MUSIC. 351 
moving tlie inftrument fideways for the admiffion of 
wind into the feveral tubes; and it was by the fagacity 
and penetration of Minerva, that it was found practica¬ 
ble to produce the fame variety of tones with a fingle 
pipe, by means of ventiges or holes, which had the effect 
of lengthening or fhortening the tube, by a quick altera¬ 
tion of the column of air which was 'forced through it. 
Two other circumftances are related of Minerva with 
refpeft to the flute. She is faid by Hyginus to have found 
lierfelf laughed at by her mother and filter, Juno and 
Venus, whenever (lie played the flute in their prefence s 
this fuggefted to her the thought of examining herfelf in 
a fountain, which, ferving as a mirror, convinced her that 
fhe had been juftly derided for the diftortion of her coun¬ 
tenance, occafioned by fwelling her cheeks in the a <51 of 
blowing the flute. This is one reafon given for her 
throwing afide that inftrument, and adopting the lyre. 
However, a better caufe, and one more worthy of her 
wifdom, is afligned for her throwing afide the flute, upon 
feeing Apollo perform on the lyre 5 for, by having his 
mouth at liberty, {he found that it enabled him to ling at 
the fame time as he played, which afforded an opportunity 
of joining inftru&ion to pleafure. 
Having traced the ufe of inftruments of percuffion as 
high as the birth of Jupiter, and fhown that the ancient 
Greeks attributed the origin of wind-inftruments to 
Minerva, it now remains to fpeak of the third fpecies of 
inftruments, the tones of which are produced by firings $ 
and among thefe, the fir ft in order and celebrity is the 
lyre, of which the invention is given, both by the Egyp¬ 
tians and Greeks, to Mercury. 
Almoft all the ancient poets relate the manner in which 
the Grecian Mercury difcovered the lyre; and tell us 
that it was an inftrument with jeven ftriwgs; a circum- 
ftance which makes it eflentially different from that faid 
to have been invented by the Egyptian Mercury, which 
had but three. However there have been many claim¬ 
ants befides Mercury to the feven-ftringed lyre; and the 
great number of different muficians to whom the fame 
inventions have been given in Greece, is but a proof that 
inftruments refembling each other in form and properties, 
may have had many inventors. A fyrinx, made of reeds 
tied together, exactly refembling that of the ancients, 
has been lately found to be in common ufe in the ifland 
of New Amfterdam in the South Seas, as flutes and drums 
have been in Otaheite and New Zealand; which indifput- 
ably prove them to be inftruments natural to every peo¬ 
ple emerging from barbarifin. They were fir ft tiled by 
the Egyptians and Greeks, during the infancy of the 
mufical art among them ; and they feem to have been in¬ 
vented and praftifed at all times by nations remote from 
each other, and between whom it is hardly poflible that 
there ever could have been the leaft intercourfe or com¬ 
munication. 
Calmet, in his Differtation on the Mufical fnftruments 
of the Hebrews, has given us an account of this difeovery 
from Homer’s Hymn to Mercury, in which he tranflates 
•n'Ar.y.T^ov, pleftrum, by the French word archet, “a bow,” 
without citing a Angle authority for it from ancient au¬ 
thors. What kind of implement the pleSlrum was, may 
be difeufi'ed hereafter; but it is moil certain that the 
low now in ufe was utterly unknown to the ancients. 
Of all the divinities of Paganifm, there was no one by 
whom the polite arts were faid to have been, in fo par¬ 
ticular a manner, cherifhed and protected, as by Apollo; 
who had a variety of names given to him that were either 
derived from his principal attributes, or the chief places 
where he was worfhipped. To the other perfections of 
this divinity, the poets have added beauty, grace, and 
the art of captivating the ear and the heart, no lefs by the 
fweetnefs of his eloquence than by the melodious founds 
of his lyre. However, with all thefe accomplifhments, 
he had not the talent of captivating the fair with whofe 
charms he was enamoured ; but we have nothing to do 
with his amours, nor with the other adventures related 
of this god during his reffdence on earth, which are in¬ 
deed too numerous, and too well known, to be inferred 
here: however, fuch as concern his mufical contefts, in 
which he was always victorious, feem too much con¬ 
nected with our fubjeCt to be wholly unnoticed. 
To begin, therefore, with the difpute which he had with 
Pan, that was left to the arbitration of Midas. Pan, who 
thought he excelled in playing the flute, offered to prove 
that it was an inftrument luperior to the lyre of Apollo. 
The challenge was accepted; and Midas, who was ap¬ 
pointed the umpire in this conteft, deciding in favour.of 
Pan, was rewarded by Apollo, according to the poets, 
with the ears of an afs, for his ftupidity. This fiCfion, 
which fee ms founded upon hiftory, mult be explained. 
Midas, according to Paufanias and Strabo, was poflefled 
of fuch great riches, and fuch an inordinate defire of in- 
creafing them by the mo ft contemptible parfimony, that, 
according to the poets, he converted whatever he touched 
into gold. However, his talent for accumulation did not 
extend to the acquirement of tafle and knowledge in the 
fine arts; and perhaps his, dulnefs and inattention to 
thefe, provoked fome mufical poet to invent the fable of 
his decifion in favour of Pan againft Apollo. See Midas, 
vol. xv. p. 334. 
Marfyas, another player on the flute, was frill more un¬ 
fortunate than either Pan or his admirer Midas. Hy- 
agnis, a native of Celaenae, the capital of Phrygia, and 
cotemporary with Erichthonius, who inftituted the Pana- 
thenaean games at Athens, was the inventor of the flute, 
and of the Phrygian mode ; as well as of the names, or airs, 
that were fung to the Mother of the Gods, to Bacchus, 
to Pan, and to fome other divinities and heroes of that 
country. Plutarch and Nonnus both tell us that he was 
the father of Marfyas ; Athenaeus, from Ariftoxenus, fays 
that he invented the Phrygian mode; and Apuleius af- 
cribes to him not only the invention of the Angle flute, 
but of the double. The double flute, however, is more 
generally given to his Aon Marfyas. Julius Pollux (lib. iv. 
cap. 10.) fpeaks of two kinds of fingle flute, the invention 
of which was attributed to the Libyans: the oblique flute* 
‘zzrAayialAo;, fo called, perhaps, from being blown at the 
fide, like the modern fife, or German flute; and a very 
flirill flute, made of laurel-wood, after the pith and bark 
were removed, that v.'as ufed in breakinghorfes, fa-TroipopCo?. 
The natives of every quarter of the globe feem to have 
invented their own flutes; and, if Hyagnis and his fon 
Marfyas furnifhed the Afiatics with thole inftruments, 
Africa may have had her’s from Lybia, or its neighbour¬ 
ing country, Egypt. 
The connexion of Marfyas with Cybele, afterwards fo 
celebrated as the mother of the gods, makes it neceflary 
to fpeak of her, in the hiftory of that unfortunate mu- 
fician. The Phrygians, fays Diodorus Siculus, affirm, 
that they had formerly a king named Meon, who was 
likewife fovereign of Lydia. This king took to wife a 
princefs of the name of Dindyma, by whom he had a 
daughter. Enraged at the difappointment of not having 
a Ion, he expofed her upon mount Cybele. However the 
gods permitted her to be fuckled by wild beafls; which 
being afterwards difcovered by fome fhepherdefles in the 
neighbourhood, they Hole her from her favage nurfes, and 
upon carrying her home called her Cybele, from the name 
of the mountain where fhe had been found. This child 
furpafled, as fire grew up, all her companions, not only in 
beauty, but wifdom and talents; for fhe invented a flute, 
compofed of many pipes, and was the fir ft of that country 
who introduced drums and cymbals into chorufles. The 
chief of her friends was Mariyas, a man commendable for 
his wifdom and temperance: he manifefted great genius 
in the invention of a flute, which, by means of holes, like 
that of Minerva, expreffed all the founds of the feveral 
pipes of which the fyrinx was compofed ; and his attach¬ 
ment to Cybele mu ft have been of a very pure and Pla¬ 
tonic kind ; for we are told that he prelerved his chaftity 
to the lalt hour of his life. Cybele, tranfported with love 
for 
