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[German version] (Πύθερμος; Pýthermos). Lyric poet from Teos, perhaps 6th century BC; known from a mention in Ath. 14,625c, in a discussion of the three books of Heraclides Ponticus' Perì Mousikês: P. is supposed to have written skólia in the Ionian mode and iambic verses and to have been mentioned by Ananius or Hipponax. The only recorded verse (metre: phalaeceus) claims that apart from gold everything is nothing (910 PMG); it became proverbial and can also be found cited in Diogenianus, Plutarch and the Suda. Robbins, Emmet (Toronto)

[German version] (Τέρπανδρος/ Térpandros, Lat. Terpander). Early 7th cent. BC kithara player from Lesbos or Cyme [3] (Suda s. v. T.). His life was closely tied to Sparta where he was the first victor at the Carnea (Hellanicus FGrH 4 F 85a) of the 26th Olympiad (676/673 BC). He achieved four sequential further victories at the Pythia (Plut. Mor. 1132e) which took place every eight years at that time - his career must therefore have spanned 25 years. He died in 640 BC ay the latest (Euseb. Chron. Olymp…

[German version] (αἴλινος; aílinos). A cry, usually in the refrain of a dirge αἴλινον αἴλινον ( aílinon aílinon; Aesch. Ag. 121; Soph. Aj. 627; Eur. Or. 1395), but also used as the term for a spinning song (Ath. 14,618d) or a song of joy (Eur. Her. 348-9). These opposite meanings lead to the common basic meaning ‘song’ (cf. λίνος; línos, Hom. Il. 18,570) [3. II, 84 ff.]. In spite of its uncertain origin (Frisk s. v.), the Greeks associated it with the dying god Linus because of the sounds αἴ and λίνος (Hdt. 2,79; Pind. fr. 128c,6 Snell-Maehler). Some saw the ailinos as an adaptation of a cult…

[German version] (Οἰνιάδης; Oiniádēs). Aulos player and dithyrambic poet from Thebes. IG II2 3064 records his victory in the aulos competition at Athens in 384/3. His father, Pronomus, was probably the famous aulētḗs in Paus. 4,27,7; 9,12,5; Anth. Plan. 16,28,2. Didymus [1] mentions O. as one of three poets to compose a dithyramb entitled Cyclops (840 PMG). Robbins, Emmet (Toronto) Bibliography D.A. Campbell, Greek Lyric 5, 1993, 208  H. Reimann, s.v. O., RE Suppl. 8, 369  D.F. Sutton, Dithyrambographi Graeci, 1989, 38F1.

(ἐπινίκιον; epiníkion, sc. μέλος; mélos, ᾆσμα; âisma), ‘victory song’. [German version] A. Term The adjective epiníkios is used for the closer definition of ἀοιδή ( aoidḗ; song) in Pind. Nem. 4,78, whereas in Aesch. Ag. 174 the neutr. pl. epiníkia represents a shout of victory. In prose, the term, in conjunction with θύειν ( thýein) or ἑστιᾶν ( hestiân), generally refers to the sacrifices (sc. ἱερά; hierá), which followed a victory in battle (Dem. Or. 19,128) or took place as part of festival celebrations ([Dem. or.] 59,33; cf. Pl. Symp. 173a). The neutr. sing. epiníkion was first used b…

[German version] I. Greek A genethliakón (γενεθλιακόν, sc. μέλος, ᾷ̓σμα) is a poem in honour of a birthday (γενέθλιος ἡμέρα, γενέθλιον ἦμαρ), in association with a gift or standing alone. Callim. Fr. 202 is a iamb to a friend in celebration of the seventh day after the birth of his daughter. There is an isopsephic epigram written by Leonides of Alexandria (Anth. Pal. 6,321) as a birthday present to Caesar γενεθλιακαῖσιν ἐν ὥραις. Other epigrams, particularly by  Crinagoras, accompanied birthday gifts…

[German version] (σκόλιον; skólion). A Greek song at a symposium (Banquet). Unlike elegy, also sung at the symposium, it was accompanied by the lyre and was in lyric metre. The origin of the term is most likely the practice of holding a myrtle branch, which singers passed to each other in haphazard fashion (cf. Aristoph. fr. 444 PCG vol.3.2), though other far-fetched derivations were advanced, in particular from dýskolon ('difficult'), because inferior or drunken singers could not manage them (cf. Schol. Pl. Grg. 451e, Ath. 15,693f.-694c). First mention is in Pi…

[German version] (Μελιννώ; Melinnṓ). Greek female poet who composed a hymn in five Sapphic stanzas to the goddess Roma. Stobaeus (ecl. 3,7,12), who cites her, gives Lesbos as her place of origin, probably on account of the metre because there are only hints of an Aeolian dialect in het poetry. Her date is much disputed: most scholars propose the Republican period because - despite some similarities in images and ideas - there is no reason to suppose that she was influenced by Latin poetry and because she made no mention of the princeps [1]; others assign her to the 2nd cent. AD by poin…

[German version] Although songs were generally part of the leisure sphere in Greece, there is some evidence that music also accompanied work. On the Reaper Vase Rhyton from Hagia Triada ( c. 1500 BC) a group of peasants, returning from work in the fields, are carrying their tools on their shoulders; the procession is accompanied by singing musicians, of which the first is shaking a sistrum. Homer mentions the λίνος( línos; Ailinos), a song played on the lyre by a boy to accompany dancing and singing at the grape harvest (Il. 18,569-572), as well as a song played …

[German version] (Δωσιάδας; Dosiádas). Author handed down by Anth. Pal. 15,26, also in the Codex of the bucolic poets under the Τεχνοπαίγνια ( Technopaígnia). The poem is a γρῖφος ( gríphos) or riddle, in the way of the Alexandra of  Lycophron, with dark references and allusions to known mythological figures which are explained by the scholia in some MSS. Its subject is a literary dedication of an altar that Jason erected on Lemnos and at which  Philoctetes was injured. The language is a mixture of Doric and epic forms (e.g. Τεύκροι…

[German version] (ἐγκώμιον/ enkṓmion, sc. μέλος/ mélos, ᾆσμα/ âisma). A song of praise. Praise (ἔπαινος, épainos) and reproach (ψόγος, psógos) are two important functions in oral poetry widely used and documented in early Greece [1. 141-151]. Reproach is largely the subject of the iambographers while praise is, for example, found in the poem addressed by  Alcaeus to his brother (350 Voigt [2]), the poems of  Sappho to her female friends, in the Partheneia of  Alcman, in the erotic poetry dedicated by  Anacreon and…

(Στησίχορος; Stēsíchoros). [German version] [1] Lyric poet, 6th cent. BC Greek lyric poet, one of the nine of the Alexandrian canon. Robbins, Emmet (Toronto) [German version] A. Life S. originated from Himera (Sicily) and was called 'the Himeraean' (Ἱμεραῖος/ Himeraîos), or he may have come from Mataurus in south Italy; he died in Catania (Catane). The dates in the Suda (σ 1095) are suspect: his birth in the 37th (632-629 BC) and death in the 56th Olympiad (556-553 BC) seem based on synchronisation with other poets, with the first giving an akme of a conventional 40 years after the Su…

[German version] (ἐμβατήριον/ embatḗrion, sc. μέλος/ mélos, ᾆσμα/ âisma). Military march, often sung, usually played by an auletes (flute-player), although Phillis of Delos speaks of κινήσεις ἐμβατηρίους ( kinḗseis embateríous) in connection with ἀρχαίους κιθαρῳδούς ( archaíous kitharōidoús; Ath. 1,21f-22a). The proto-Corinthian Chigi vase of c. 630 BC (Rome, VG 22679) shows warriors marching with a flute-player (cf. Thuc. 5,70). The rhythm was undoubtedly anapaestic: Dion Chrys. 2,59 (PMG 856; cf. PMG 857) quotes one such song, supposedly…

[German version] (παλινῳδία/ palinōidía). Poem by Stesichorus in which he withdrew the vituperation of Helen [1] because of which he had lost his eyesight (192 PMGF). This 'revocation' is said to have restored his vision. Stesichorus withdrew his report that Helen had travelled to Troy and appears instead to have introduced the story that she had spent the war years in Egypt. There were apparently two palinodies (193 PMGF). Later the term was used for any type of revocation (cf. for instance Cic. Att. 4,5,1). Chiastically arranged songs (a b : b a) are also called 'palinodic' (H…

[German version] (Ἴβυκος; Íbykos), born in Rhegium in the 6th cent. BC, the second important poet of Magna Graecia after  Stesichorus. He came to Samos in the 54th Olympiad (564-561 BC) (Suda: ‘when Polycrates, the tyrant's father, ruled there’, should probably be corrected to Πολυκράτους, which would result in more common Greek, and would then say - in accordance with Hdt. 3,39, who names Aeaces as the father: ‘when the father of the tyrant Polycrates ruled there’). Eusebius' dating differs from t…

[German version] (ὑπόρχημα; hypórchēma). Old Greek choral lyric that was originally associated with the weapon dance. The word hyporchema is first documented in Pl. Ion 534c, where it is cited along with forms of poetry.  Thaletas of Gortyn (7th cent. BC) was the first to compose hyporchḗmata to accompany the weapon dances of the  Curetes (schol. Pind. Pyth. 2,127). As warrior dances were more elaborate and mimetic than other choral dances, a soloist probably sang (Ath. 1,15d-e). Thaletas probably brought the hyporchema to Sparta, where, together with Xenodamus of Cythera, h…

[German version] (ἐπικήδειον; epikḗdeion, sc. μέλος; mélos, ᾆσμα; âisma). Ceremonial song at mourning (κῆδος, kḗdos) or during burial (cf. Pind. Pyth. 4,112). The chorus in Eur. Tro. 514 sings an epicedium (ᾠδὰν ἐπικήδειον; ōidàn epikḗdeion) over the fall of Troy; similarly, Plato speaks of the women who are ἐπικήδειοι ᾠδαί ( epikḗdeioi ōidai), professional mourners at a burial. As a substantive, however, epicedium is used rarely and only quite late. Ancient authors tried to distinguish it from other words for ‘lament’: Proclus (Phot. 321a 30-32) calls epicedium a song ‘before t…

[German version] (ἀναβολή; anabolḗ). A musical introduction that precedes the singing, as with Pind. Pyth. 1,4 f. addressed to the lyre, ὅταν προοιμίων ἀμβολὰς τεύχηις: dancers and singers receive their cue from the first notes. It is clear from e.g. Hom. Od. 1,155 (= 8,266) φορμίζων ἀνεβάλλετο καλὸν ἀείδειν, that the singer, who underscores his singing voice with music, previously plays an instrumental part. No doubt he also used his instrument during the pauses in the singing. Flute-players also played ἀναβολαί ( anabolaí; Eupolis, PCG V 81). Aristot. Rh. 3,9,1409b 25 ment…

[German version] (δαφνηφορικόν; daphnēphorikón). A song sung by maidens at the  Daphnephoria, a festival for Apollo Ismenios in Thebes (Paus. 9,10,4). Proclus (Phot. 321a34) reports daphnēphoriká as part of Pindar's Partheneia; the Suda s.v. Πίνδαρος counts daphnēphoriká amongst the 17 books (in addition to the Partheneia). POxy. 4,659 (1904) = Pind. fr. 94b Snell-Maehler provides us with a substantial fragment of a daphnēphorikón. The poem was written in honour of Agasicles, the grandson of an Aeoladas (l. 9), to whom fr. 94a is obviously addressed. Pagon…

(ἐπιτάφιος; epitáphios). [German version] [1] Funerary epigram see  Funerary epigram Robbins, Emmet (Toronto) [German version] [2] Funeral games or funeral oration (sc. ἀγών or λόγος; agṓn or lógos: funeral games or funeral oration). Funeral games are known since Hom. Il. 23; for Athens, Aristot. Ath. Pol. 58 mentions an epitáphios agṓn (for Sparta cf. Paus. 3,14,1). The term ‘funeral oration’ (ἐπιτάφιος λόγος; first in Pl. Menex. 236b) is only confirmed for Athens; it refers to the laudatio for a well-respected citizen in accordance with the πάτριος νόμος; pátrios nómos, ‘the inhe…