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heroic frame and appetite who wore a lion-skin, slept on a bear-skin, could sound two trumpets at once, and blew so loudly that it was painful to be in the vicinity.189 Other champions are said to have been audible at a distance of fifty stades, that is, some nine or ten kilometres.190 |
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Certain sea shells and animal horns require only the making of a mouth-hole to become natural trumpets, and they have been put to this use from the earliest times. The most suitable kinds of shell are the triton ('trumpet shell'), the cassis ('helmet shell'), and the strombus ('true conch').191 Side-blown triton shells had a role in Minoan cult.192 In Classical Greek literature shell trumpets are occasionally mentioned as being used by common people, especially rustics, for attracting the attention of neighhours, etc.193 They are also attributed to sea deities such as Tritons and Nereids, and to some foreign peoples not civilized enough to have war trumpets.194 We hear too of children blowing through limpets and mussels.195 |
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The cow-horn (keras) likewise served as a poor man's trumpet.196 Its wide conical bore gave it a softer-edged tone than the cylindrical trumpet. The author of the Aristotelian De audibilibus comments on its acoustic properties, and recommends baking the horn to improve its sonority.197 But it could not rival the salpinx for loudness, which was what the Greeks most wanted from these signalling instruments, and they saw no point in imitating the shape in metal. |
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189 Ath. 414f-415a, Poll. 4.89. |
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190 Poll. 4.88. |
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191 Baines, Brass, 42-4. |
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192 M. P. Nilsson, The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion, 2nd edn. (Lund, 1950), 153 f.; Aign, 49. |
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193 Archil. fr. 214, 'Theog.' 1229f. (a party guest summoned home), Eur. IT 303, Theoc. Id. 9. 25 with Gow, Plut. Quaest. conv. 713b, Naumachius 62f. Heitsch. |
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194 Moschus, Europa 123f., etc., and art from the 4th c.; Theoc. Id. 22. 75, Lycoph. Alex. 250, Sext. Emp. Math. 6. 24, Heliodorus 9. 17. 1 (cf. CQ 40 (1990) 287). On a late 6th-c. cup by the Nicosthenes Painter (Castle Ashby 57; Paquette, 83 T15) a conch is blown by a young man who holds a spear and walks between a winged horse and a fully equipped hoplite. |
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195 Alc. 359 (cf. ZPE 80 (1990) 6), Dicaearchus fr. 99 W. |
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196 Xen. An. 2. 2. 4; 7. 3. 32 (Thracian); Polyb. 26. 1. 4; vase-paintings in Paquette, 72 f.; in general, Baines, Brass, 44-8. |
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197De audibilibus 802a17ff., b l ff., 803a33. Cf. Baines, 44, 'an animal horn is prepared for blowing by first removing the bony core with hot water or simply leaving the horn exposed to the air and flies'. |
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