When is a harp a panpipe?

M. L. West

doi:10.1093/cq/47.1.48

When is a harp a panpipe?

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009

M. L. West

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M. L. West: Affiliation:
All Souls College, Oxford

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From the Archaic period to the sixth century A.D., as well as in later Byzantine lexica, we find numerous instances of the word TTTJKTIS as the name of a musical instrument. It occurs in some 78 passages:1 enough, one might suppose, to establish its meaning beyond peradventure. Yet of all ancient instrument names, this one proves to be the most Protean. In the earlier sources it designates a harp. Later it is applied to other types of stringed instrument, both to lyres and to lutes. But it does not remain confined to the chordophone category, for in the Imperial period it frequently signifies a panpipe. As no complete collection and analysis of the evidence has ever been made, I have thought it worth while to undertake one.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Classical Quarterly , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , May 1997 , pp. 48 - 55

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cq/47.1.48 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Classical Association 1997

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References

¹ My collection is based on data drawn from the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae CD–ROM (version D), plus two or three other passages that I happened to know.

² On this suffix cf. Buck, C. D. and Petersen, W., A Reverse Index of Greek Nouns and Adjectives, (Chicago, 1949), 416f.Google Scholar

³ See N. V Dunbar (Oxford, 1995) on Birds 527–8Google Scholar

⁴ Fr. 99 Wehrli ap. Ath. 635bc; cf. my Ancient Greek Music (Oxford, 1992) [hereinafter 'AGM], 58 n. 41, 73f.Google Scholar

⁵ On the meaning of, cf. Barker, A. in Gentili, B. and Pretagostini, R. (edd.), La musica in Grecia (Rome and Ban, 1988), 96–107; AGM 73.Google Scholar

⁶ I would assume the same for the Laconian Hyakinthia as described by Polycrates, FGrH 588 F 1, where the boys' chorus is the ordinary word for playing any sort of lyre and does not imply kitharas.