Seikilos epitaph(en.wikipedia.org)

The saddest thing about the Epitaph is that the last line of it is now ruined, because in the late 19th century its owner ground it down so it would sit flat to hold her flowerpots.

If anyone is interested in ancient Greek music/music theory, the best source is undoubtedly Thomas Mathiesen's Apollo's Lyre (http://www.amazon.com/Apollos-Lyre-Theory-Antiquity-Middle/d...). I had the distinct privilege of taking his ancient music course in his last semester of teaching. The man has literally looked (in person) at every fragment of Greek music or music theory, and translated many of them himself. The book is magnificent, and you will be very unlikely to find any source more well-researched and written.

Edit: If anyone has any questions about Greek music/music theory, I'm happy to try and answer them. It's one of my favorite topics, and while I'm no expert, I probably know a little more than the average Hacker News reader.

petercooper11 anni fa

This is beautiful. I ended up at the Wikipedia entry for it - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seikilos_epitaph - which has quite a lot of stuff about how the lyrics and music were interpreted from the original inscriptions.

The lyrics translated to English are poignant enough to deserve a reproduction here:

    While you live, shine
    have no grief at all
    life exists only for a short while
    and time demands its toll.

StavrosK11 anni fa

"Telos" has multiple meanings, both "toll" and "end/death". Time demanding toll is probably the more likely explanation, but it may well be a pun.

That said, I'm not very up to date on ancient Greek, so take this with a grain of salt.

coldtea11 anni fa

Regarding the pun, don't forget that the dead did pay a "toll" in ancient Greek religion/mythology (to Charon, the ferryman of Hades).

orf11 anni fa

There is something quite haunting about the oldest surviving melody being composed for a man's dead wife.

> I am a tombstone, an image. Seikilos placed me here as an everlasting sign of deathless remembrance

dimmuborgir11 anni fa

What about religious hymns of Hinduism and Zoroastrianism which were composed before 200BC and are still in use today? Are they not melodies?

DanAndersen11 anni fa

For those, do we have detailed information about the actual notes that were played, or just the text of the hymns?

dimmuborgir11 anni fa

The hymns have specific melodies which were transferred orally as there is no music notation system. They haven't changed in millennia. They are still widely used in India in religious ceremonies.

For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBNEizCsor0

jospoortvliet11 anni fa

Just like with texts - how can we be even remotely sure they haven't changed? Seems terribly unlikely to me.