Deipnosophistae

And while much such conversation as this was proceed- ing, on a sudden a noise was heard from some one of the neighbouring places, as from an hydraulic organ, very pleasant and agreeable, so that we all turned round towards it, being charmed by the melody; and Ulpian looking towards the musical Alcides said, Do you hear, O you most musical of men, this beautiful harmony which has made us turn round, being enchanted by the music? And is it not the case, as it is said to be among you Alexandrians, that constant music of an unaccompanied flute causes pain rather than any musical pleasure to those who hear it? And Alcides said,—But this engine, the hydraulic organ, whether you choose to class it among stringed instruments or among wind instruments, is the invention of a fellow-countryman of ours, an Alexandrian, a barber by trade; and his name is Ctesibius. And Aristocles reports this, in his book on Choruses, saying—

The question is asked, whether the hydraulic organ is a stringed instrument or a wind instrument.

Now Aristoxenus did not feel sure on this point; but it is said, that Plato showed a sort of notion of the invention, making a nightly clock like the hydraulic organ; being very like an enormous hour-glass. And, indeed, the hydraulic organ does seem to be a kind of hour-glass. It cannot, therefore, be considered a stringed instrument, and one to be played by touching. But perhaps it may be called a wind instrument, because the organ is inflated by the water; for the pipes are plunged down into the water, and when the water is agitated by a youth, as the axles penetrate through the whole organ, the pipes are inflated, and emit a gentle and agreeable sound. And this organ is like a round altar; and they say that it was invented by Ctesibius the barber, who dwelt at that time in the territory of Aspendor, in the reign of the second Ptolemy surnamed Euergetes; and they say that he was a very eminent man; they say also, that he learnt a good deal from his wife Thais. But Trypho, in the third book of his treatise on Names, (and it is a dissertation on Flutes and Organs,) says Ctesibius the mechanic wrote a book about the hydraulis; but I am not sure that he is not mistaken as to the name. At all events, Aristoxenus prefers stringed instruments which are played upon by the touch to wind instruments; saying that wind instruments are very easy; for that many people, without having been taught, can play on the flute and pipe, as for instance, shepherds.

And this is what I have got to say to you about the hydraulic organ, O Ulpian. For the Phoenicians used a kind of flute called the gingras, according to the account of Xenophon, about a span in length, and of a very shrill and mournful tone. And the same instrument is used also by the Carians in their wailings, unless, indeed, when he says Phœnicia he means Caria; and indeed you may find the name used so in Corinna and in Bacchylides. And these flutes are called gingri by the Phœnicians from the lamentations for Adonis; for you Phoenicians called Adonis Gingres, as Democlides tells us. And Antiphanes mentions the gingri flutes, in his Physician; and Menander does so too, in his Carina; and Amphis, in his Dithyrambus, saying—

1. A. And I have got that admirable gingras.
2. B. What is the gingras.
3. A. 'Tis a new invention
4. Of our countryman, which never yet
5. Has been exhibited in any theatre,
6. But is a luxury of Athenian banquets.
7. B. Why then not introduce it to this people?
8. A. Because I think that I shall draw by lot
9. Some most ambitious tribe; for well I know
10. They would disturb all things with their applause.

And Axionicus says, in his Phileuripides—

1. For they are both so sick with love
2. Of the melodious strains of soft Euripides,
3. That every other music seems to them
4. Shrill as the gingras, and a mere misfortune.

But how much better, O most sagacious Ulpian, is this hydraulic organ, than the instrument which is called nabla; which Sopater the parodist, in his drama entitled Pylæ, says is also an invention of the Phoenicians, using the following expressions—

1. Nor is the noise of the Sidonian nabla,
2. Which from the throat doth flow, at all impair'd.

And in the Slave of Mystacus we find—

1. Among the instruments of harmony
2. The nablas comes, not over soft or sweet;
3. By its long sides a lifeless lotus fix'd
4. Sends forth a breathed music; and excites men,
5. Singing in Bacchic strain a merry song.

And Philemon says, in his Adulterer—

1. A. There should, O Parmeno, be here among us
2. A nablas or a female flute-player.
3. B. What is a nablas?
4. A. Don't you know? you idiot!
5. B. Indeed I don't.
6. A. What, do not know a nablas l
7. You know no good; perhaps a sambucistria
8. You ne'er have heard of either?

There is also an instrument called the triangle, which Juba mentions in the fourth book of his Theatrical History, and says it is an invention of the Syrians; as is also the sambuca, which is called λυροφοίνιξ. But this instrument Neanthes the Cyzicene, in the first book of his Seasons, says is an invention of Ibycus the Rhegian poet; as also the lyre called barbitos was of Anacreon. But since you are running all us Alexandrians down as unmusical, and keep mentioning the monaulos as our only national instrument, listen now to what I can tell you offhand about that.

For Juba, in the before-mentioned treatise, says that the Egyptians call the monaulos an invention of Osiris, just as they say that kind of plagiaulos is, which is called photinx, and that, too, I will presently show you is mentioned by a very illustrious author; for the photinx is the same as the flute, which is a national instrument. But Sophocles, in his Thamyras, speaks of the monaulos, saying—

1. For all the tuneful melodies of pipes (πήκτιδες)
2. Are lost, the lyre, and monaulos too.

* * * * And Araros, in his Birth of Pan, says—

1. But he, can you believe it? seized at once
2. On the monaulos, and leapt lightly forth.

And Anaxandrides, in his Treasure, says—

1. I the monaulos took, and sang a wedding song.

And in his Bottle-bearer he says—

1. A. What have you done, you Syrian, with your monaulos?
2. B. What monaulos?
3. A. The reed.

And Sopater, in his Bacchis, says—

1. And then he sang a song on the monaulos.

But Protagorides of Cyzicus, in the second book of his treatise on the Assemblies in Honour of Daphne, says, "He touched every kind of instrument, one after another, castanets, the weak-sounding pandurus, but he drew the sweetest harmony from the sweet monaulos. And Posidonius the Stoic philosopher, in the third book of his Histories, speaking of the war of the Apameans against the Larisæans, writes as follows—

Having taken short daggers sticking in their waists, and small lances covered with rust and dirt, and having put veils and curtains over their heads which produce a shade but do not hinder the wind from getting to their necks, dragging on asses laden with wine and every sort of meat, by the side of which were packed little photinges and little monauli, instruments of revelry, not of war.

But I am not ignorant that Amerias the Macedonian, in his Dialects, says, that the monaulos is called tityrinus. So here you have, O excellent Ulpian, a man who mentions the photinx. But that the monaulos was the same instrument which is now called calamaules, or reedfife, is clearly shown by Hedylus, in his Epigrams, where he says—

1. Beneath this mound the tuneful Theon lies,
2. Whom the monaulos knew its sweetest lord;
3. Scirpalus' son; age had destroy'd his sight,
4. And when he was a child his sire him call'd
5. Eupalamus in his first birthday ode,
6. Showing that he was a choice bouquet where
7. The virtues all had met. For well he sung
8. The Muses' sports amid their wine-glad revels;
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9. He sang to Battalus, an eager drinker
10. Of unmix'd wine, and Cotalus and Pæncalus.
11. Say then to Theon with his calamaules,
12. Farewell, O Theon, tune fullest of men.

As, therefore, they now call those who play on a pipe of reeds (κάλαμοι) calamaules, so also they call them now rapaules, according to the statement of Amerias the Macedonian, in his dialects.

But I wish you to know, my most excellent Ulpian, that a more musical and accomplished people than the Alexandrians is not mentioned. And I do not speak only of playing on the harp, with which even the poorest people among us, and those who do not make a profession of it, and who are utterly ignorant of every other kind of learning, are so familiarized that they can in a moment detect any error which has been made in striking the strings,—but especially are they skilful with the flute; and not only in those which are called girls' flutes and boys' flutes, but also in men's flutes, which are called perfect and superperfect; and also in those which are called harp-flutes and finger-flutes. For the flutes called elymi, which Sophocles mentions in his Niobe and in his Drummers, we do not understand to be anything but the common Phrygian flute. And these, too, the Alexandrians are very skilful in. They are acquainted also with the flute with two holes, and also with the intermediate flute, and with those which are called hypotreti, or bored underneath. And Callias also speaks of the flute called elymi, in his Pedetæ. But Juba says that they are an invention of the Phrygians, and that they were also called scytaliæ, from their resemblance in thickness to the scytale. And Cratinus the younger says that the Cyprians also use them, in his Thera- menes. We know, too, of some which are called half-bored, of which Anacreon says—

1. What lust has now seized thus upon your mind,
2. To wish to dance to tender half-bored flutes?

And these flutes are smaller than the perfect flutes. At all events, Aeschylus says, speaking metaphorically, in his Ixion—

1. But very soon the greater swallows up
2. The lesser and the half-bored flute.

And these half-bored flutes are the same as those which are called boys' flutes, which they use at banquets, not being fit for the games and public shows; on which account Anacreon called them tender.