, the Amphictyons offered
prizes for ministrelsy as hitherto, and added competitions in
flute-playing both with and without the accompaniment of the
voice. The victors proclaimed were Melampus, a Cephallenian,
in minstrelsy; Echembrotus, an Arcadian, in singing to the flute;
and Sacadas, an Argive, in flute-playing. This same Sacadas was
also victorious in the next two Pythiads. On the same occasion
they for the first time offered prizes for the athletes, the events
being the same as at Olympia, except the four-horse chariotrace:
they also added foot-race for boys in the long and the
double courses. But in the second Pythiad the prizes were discontinued,
and crowns were substituted. They also discontinued
the singing to the flute, because they deemed the music was
inauspicious. For the tunes were most doleful, and the words
sung to them were dirges (ἡ γὰρϱ αὐλῳδία μέλη τε ἦν αὐλῶν τὰ
σκϰυθρϱωπότατα κϰαὶ ἐλεγεῖα {θρϱῆνοι} πρϱοσᾳδόμενα τοῖς αὐλοῖς).
This is proved by the votive-offering of Echembrotus: it is a
bronze tripod dedicated to Hercules at Thebes, and bears this
inscription: “Echembrotus, an Arcadian, dedicated to Hercules
this pleasing gift for a victory which he gained at the games of
the Amphictyons, singing tunes and dirges (μέλεα κϰαὶ ἐλέγους)
40 Paus. 2.22.8: Σακϰάδα μνῆμά ἐστιν, ὃς τὸ αὔλημα τὸ Πυθικϰὸν πρϱῶτος
ηὔλησεν ἐν Δελφοῖς. On the structure of the Pythikos nomos cf. Poll. 4.78–
84 and Strab. 9.3.10, who curiously does not mention Sacadas. Cf. Hiller,
RhM 31 (1876) 76–88; Barker, Greek Musical Writings I 51–53; Porter, CQ 57
(2007) 10–11.
41 Paus. 10.7.4 (transl. Frazer).
36 THRENODIC ELEGY IN SPARTA
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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 51 (2011) 26–48
to the Greeks.” So the contest in singing to the flute was discontinued.
Echembrotus performed some threnodic elegies that were
typical of the Peloponnesian school, but we do not know why
the aulodic contest was suspended: as West notes, threnodic
elegies were common and it seems highly suspect that the
Amphictyons banned them from the festival merely because of
their mournful tone.42 Even after Sacadas, the Argive school of
auletes continued to dominate the Pythian auletic contest: it
was won six times consecutively by the Sicyonian Pithocritus,
who also introduced the practice of playing the aulos during
the pentathlon at Olympia (Paus. 6.14.9).
Sacadas was a great experimenter: he was a ποιητὴς μελῶν
τε κϰαὶ ἐλεγείων μεμελοποιημένων ([Plut.] Mus. 8, 1134A) but
was better known for his inventions: he created a new type of
aulos, probably named σακϰάδιον.43 A statue seen by Pausanias
on Mt. Helicon represented Sacadas as smaller than his flutes,
but according to Pausanias the sculptor misunderstood the
Pindaric passage which mentioned Sacadas’ instrument; it has
been argued that the σακϰάδιον produced lower and deeper
sounds.44 Pausanias adds that Pindar mentioned Sacadas in a
proem, which may have been a sort of homage to a poetical
genre practiced both by aulodes and kitharodes. According to
Ps.-Plutarch he also invented a revolutionary kind of aulodic
nomos, called trimeles, performed by a chorus and made up of
three strophes, each in a different mode, Doric, Phrygian,
Lydian (the primitive modes used by aulodes at that time).45
42 West, Studies 5 and Ancient Greek Music 337.
43 Hesych. s.v. Σακϰάδιον.
44 Paus. 9.30.2 (= Pind. fr.269). Cf. Hiller, RhM 31 (1876) 77; F.
D’Alfonso, “Sacada, Xanto e Stesicoro,” QUCC 51 (1995) 49–61, at 54–55.
The auletes began their performances with a proem, called πρϱοαύλιον:
Arist. Rhet. 1414b19.
45 [Plut.] Mus. 8, 1134A–B. On the trimeles cf. Flach, Geschichte 282–285;
Lasserre, Plutarque 23; West, Ancient Greek Music 214; Franklin, in Dithyramb.
It is improbable that the definition of the nomos trimeles given by Ps.-
CECILIA NOBILI 37
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2011
Cecilia Nobili
Threnodic Elegy in Sparta
OST STUDIES concerning the new elegy of Simonides
for the fallen at Plataea acknowledge the Spartan
commission of the ode and the role played by the
Spartan leader Pausanias in the extant fragments. It has been
argued that the poem was composed to celebrate the Spartan
soldiers who died at Plataea and was performed at a public
festival which involved cultic ceremonies at the common
graves.1 The Spartans, in fact, were buried on the battlefield
according to the Spartan custom, and Thucydides testifies that
they received offerings by the inhabitants of Plataea and were
venerated as heroes.2 Later sources attest that an annual festival
called Eleutheria was instituted, possibly by the Athenian
Aristides, in order to honour the Plataiomachoi, but the fifth-
1 A. Aloni, “L’elegia di Simonide dedicata alla battaglia di Platea,” ZPE
102 (1994) 9–22, and “The Proem of Simonides’ Plataea Elegy and the
Circumstances of its Performance,” in D. Boedeker and D. Sider (eds.), The
New Simonides: Contexts of Praise and Desire (New York 2001) 86–105; C. O.
Pavese, “Elegia di Simonide agli spartiati per Platea,” ZPE 107 (1995) 1–26;
G. Burzacchini, “Note al nuovo Simonide,” Eikasmos 6 (1995) 21–38; L.
Sbardella, “Achille e gli eroi di Platea,” ZPE 129 (2000) 1–11; D. Asheri,
“Simonide, Achille e Pausania figlio di Cleombroto,” QUCC 77 (2004) 67–
73. A. Schachter, “Simonides’ Elegy on Plataia: the Occasion of its Performance,”
ZPE 123 (1998) 25–30, and P.-J. Shaw, “Lords of Hellas, Old
Men of the Sea: The Occasion of Simonides’ Elegy on Plataea,” in The New
Simonides 164–183, acknowledge the Spartan commission but locate the performance
in other contexts, the Isthmian games or the shrine of Achilles
near Sigeum.
2 Thuc. 3.58.4; Isoc. Plat. 14.61. On Spartan burial customs see M.
Nafissi, La nascita del kosmos. Studi sulla storia e la società di Sparta (Perugia 1991)
290–341; N. Richer, “Aspect des funérailles à Sparte,” CCG 5 (1994) 51–96.
M
CECILIA NOBILI 27
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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 51 (2011) 26–48
century origin of this festival is not certain and has often been
questioned.3 As a matter of fact, we cannot confidently state for
which occasion the poem was composed; nevertheless, the
literary genre to which this poem seems to belong requires a
public occasion such as a festival or a musical agon.
The discovery of the papyrus has confirmed a thesis advanced
well before by Bowie, according to whom elegy could
have been performed not only in the private setting of the
symposium but also at public occasions.4 Several features of the
Plataea elegy recur in odes performed before large audiences:
the mythic content, the substantial length, the proem dedicated
to a semi-god, and, finally, the epic language. A poem like this
certainly had the function to recall to everyone’s memory the
events that took place during the battle, yet a strong threnodic
character cannot be denied. The poet laments the death of
those who died young and declares that by assuring them
eternal kleos he will provide a compensation for the grief of
their families and city. The funeral origin of elegy and its
mournful character has often been denied by scholars, since no
attested elegy has overt threnodic function.5 Nevertheless, as
3 Plut. Arist. 21; Diod. 11.29.1–2; Strab. 9.2.31; Paus. 9.25.5. See the
objections of J. N. Bremmer, “The Rise of the Hero Cult and the New
Simonides,” ZPE 158 (2006) 15–26, and previously L. Prandi, Platea, momenti
e problemi della storia di una polis (Padua 1988) 153–179.
4 E. L. Bowie, “Early Greek Elegy, Symposium, and Public Festival,”
JHS 106 (1986) 13–35; cf. A. Aloni and A. Iannucci, L’elegia e l’epigramma
dalle origini al V secolo (Florence 2007) 74–85, 199–203.
5 T. G. Rosenmeyer, “Elegiac and Elegos,” CSCA 1 (1968) 217–231;
Bowie, JHS 106 (1986) 13–35; K. Bartol, Greek Elegy and Iambus. Studies in
Ancient Literary Sources (Poznan 1993) 25–28; L. K. Kowerski, Simonides on the
Persian Wars. A Study on the Elegiac Verses of the “New Simonides” (New York
2005) 115–119. The existence of some form of threnodic elegy connected
with ἔλεγος and with funerary epigram is substantially accepted by B.
Gentili, “Epigramma ed elegia,” in L’épigramme grecque (Vandoevres/Geneva
1967) 37–81; M. L. West, Studies in Greek Elegy and Iambus (Berlin/New York
1974) 4–7. The problem of threnodic elegy has been recently reexamined:
C. Nobili, “Omero e l’elegia trenodica,” Acme 59 (2006) 3–24; Aloni and
28 THRENODIC ELEGY IN SPARTA
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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 51 (2011) 26–48
Page stated, a primeval form of funeral elegy was performed in
the Peloponnese in archaic times and was recalled by later
authors such as Euripides in the elegiac lament of Andromache
and Callimachus in the Bath of Pallas.6 Aloni argued that this
form of elegy might represent the best antecedent for Simonides’
elegy, given also its Spartan commission.7 In this paper I
investigate the characteristics of this obscure school of elegiac
poets and try to show to what extent they might be connected
with Sparta.
The first aulodes
The scanty sources concerning the origins of elegy attest that
it was first performed by aulodes. Elegy developed side by side
with the aulodic and auletic nomoi and was originally conceived
as an aulodic nomos, i.e. as a kind of song in elegiac
distichs, performed to the accompaniment of the aulos. The
pseudo-plutarchean treatise On Music says that ἐν ἀρϱχῇ γὰρϱ
ἐλεγεῖα μεμελοποιημένα οἱ αὐλῳδοὶ ᾖδον8 and lists a series of
aulodic nomoi, including a nomos called Ἔλεγοι:9 it must have
___
Iannucci, L’elegia 13–19, 203–204; A. Aloni, “Elegy,” in F. Budelmann (ed.),
The Cambridge Companion to Greek Lyric (Cambridge 2009) 168–188.
6 D. Page, “The Elegiacs in Euripides’ Andromache,” in Greek Poetry and Life.
Essays Presented to Gilbert Murray (Oxford 1936) 206–230.
7 Aloni, ZPE 102 (1994) 9–22 and in The New Simonides 86–105. On other
similarities between the fragments in the Plataea papyrus and various kinds
of laments (elegies and epigrams) see Kowerski, Simonides 130–145.
8 [Plut.] Mus. 8, Mor. 1134A. Other authors do not mention the original
connection between aulody and elegy but consider either Mimnermus, Callinus,
or Archilochus as the inventors of elegy (Marius Plot. Sacerd.,
Gramm.Lat. VI 509–510 = Mimn. test. 20 G.-P.; Didym. fr.1, p.387 Schmidt
ap. Orion s.v. ἔλεγος). Cf. Aloni and Iannucci, L’elegia 111–114.
9 Mus. 3, 1132C: οἱ δὲ νόμοι οἱ κϰατὰ τούτους, ἀγαθὲ Ὀνησίκϰρϱατες,
αὐλῳδικϰοὶ ἦσαν· Ἀπόθετος, Ἔλεγοι, Κωμάρϱχιος, Σχοινίων, Κηπίων τε κϰαὶ
†Δεῖος κϰαὶ Τρϱιμερϱής· ὑστέρϱῳ δὲ χρϱόνῳ κϰαὶ τὰ Πολυμνήστεια κϰαλούμενα
ἐξευρϱέθη. The corrupt Δεῖος might stand for Ἐπικϰήδειος, as Westphal suggests.
Cf. F. Lasserre, Plutarque. De la musique (Lausanne 1954) 22–27; A.
Barker, Greek Musical Writings I (New Brunswick 1984) 251–252; M.
Paterlini, “I nomoi di Clona,” RCCM 43 (2001) 105–108.
CECILIA NOBILI 29
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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 51 (2011) 26–48
been a threnodic nomos and have shared many features with
the ἐλεγεῖα. The gloomy character of early aulody is confirmed
by a passage of Plutarch: ἡ θρϱηνῳδία κϰαὶ ὁ ἐπικϰήδειος αὐλὸς ἐν
ἀρϱχῇ πάθος κϰινεῖ κϰαὶ δάκϰρϱυον ἐμβάλλει.10 As we shall see,
many of the sources on primeval forms of elegy and aulody
allude to their threnodic features.
The first reported aulode is Olympus, who lived in Phrygia
and was credited with being the pupil of Marsyas; he was
believed the first to teach the musical nomoi to the Greeks.11
According to some sources there was a second aulete named
Olympus who was a descendant of the former, but there is no
good reason to think that they originally were two distinct
figures.12 The most famous invention attributed to the latter
was an auletic nomos (musical piece for solo aulos) for Apollo,
called polykephalos, while the first one invented an aulodic
nomos (solo or choral song accompanied by the aulos), called
harmateion. Olympus was also considered the inventor of the
synaulia, the unison playing of two or more auloi at funerals.
The Suda (s.v. Ὄλυμπος) says that he was a ποιητὴς μελῶν κϰαὶ
ἐλεγείων, but what constantly recurs in the testimonies is the
funerary character of his playing: he wrote either θρϱηνητικϰοὶ
νόμοι or ἐπιτυμβίδιοι.13 Moreover, the polykephalos nomos
certainly had a gloomy melody, for Pindar attests that it was
first invented by Athena: it imitated the threnos sung by the
heads of the Gorgons over the killing of Medusa by Perseus
and took its name from this episode;14 the same can be said of
10 Plut. Quest.conv. 657A. Cf. also [Arist.] Prob. 19.1, 917b19–21.
11 [Plut.] Mus. 5, 1132F; 7, 1133D–F; Suda s.v. Ξυναυλίαν and Ὄλυμπος;
schol. Ar. Eq. 9. Cf. H. Flach, Geschichte der griechischen Lyrik (Tübingen 1883)
118–146; on the history of ancient aulody, M. L. West, Ancient Greek Music
(Oxford 1992) 327–340.
12 Cf. R. Ballerio, Plutarco. La musica (Milan 2000) 32–33.
13 Suda s.v. Ξυναυλίαν; Poll. 4.78. Cf. Flach, Geschichte 118–146.
14 Pind. Pyth. 12.7–27; schol. Pind. Pyth. 12.39. See West, Ancient Greek
Music 214; E. Cingano, Pindaro. Le Pitiche (Milan 1995) 672–680; J.-P.
30 THRENODIC ELEGY IN SPARTA
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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 51 (2011) 26–48
the harmateion, which appears in a passage of Euripides’ Orestes
and is unequivocally explained by the the glossae and scholia as
the threnos sung as the chariot dragged Hector’s body.15
Olympus inaugurated a school of Phrygian aulody, whose
most renowned member was Mimnermus; he was both a
famous aulete (coming from a family of auletes) and a composer
of elegies.16 Mimnermus himself composed threnodic
nomoi, as is shown by Ps.-Plutarch’s mention of the nomos
kradias (fig-branch nomos) performed during the Ionian festival
of the Thargelia: the mournful sound of the aulos accompanied
the flagellation of the φαρϱμακϰός with fig-branches.17
Another important school of aulodes developed in the
Peloponnese, and even though it is often connected to the
Pythian musical contests, it had many contacts with Sparta.18
The first exponent of this school was the aulode Clonas, who
lived in the second half of the seventh century, i.e. a short time
later than Terpander.19 Ps.-Plutarch says that both Tegea and
Thebes claimed the paternity of Clonas; but the Arcadian
origin is far more probable, as Arcadia played a major role in
the development of music in the seventh and sixth centuries, as
shown by the creation of the musical contest of the Apodeixeis
(see below) and by the Pythian victory of the Arcadian Echem-
___
Vernant, “La voce della Gorgone,” in D. Restani (ed.), Musica e mito nella
Grecia antica (Bologna 1995) 189–202.
15 Eur. Or. 1384 and schol., which records also another version according
to which it was a form of hymenaios, sung when the bride was led to the
groom’s house on the chariot.
16 Strab. 14.1.28–29: ἄνδρϱες δ᾽᾿ ἐγένοντο Κολοφώνιοι τῶν μνημονευο-
μένων Μίμνερϱμος αὐλητὴς ἅμα κϰαὶ ποιητὴς ἐλεγείας.
17 [Plut.] Mus. 8, 1134A; Hesych. s.v. κϰρϱαδίης νόμος; Suda s.v. φαρϱμακϰός.
18 Sparta was traditionally considered one of the most important centres
for aulos performances: cf. F. Berlinzani, “Sparta e la mousiké,” in F. Berlinzani
and F. Cordano (eds.), La cultura a Sparta classica (Milan forthcoming).
19 According to Hellanicus (FGrHist 4 F 85) Terpander won the first competition
of the Karneia in 676/5 B.C.; on his chronology cf. A. Gostoli,
Terpander (Rome 1990) ix–xi. For Clonas see [Plut.] Mus. 3–5, 1132C–
1133B; Poll. 4.78; Abert, “Klonas,” RE 11 (1921) 875–876.
CECILIA NOBILI 31
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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 51 (2011) 26–48
brotus in aulody. Clonas is said to have composed aulodic
nomoi, elegies, prosodia, and epe: τὸν πρϱῶτον συστησάμενον τοὺς
αὐλῳδικϰοὺς νόμους κϰαὶ τὰ πρϱοσόδια, ἐλεγείων τε κϰαὶ ἐπῶν
ποιητὴν γεγονέναι.20 It is difficult to establish the exact meaning
of epe in this passage since, as has been recognized by
Gentili, the term does not refer exclusively to hexametric
poetry, but also to elegy and, in general, to every form of
dactylic poetry.21 Much clearer is the term prosodion, which
refers to songs performed during processions: at the time of
Clonas they were accompanied by the flute and composed in
dactylic metra, as the much-discussed prosodion of Eumelus
shows.22
Clonas was credited with being the inventor of the nomoi
Apothetos and Schoinion:23 the first must be connected with Sparta,
because in Sparta there was a place called Apothetai, on the
slopes of Taygetus, where the newly-born who presented any
malformation or weakness were exposed and abandoned to
die.24 This cruel practice in its ritual manifestation was accompanied
by the mournful sound of the flute; it is not hard to
recognize in this early musical genre a strict relation with
threnodic elegy. About the Schoinion little can be said: it is probably
evoked by Pindar in his second dithyramb, where it means
20 Heraclid. Pont. fr.157 Wehrli = [Plut.] Mus. 3, 1132C.
21 B. Gentili, “Preistoria e formazione dell’esametro,” QUCC 26 (1977) 7–
37, at 35–36.
22 PMG fr.696. Cf. A. Debiasi, L’epica perduta. Eumelo, il Ciclo, l’occidente
(Rome 2004) 39–48; M. Caprioli, “Considerazioni sul prosodio a Delo di
Eumelo di Corinto,” ARF 9 (2007) 19–38; G. B. D’Alessio, “Defining Local
Identities in Greek Lyric Poetry,” in R. Hunter, I. Rutherford (eds.),
Wandering Poets in Ancient Greek Culture (Cambridge 2009) 137–167, at 137–
145. On the aulos accompaniment of earlier prosodia cf. Poll. 4.82.
23 A problem arises since Ps.-Plutarch repeatedly affirms that they were
aulodic nomoi, whereas Poll. 4.79 and Hesych. s.v. σχοίνων call them
auletic.
24 Plut. Lyc. 16.1. Cf. Flach, Geschichte 257–259; Lasserre, Plutarque 23. For
a different interpretation cf. Barker, Greek Musical Writings I 252.
32 THRENODIC ELEGY IN SPARTA
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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 51 (2011) 26–48
“contorted like a rope.”25
What seems certain is that Clonas operated in Sparta a short
time after Terpander and performed aulody at Spartan festivals
and rituals; we might even wonder whether he was involved in
the first musical katastasis, which was inaugurated by Terpander
and involved monodic songs. The activity of Terpander is
usually connected with the institution of the kitharodic contests
at the Karneia, which came to have great success and attracted
famous kitharodes like Arion and Timotheus.26 In addition to
the kitharodic competitions, other musical performances are
attested at the Karneia: Euripides mentions ἄλυρϱοι ὕμνοι
performed in praise of Alcestis at the Spartan Karneia.27 The
word ἄλυρϱος must be intended as a reference to aulos
performances, possibly of threnodic character;28 this whole
passage of the tragedy, in fact, is a lament by the chorus over
the death of Alcestis, and Euripides elsewhere explicitly calls
ἄλυρϱος ἔλεγος the funeral lament accompanied by the aulos.29
It is tempting to associate Clonas’ presence in Sparta at the
25 Cf. J. I. Porter, “Lasus of Hermione, Pindar and the Riddle of S,” CQ
57 (2007) 1–21, at 18–21. It could also derive its name from a bird (Arist.
Hist.An. 610a): cf. Ballerio, Plutarco 24. But Lasserre, Plutarque 23, argued
that the term could mean “nomos of the reeds” and may have been related
to the Spartan ritual of the collecting of reeds (Plut. Lyc. 16.13).
26 On the Karneia see M. Pettersson, Cults of Apollo at Sparta: The Hyakinthia,
the Gymnopaidiai and the Karneia (Stockholm 1992) 57–72; N. Richer,
“Les Karneia de Sparte (et la date de la bataille de Salamine),” in W. G.
Cavanagh et al. (eds.), Sparta and Laconia. From Prehistory to Pre-modern (Athens
2009) 213–224.
27 Eur. Alc. 445–451. On the meaning of ἄλυρϱος as “accompanied by the
flute” cf. Arist. Rhet. 1408a.
28 Cf. A. Brelich, Paides e parthenoi (Rome 1969) 152–153; D. Susanetti,
Euripide. Alcesti (Venice 2001) 215–216.
29 Eur. Hel. 185, IT 146. Cf. R. Kannicht, Euripides, Helena II (Heidelberg
1969) 73; A. Allan, Euripides. Helen (Cambridge 2008) 173. In other tragedies
the word ἄλυρϱος is connected with a mournful and tragic situation (Soph.
OC 1221–1224; Eur. Phoen. 1028). On the meaning of ἔλεγος cf. West,
Studies 4–6.
CECILIA NOBILI 33
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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 51 (2011) 26–48
time of the first katastasis with the introduction of threnodic
aulodic songs at the Karneia.
Another aulode closely linked to Clonas, although much
younger, was Polymnestus, who lived at the end of the seventh
century: he may have been a contemporary of Alcman, who
mentions him.30 He was born in Colophon, so that we cannot
exclude that he had early contacts with the Phrygian school of
aulodes inaugurated by Olympus.31 After youth he moved to
Sparta, as the evidence on many of his works implies: he was
thus one of the several foreign poets and musicians who were
invited to Sparta in archaic times.32 Heraclides Ponticus affirms
that he composed the same kind of poems as his predecessor
Clonas (including aulodic nomoi and elegies), which establishes
a clear relationship between the two aulodes.33 Polymnestus
was considered the inventor of the nomos Polymnesteion, which
was quite popular and was often mentioned by playwrights
because of its lascivious and relaxed tone.34 He also composed
the aulodic nomoi Orthioi, which bear the same name as the
kitharodic ones.35
His ties to Sparta are of various kinds: Alcman, as well as
30 On Polymnestus of Colophon cf. [Plut.] Mus. 3–5, 1132C–1133B; 8–10,
1134A–E; 12, 1135D; Hesych. s.v. Πολυμνήστειον ᾄδειν; Strab. 14.1.28–29
= Pind. fr.188; schol. Ar. Eq. 1287a; Suda s.v. Πολύμνηστος; Paus. 1.14.4.
31 His father was Meles; according to a Colophonian tradition ([Plut.] Vit.
Hom. 1.4) Homer’s father had the same name, so that we can argue that
even Polymnestus belonged to a family of poets. Cf. Flach, Geschichte 172–
178.
32 On foreign poets in Sparta see D’Alessio, Wandering Poets 137–167.
33 Heraclid. Pont. fr.157 Wehrli = [Plut.] Mus. 3, 1132C–D; 5, 1133A.
34 Ar. Eq. 1287; Cratin. fr.338.
35 [Plut.] Mus. 10, 1134D. On aulodic nomoi called Orthioi cf. Poll. 4.73;
schol. Ar. Ach. 16; Suda s.v. Ὀρϱθιασμάτων. Polymnestus was also considered
the inventor of the hypolydian nomos (probably corresponding to the
Lydian mode, cf. West, Ancient Greek Music 227–228) and widened the
intervals called ἔκϰλυσις (release, ¾ tone falling) and ἐκϰβολή (discharge, ¼
tone rising). Cf. [Plut.] Mus. 29, 1141B.
34 THRENODIC ELEGY IN SPARTA
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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 51 (2011) 26–48
Pindar, mentions him,36 and Polymnestus himself composed a
hexametric or more probably elegiac poem (ἔπη) for the Spartans
dedicated to Thaletas, the well-known Cretan musician
who was brought to Sparta by Lycurgus (Paus. 1.14.4). Most
importantly, he participated in the second musical katastasis,
which took place between the end of the seventh century and
the first half of the sixth and involved the reform of some major
musical festivals such as the Endymatia at Argos, the Apodeixeis
in Arcadia, and the Gymnopaidiai at Sparta ([Plut.]
Mus. 1134). This musical reform was promoted by important
authors of paeans of the time such as Thaletas of Gortyn,
Xenocritus of Locri, and Xenodamus of Cythera, and by two
aulodes, Polymnestus of Colophon and Sacadas of Argos.
Sacadas was a famous aulete and aulode of Argos which
during the sixth center was renowned for its musicians and for
the musical experiments they carried out:37 Herodotus says that
at the time of Polycrates, the Argives were considered the first
amongst the Greeks in musical practice.38 Sacadas won three
times consecutively the newly-instituted Pythian musical contests
(586, 582, and 578 B.C.)39 with an auletic nomos, the
famous nomos Pythikos that was ever after performed at Delphi
by generations of auletes. It was divided into five movements
36 [Plut.] Mus. 5, 1133B = Alcm. fr.225 Calame; Pind. fr.188. The Doric
form of his name used by Pindar, Πολύμναστος, is a trace of the Spartan
adoption of this poet.
37 On Sacadas see [Plut.] Mus. 8–10, 1134A–E; 12, 1135C; Paus. 2.22.8,
6.14.9, 9.30.2 (= Pind. fr.269), 10.7.4; Strab. 9.3.10. Abert, “Sakadas,” RE
1A (1920) 68–69; E. Hiller, “Sakadas der Aulet,” RhM 31 (1876) 76–88;
Page, in Greek Poetry 206–230; Porter, CQ 57 (2007) 1–21; J. C. Franklin,
“Songbenders of Circular Choruses: Dithyramb and the Demise of Music,”
in B. Kowalzig and P. Wilson (eds.), Dithyramb and Social Change (Oxford
forthcoming).
38 Hdt. 3.131. Cf. B. Kowalzig, Singing for the Gods. Performances of Myth and
Ritual in Archaic and Classical Greece (Oxford 2007) 129–131; Franklin, in
Dithyramb.
39 On the date of the first Pythian festival see K. Brodersen, “Zur Datierung
der ersten Pythien,” ZPE 82 (1990) 25–31.
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and imitated the duel between Apollo and the serpent with
innovative musical effects that recalled the phases of the
struggle, such as the final syrigmos to represent the hisses uttered
by the dying serpent.40 At the first festival in 586 there was also
an aulodic competition; it was won by another member of the
Peloponnesian aulodic school, Echembrotus of Arcadia, who
performed some threnodic elegies, so sad and gloomy that the
aulodic contest was suspended after that:41
In the third year of the forty-eighth Olympiad, in which
Glaucias of Crotona was victorious, the Amphictyons offered
prizes for ministrelsy as hitherto, and added competitions in
flute-playing both with and without the accompaniment of the
voice. The victors proclaimed were Melampus, a Cephallenian,
in minstrelsy; Echembrotus, an Arcadian, in singing to the flute;
and Sacadas, an Argive, in flute-playing. This same Sacadas was
also victorious in the next two Pythiads. On the same occasion
they for the first time offered prizes for the athletes, the events
being the same as at Olympia, except the four-horse chariotrace:
they also added foot-race for boys in the long and the
double courses. But in the second Pythiad the prizes were discontinued,
and crowns were substituted. They also discontinued
the singing to the flute, because they deemed the music was
inauspicious. For the tunes were most doleful, and the words
sung to them were dirges (ἡ γὰρϱ αὐλῳδία μέλη τε ἦν αὐλῶν τὰ
σκϰυθρϱωπότατα κϰαὶ ἐλεγεῖα {θρϱῆνοι} πρϱοσᾳδόμενα τοῖς αὐλοῖς).
This is proved by the votive-offering of Echembrotus: it is a
bronze tripod dedicated to Hercules at Thebes, and bears this
inscription: “Echembrotus, an Arcadian, dedicated to Hercules
this pleasing gift for a victory which he gained at the games of
the Amphictyons, singing tunes and dirges (μέλεα κϰαὶ ἐλέγους)
40 Paus. 2.22.8: Σακϰάδα μνῆμά ἐστιν, ὃς τὸ αὔλημα τὸ Πυθικϰὸν πρϱῶτος
ηὔλησεν ἐν Δελφοῖς. On the structure of the Pythikos nomos cf. Poll. 4.78–
84 and Strab. 9.3.10, who curiously does not mention Sacadas. Cf. Hiller,
RhM 31 (1876) 76–88; Barker, Greek Musical Writings I 51–53; Porter, CQ 57
(2007) 10–11.
41 Paus. 10.7.4 (transl. Frazer).
36 THRENODIC ELEGY IN SPARTA
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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 51 (2011) 26–48
to the Greeks.” So the contest in singing to the flute was discontinued.
Echembrotus performed some threnodic elegies that were
typical of the Peloponnesian school, but we do not know why
the aulodic contest was suspended: as West notes, threnodic
elegies were common and it seems highly suspect that the
Amphictyons banned them from the festival merely because of
their mournful tone.42 Even after Sacadas, the Argive school of
auletes continued to dominate the Pythian auletic contest: it
was won six times consecutively by the Sicyonian Pithocritus,
who also introduced the practice of playing the aulos during
the pentathlon at Olympia (Paus. 6.14.9).
Sacadas was a great experimenter: he was a ποιητὴς μελῶν
τε κϰαὶ ἐλεγείων μεμελοποιημένων ([Plut.] Mus. 8, 1134A) but
was better known for his inventions: he created a new type of
aulos, probably named σακϰάδιον.43 A statue seen by Pausanias
on Mt. Helicon represented Sacadas as smaller than his flutes,
but according to Pausanias the sculptor misunderstood the
Pindaric passage which mentioned Sacadas’ instrument; it has
been argued that the σακϰάδιον produced lower and deeper
sounds.44 Pausanias adds that Pindar mentioned Sacadas in a
proem, which may have been a sort of homage to a poetical
genre practiced both by aulodes and kitharodes. According to
Ps.-Plutarch he also invented a revolutionary kind of aulodic
nomos, called trimeles, performed by a chorus and made up of
three strophes, each in a different mode, Doric, Phrygian,
Lydian (the primitive modes used by aulodes at that time).45
42 West, Studies 5 and Ancient Greek Music 337.
43 Hesych. s.v. Σακϰάδιον.
44 Paus. 9.30.2 (= Pind. fr.269). Cf. Hiller, RhM 31 (1876) 77; F.
D’Alfonso, “Sacada, Xanto e Stesicoro,” QUCC 51 (1995) 49–61, at 54–55.
The auletes began their performances with a proem, called πρϱοαύλιον:
Arist. Rhet. 1414b19.
45 [Plut.] Mus. 8, 1134A–B. On the trimeles cf. Flach, Geschichte 282–285;
Lasserre, Plutarque 23; West, Ancient Greek Music 214; Franklin, in Dithyramb.
It is improbable that the definition of the nomos trimeles given by Ps.-
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