852 M U £ 
for a young man named Atys, who had been put to death 
by her parents, became infane, and ran wildly up and 
down the country, beating the cymbals. Mariyas, taking 
pity of her misfortunes, and preferving his former friend- 
fliip for her, followed her in all her rambles, till Ihe ar¬ 
rived-at Nyfa, the refidence, at that time, of Bacchus, or 
Ofiris, where they found Apollo, who had acquired great 
reputation by his manner of playing the lyre. For it is 
faid, that, though Mercury invented this inftrument in the 
manner already related, he afterwards gave it to Apollo, 
■who was the find that played upon it with method; and, 
by linging to it, made it the conllant companion of poetry. 
Diod. Sic. lib. iii. c. io. But, according to Homer’s ac¬ 
count of this tranfaflion, in his Hymn to Mercury, it was 
given by that god to Apollo as a peace-offering and in¬ 
demnification for the oxen which he had ftolen from 
him : 
To Phcebus Maia’s fon prefents the lyre, 
A gift intended to appeafe his ire; 
The god receives it gladly, and elfays 
The novel inftrument a thoufand ways. 
With dext’rous Ikill the plectrum wields, and fings, 
With voice accordant to the trembling firings, 
Such drains as gods and men approv’d; from whence 
The fweet alliance l'prung of found and fenfe. 
Be this as it may, Marfyas, having engaged in amufical 
difpute with Apollo, chole the people of Nyfa for judges. 
The particulars and the fatal event have been related at 
length under the word Marsyas, vol. xiv. p. 428. Dio¬ 
dorus informs us, that Apollo, loon repenting of the 
cruelty with which he had treated Marfyas, broke the 
firings of the lyre, and by that means put a ftop, for a 
time, to any further progrefs in the practice of that new 
inftrument. 
The next palfage in this author being wholly applica¬ 
ble to, the liiltory of the ancient lyre, we fhall transcribe 
it; “ The Mules, fays he, afterwards added to this in¬ 
ftrument the firing called we/e; Linus, that of liclianos; 
and Orpheus and Thamyras, thole firings which are 
named hypate and parky pate .” It has been already re¬ 
lated, that the lyre invented by the Egyptian Mercury, 
had but three firings; and, by putting thel'e two circum- 
ftances together, we may perhaps acquire fome knowledge 
of the extenlion of its lcale, in the higheft antiquity. 
Mefe, in the Greek mulic, is the fourth lound of the fe- 
cond tetrachord of the great fyftem, and firft tetrachord 
invented by the ancients, anl'wering to our A on the 
fifth line in the bafs. If this found then was added to 
the former three, it proves two important points ; firft, 
that the molt ancient tetrachord was that from E in the 
bafs to A ; and that the three original firings in the 
Mercurian and Apollonian lyre were tuned E, F, G, 
which the Greeks called hypate mej'on, parhypate mefon, 
and mejbn diatonos. The addition therefore of mefe to 
thefe, completed the firft and moll ancient tetrachord, 
E, F, G, A. Captain Norden fays, the fepulchral urn on 
the firft pyramid near Memphis, though it rells intirely 
upon its bafe, founds like a bell; and Dr. Shaw believes 
the found emitted to be E-la-mi. Now, if it be true that 
the Greeks had their firft mufical knowledge from Egypt, 
we may fuppole this found to be the ftandard pitch and 
fundamental note of the Mercurian lyre, and firft tetra¬ 
chord E, F, G, A. The firing lichanus, then, being 
added to thefe, and anfwering to our D, on the third line 
in the bafs, extended the compafs downwards, anti gave 
the ancient lyre a regular l'eries of five founds, in the 
Dorian mode, the moll ancient of all the Greek modes; 
and the two firings called hypate and parhypate , corref- 
ponding with ourB and C in the bafs, completed the hep¬ 
tachord, orleven lounds, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, a compafs 
that received no addition till after the time of Pindar, 
who calls the inftrument then in ufe the “ feven-tongued 
lyre.” But, though Pindar calls the lyre Jeven-tongued, 
yet we are told that Pythagoras, who lived before him, 
I I c. 
added an eighth firing to that inftrument. This nevr 
firing, however, might not be in general ufe in Pindar’s 
time. 
Plato tells us, that we are indebted to Marfyas and 
Olympus for wind-mufic ; and to thefe two muficians is 
likewife attributed the invention of the Phrygian and 
Lydian meafure. There were two great muficians in an¬ 
tiquity of the name of Olympus, and both celebrated per¬ 
formers on the flute. One of them flourilhed before the 
Trojan war; and the other was cotemporary with Midas, 
who died 697 years before Chrift. The firft was a fcholar 
of Marfyas, and a Myfian ; the fecond, according to 
Suidas, was a Phrygian, and author of feveral poems, 
which were by fome attributed to the firft Olympus. But 
the moll important addition which the difciple of Marfyas 
made to the mufical knowledge of his time, was the in¬ 
vention of the enharmonic genus ; (fee p. 347.) Plato and 
Arillotle, as well as Plutarch, celebrate his mufical ta¬ 
lents, and tell us that fome of his airs were ftill fubfift- 
ing in their time. Religion only can give permanence to 
mulic. The airs of Olympus ufed in the temple-worfhip 
during the time of Plutarch were not more ancient (lays 
Dr. Burney) than the chants, or canto fermo, to fome of 
the hymns of the Rornilh church ; and the melodies now 
lung to many of the hymns and plalms of the Lutherans 
and Calvinifts, are fuch as were applied to them at the 
time of the reformation. 
Plato fays the mulic of Olympus was, in a particular 
manner, adapted to affeft and animate the hearers ; 
Arillotle, that it fwelled the foul with enthuliafm; and 
Plutarch, that it furpafled, in fimplicity and effedl, every 
other mulic then known. According to this biographer, 
he was author of the curule fong, which caufed Alexander 
to feize his arms, when it was performed to him by Anti- 
genides. To his mufical abilities he joined thole of 
poetry ; and, according to Suidas, and Julius Pollux, he 
compofed elegies, and other plaintive longs, which were 
fung to the found of the flute ; and the melodies of thefe 
poems were lo much celebrated in antiquity for their pa¬ 
thetic and plaintive call, that Ariltophanes, in the begin¬ 
ning of his comedy called the Knights, where he intro¬ 
duces the two generals, Demofthenes and Nicias, tra- 
veilied into valets, and complaining of their mailer, 
makes them fay, “ Let us weep and wail like two flutes, 
breathing fome air of Olympus. ’ 
At p. 295. we have noticed the violent manner of 
blowing the flute in ancient times, and the danger attend¬ 
ing fuch obftreperous exertions. Among the inventions 
of Marfyas is numbered the bandage made of leather 
thongs, occalionally ufed by die ancients in playing the 
flute, in order to keep the cheeks and lips firm, and to 
prevent the diftortion of the countenance, l'o common in 
playing upon wind-inftruments. This contrivance, which 
left only a fmall aperture between the lips, juft fuflicient 
to receive the mouth-piece of the flute, augmented like- 
wile the force of the performer. This bandage was called 
(popQe ia, or TrEfirop-ios', the “ lieadflall.” It is mentioned in 
Plutarch’s Sympofiacs, in the Schoiiaft of Arillophanes, 
and elfewhere ; and may be leen in fome ancient fculpture 
which Bartholinus has had engraved in his treadle de 
Tibiis Veterum. See alfo our Plate XV. 
As Apollo was the god of the fine arts, thofe who cul¬ 
tivated them were called his ions. Philammon of Dei- 
phos, being a great poet and mufician, was reported to 
be the offspring of the god who prefided over tnofe arts. 
He is one of the firft, after Apollo, upon fabulous record, 
as a vocal performer, who accompanied himfelt with the 
found of the lyre : his fon was the celebrated Thamyris. 
Tatian ranks Philammon among the writers who ilou- 
riflied before the time of Homer; and the fcholiaft of 
Apollonius Rhodius, from Pherecydes, affirms, that it 
was this mufical poet, and not Orpheus, w'ho accompa¬ 
nied the Argonauts in their expedition. If this circurn- 
ftance could be depended upon, there would be no diffi¬ 
culty in fixing the time when he lived, as the chronolo- 
gilU 
