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solemn.65 Plato approves it as the finest of modes, one that mirrors the character of the man who is brave in battle and drastic action, self-controlled and enduring in the face of death or disastera model for life.66 According to Aristotle, 'everyone agrees that it is the steadiest and the one that most has a manly character'.67 Heraclides Ponticus considers that it displays manliness and grandeur; it is not merry or relaxed but stern and forceful, without complexities and frills.68 In view of its general prestige it is not surprising that the Dorian was the first tuning taught to boys when they were learning to play the lyre.69 |
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The Phrygian mode was more associated with the aulos, though not exclusively so. Stesichorus referred to his Oresteia as a Phrygian song, and no one doubts that it was sung to the kithara.70 Phrygian seems to have been appropriate to a range of moods, from cheerful bonhomie or piety to wild excitement or religious frenzy. Plato surprisingly ignores the latter aspect, which we might have expected him to deprecate, and welcomes this mode to his ideal statethe only one he does admit besides the Dorianas expressing the character of the man who, when there is no war or crisis, conducts his affairs sensibly in an unforced way, approaching God with prayers, and with his fellow men making and responding to reasonable requirements.71 Aristotle, on the other hand, writes: |
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The Socrates of the Republic is wrong to leave only the Phrygian mode beside the Dorian, especially as in the matter of instruments he disapproves of the aulos. For of the modes, the Phrygian has the same potential as the aulos among instruments: both of them are exciting (orgiastika) and emotional. This is evident in practice, for all Bacchic celebration and that sort of dancing is predominantly accompanied by auloi, and goes most appropriately with melodies in the Phrygian mode. The dithyramb, for instance, is by general consent held to be a Phrygian thing. The experts give many illustrations of this, notably that Philoxenus attempted to compose a |
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65 Pratinas, PMG 708; Pind. fr. 67. There are several other apparent or possible references to the Dorian mode in Pindar: Ol. 1.17, 3. 5, Pyth. 8. 20, fr. 191. |
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66Lach. 188d, 193d, Resp. 398e-9c, Epistle 7. 336c. |
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67 Pol. 1342b12, cf. 1340b4. |
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68 Fr. 163 ap. Ath. 624 d. Cf. also ps.-Plut. De mus. 1136 d-f (Aristox. fr. 81 ), Dion. Hal. Dem. 22, Lucian, Harmonides 1, Apul. Flor. 4, Ptol. Harm. 3. 7, Psell. De trag. 5. |
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69 This seems to be implied by Ar. Eq. 985-96. |
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70PMG 212; cf. CQ 21 (1971) 310. Plato, Lach. 188d, also suggests that a lyre might be tuned to the Phrygian scale (Winnington-Ingram, CQ 6 (1956), 172, 181 n. 2). |
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71Resp. 399a-c. Cf. W. D. Anderson, Ethos and Education in Greek Music (Cambridge, Mass., 1966), 107-9. |
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