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the 'tragic' aulos,64 while a 'theatrical' aulos used for solo pieces cannot be distinguished from the Pythikos.65 'Underhole' and 'side-hole' pipes (hypotretoi, paratretoi), if not the same again, must at any rate be instruments of the more elaborate sort.66 'Convivial' pipes (paroinioi), described as small and of equal size, would be the common type used at the Archaic and Classical symposium.67 There is also mention of 'spondaic' pipes, which were long and suitable for solemn hymns and libations.68 They would have needed to produce a deep and stately sound, but not a large number of different notes. Then there were 'marching' auloi (embaterioi) for processions, and 'finger' auloi (daktylikoi) for dance-songs.69 Another type was named because of its stocky shape skytalias or skytalion, 'walking-stick'.70 We also hear of a high-pitched Libyan 'horse-herding' pipe (hippophorbos), made of bay-wood, and of others called Athena, idouthoi, mardos, batnos (Messenian), katamphotoi, and tyrikiloi (made of reed).71 |
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Many attempts have been made to infer, from the disposition of holes in surviving specimens of ancient auloi, the notes and intervals that they were designed to play. This is not a hopeless enterprise, but the prospects of achieving valid results are limited by a number of factors. In principle, the opening or closing of different holes by the fingers changes the note by varying the length of the resonating air column, which more or less ceases to resonate at the first open hole from the mouthpiece. The intervals between different notes will |
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64 Mentioned together with kitharisterioi and with lysioidikoi by Ath. 182c, who cites Ephorus (FGrH 70 F 3) and two specialist writers on auloi as his authorities. The lysioidikoi were named after a sort of Hellenistic cabaret act, for which see p. 378. |
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65 Poll. 4. 82, hypotheatroi auloi. |
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66 Ath. 176f, Poll. 4.77(?), 81 ('suitable to dirges, blowing high and slow'). |
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67 Poll. 4. 80. For their relatively small size cf. Theog. 241, Anac. PMG 375 with Ath. 182c, and the adoption of the gingras by symposiasts as attested by Amphis fr. 14 K.-A. However, the auloi depicted in sympotic scenes on vases do not seem particularly small. |
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68 Poll. 4. 81, cf. 'Marius Victorinus' (Aphthonius), Gramm. Lat. vi. 44. 22. Their player was called a spondaules (inscriptions; cf. Cic. De Or. 2. 193(?), Diom. Gramm. Lat. i. 476. 9ff.) |
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69 Ath. 176f, Poll. 4. 82; cf. the kithara called daktylikon, p. 59. |
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70 Juba, FGrH 275 F 81, equates this with the Phrygian elymos; this is plausible inasmuch as walking-sticks often had a curving handle, like the curving horn on the end of the Phrygian pipe. Poll. 4. 82 (cf. Hsch.) simply says that the skytalion was small. |
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71 Poll. 4. 77, Hdn. i. 142. 22 L., Hsch. |
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