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are similarly used to convey the joylessness of death and other miseries.4 |
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Of course, Greek music was not always merry. It could be used for lamentation or gloomy foreboding, pessimistic reflection or the narration of horrific myths. But such was the general association of music-making with festive and joyful occasions that Sappho could reprimand her daughter, who was grieving over some loss, saying |
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In a house of the Muses' servants it's not right
for there to be lament. . . it would not befit us. |
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Conversely, when Admetus goes into mourning for his wife, he orders that neither lyre nor pipe is to be heard in the town for twelve months.5 Music is constantly associated with the idea of celebration. When we are visited by great good fortune or achieve some special success, our thoughts turn towards champagne: the Greek's turned towards singing and dancing.6 Aeschylus can even say, of the Erinyes' control over men's fortunes, that 'to some they give songs, to others a life dimmed with tears', where 'songs' is shorthand for 'good fortune.7 |
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When he thought of music and song as a feature of well-ordered city life, the Greek thought above all of the music and song associated with the public worship of the gods. Many of the regular local festivals, held annually or in some cases at longer intervals, had musical events or at least musical elements in them: singing processions, choral dances, sacrifices accompanied by ritual hymns. |
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Those participating in the ceremony often made their approach to the central location, a shrine or altar, in a formal and showy procession, in which there might be a singing chorus or choruses, sometimes dancing as they sang, or with separate dancers, instrumental accompaniment being usually provided by a piper. Such processions are attested in literary sources for various festivals, for example the Panathenaea, Oschophoria, and City Dionysia at Athens and the Daphnephoria at Thebes, and they are depicted on a number of |
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4 Soph. OC 1222 etc.; J. Diggle, PCPS 20 (1974), 11; Barker, GMW i. 69-73; Maas-Snyder, 80, 229 n. 6. |
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5 Sappho fr. 150; Eur. Alc. 430f.; cf. Apollod. Bibl. 3.15.7. |
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6 Cf. Aesch. Ag. 23, 31, Soph. Trach. 205-20, Eur. Erechtheus fr. 65. 5-10 Austin, El. 859-79, Tro. 325-41, 542-7, HF 761-97. |
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7Eum.. 954. |
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