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third millennium, represents a man playing a pair of pipes. The Minoans also knew them, as we can see from their appearance in a sacrificial scene on the Hagia Triadha sarcophagus.3 |
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It is not clear how early they became established in Greece itself. No Mycenaean representations are known. The earliest evidence dates from the end of the eighth century.4 In the Homeric poems the instrument is mentioned only twice: once as being played round the camp fires of the Trojans and their allies, and once in a description of wedding festivities.5 It is remarkable that Homer says nothing of auloi in a whole series of contexts in which they were regularly used later: paeans, dirges, sacrifices, marching to battle, rowing, feasting, dancing. It has been argued that this must be due to deliberate exclusion of an instrument regarded as lacking in dignity.6 It may be so, but the suspicion must remain that the pipes were only introduced (or reintroduced) to Greece at a comparatively late date, perhaps from Asia Minor or Syria.7 |
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Organological classification |
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The grievous error of calling the aulos a flute has been sufficiently castigated in the Introduction. What, then, should it be called? 'Pipe' is unobjectionable but uninformative. 'Double reed pipe' may be thought better, but the phrase is fraught with ambiguity and may mislead the innocent. It is not automatically clear whether 'reed pipe' means a pipe made from a hollow reed or a pipe equipped with a vibrating reed; and incidentally, this so-called 'reed' in the mouthpiece is not necessarily made of reed. Again, it is not clear, unless a hyphen is inserted, whether 'double' applies to the reed or to the pipe. For reed mouthpieces fall into two categories, generally known as single reed and double reed. In the single-reed type, a cut is made |
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3 Sachs, HMI 72f., 91f., 98-100, 119f.; Rimmer, 34-6 and pl. XII-XIII; Aign, 34, 47; NG vi. 71-4, xii. 197-200; Paquette, 23. |
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4 Wegner, Musik und Tanz, 21f. |
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5Il. 10. 13, 18. 495. Book 10 is generally agreed to be an addition to the original Iliad. Some rhapsode also added auloi to the dance illustrated on Achilles' shield (Il. 18. 606 a in PBerol. 9774). |
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6 H. Huchzermeyer, Aulos und Kithara in der griechischen Musik bis zum Ausgang der klassischen Zeit (Emsdetten, 1931), 32-4. |
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7 Several representations are known from the eastern Mediterranean area c.800-700: a Phrygian figurine with a double(?) hornpipe, BM 134975 (Rimmer, 28f. and pl. VIII c; on hornpipes see later); a Cypriote bronze cup showing an oriental ritual procession (Aign, 64); a relief from Karatepe (Aign, 175; NG i. 389). There is also a Sardinian figurine of the 8th or 7th c. (NG vi. 314). |
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