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text:echembrotus_poems

Lyra Graeca Volume II. Translated by Edmonds, J M. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1922.

Echembrotus: Poems

Inscription

Pausanias Description of Greece [on the Pythian Games] :

In the 3rd year of the 48th Olympiad (b.c. 586)1 at which the victor was Glaucias of Crotona, the Amphictyons established competitions for flute-song and flute-playing in addition to the contest for singers to the lyre which had been held from the beginning. The winners proclaimed on the occasion were a Cephallenian named Melampus in lyre-song, Echembrotus the Arcadian in flute-song, and Sacadas of Argos in flute-playing. . . At the 2nd Pythiad they abandoned the flute-song, having decided that it was not an auspicious form of music. For the flute-song consisted of very doleful flute-music and elegies sung to its accompaniment. My witness here is the offering set up by Echembrotus, which consists of a bronze tripod dedicated to the Theban Heracles, bearing the following inscription :

To the Theban Heracles Echembrotus of Arcadia dedicated this offering in return for his victory at the Games of the Amphictyons, where he sang to the Greeks melodies and elegiac lines to the music of the flute.


1 the date of the 1st Pythiad is given by some authorities as 582

text/echembrotus_poems.txt · Last modified: 2014/01/15 11:56 by 127.0.0.1