|
|
|
|
|
|
|
we have mentioned, is first attested in south Anatolia. The Anatolian trumpet, however, like the Mesopotamian, seems to have been of conical form.171 The Greek trumpet more resembles the Egyptian, which was cylindrical with a conical bell.172 The Greeks themselves considered the instrument to be an Etruscan invention.173 Aristarchus, the great Alexandrian scholar, observed that Homer's heroes never employ the trumpet, although the poet himself knows it and makes use of it in a simile.174 This does indeed suggest that the conventions of epic battle narrative were formed at a time when the trumpet was not yet in common use. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Its loudness made the trumpet ideal for giving signals at a distance or to a large crowd. It could summon people to assembly, 175 start a chariot race, 176 co-ordinate the efforts of men launching a big ship or struggling with a heavy siege engine.177 It could give signals for various other things.178 But what is most often mentioned is its giving the signal to attack on the field of battle.179 So regular is this association that trumpets are thought of as becoming redundant in peacetime.180 However, they did have a role in certain cults. A black-figure lekythos shows a trumpeter heading a sacrificial procession, and later inscriptions from several places refer in this connection to the 'holy trumpeter'.181 The Argives summoned Dionysus out of the water with small trumpets.182 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(Footnote continued from previous page) |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
but it may be out of proportion. An ivory trumpet of nearly this length, with a funnel-shaped bronze bell, is preserved in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; it was presumably made for ceremonial purposes, and its date is unknown. See L. D. Caskey, AJArch. 41 (1937), 525-7. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
171 See Rimmer, 29f., 37f. and pl. VIIIb, XVI; NG i. 388, 391f. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
172 H. Hickmann, La Trompette dans l'Égypte ancienne (Cairo, 1946). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
173 Aesch. Eum. 567, Soph. Aj. 17 with schol., schol. Il. 18. 219, Poll. 4. 85, etc. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
174Il. 18. 219 with schol. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
175 Aesch. loc. cit., cf. Bacchyl. 18. 3. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
176 Black-figure pot lid, Louvre 182; Soph. El. 711; cf. Paus. 6. 13. 9. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
177 Callixenus, FGrH 627 F 1 p. 162. 29 J.; Ath. 415a. A relief from the palace of Sennacherib (705-681 BC) shows an army of men hauling and levering along a colossal stone bull, with four trumpeters giving signals to synchronize them (BM 124820; Rimmer, 38). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
178 Ar. Ach. 1001, Eur. Tro. 1267, Thuc. 6. 32. 1, Xen. Hipparchicus 3. 12. At Macedon it announced the last course of dinner (Hippolochus ap. Ath. 130b). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
179 Ibycus(?) SLG 166. 6, Simon. fr. eleg. 7. 4 West2, Aesch. Pers. 395, Sept. 394, Soph. Aj. 291, etc. When ps.-Arist. De audibilibus 803a25 refers to trumpets being played at low volume by revellers on their way to visit friends after parties, we should probably not think of 'serenades' (Maux, RE iA. 2010) but of a mock assault. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
180 Aesch. fr. 451 n. 9, Bacchyl. fr. 4. 75, Ar. Pax 1240. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
181 London B 648; hierosalpinktes, see LSJ. Cf. Poll. 4. 86-7; L. Ziehen, Hermes 66 (1931), 231 ff. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
182 Socrates, FGrH 310 F 2 with Jacoby. |
|
|
|
|
|