MUSI C. 
350 
firings, the* latter with three or four: though there is 
great reafon to doubt whether inftruments which feem to 
require the aid of a hair-bow, and which fo much refera¬ 
ble the violin, can be fo ancient. They might, however, 
have been played with the fingers, like a guitar. See the 
word Minnin, vol. xv. p. 540. 
III. Of the Greeks and Romans. 
Cadmus, who came into Greece from Phoenicia about 
s+o years before the Trojan war, brought with him his 
wife Harmonia , who, as Athenseus tells us, was “ a player 
on the flute.” This relation might encourage a belief, 
that, as Cadmus brought letters into Greece, his wife 
brought harmony thither, as the word aqp.tmu, has been 
faid to have no other derivation than from her name ; 
which makes it very difficult to afcertain the fenfe an¬ 
nexed to it by the Greeks in their mufic ; for it has no 
roots by which it can be decompounded, in order to de¬ 
duce it from its etymology. This derivation is given by 
fome to Plato ; and there is a paflage in his Phcedon, in 
which he evidently gives his fanclion to the common 
etymology of the word generally adopted by the learned ; 
who deduce it from a^go^cj, which is derived from the 
old verb, “ to fit, to join.” And yet, as the flute 
upon which Harmonia played was a Angle inftrument, 
capable of melody only, and as flie was faid to be the firft 
who performed upon that inftrument in Greece, the in¬ 
habitants of that country perhaps called by her name the 
art which fhe had introduced among them, as the metal 
(copper) which her hufband invented received his name. 
Agenor, the father of Cadmus, was an Egyptian ; and 
Cadmus is faid by many ancient writer's to have received 
his education in Egypt. Harmonia may likewife have 
come from that country; however, her wild flute has 
never been faid to have furnifhed the Greeks with their 
mufical fcale; but there is nothing more extraordinary in 
a barbarous people having mufic without a gamut, than 
language without an alphabet. 
Diodorus Siculus has given a very circumftantial ac¬ 
count of the wedding of Cadmus and Harmonia in Sa- 
mothrace, at which all the Pagan divinities were prefent; 
and tells us, that this was the firft hymenaeal feftival 
which the gods deigned to honour with their prefence : 
“ Ceres, who was tenderly attached to Jafion, the brother 
of the bride, prefented corn to the new-married couple; 
Mercury brought his lyre; Minerva, her famous buckler, 
her veil, and her flute ; Eleftra, the mother of the bride,- 
celebrated there the myfteries of Cybele, the mother of 
the gods, and had the orgies danced to the founds of 
drums and cymbals. Apollo afterwards played on the 
lyre, the Mufes accompanied him with their flutes, and 
all the other divinities ratified their nuptials with accla¬ 
mations of joy.” This feems to be the outline of a dra¬ 
matic reprefentation, which was perhaps exhibited by 
the priefls at fome feftival, or myftical celebration, in 
order to commemorate the wedding of Cadmus and Har¬ 
monia. 
But, though Cadmus and his companions were called 
Idafl Dadlyli, and Curetes, they feem not to have been 
the firft who came into Greece; for both Strabo and 
Diodorus Siculus tell us, that “ the Curetes, who intro¬ 
duced mufic, poetry, dancing, and arts, and attended on 
the facrifices, were no lefs active about religious inftitu- 
tions; and for their fkill, knowledge, and myftical prac¬ 
tices, were accounted wife men and conjurers by the vul¬ 
gar , that thefe, when Jupiter was born in Crete, were 
appointed by his mother Rhea to the nurfing and 
tuition of him in a cave of mount Ida, where they danced 
about him in armour, with great noife, that his father 
Saturn might not hear him cry. And, when he was grown 
up, thefe aflifted him in his conquefts, were appointed his 
priefts, and inftituted myfteries, in memory of the fhare 
which they had in his education.” This wild ftory, col¬ 
lected from all the bell profe-writers of Greece, is told by 
fur Ifaac Newton in his Chronology ; and it is quoted here, 
$ 
in order to (how the Ample ffate which mufic was in at its 
firft introduction into Greece. 
No inftruments are mentioned to have been ufed by 
the Idasi DaClyli, who attended Jupiter in Crete, but 
drums and cymbals, inftruments of percuflion,' which, 
affording but one tone, require but little art in the player, 
or knowledge in the hearer: 
Diclicos refernnt Curetas: qui Joins ilium 
Vagitum in Creta quondam occultaffe feruntur ; 
Cum piteri circum pucrum perniee chorea. 
Armati in numerum pnlfareul ceribus ara. Lucret. ii. 
Thefe reprefent the armed priefts, who ftrove 
To drown the tender cries of infant Jove; 
By dancing quick they made a greater found. 
And beat their armour as they danc’d around. Creech. 
But Virgil applies this rude and artlefs mufic to a lefs 
noble purpofe than quieting the infant Jupiter in his 
cradle : 
Nunc age, naturas apibus quas Jupiter ipfe 
Addidit, expediam: pro qua mercedc, canoros 
Curetum fonitus erepitantiaque ara Jecuta, 
Dtclao call regem pavere Jub antro. Georg, iv. 
Now liften, while the wond’rous powers I fing, 
And genius giv’n to bees, by heav’n’s almighty king. 
Whom, in the Cretan cave, they kindly fed, 
By cymbal’s found and clafhing armour led. Warton. 
Ariftotle has thought it worth recording, that Archytas 
of Tarentum, the famous mathematician, invented a rat¬ 
tle for children; and Perault fays, if weconiider the mufic 
of the ancients according to the idea which the early 
writers give us of it, we fhall find it to have been a kind 
of noife luitable to the infancy of the world, as the firft: 
inftruments w'ere certainly little better than rattles, or 
corals, fit only for children. And, indeed, the Phoeni¬ 
cians may be faid to have brought into Greece time, 
rather than tunc: but rhythm is of iuch confequence both 
to poetry and to mufic, that this was no inconfiderable 
prefent. 
As the firft mufic mentioned in the Grecian hiftory, is 
that of the hlcei Daetyli, after the birth of Jupiter, which 
confifted of a rhythmical clad; of fwords, as modern raor- 
rice-dancers delight in the clafti of ftaves; it is not un¬ 
natural to iuppofe, that when this prince was grown up, 
had conquered his enemies, and was peaceably eftabliihed 
on his throne, the arts and fcicnces were cultivated and 
rendered flourifhing, particularly mufic, through the fkill 
and influence of Apollo, and his other Ions; and this 
perhaps was found to be the moft effectual means of tam¬ 
ing and polifhing a rude and favage people. 
Among the dii majorum gentium, fome of the female 
divinities laid claim -to a lharein mufical difcoveries. Of 
this number was Minerva, or Pallas, the daughter of 
Jupiter, who is lometimes called Mufica, or the Mufician, 
a name flie acquired from her ftattie made by Demetrius, 
in which, when the ferpents of the Gorgon were itruck, 
they relounded like a lute. She is alfo honoured with 
the invention of chariots, together with having firft ufed 
trumpets, and invented the flute. The vouchers for her 
mufical talents are Paufanias, Plutarch, and Fulgentius, 
among the profe-writers; and Pindar, Nonnus, Ovid, 
Hyginus, Propertius, and Claudian, among the poets. 
The flute that flie invented, is faid by Hyginus to have 
been made of bone, and by Ovid of box: 
Prima terebrato per rara foramina buxo, 
Ut claret, effeci, tibia longa Jonos. Faft. vi. 
Foramina rara, “ with few holes,” it is natural to fupp-Ae. 
Indeed the J'yrinx, faid to have been invented by Pan, 
whole fliape is now w'ell known under the vulgar appella¬ 
tion of Pan's qnpes, was found inconvenient. It con¬ 
fifted of a number of pipes of different lengths, tied to¬ 
gether, or fattened by wax, which were played on, accord¬ 
ing to Lucretius, by blowing in them one after the other, 
moving 
