PohlmannWest 20 Hymn to Apollo by Athenaios at Delphi

Hymn to Apollo by Athenaios at Delphi

Pöhlmann and West, Greek Music 20 Date: 128/7 BC?

Fragment a+b

(0)[Paian and dance] for the God, which Athenaios composed:^[1]

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(1)[Listen], fair-armed daughters of far-thundering [Zeus], who received as your share densely wooded [Helikon]! Come to celebrate with odes your golden-haired brother Phoibos, who will come up the double-peaked seat of this Parnassian rock (5)together with the far-renowned Delphian maidens to the springs of well-watered Kastalis ascending the Delphian cliff, his fortune-telling hill.^[2] [See there] famous Attica with its great city, (10)which by the benevolence (euchaieisi) of weapon-bearing Tritonis inhabits unshakable ground,^[3] and on holy altars, Hephaistos burns the thighs of young bulls. At once, now, Arabian scent is streaming up to Olympos.^[4] The shrill sounding flute (lōtoos)^[5] pours forth a song (15)in varying melodies and the golden, sweet-sounding cithara sings with hymns. The entire swarm (hesmos) of [artists (technitōōn)],^[6] which received Attica as its share,

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altogether [praises] great [Zeus’] famous child. [For, to you he gave] this snow-capped hill (20)where you prophesy [immortal and unerring sayings (logia)] to all mortals: How you conquered the fortune-telling tripod, [which the giant] snake was guarding, when you removed Gaia’s child, its glittering, twisting (heliktan) [body, until the beast, letting out thick] hisses, roughly [expired all the same].^[7] (25)[Just as] the [barbarian] Ares of the Gauls, [which] impiously passed [over this land, perished in the wet streams of snow].^[8] But hurray! Descendant . . . . . . warlike offspring . . . . . . plague of the People . . . (30) . . . that they(?) brought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Fragment c

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Fragment d

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Greek text

References:

Pöhlmann and West, Greek Music 20 (Translated text) (AIO)

F.Delphes III 2 137 (PHI)

CID III 1 (PHI)

Furley and Bremer, Greek Hymns 85-92

Le Guen 82-84

Choix de Delphes 203A

Translation by: Tobias Hirsch, Caroline Albert

Images: Archimage - (1)
Wikimedia Commons - (1, 2, 3)

Monument type: Block (wall)

Inscription type: Hymn

Fr. a - Findspot: Delphi (Athenian Treasury, south wall, on site) (Delphi Museum 517)
Fr. b - Findspot: Delphi (Athenian Treasury, south wall, on site) (Delphi Museum 526)
Fr. c - Findspot: Delphi (Athenian Treasury, south wall, on site) (Delphi Museum 494)
Fr. d - Findspot: Delphi (Athenian Treasury, south wall, on site) (Delphi Museum 499)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This hymn by Athenaios and the hymn by Limenios (Pöhlmann and West, Greek Music no. 21) are a pair of Athenian hymns inscribed at Delphi. They are the best-preserved and longest texts with musical notation from anywhere in the ancient Greek world and the only inscriptions with musical notation found at Delphi (Greek musical texts are collected in E. Pöhlmann and M. L. West, Greek Music, 2001; on notation, see S. Hagel, Companion to Ancient Greek and Roman Music, 2020, 297–310). Both hymns were inscribed close to one another on the southern wall of the Athenian Treasury (on which see F.Delphes III 2, 3), facing the Sacred Way at an important stopping point during the Hellenistic Pythais procession (on which see also F.Delphes III 2, 3), at which they were originally performed by professional artists (technitai, on which see n. 6). The hymn of Athenaios was sung by adult male soloists and a large chorus (perhaps of boys), accompanied by musicians playing the aulos (double pipe) and cithara (cf. F.Delphes III 2, 12; and Hagel, Ancient Greek Music, 2010, 53f.).

The musical notation is rendered by means of Greek letters inscribed between each line. Characters do not stand for single notes, but rather for specific tones which, in this hymn, form part of four-note sequences (tetrachords). The tetrachord system was a key feature of Greek music that distinguishes it from contemporary music notation, which is based on sequences of eight notes (octaves). Both Delphic examples differ greatly from all other Greek hymns in terms of their composition and melodies, which closely follow the prosody of their texts. This free astrophic composition style corresponds to the so-called “New Style” of the late Hellenistic period. The hymn of Athenaios is structured in ten verses, the composition consists of fourteen tones, in the Phrygian and Hyperphrygian scales (on the musical composition of the hymn, see S. Hagel, Modulation in altgriechischer Musik, 2000, 38-93; and 2010, 281-83).

The date is uncertain. Pythais processions took place in 138/7, 128/7, 106/5, and 97/6 BC. The cutter of both hymns seems to be the same one who carved the Pythais inscriptions of 138/7 and 128/7 BC, so it is likely that the hymn was inscribed (and first performed?) in connection with one of them (see S. Tracy, BCH 99, 1975, 212f.; and ALC, 170-72; the presence of serifs suggests that he was an Athenian). Some scholars link this hymn to the first procession (E. Pöhlmann, Denkmäler altgriechischer Musik, 1970, 65; W. D. Furley and J. M. Bremer, Greek Hymns, vol. 2, 2001, 135-38). Others connect it with the second procession (on which see F.Delphes III 2, 3), as neither a Paian sung by men nor any technitai are attested in connection with the first procession (e.g. Le Guen, Les associations, vol. 1, 2001, 82-84; Choix de Delphes, pp. 378-81). In the latter case, it could have been performed along with Limenios' hymn. Such a connection between the two hymns is strongly implied by their shared poetic, structural and linguistic features.

The name of the poet in the heading (l. 0) is restored as Athenaios by CID III and Pöhlmann and West. He might be identified with Athenaios son of Athenaios, who was mentioned in a Delphian decree as one of the Paian singers in the Pythais of 128/7 BC (F.Delphes III 2, 47, l. 19). This identification is further supported by the mention of Limenios, the composer of the other hymn, in the same honorific decree as a musician (l. 22). The prominent position of the author's name in the heading of the inscription might have had an honorific aspect.

The heading also gave the genre of the hymn, which is restored as “paian and dance” by E. Pöhlmann, Denkmäler altgriechischer Musik, 1970, 58 (cf. “paian and approach” in Pöhlmann and West, Greek Music no. 21). A paian was a cult song for Apollo or deities closely related to him, which included an exclamation (often repeated) of ie, ie Paian (“come, come, Paian” or “shoot, shoot, Paian”), avoided inappropriate language, praised the origin and deeds of the god, and allowed adult male singers to display their ability and their relation to the god (on the genre, see L. Käppel, Paian, 1992, 368-91). “Paian and dance” indicates that the text consists of a paian and a subsequent choral part, which presumably accompanied a ritual dance. F.Delphes III 2, 48, l. 12, a Delphic honorific decree praising the Athenian technitai of the fourth Pythais (98/7 BC) mentions a “traditional paian” which might be this hymn and/or that of Limenios.

The paian has a tripartite structure which is typical for hymns: invocation, argument, and petitions. The invocation of the Muses (ll. 1-8) is followed by the argument (ll. 9-27), which Pöhlmann divides into a sphragis (sacrifice to Apollo, ll. 9-16,) and an aretalogy (praise of Apollo’s deeds, ll. 16-27), based on melodic changes in the transition from one part to another (Greek and Roman Musical Studies 6, 2018, 331-33; cf. Le Guen, Les associations, 2001, 82-84). The petitions (ll. 27-34) are almost completely missing due to the fragmentary condition of the stone. However, their beginning is marked by the exclamation “but hurray!” (l. 27), which is similar to the start of the better-preserved petitions in Pöhlmann and West, Greek Music no. 21, l. 33. [2] Mount Parnassos (l. 4), the Kastalian spring (l. 6), and the Pythian oracle (l. 8) were key locations in the sacred landscape of Delphi (cf. Kühn, Pythais-Prozession, 182). [3] Tritonis is an epithet of Athena, particularly common in Hellenistic and Roman poetry. It refers to Triton, a river which was variously located (cf. Hdt. 4.178), but probably alludes here to the Boeotian river, west of Thebes, that ran into Lake Copais and, from an Athenian point of view, belonged to the broader topography of Delphi. This place was considered the birthplace of the goddess (cf. RE s.v. Tritogeneia). The hymn thus connects Athens, the starting point of the Pythais procession, with Delphi, its destination (cf. Kühn, Pythais-Prozession,181). [4] Hephaistos is mentioned (l. 12) along with Athena as the other “founding god” of Athens ([Apollod.] Bib. 3.187). “Arabian scent” (l. 13) refers to the burning of incense, imported mostly from the Arabian peninsula, during sacrifice. Streaming upwards, the scent was believed to delight the gods, who lived on Olympos. The reference to a sacrifice taking place as the song was performed might indicate that the Paian was sung during the sacrifice in front of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, where the Pythais procession ended (Kühn, Pythais-Prozession, 183). [5] The Greek word lotos referred to various plants, including the nettle-tree (Celtis australis), whose wood was used to make flutes. In Greek poetry, the name of the tree could (as here) as a synecdoche for the instrument itself (LSJ s.v. λωτός A III 1, cf. Pöhlmann and West, Greek Music no. 21, l. 15. [6] The “swarm of artists” refers to the association (synodos) of artists (technitai) of Dionysos at Athens, a corporation who organised and performed in dramatic festivals from the third century BC onwards (see IG II² 1320 with notes). F.Delphes III 2, 47, ll. 19, 22, the honorific decree of Delphi associated with the second Pythais, suggests that Athenaios and Limenios, the composers of the hymns, were members of the corporation (see n. 1). The artists are also called a “swarm” (hesmos) in Pöhlmann and West, Greek Music no. 21, l. 20. The image draws on the common poetic link between bees and poets, based on the idea that both were divinely inspired creators of works distinguished by “sweetness” (cf. Homeric Hymn to Hermes, ll. 552-66, T. Bounas in D. Engels and C. Nicolaye, Illum operum custos, 2008, 60-81; R. D. Carlson, The Honey Bee and Apian Imagery in Classical Literature, 2015, 43-58). In Pin. Pyth. 4.60, the Pythia is called the “Delphic bee,” so the bee-motif here, also provides an additional link between Delphi and the Athenian Association of Dionysian Artists (cf. Carlson 2015, 44). [7] Ll. 19-24 briefly summarize the myth concerning Apollo’s fight with the “snake” Python and the foundation of the Delphic oracle, described at length in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, ll. 300-4, 356-73, 513-44; see also Aisch. Eum. 1-19, and Eur. Iph. Taur. 1234-58. [8] Lines 25f. refer to the Gauls’ thwarted attack on Delphi in 279 BC. Athenaios tells the same version of the story as Limenios, in which Apollo himself defended his sanctuary against the invaders and the role of the Aetolian League is elided (cf. Pöhlmann and West, Greek Music no. 21 with notes). Athenaios personifies the Gauls' belligerence as Ares, the god of war.

Added: 3 Dec 2023
Updated: 8 Jan 2024
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