Co-Geeking

We know that the ancient world was full of music. Some of the earliest texts to survive from antiquity are songs, and ancient art is full of musical performances. Sadly, we know very little about what that music sounded like. The texts of many songs survive, but not the melodies that went with them.

It’s a rare treat, therefore, when we find evidence for the music that went along with a text. The modern form of musical notation developed only in the past several centuries, but ancient people had their own forms of musical notation. The earliest complete song preserved without gaps or fragmentation is known as the Song of Seikilos, from the name on the dedicatory inscription that included it.

The text and its notation are preserved on a stone stele found at Ephesus in 1883. It was set up in the first or second century CE. The stele itself has had an interesting life since then, being at one time used as a stand for a flower pot, before ending up in the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. It is generally thought that the stele was set up as a gravestone, but the original context of the find has long since been lost, so it is no longer possible to be certain. The text of the song inscribed on the stone would certainly fit:

For as long as you have to live, shine out.

Be entirely free of any pain.

There’s not much to life.

Time demands its due.

(My own translation)

Since this text is preserved with its musical notation, the song can still be performed today, and we can hear what the music of the ancient Greeks sounded like. Here’s an interpretation performed with lyre, flute, and drum.

Image: Seikilos Stele, photograph by Artem G via Wikimedia (found Ephesus; currently National Museum, Copenhagen; 1st-2nd c. CE; marble)

An occasional feature on music and sound-related notions.