Ancient Greek Music: Lament of Simonides

The song is θρῆνος τou Σιμωνίδη (Threnos tou Simonide) taken from the collection of recreated Greek music made by Petros Tabouris (ΠΕΤΡΟΣ ΤΑΜΠΟΥΡΗΣ): Melos Arheon (MEΛOΣ APXAION) - Vol.1 Secular Music of Greek Antiquity.

Simonides of Kea (Σιμωνίδης ὁ Κεῖος) was one of the nine great lyric poets of Ancient Greece, who lived during the 6th-5th centuries BC.

The lyrics:

Ἄνθρωπος ἐὼν μήποτε φάσηις
ὅ,τι γίνεται αὔριον,
μηδ᾿ ἄνδρα ἰδὼν ὄλβιον,
ὅσον χρόνον ἔσσεται·
ὠκεῖα γὰρ οὐδὲ τανυπτερύγου μυίας
οὕτως ἁ μετάστασις

In English:

You are a human, therefore seek not to foretell
what tomorrow may bring,
nor how long ones happiness may last.
For not even the flutter of the fly's wing
is as fast as change.

Category:

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Tags:

• Ancient
• Greek
• music
• Simonidis
• Simonides
• Thrinos
• Threnos
• lament
• beauty
• Greece

[MushroomedAnymore]

Really Petros Tabouris should not have ended after 1'30'' in imitation of the surviving fragments. He should have extended the piece past 5' because that is what Ancient Musicians would have done. Most songs and pieces they would have performed to banqueters, nobles, families etcetera would not have been trivialized to a measly 1'30''. The short length does gross disservice to the divine musical ideas here!

[grail68]

Zamfir! lol maybe not

[omgtkseth]

@SlyMcNulty Scales?? You mean pentatonic scales? I hear half steps here, didnt japanese use pentatonic? Do you know this tuning/scale? I dont but I would love to find out its name...

[SlyMcNulty]

@SlyMcNulty Note- even the sentiment/lyrics of this song seem strangely Japanese.

[SlyMcNulty]

Am i completely out in detecting a similarity between the various interpretations of ancient greek music i have heard and elements of Japanese music?

Of course i'm not suggesting influence, but in scales and... something else about the sound a somewhat similar evolution in these sophisticated civilisations seems to have occurred (of course 'Ancient Greek' music is quite speculative).

[HistoryCollaborative]

very nice, very interesting time it was taken from too. There are lots of videos about History on my channel, if you're interested in learning