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Lute-Players in Greek Art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

R. A. Higgins  and
R. P. Winnington-Ingram
R. A. Higgins
Affiliation:
British Museum, London
R. P. Winnington-Ingram
Affiliation:
King's College, London
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Extract

The primary purpose of this article is to publish two terracotta representations of lute-players in the British Museum. The subject is rare, but not quite so rare as might be supposed from the scarcity of literature about it. It has, therefore, seemed worth while to add a Ust of the examples known to us—a list which does not claim to be exhaustive—and to discuss briefly some of the problems which they raise. We do this in the hope that it may stimulate further investigation of a neglected theme.

Between lutes and lyres there is a difference of principle which could hardly be more fundamental. The strings of the lyre are relatively numerous, but, in default of a fingerboard, fret-board, or neck, against which they could be firmly pressed (or ‘stopped’), the possibilities of obtaining more than one note from each string, in so far as they existed, must have been limited as to the number and quality of notes obtainable. The lute has few strings, but they are stretched over a solid neck, or a prolongation of the sound-box, against which they can be pressed so as to shorten the string-length and produce notes of higher pitch than those of the open strings; each string can thus provide a number of notes of approximately equal quality. Lutes and lyres were both common in Asia and in Egypt. In Greek lands the lyre predominated, and no examples of the lute are found in art before the fourth century B.C. The examples known to us are mostly terracottas.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 85 , November 1965 , pp. 62 - 71
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1965

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References

R. A. H. was responsible for archaeological details in the article, the literary and musical discussions were the work of R. P. W.-I.

1 Notably, Reinach, Th., ‘La guitare dans l'art grec’, REG viii (1895) 371–377 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, figs. 1–4 (to which his article in Daremberg and Saglio, s.v. ‘Lyra’, adds nothing). Farmer, H. G., ‘An early Greek pandore’, J. R. Asiatic Society 1949, 177–179, pl. 13CrossRefGoogle Scholar, is mainly concerned with a Byzantine example: he mentions, but does not describe or illustrate, the two pieces from the British Museum—(ii) and (v) below. Brief articles in RE., s.v. ‘Saiteninstrumente’ (i A 1765 f.—Abert, 1920), s.v. ‘Pandura’ (xviii. 3. 559—Wegner, 1949). The Greek evidence is discussed in some general works. Biernath, E., Die Guitarre seit dem III Jahrtausend vor Christus, Berlin, 1907 Google Scholar (unillustrated and unimpressive). Schlesinger, K., The precursors of the violin family, London, 1910.Google Scholar Behn, F., ‘Die Laute im Altertum und früher Mittelalter’, Zeitschrift f. Musikwissenschaft i (1918) 89–107 Google Scholar: a useful article, consisting of 27 illustrations with full comment (the illustrations include examples (viii) and (xiii) below). Sachs, C., The history of musical instruments, New York, 1940, 136 f.Google Scholar Panum, H., Stringed instruments of the Middle Ages, London, 1940 Google Scholar (revised and edited by Pulver, Jeffrey, from Middelalderens Strengeinstrumenter, Copenhagen, 1915), 188 ff.Google Scholar: informative and copiously illustrated, but to be used with caution: the ‘paraphonic monochord’ of Ptolemy (p. 190) is a chimera (cf. Düring, I., Ptolemaios u. Porphyries über die Musik 243 Google Scholar n.1).

2 Both terms are here used generically. Lyres include kitharas. Some writers confine the term ‘lute’ to later varieties with a broad sound-box.

3 Cf. CQ n.s. vi (1956) 169 ff., esp. 183–6.

4 See n. 23 below.

5 For the possible survival of an ancient lute into modern times, see App. B.

6 AA 1954, 286, fig. 19, and refs.

7 Uncatalogued (originally in the Weber Collection). Registration no. 1919. 6–20. 7. Ht. 0.17.

8 Breccia, E., Terrecotte figurate … del Museo di Alessandria i (1930), pl. F2, no. 83.Google Scholar

9 CA 574. REG viii (1895) 374, fig. 2.; Kinsky, G., Geschichte der Musik in Bildern (1929) 14 (3).Google Scholar

10 Cat. no. C 192. Ht. 0.12.

11 MYR 686. Mollard-Besques, S., Catalogue raisonné des figurines et reliefs en terre-cuite grecs et romains, ii, Myrina (1963), pl. 71 d.Google Scholar REG viii (1895) 376 fig. 3.

12 Winter, , Die antiken Terrakotten, iii, pt. 2, 293, fig. 7Google Scholar (drawing, not photograph).

13 Expedition Ernst von Sieglin, ii, pt. 2, pl. 42:2. Kinsky, op. cit., 14 (5). Behn, F., Musikleben im Altertum und frühen Mittelalter (1954), fig. 52.Google Scholar

14 Perdrizet, P., Les terres cuites grecques d'Egypte de la Collection Fouquet (1921), pl. 37.2 Google Scholar, no. 241. Closely similar to the preceding and possibly from the same mould.

15 Breccia, op.cit., pl. 18.6, no. 151. (no. 84, the fragment of a lute-player, is not illustrated.)

16 Perdrizet, op. cit., pl. 63.6, no. 454.

17 B.M. Cat. of Vases iv (1896), no. G 21. The attribution and dating have been courteously communicated to us by Professor Trendall.

18 REG viii (1895) 374, fig. 1. Fougères, G., Mantinée (1898), pl. 3.Google Scholar Kinsky, op. cit., 14 (i). Wegner, M., Das Musikleben der Griechen, pl. 32 bGoogle Scholar; Musikgeschichte in Bildern ii 4 (Griechenland), fig. 67. (The last two titles are abbreviated in later references as Musikleben and M. in B.)

19 There seems to be a vertical ridge slightly right of centre which is probably devoid of significance.

20 Panum, Stringed Instruments fig. 176, shows the lines continuing to the end of the sound-box, but the picture seems to have been ‘touched up’.

21 We owe this suggestion to Mme. M. Duchesne-Guillemin. A similar projection is to be found in two published Byzantine lutes: Farmer (see n. 1), pl. 13; BCH lxxxvi (1962) 693.

22 Some attempt is made in (vi) to render this shape at the lower end, but it soon amalgamates with the human body. It may be that we get a good picture of the profile in an unexpected quarter, πανδοῦρα is glossed in Suidas (s. w. ) as μάχαιρα κρεωκόπος. Cf. Zonaras: πανδούριον· μάχαρα σφακτική. References for μάχαφα, in the sense of chopper or cleaver, will be found in Sparkes, B. A., ‘The Greek Kitchen’, JHS lxxxii (1962) 132 Google Scholar; and his pl. 8.6 (there is a clearer picture in Devambez, P., Greek Painting, The Contact History of Art, London, 1962, pl. 68 Google Scholar) shows how this implement might have acquired the nickname of pandourion (in the same way that the nickname of sambuke was given to a siege-engine because of its shape—see n. 34). In other examples of cleavers, however, the top is more strongly curved, and the comparison would be less obvious.

23 In addition to the general works mentioned in n. 1: Behn, F., Musikleben im Altertum und früher Mittelalter, 1964.Google Scholar The New Oxford History of Music i, passim, with good bibliographies. Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, s.v. ‘Laute’ (viii 345fr.): the section on ‘Die aussereuropäischen und antiken Lauten’ is by Hickmann, H. (full bibliography). Musical instruments through the ages, ed. Baines, A., Pelican Books, 1961 Google Scholar, is informative and well illustrated.

24 There is a reference back to 182 e: (sc. Euphorion), In the passage quoted, Euphorion gives evidence for the antiquity of the sambuke, but nothing further is said about the pandoura (or pandouros).

25 From what date? It is often assumed that the use of the kanon as an instrument of research goes back to Pythagoras or the early Pythagoreans, but van der Waerden, B. L. has argued (Hermes lxxviii (1943) 177 Google Scholar) that it dates from Strato.

26 It is not clear on what grounds the various instruments mentioned, including the trigonon and the plagiaulos, are regarded as intermediate between wind and strings.

27 Cf. New Oxford History of Music, i 244 f. (Farmer, H. G.)Google Scholar, citing Galpin, F. W., The Music of the Sumerians (1937) 35 Google Scholar and Sachs, C., The History of Musical Instruments (1940) 82.Google Scholar

28 This might seem to clinch the argument, but one must be cautious. Cithern and guitar are derived from κιθάρα, though instruments of a quite different character. As Dr E. K. Borthwick reminds us, the cor anglais is not a horn nor the tromba marina a trumpet!

29 The time is perhaps ripe for a comprehensive investigation of these problems in relation to the monumental evidence, but Jan, C. von, de fidibus Graecorum (1859)Google Scholar, Die griechischen Saiteninstrumente (1882), Riemann, H., Handbuch der Musikgeschichte i 1, 91 ff.Google Scholar, are still valuable. On the balance fo evidence the nabla was a harp, not a lute (cf. Jan, , Saiteninstrumente 19 f.Google Scholar).

30 Sopater (ap. Athen, iv 183b) calls the instrument δίχορδος, but this is not conclusive, since the reference may be to stringing in ‘double courses’ (cf. Jan, Saiteninstrumente n. 134; Riemann, op. cit., 92).

31 Which is what Euphorion seems to have done in the passage cited in n. 24.

32 The lists are identical, except that Phillis has ἰαμβῦκαι between σαμβῦκαι and τρίγωνα. It may be supposed that it has dropped out of the quotation from Aristoxenus.

33 Speaking Doric? Cobet, to mend the metre in the second line and to fit ἐξηρτυόμαν, reads βαρβίτος τριχόρδος πακτίδας … σκινδάψος. This does not affect our problem, but τριχόρδους (or τριχόρδος) may. It cannot be an epithet of βαρβίτους nor yet of πηκτίδας if those are harps, which is more probable (but see above). If it is a substantive instrument, the gender seems improbable, and we should perhaps suppose that an original τρίχορδα has been assimilated to its surroundings. Pollux iv 60 (v. supra) equates trichordon with pandoura, so that the lyre-maker's list may in fact include two kinds of lute. On this passage see Riemann, op. cit., 91.

34 From Athenaeus xiv 633 f we learn that the sambuke was a high-pitched instrument (which is confirmed by Aristides Quintilianus de musica 85. 10 ff. Teubner); and, if the text is right, that it had four strings, being employed by the Parthians and the Troglodytes. We have no certain example of the sambuke in art, though the small harp with boat-shaped sound-box in Behn, op. cit., fig. 127 may be a claimant. (The boat shape may have a bearing on the vexed question of the siege-engine of this name referred to in the following sentence of Athenaeus and described at length in Polybius viii ch. 4, B.-W. ii 336, 25–337, 29.) A harp of this size is likely to have had few strings. It is conceivable that there has been some confusion in the text of Athenaeus and that the latter part of the sentence relates to the pandoura, associated with the Troglodytes by Pythagoras (v. supra), who is also cited as an authority here. However, the following sentences continue to deal with the sambuke.

35 In the second line, one wood or two? No authority is very specific about the πρόμαλος: it is coupled with the ἰτέα in Ap. Rhod. iii 201; its twigs or leaves can provide a couch (Athen, xv 673 c); Hesychius glosses as μυρίκη ἤ ἄγνος; other references are non-committal. Kaibel emends ὸξύινον to οἰσύινον—a word normally applied to objects made of plaited osiers, as no musical instrument could be, though willow-wood might be a possible material.

36 According to Aelian, , NA xii 44 Google Scholar, the instrument was of Indian origin, which would consist with its being a lute.

37 And perhaps trichordos or trichordon (see n. 33).

38 The epithet may distinguish one skindapsos from another rather than the skindapsos as such from smaller instruments: a large skindapsos?

39 We hesitate to complicate the issue by referring to three sarcophagi of the Roman period—two in the Louvre and one in the cathedral at Agrigento—which show an instrument very similar in shape to our Type B lute, but with a relatively large number of strings, held upright against the shoulder and played, apparently, without ‘stopping’, like a lyre or (Sachs) zither. Cf. Panum, op. cit., 212 f., figs 185–7; Sachs, op. cit., 137, pl. 8 B. There is, however, no earlier evidence for this type.

40 But see n. 22 for a possible link between the pandoura and Type B.

41 There seems to be no evidence for the date of Theopompus of Colophon.

42 CQ n.s. ii (1952) 13 ff., esp. 17, 19, 21; Studies in Later Greek Comedy 44, 61, and Chronological Table.

43 Or the Auletes, which (fr. 27) also satirises the ‘new’ music.

44 See also n. 33.

45 Cf. Lawrence, A. W., Classical Sculpture 254 Google Scholar; Later Greek Sculpture 102 (and references). Most recently, Hiller, F., Marburger Wirtcklemann-Programm 1962, 54 ff.Google Scholar, n. 17, who argues for 330–325 B.C.

46 Harps: e.g. Terpsichore on a r.f. amphora, British Museum E 271 ( Wegner, , Musikleben pl. 19 Google Scholar; M. in B. fig. 22); volute krater by the Sisyphus Painter, Munich 3268 ( Wegner, , Musikleben pl. 22 Google Scholar; see Register 203–4 for other examples).

Syrinx: Calliope on the François Vase ( Wegner, , Musikleben pl. 2a Google Scholar); white ground pyxis, Boston 98. 887 (Wegner, M. in B. fig. 23).

Tambourine (tympanon): Erato on a pelike by the Meidias Painter in the Metropolitan Museum of Art ( Richter, G. M. A., AJA xliii (1939) i ff.Google Scholar).

Krotala: if the four females attending on Apollo on a b.f. amphora, Copenhagen 3241, are Muses ( Wegner, , Musikleben pl. 28a Google Scholar, Register 213, contr. M. in B. p. 50 ad inf.). The same question arises on a b.f. lekythos, Paris MNB 910 (L 27), cf. Haspels, , Black-figure Lekythoi pl. 32. 2.Google Scholar

47 Athenaeus iv 182 f, xiv 635 a (Overbeck B. 2083).

48 See n. 34.

49 Laloy, L., Aristoxène de Tarente 7 ff.Google Scholar Cf. Fougères, G., Mantinée 347 f.Google Scholar On the strictness of the Mantineans, see Plutarch, de mus. ch. 32, §§ 329–30 W.–R., with Reinach's note; cf. Philodemus, , de mus. xi 77 Google Scholar fr. 9 (I xix 2 van K.). From Polybius iv 20 we learn that the Arcadians were still concerned to give their children a sound musical education in the second century B.C.; if Philoxenus and Timotheus have now been added to the curriculum, this is the normal process by which the revolutionaries of one generation become die classics of another. From the anecdote in Xenophon, , Anabasis vi 1.11 Google Scholar, one gets the impression perhaps that the Mantineans were traditionalists!

50 One can hardly say that he was running short of instruments. The fourth side of the base, with three of the Muses, is unfortunately missing, but it need not have contained more than one instrumentalist.

51 In the classical kithara the strings are fastened to a holder or tailpiece near the base and then pass over a bridge on their way to the yoke. The function of the bridge is to keep the strings from contact with the sound-box. If the yoke is brought forward, a bridge is no longer necessary; and it would seem that the former bridge now takes on the function of tailpiece.

52 Terracottas: e.g. in the Louvre CA 708 (with a close similarity to the Muse's kithara), 799, 2297;MYR 85) 178, 303. A coin from Brundusium (BICS x (1963), pl. 9.6) of c. 150–100 B.C. A fresco from Herculaneum in Naples (cf. The New Oxford History of Music i pl. 12). A statue of Apollo in the Vatican (cf. Behn, op. cit., fig. 112). See further Jan, Saiteninstrumente, n. 47. (A thorough study of kithara-shapes from the fourth century onwards is much to be desired.)

53 Naples, Museo Nazionale, 80084 (Wegner, M. in B. fig. 70).

54 Two lyres by the Meidias Painter—on a hydria in Florence (Devambez, op. cit., pl. 138) and on a pelike in New York (see n. 46)—might be interpreted as showing a forward curvature, but it seems more likely that they represent the same normal type as that shown in the Pronomos vase to the left of the poet.

55 Wegner, M. in B. fig. 20.

56 Wegner, , Musikleben pl. 3b Google Scholar; M. in B. fig. 31. Some evidence for vaulting, and for triangular section (see below), in Jan, Saiteninstrumente n. 45.

57 Wegner, M. in B. fig. 29.

58 The same general shape can be discerned in the Herculaneum fresco (see n. 52), also a back-view.

59 For lyres and kitharas on coins, see Anson, L., Numismata Graeca, part vi, pls. 3–7.Google Scholar Examples will also be found in the British Museum Guide to the Principal Coins of the Greeks.

60 We wish to acknowledge with gratitude the help we have received from Dr E. K. Borthwick, Mme M. Duchesne-Guillemin, Mr G. K. Jenkins, Mme S. Mollard-Besques, Mr Michael Morrow, Miss B. Philippaki, Dr B. A. Sparkes, Professor A. D. Trendall, and Professor Max Wegner.