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nobility. Achilles and Paris are represented in the Iliad as able to play it; so could several of Pindar's patrons.59 Themistocles was looked down upon for being unable either to play the lyre or to sing.60 Cimon, though he could sing quite adequately, was also said (by a hostile writer) to have lacked musical education,61 and in the 420s 'he doesn't know how to play the lyre' was equivalent to 'he hasn't had a good education'.62 Socrates was taking lessons in the lyre at an advanced age.63 |
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The fact that not everyone could play the lyre is reflected in the procedure followed at the Athenian symposium of this period, about which we have fairly detailed information. When dinner was over, libations were poured; the third libation was to Zeus Saviour, and at this everyone joined in singing a paean. Then the drinking began. A branch of bay or myrtle was passed round, and each guest as he received it was expected to sing or recite something, or continue the item begun by the previous singer. A hired piper provided the necessary accompaniments. Afterwards those who had the skill sang songs to the lyre.64 |
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By the end of the century, however, fashions were changing. Young men scandalized their elders by reciting speeches from decadent modern dramas instead of drawing on the traditional repertoire, or they rejected altogether the idea of doing a party piece. Some hosts relied on hired dancing girls, acrobats, and instrumentalists to entertain their guests, while others, disdaining such floor-shows, contented themselves with their own intellectual conversation.65 |
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If the men's symposium was the main occasion for domestic music-making, we should not overlook the existence of other, less conspicuous ones. While the men made merry, the women of the household stayed in their own quarters, but likely enough they were singing too. Agathon's guests at the party described by Plato decide |
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59Il. 3. 54, 9. 186; the Cyrenaean exile Damophilus, Pind. Pyth. 4. 295; Timocritus of Aegina, Nem. 4. 14; perhaps Hiero, Ol. 1. 16; Arcesilaus, Pyth. 5. 114. |
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60 Ion of Chios, FGrH 392 F 13 (Plut. Cim. 9. 1, Them. 2. 4, Cic. Tusc. 1. 4). |
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61 Stesimbrotus, FGrH 107 F 4; for his singing, Ion, loc. cit. |
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62 Ar. Vesp. 959, 989, cf. Eq. 188f., 985ff. (of Cleon), Eup. ft. 208. |
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63 Pl. Euthydemus 272c, cf. Menex. 236a. |
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64 Dicaearchus frs. 88-9 Wehrli and other sources; see Reitzenstein (as n. 58), ch. 1; F. Wehrli, Die Schule des Aristoteles, i (Basle, 1944), 69-71. |
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65 Ar. Nub. 1354 ff., Eup. frs. 148, 398, Ephippus fr. 16, Antiphanes fr. 85; Pl. Prt. 347d, Symp. 176e, Xen. Symp. 2.1-3. 1, 7.2-5, 9.2-7, Hippolochus (c. 300 BC) ap. Ath. 129a, d; Reitzenstein, op. cit. 30ff. |
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