354 
MUSI C. 
Tartarus, but alfo of charming the infernal deities tliem- 
felves, whom he rendered fo far propitious to his entreaties, 
as to reftore to him Eurydice, upon condition that he 
would not look at her till he had quitted their domi¬ 
nions; a blefling which he foon forfeited, by a too eager 
and fatal afledtion. 
Virgil bellows the firft place in his Elyfium upon the 
leg'illa'tors, and “ thofe who brought makind from a Hate 
pf nature into fociety Magnanimi heroes, nati melio- 
ribus minis. At the head of thefe is Orpheus, the moll 
renowned of the European law-givers; but better known 
under the chara&er of poet; for the firft laws being writ¬ 
ten in meafure, to allure men to learn them, and, when 
learnt, to retain them, the fable would have it, that by 
the force of harmony Orpheus foftened the favage inha¬ 
bitants of Thrace : 
- Threicius longa cum vefle facerdos 
Ohloquitur numeris feptcm difcrimina voeum : 
Jamque eadem digitisjam pefline pulfat eburno. TEn. vi. 645. 
The Thracian bard, furrounded by the reft, 
There Hands confpicuous in his flowing veil ; 
His flying fingers, and harmonious quill. 
Strike feven diftinguifh’d notes. Dri/den. 
The feven firings given by the poet in this paflage to. the 
lyre of Orpheus, is a circumftance fomewhat hiftorical. 
The firft Mercurian lyre had, at raoft, but four firings. 
Others werb afterwards added to it by the fecond Mer¬ 
cury, or by Amphion ; but, according to feveral tradi¬ 
tions preferved by Greek hiftorians, it was Orpheus who 
completed the fecond tetrachord, which extended the 
fcale to a heptachord, or feven founds, implied by the 
feptem difcrimina voeum; for the affertion of many writers, 
"that Orpheus added two new firings to the lyre, which 
before had feven, clafhes with the claim of Pythagoras 
to the invention of the odlachord, or addition of an eighth 
found to the heptachord, which made the fcale conlift of 
two disjundt, inftead of two conjundl, tetrachords, and 
of which almofl all antiquity allows him to have been the 
inventor. Nor is it eafy to fuppofe, that the lyre fhould 
have been reprefented in ancient fculpture with four or 
five firings only, if it had had nine fo early as the time of 
Orpheus, who flourilhed long before fculpture was known 
in Greece. What is here faid concerning the progreflive 
improvements of inftrumental mufic, muft be wholly con¬ 
fined to-Greece; for proofs have already been given of the 
Egyptians having been in pofteflion of more perfedl in- 
ftruments than thofe juft mentioned, long before the time 
when Orpheus is fuppofed to have flourifhed. 
We now come to the Trojan war, the fecond important 
epoch in Grecian hiftory. Antiquity has paid fuch re- 
foedl to the perfonages mentioned in the poems of Homer, 
as never to have doubted of the real exiflence of any one 
of them. The poets and muficians, therefore, who have 
been celebrated by this great fire of fong are ranked 
among the bards of Greece who flourifhed about the time 
of the Trojan war, and of whofe works, though nothing 
entire remains, yet the names, and even fragments of fome 
of them, are to be found in feveral ancient authors pofte- 
rior to Homer. Horner flourifhed goo or 1000 years B. C. 
Mufic we find mentioned with a degree of rapture in 
more than fifty places of the Iliad and Odyfley. However, 
it is in fuch clofe union with poetry, that it is difficult 
to diferiminate to which the poet’s praifes belong. The 
lyre indeed is conftantly in the hands of the bard, but 
merely as an inftrument of accompaniment to the voice. 
So that mufic and the lyre were frequently only vehicles 
through which Homer celebrated the power of poetical 
numbers. Singing there is without inflruments; but of 
inftrumental mufic without vocal, there does not appear 
the leaft trace in the writings of Homer. Even dancing 
was accompanied by the voice, according to the follow¬ 
ing paflage : 
Then to the dance they form the vocal ftrain, 
Till Hefperus leads forth the Harry train. Od. v. 
It feems as if nothing would convey to the reader a 
more juft and clear idea of the ftate of mufic in the time 
of the Trojan war, or at leaft of Homer, than a lift of the 
inflruments mentioned in the original; thefe are the lyre, 
the flute, and the fyrinx. The lyre has been called by 
tranflators, lute, harp, cithara, and telludo, juft as the 
convenience of verfification required ; and, if thefe and 
the lyre were not in ancient times one and the fame in¬ 
ftrument, they were certainly all of the fame kind. The 
flute and fyrinx have already been faid to be of Egyptian 
origin, and of great antiquity. Thefe inflruments are 
fpecified by Homer in a paflage where they do not appear 
in Pope’s verfion : Avyiov c-vpi/Xan r svowijv, op,ot,<iov x av9go7r«i'. 
II. xx. 
With refpeft to military mufic, the trumpet is men¬ 
tioned by Homer in a fimile ; yet it is agreed by all the 
critics, that it was unknown to the Greeks during the 
Trojan war, though it was in common ufe in the time of 
the poet. According to archbifhop Potter, before the 
invention of trumpets, the firft fignals of battle in pri¬ 
mitive wars were lighted torches ; to thefe fucceeded 
ftiells of fifties, which were founded like trumpets. 
“ Nothing was more ufeful, fays Plutarch, than mufic 
to ftimulate mankind to virtuous aflions, particularly 
in exciting that degree of courage, which is neceflary 
to brave the dangers of war. To this end fome have 
ufed the flute, and others the lyre. The Lacedaemo¬ 
nians, in approaching the enemy, played upon the flute 
the air or melody that was fet to the fong or hymn 
addrefled to Caftor; and the Cretans played their mili¬ 
tary marches for many ages on the ///re.” The Thebans 
and Lacedaemonians had a flute upon their enfigns ; the 
Cretans, a lyre ; and many ancient nations and cities 
have imprefled the lyre uppn their coins, as their parti¬ 
cular fymbol. The city of Rhegium, for inftance, had a 
woman’s head on one fide, and on the reverfe a lyre. In 
a medal inferibed Caleno, the Minotaur is feen, with the 
addition of the lyre. The Thefpians had one of the 
Mufes and a lyre ; the Lapithte, a Diana, and on the re¬ 
verfe a lyre ; the ifie of Chios, Homer on one fide, and on 
the other a fphinx, with a lyre in its paw. The inhabitants 
of the ifle of Tenedos had on one fide of their coins a head 
with two faces, and on the reverie an axe, with a bunch 
of grapes, the fymbol of Bacchus, near it on one fide; 
and a lyre, the fymbol of Apollo, on the other. The 
lyre with thirteen firings is likewife to be feen on two 
Roman coins in Montfaucon. 
We find, during the liege of Troy, that heralds gave 
the fignals of battle, viva voce. Neftor fays to Agamem¬ 
non before an engagement; 
Now bid thy heralds found the loud alarms, 
And call the fquadrons llieath’d in brazen arms. Iliad ii. 
The vociferous Stentor is celebrated by Homer as the 
moil illuftrious throat-performer, or herald, of antiquity: 
Stentor the ftrong, endued with brazen lungs, 
Whofe throat furpafs’d the noife of fifty tongues. Iliad iv. 
Pope obferves on this paflage, that “ there was a necefiity 
for cryers whofe voices were ftronger than ordinary, in 
thofe ancient times, before the ufe of trumpets was known 
in their armies. And that they were in efteem after¬ 
wards, may be feen from Herodotus, where he takes no¬ 
tice that Darius had in his train an Egyptian whofe voice 
was louder and ftronger than that of any other man of 
liis age.” 
Fabricius has given a lift of more than feventy poets 
who were fuppofed to have flourilhed before the time of 
Homer. Of twenty among thefe, fragments of their 
writings are Hill to be found difperl'ed through Greek li¬ 
terature ; and near thirty of them have been celebrated 
by antiquity as improvers of the art of mufic, and of mu- 
fical inflruments. We might here infert the names of 
all thefe ante-Homerian muficians, and relate what has 
been recorded concerning them in ancient authors; but 
this would be encroaching on that place which mull be 
referved 
