Music in ancient Greece occupies an important place in this review that we make of the beginnings of the history of music and ancient civilizations.

About 1900 B.C. to Greece came tribes such as the Ionians, Achaeans and Aeolians. These were the creators of the Mycenaean culture when mixed with the Minoan culture of Crete.

In 1200 BC Greece suffered a major invasion, due to the subsequent significance it was going to have, it was that of the dorians. From this period, we have as testimony the texts of Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey, with the narratives of the deeds of the Mycenaean heroes. From these texts the singers drew inspiration to create their songs, which were followed by traditional melodies or nomoi.

In addition to these, we are going to call them professional singers, there was also popular and choral music, performed by groups of citizens in their performances or artistic or ritual manifestations.

Music in ancient Greece was a compulsory subject of study, a fact that demonstrates the evolved culture of the Greek people, not only in the field of other artistic aspects that we already know, but also in the musical field.

Here at Nestoras College students learn about Greek traditions and Greek mythology at no extra cost for their parents. Today we will learn more about Greek traditions and customs. Contact us today for more information.

The most important musical instruments in Greece

The most popular musical instruments were the lyre and the zither, but there were also the classrooms (see image). The classrooms were a wind instrument formed by two double angled pipes. This instrument was dedicated to the worship of Dionysus.

In the seventh century B.C. Lyric poetry appears, named for accompanying texts with music performed with the lyre, a term that lasts until today. The themes were basically of a loving nature, although there were other types, such as heroic deeds, etc.

Other musical instruments of ancient Greece are the harp, sambyke or magadis, and their minor forms, pectis and barbitós.

But let’s continue with the evolution of music in ancient Greece. At the beginning of the 5th century, and even at the end of VI BC, Athens took over from Sparta in terms of being the predominant cultural center in Greece. In the field that concerns us with music, it is then that the ditirambo and drama appear, both of which are extremely important, because of the transcendence they had in universal history.

The ditirambo, created in the cult of Dionysus, consisted of dances and songs accompanied by the classrooms.

Probably the Greek dramas are based on these ancient rites. The poets-musicians created pieces with music and drama; that is, they included poetry, dance and music. The dramas were represented in the amphitheaters by actors who sang and danced. The texts could be expressed both by declaring and singing. The dance, called orchesis, was performed in front of the stage by a choir. This place where the dance was performed was called orchestra. We can already see how; these musical demonstrations of ancient Greece have been important and imperishable at their base.

In the fifth century BC a greater evolution towards more complex forms is already observed, and the poets-musicians were professionalized in the creation of dramas, leaving aside, perhaps, the popular root they had in the beginning.

Pythagorean School

Obviously, with this name one can already assume that this Pythagorean school was founded by Pythagoras (585-479 BC), in which among other subjects, his musical theory was taught as a foundation for moral or spirit education.

Pythagoras’ musical theory, to explain it in simple terms, was based on mathematics and established a relationship between the length of a string and the sound emitted by it. This was measured with a monochord, which was an instrument that, as the name implies, had only one string and a mobile bridge.

However, this had a whole metaphysical theory behind it. In this theory it was said that music influenced both the universal and the personal or human, which made music a very powerful weapon at the service of the State.

The same idea was formulated by Plato in his work The Republic, in which he analysed what types of music enriched and benefited the formation of citizens. Later Aristotle demonstrated the therapeutic purposes of music and its influence on mood.

It is extremely interesting to know the dawn of the history of music by the hand of these great civilizations, which are still the foundation and root of ours.

The “Seikilos Epitaph”

The “Epitaph of Seikilos” is the only complete musical composition of Ancient Greece that has come to this day. This is an epigraphic inscription on a marble column that was placed on the tomb that Seikilos had built for his wife Euterpe, in Aydin, in present-day Turkey. The text tells us about the brevity of life, and the melody, written in Phrygian mode and diatonic genre, unfolds in a field of just octave. The theme, of melancholic tone, classified as a skolion or song to drink, is preceded by the following text:

“I am a stone image. Seikilos put me here, where I am forever, the symbol of eternal evocation”

The writing contains the following words on which the melody is developed:

ὅσον ζῇς, φαίνου, μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λύπου ·

πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν, τὸ τέλος ὁ χρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.

“Shine, while you’re alive,

Don’t be sad,

because life isby the way brief,

and time demands its retribution ”

The trail disappeared in 1922 during the so-called “Asia Minor catastrophe.” He later found himself, broken at his base. A Turkish woman had it and used it to support a pot in her garden, and the base had been cut. Today it is located in the National Museum of Denmark.

Here at Nestoras College students learn about Greek traditions at no extra cost for their parents. You can contact us now if you want more information about our services here at Nestora’s Greek College.