Strabo, Geography, Horace Leonard Jones (Translator), 9.3.10

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

View: By Chapter

← Previous Next →

[10] As for the contests at Delphi, there was one in early times between citharoedes, who sang a paean in honor of the god; it was instituted by the Delphians. But after the Crisaean war, in the time of Eurylochus,¹ the Amphictyons instituted equestrian and gymnastic contests in which the prize was a crown, and called them Pythian Games. And to the citharoedes² they added both fluteplayers and citharists who played without singing, who were to render a certain melody which is called the Pythian Nome. There are five parts of it: angkrousis, ampeira, katakeleusmos, iambi and dactyli, and syringes. Now the melody was composed by Timosthenes, the admiral of the second Ptolemy, who also compiled The Harbours, a work in ten books;³ and through this melody he means to celebrate the contest between Apollo and the dragon, setting forth the prelude as anakrousis, the first onset of the contest as ampeira, the contest itself as katakeleusmos, the triumph following the victory as iambus and dactylus, the rhythms being in two measures, one of which, the dactyl, is appropriate to hymns of praise, whereas the other, the iamb, is suited to reproaches (compare the word “iambize”), and the expiration of the dragon as syringes, since with syringes⁴ players imitated the dragon as breathing its last in hissings.⁵

Geography. Strabo. Horace Leonard Jones (Translator). London. 1924-1929.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Geography (Books 6-14) (English) (Strabo. The Geography of Strabo, Vols. 3-6. Jones, Horace Leonard, translator. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1924-1929 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Γεωγραφικά Perseus (Strabo. Strabonis Geographica, Vols. 1-3. Meineke, August, editor. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877.) — 9.3.10 focus

[10] ἀγὼν δὲ ὁ μὲν ἀρχαῖος ἐν Δελφοῖς κιθαρῳδῶν ἐγενήθη παιᾶνα ᾀδόντων εἰς τὸν θεόν· ἔθηκαν δὲ Δελφοί· μετὰ δὲ τὸν Κρισαῖον πόλεμον οἱ Ἀμφικτύονες ἱππικὸν καὶ γυμνικὸν ἐπʼ Εὐρυλόχου διέταξαν στεφανίτην καὶ Πύθια ἐκάλεσαν. προσέθεσαν δὲ τοῖς κιθαρῳδοῖς αὐλητάς τε καὶ κιθαριστὰς χωρὶς ᾠδῆς, ἀποδώσοντάς τι μέλος ὃ καλεῖται νόμος Πυθικός. πέντε δʼ αὐτοῦ μέρη ἐστίν, ἄγκρουσις ἄμπειρα κατακελευσμὸς ἴαμβοι καὶ δάκτυλοι σύριγγες. ἐμελοποίησε μὲν οὖν Τιμοσθένης, ὁ ναύαρχος τοῦ δευτέρου Πτολεμαίου ὁ καὶ τοὺς λιμένας συντάξας ἐν δέκα βίβλοις. βούλεται δὲ τὸν ἀγῶνα τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος τὸν πρὸς τὸν δράκοντα διὰ τοῦ μέλους ὑμνεῖν, ἄγκρουσιν μὲν τὸ προοίμιον δηλῶν, ἄμπειραν δὲ τὴν πρώτην κατάπειραν τοῦ ἀγῶνος, κατακελευσμὸν δὲ αὐτὸν τὸν ἀγῶνα, ἴαμβον δὲ καὶ δάκτυλον τὸν ἐπιπαιανισμὸν τὸν γινόμενον ἐπὶ τῇ νίκῃ μετὰ τοιούτων ῥυθμῶν, ὧν ὁ μὲν ὕμνοις ἐστὶν οἰκεῖος ὁ δʼ ἴαμβος κακισμοῖς¹, σύριγγας δὲ τὴν ἔκλειψιν τοῦ θηρίου, μιμουμένων ὡς ἂν καταστρέφοντος² ἐσχάτους τινὰς συριγμούς.

Translations (1)

Geography Perseus (Strabo. The Geography of Strabo, Vols. 1-3. Hamilton, Hans Claude, translator; Falconer, William, translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854-1857.) — 9.3.10 focus

[10] There was anciently a contest held at Delphi, of players on the cithara, who executed a paean in honour of the god. It was instituted by Delphians. But after the Crisaean war the Amphictyons, in the time of Eurylochus, established contests for horses, and gymnastic sports, in which the victor was crowned. These were called Pythian games. The players¹ on the cithara were accompanied by players on the flute, and by citharists,² who performed without singing. They performed a strain (Melos),³ called the Pythian mood (Nomos).⁴ It consisted of five parts; the anacrusis, the ampeira, cataceleusmus, iambics and dactyls, and pipes.⁵ Timosthenes, the commander of the fleet of the Second Ptolemy, and who was the author of a work in ten books on Harbours, composed a melos. His object was to celebrate in this melos the contest of Apollo with the serpent Python. The anacrusis was intended to express the prelude; the ampeira, the first onset of the contest; the cataceleusmus, the contest itself; the iambics and dactyls denoted the triumphal strain on obtaining the victory, together with musical measures, of which the dactyl is peculiarly appropriated to praise, and the use of the iambic to insult and reproach; the syringes or pipes described the death, the players imitating the hissings of the expiring monster.⁶

Notes on the current edition

Geography

1. On the time, compare 9. 3. 4 and footnote.

2. The citharoedes sang to the accompaniment of the cithara, and their contests must have had no connection with those of the fluteplayers and the citharists, whose performance (of the Pythian Nome) was a purely instrumental affair.

3. If the text of this sentence is correct, Strabo must be referring to the melody played as the Pythian Nome in his own time or in that of some authority whom he is quoting, earlier compositions perhaps having been superseded by that of Timosthenes (fl. about 270 B.C.). But since the invention of the Pythian Nome has been ascribed to Sacadas ( Pollux 4.77 ), who was victorious with the flute at the Pythian Games about three hundred years before the time of Timosthenes ( Paus. 6.14.9, 10.7.4 ), Guhrauer ( Jahrb. für Class. Philol., Suppl. 8, 1875-1876, pp. 311—351 makes a strong argument for a lacuna in the Greek text, and for making Strabo say that the melody was composed by Sacadas and later merely described by Timosthenes in one of his numerous works. Cp. also H. Riemann, Handb. der Musikgeschichte 1919, vol. i, pp. 63-65.

4. “Pipes.”

5. “Pipings.”

Strabo Geography 9.3.10

Horace Leonard Jones (Translator)

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Current edition Perseus

Notes on the current edition

Stable identifiers