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manner at the triumphal entry of the viftor into his own 
country, in procefflons, or at thefacrifices that were made 
with great pomp and folemnity on the occafion. 
Paufanias fays, that the character of poet was truly con- 
fecrated, in the perfon of Pindar, by the god of verfe him- 
felf, who was pleafed, by an exprefs oracle, to order the 
inhabitants of Delphos to fet apart, for Pindar, one half 
of the firfl-fruit offerings brought by the religious to his 
fhrine, and to allow him a confpicuous place in his tem¬ 
ple; where, in an iron chair, lie ufed to fit and fing his 
hymns in honour of that god. This chair was remaining 
in the time of Paufanias, feveral centuries after; and fhown 
to him,as a relic, not unworthy of the fan&ity and mag¬ 
nificence of that place. Such a J'tnger as Pindar would be 
heard with the fame rapture in a Pagan temple, as a Fari- 
nelli in an Italian church ; and, as both would draw to¬ 
gether crowded congregations, both would be equally 
carefled and encouraged by the priefts. 
But, though Pindar’s mufe w\as penfioned at Delphos, 
and well paid by princes and potentates elfewhere, the 
feems, however, fometimes to have fung the fpontaneous 
Brains of pure friendlhip. Of this kind were, probably, 
the verfes bellowed upon the mufician Midas, of Agri- 
gentum, in Sicily, who had twice obtained the palm of 
viftory, by his performance on the flute, at the Pythic 
games. It is in the 12th Pythic Ode, that Pindar cele¬ 
brates the victory of Midas over all Greece, “ upon that 
inllrument which Minerva herfelf had invented.” This 
Midas is a very different perfonage from his long-eared 
majefly of Phrygia, whofe decifion in favour of Pan, had 
given fuch offence to Apollo ; as is manifelted, indeed, 
from his having been cotemporary with Pindar. The moll 
extraordinary part of this mufician’s performance, that 
can be gathered from the fcholialt upon Pindar, w'as his 
finifliing the folo, without a reed, or mouth-piece, which 
broke accidentally while he w'as playing. The legendary 
account given by the poet in this ode, of the occafion upon 
■which the flute w'as invented by Minerva, is diverting: 
“ It was, fays he, to imitate the howling of the Gorgons, 
and the hilling of their fnakes, which the goddefs had 
beard when the head of Medufa (one of thefe three Anti- 
Graces') was cut off by Perfeus.” 
Plutarch, who on many occafions feems to have con- 
fulted the regillers of the facred games, tells us, in his 
Life of Lyfander the Spartan general, that the mufician 
Ariftonoiis, who had fix times obtained the prize for fing- 
ing to the cithara in the Pythic games, flattered Lyfander 
fo far as to tell him, that, if ever he gained another victory, 
he would be publicly proclaimed his difciple and fervant. 
This w'as after the Spartan had taken the city of Athens, 
beaten down the walls, and burned all the Ihips in the 
harbour, to the found of flutes; an event which happened 
in the 94th Olympiad, 404 years B. C. 
Indifputable teftimonies are to be found in ancient au¬ 
thors, of the continuation of mufical contells at thefe 
games, till their final abolition after the ellablilhment of 
the Chrillian religion. We fhall only mention the vic¬ 
tory which Paufanias informs us, was gained there by 
Pylades, upon the cithara, about the 94th Pythiad, 211 
years before C’hrill; the Pythic laurel, which both Sue¬ 
tonius and Dio Caflius inform us, Nero, as a citharocdift, 
who had been vi<£tor at thole games, brought out of 
Greece, 66 years after the fame aera ; and the two Pythic 
victories, recorded in the Oxford Marbles, among innu¬ 
merable others, which C. Ant. Septimius Publius, the 
citharcedill, obtained during the reign of the emperor" 
Septimius Severus, about the end of the fecond century. 
We pafs over the Nemsean and Ifthmian games, and 
come to the Panathensean. There were two folemn felti- 
vals under this denomination at Athens, the greater and 
the lefs ; both of which were celebrated there in honour 
of Minerva, the patronefs of that city. They mull have 
been of very high antiquity, as their firlt inllitution was 
afcribed to Orpheus, and to king Erichthonius ; and their 
renewal and augmentation to Thefeus. The greater 
Panatheiueu were exhibited every five years, the lels every 
SIC. 059- 
three, or, according to fome writers, annually. Though 
the celebration of neither, at firll, employed more than 
one day, yet in after-times they were protradiled for the 
fpace of many days, and folemnized with greater prepara¬ 
tions and magnificence than at their firll inllitution. 
The firll who obtained the prize here, on the cithara, 
according to the Oxford Marbles, was Phrynis, of Mity- 
lene, about 457 years B. C. But this mufician was not 
equally fuccefsful when he contended with Timotheus, 
who boalts, himfelf, of a victory he had obtained over 
him, in fome verfes preferved by Plutarch. 
There were premiums likewife given to players on the 
flute,an inllrument longin the highellellimation through¬ 
out all Greece, but in particular requell at Athens; per¬ 
haps from the legendary account of its invention by 
Minerva, the protedlrefs of that city. Arillotle tells us, 
that the flute, after its firll invention, was ufed by mean 
people, and thought an ignoble inllrument, unworthy of 
a free man, till after the invafion and defeat of the Per- 
fians; when eafe, affluence, and luxury, loon rendered 
its ule fo common, that it was a difgrace to a perfon of 
birth not to know how to play upon it. Callias and 
Critias, celebrated Athenians, Archytas of Tarentum, 
Philolaiis, and Epaminondas, were able performers on the 
flute. Indeed mulic in general was in fuch favour, and 
the fludy of it was thought fo eflential a parrof education, 
at Athens, in the time of Pericles and Socrates, that 
Plato and Plutarch have thought it neceflary to inform us 
of whom thofe two great perfonages received infirudtions 
in that art. Damon, the Athenian, was the mufic-mafier 
of both. The philofopher calls him his friend, in a Dia¬ 
logue of Plato, w'here Nicias, one of the interlocutors, in¬ 
forms the company, that Socrates had recommended, as a 
mufic-maller to his fon, Damon, the difciple of Agatho- 
cles, who not only excelled in his own profellion, but pof- 
feffed every quality that could be vviihed in a man to whom 
the care of youth was to be confided. 
Strabo fays, it was the general opinion, that the Greeks 
had the chief part of their mulic, and mufical inllruments, 
from Afia and Thrace. And, according to Athenseus, 
lib. xiii. mulic w'as thought a neceflary female accomplifh- 
mentin the time of Darius ; for this author tells us, that 
Parmenio wrote Alexander word, he had taken at Da- 
mafcus three hundred and twenty-nine of-the Perfian 
monarch’s concubines, who were all Ikilled in mulic, and 
performers on the flute and other inllruments. 
It w'as thought difgraceful for a gentleman not to be 
able to play upon the flute. Cornelius Nepos ranks it among 
the accomplilhments of Epaminondas, that he could dance 
well, and play on the flute. But he was a Theban. It 
feems that Theban flute-players, and Lefbian lyrifls, W'ere 
always the mod celebrated throughout Greece. The 
Thebans in general piqued themfelves much upon being 
great performers on the flute. This is manifeft from a 
paflage in Dion Chryfoitom: “ The pre-eminence, fays 
lie, wdiich all Greece unanimoully allows to the Thebans, 
in this particular, has been conflantly regarded by them as 
a point of great importance, of which I fhall give an in- 
ftance. After the total ruin of their city, which has never 
yet been rebuilt, no part of it being now inhabited but 
the fmall quarter called Cadmea , they gave themfelves 
but little trouble in refloring any of the public monu¬ 
ments that had been thrown down or deflroyed, one flatue 
only of Mercury excepted, which they took great pains 
to dig out from among the rubbifh, and to erefil again, 
on account of the following infcription : *EAAa; Gr&as 
hxom avAoi?; “ Greece has declared that Thebes 
wins the prize upon the flute.” So that this flatue is flili 
Banding in the old public fquare, among the ruins.” 
Pronomus, the inventor of a flute, upon which he could 
play in three different modes, was a Theban. Before his 
time, there was a particular flute for every mode or key ; 
and fo out of tune are the [generality or modern flutes, 
(fays Dr. Burney,) that it were almofi to be wifhed the 
cultom had Bill continued. 
Antigenides, one of the mod renowned muficians of 
5 antiquity. 
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