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praised 'the Dorian melody' as being the most dignified; no doubt he was composing in it at that moment. At least one other reference to the Dorian mode seems fairly sure.85 Three or four of the Epinicians are unequivocally indicated to be in the Lydian mode.86 Others are apparently in the Aeolian.87 The Phrygian mode is nowhere mentioned. The invention of the Ionian is discussed in a prominent position at the beginning of a fragmentary song which was presumably in that mode: it is associated with auloi, and surprisingly attributed to an unidentified Locrian from South Italy.88 |
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Regional traditions: Athens |
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Like Simonides and Simonides' nephew Bacchylides, Pindar took commissions from patrons in many parts of the Greek world, from Thessaly in the north to Cyrene in the south, from Rhodes in the east to Italy and Sicily in the west. The geographical spread is vast, but the actual clientele for these prestigious compositions was quite small. As in the sixth century, there were men of wealth and power here and there who were drawn to music and poetry and who, by buying it in from near and far, established at least for a time centres of a Panhellenic rather than local culture. The most outstanding of these patrons was Hieron, the lord of Syracuse, who between 478 and 467 made his city virtually the cultural capital of the Greek world. |
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Regional traditions subsisted nevertheless. Lesbos continued to produce outstanding citharodes. There was one Aristoclides, who claimed descent from Terpander, and who may have enjoyed Hieron's patronage.89 There was his pupil Phrynis, whose importance is such that we will have to return to him later. 'After the Lesbian singer' was a phrase applied to those who were judged good at something but not quite the best, as if the first prize automatically |
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85 Frs. 67, 191 'an Aeolian (sc. the Boeotian Pindar) trod the Dorian path of songs'. More debatable are Ol. 1. 17 'Dorian phorminx' (a later passage in the ode suggests the Aeolian mode), 3. 5 'Dorian shoe' (cf. above, p. 345), Pyth. 8. 20 'Dorian komos' (= the festive singers). |
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86Ol. 14. 17, Nem. 4. 45, 8. 15; ps.-Pind. Ol. 5. 19, where the instrument is the auloi. These odes do not all belong to the same metrical category. Pindar also spoke of this mode in a paean, where he said it was first introduced by Amphion, who married the Lydian Niobe and learned it from her family (fr. 52n adn. + Paus. 9. 5. 7). |
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87Ol. 1. 102: Pyth. 2. 69 (seems to refer to another composition; lyre); Nem. 3. 79 (auloi). 'Aeolian' could mean merely Boeotian, i.e. from Pindar, but close phraseological parallels with other passages favour the modal interpretation. |
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88 Fr. 140b; he may have had Xenocritus in mind. |
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89 Istros, FGrH 334 F 56, schol. Ar. Nub. 971. |
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