Skolion

Not to be confused with scholion

Skolion (pl. skolia), also scolion (pl. scolia), were songs sung by invited guests at banquets in ancient Greece

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

. Often extolling the virtues of the gods or heroic men, skolia were improvised to suit the occasion and accompanied by a lyre

Lyre

The lyre is a stringed musical instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later. The word comes from the Greek "λύρα" and the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning "lyrists", written in Linear B syllabic script...

, which was handed about from singer to singer as the time for each scolion came around. "Capping" verses were exchanged, "by varying, punning, riddling, or cleverly modifying" the previous contribution.

Skolia are often referred to as 'banquet songs', 'convivial songs", or 'drinking songs'. The term also refers to poetry composed in the same form. In later use, the form was used in a more stately manner for chorus poetry

Greek chorus

A Greek chorus is a homogenous, non-individualised group of performers in the plays of classical Greece, who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action....

 in praise of the gods or heroes.

Terpander

Terpander

Terpander , of Antissa in Lesbos, was a Greek poet and citharede who lived about the first half of the 7th century BC.About the time of the Second Messenian War, he settled in Sparta, whither, according to some accounts, he had been summoned by command of the Delphic Oracle, to compose the...

 is said to have been the inventor of this poetic form, although that is doubtful. Instead, he may have adapted it for musical accompaniment. That these skolia were written, not only by poets like Alcaeus, Anacreon

Anacreon

Anacreon was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and hymns. Later Greeks included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets.- Life :...

, Praxilla

Praxilla

Praxilla of Sicyon, was a Greek lyric poet of the 5th century BC. She was a contemporary of Telesilla. Antipater of Thessalonica lists her first among his canon of nine 'immortal-tongued' women poets She was highly esteemed in her time. Evidence of this is shown in that Lysippus, a famous...

, Simonides

Simonides of Ceos

Simonides of Ceos was a Greek lyric poet, born at Ioulis on Kea. The scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria included him in the canonical list of nine lyric poets, along with Bacchylides and Pindar...

, but also by Sappho

Sappho

Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...

 and by Pindar

Pindar

Pindar , was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian described him as "by far the greatest of the nine lyric poets, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich...

, shows in what high esteem skolia were held by the Greeks. "The gods of Olympos sang at their banquets".

The Skolion of Seikilos

Seikilos epitaph

The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest surviving example of a complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world. The song, the melody of which is recorded, alongside its lyrics, in the ancient Greek musical notation, was found engraved on a tombstone, near Aidin,...

, dated between 200 BCE and 100 CE

Common Era

Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...

, found with the original music in the ancient Greek notation, is the oldest complete example of ancient Greek music.

Literature

• Richard Reitzenstein
  Richard August Reitzenstein
  Richard August Reitzenstein was a German classical philologist and scholar of Ancient Greek religion, hermetism and Gnosticism. He is described by Kurt Rudolph as “one of the most stimulating Gnostic scholars”...
  
  , Epigramm und Skolion, Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Alexandrinischen Dichtung. Giessen (1893); Olms, Hildesheim (1970).

• Herbert Weir Smyth
  Herbert Weir Smyth
  Herbert Weir Smyth was an American classical scholar. His comprehensive grammar of ancient Greek has become a standard reference on the subject in English, comparable to William Watson Goodwin's, whom he succeeded as Eliott Professor of Greek Literature at Harvard University.He was educated at...
  
  , Greek Melic Poets, (1900); New York, Biblo and Tannen (1963) ISBN 0-8196-0120-9
• Gregory Jones, "Non-Elite Origins of the Attic Skolia and the Birth of Democracy", Abstracts of Papers for the Annual Meeting, American Philological Association (APA) (2005)

External links

• Attic scolia, quoted by Athenaeus at attalus.org