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wedding, and he himself used it in several celebratory odes for young athletes.82 Sophocles introduced it to tragedy; but it was more characteristic of citharodes' solos.83 Despite its 'slackness', there are indications that it had a high tessitura.84 Aristotle considers it suitable for boys to learn because it is manageable for them and decorous as well as fun.85 |
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The other of Plato's slack modes, the Ionian, presents several faces. For Plato it is soft and sympotic, and there were indeed sympotic songs of the sixth-century poet Pythermus of Teos in this mode. But Heraclides Ponticus described it as 'not pretty or merry, but severe and tough, with a certain dignity and weight, which is why this mode is welcomed by tragedy'.86 It was at home in an Asiatic type of lament sung to the pipes, known as Mariandynian after a people on the south shore of the Black Sea.87 The famous citharode Phrynis is called by his younger rival Timotheus an ionokamptas, which seems to combine the notions of Ionian mode and persistent modulation. For Aristophanes saucy songs sung by prostitutes are Ionic.88 |
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The Mixolydian was, beside the Dorian, the principal mode used in tragedy, at any rate before Sophocles and others introduced a wider variety. Aristoxenus also found it in Sappho, and supposed that the tragedians had got it from her. It is described as emotional, appropriate to laments and the arousal of pity.89 |
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(Footnote continued from previous page) |
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differentiate the Tense Lydian from Lydian unqualified, as in Aristides Quintilianus' list of ancient modes and in Plato loc. cit. |
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82 Pind. fr. 64 = 52n adn. (cf. Paus. 9. 5. 7), Ol. 14. 17 (a dancing procession), Nem. 4. 45, 8. 15; ps.-Pind. Ol. 5. 19. |
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83 Aristox. fr. 79, cf. ps.-Plut. De mus. 1137 a, Procl. ap. Phot. Bibl. 320b, Psell. De trag. 5. |
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84 Telestes, PMG 810. 4, Aristid. Quint. p. 23. 3 with 30. 2. Perhaps the Tense Lydian is meant. Apuleius, Flor. 4, characterizes the Lydian as plaintive. |
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85Pol. 1342b30, reading paidian for paideian. Cassiodorus, Var. 2. 40. 4, describes the Lydian as relaxing and restorative; schol. Pind. Ol. 5. 44 g calls it sweet. |
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86PMG 910; Heraclid. Pont. fr. 163 (both in Ath. 625 bc). For the Ionian mode in tragedy cf. also Aesch. Supp. 69 (a lament, compared to that of a nightingale), Aristox. fr. 82, Psell. De trag. 5. In the Psellus passage it is again called slack; for this cf. Pratinas quoted above, p. 178. |
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87PMG 878, cf. Aesch. Pers. 938. For Plato the modes associated with laments are the Mixolydian and Tense Lydian. |
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88 Timoth. PMG 802. 3; Ar. Eccl. 883, cf. 918. Late sources (no doubt echoing earlier ones) characterize Ionian as variegated (Apul. Flor. 4), elegant (Lucian, Harmonides 1), or intellect-sharpening and spiritually uplifting (Cassiod. Var. 2. 40. 4). |
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89 Aristox. fr. 81, ps.-Arist. Pr. 19. 48 (restored from Theodorus of Gaza's version). Plut. De audiendo 46b (Euripides), Psell. De trag. 5; Pl. Resp. 398 de, Arist. Pol. 1340b1, ps.-Plut. De rnus. 1140f. |
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