The Epitaph of Seikilos is a song (epigram), dated from the First Century C.E.
Hoson zis phenou
miden holos su lupou
pros oligon esti to zin
to telos ho chronos apeti.
/
Até ao fim dos teus dias vive despreocupado
que nada te atormente
a vida é demasiado breve
e o tempo cobra o seu tributo.
The Epitaph of Seikilos is a brief song inscribed on a tombstone dating from the first century C.E. (Common Era, equivalent to A.D.). Originally erected in south-western Turkey, near the modern city of Aydin, the round stone column is now in the National Museum in Copenhagen. The opening lines of the inscription make clear purpose of the stone:
"I am a tombstone, an icon. Seikilos placed me here as an everlasting sign of deathless remembrance."
The poem that follows is an "epigram", a short verse that makes a pointed remark, often by wittily juxtaposing contrasting ideas. Here we are encouraged to be cheerful, not in spite of death and the ravages of time but, ironically, because of them. the ethos of the epigram is one of moderation between extremes. The inscription ends with two lines whose meaning is uncertain but which appear to ascribe the poem and perhaps the music to Seikilos.
Above the words of the epigram are letters and other symbols representing pitches in Greek notation. Above these symbols are signs indicating durations. The score included here shows the original notation above the modern transcription with the Greek text and a phonetic transliteration.
The clear rhythmic notation has made this song of particular interest to historians. The notes without rhythmic markings above the alphabetical signs are worth one unit of duration ("protos chronos"), rendered in the transcription as an eighth note. The horizontal dash (-) indicates a "dissme", worth two units, and the horizontal dash with an upward stroke to the right is a "triseme", worth three. Note that the duration indicated is that of the syllable, not of the pitch, so that a "diseme" may include two pitches (as in the second line) and the "triseme" one, two, or three (as at the end of each line).
It is possible to transcribe the piece into modern notation using tables given by Alypius in his "Introductio musica", probably compiled in the late fourth or fifth century C.E. Alypius presented the letter notations for fifteen "tonoi", each of which places the sequence of intervals in the Greater Perfect System in a specific range. There are two sets of letters for each tonos - one for vocal pitches and the other for instruments. The "Epitaph of Seikilos" uses the vocal notes of the diatonic Iastian tonos, conventionally transcribed as the two-octave scale from "B" to "b'" with two sharps:
The music reflects the text in several important ways. Most obviously, the four lines of poetry are set to four distinct musical phrases, each the same length (twelve units of time) and each closing with a "triseme" preceded by another long duration. The Greek language had long and short syllables; all long syllables in the epitaph are set to long durations, so that the music follows the rhythms of the text. Each phrase begins with a rising gesture up to "e'" and then falls to a cadence, paraleling the inflections of speech. The gradual descent through an octave in the final phrase creates a strong sense of closure.
The Iastian tonos is consistent with the moderate ethos of the epigram, ballanced between two extremes. In Alypius's arrangement of the fifteen tonoi, the Iastian is number 7, intermediate between the lowest, Hypodorian, and the highest, Hiperlydian. The use of the diatonic genus is also apropriate for an ethos of moderation because it avoids the more extreme emotions assiciated with the chromatic and enharmonic genera.
The melody is restricted to the central octave from "e" to "e'". The octave species is the one called Phrygian by Cleonides, with a succession of whole and half steps equivalent to the octave from D to D on the white keys of the piano. The high and low notes receive special emphasis - "e'" as the topmost pitch in all four phrases and "e" as the last note in the piece. [...] Today and perhaps also then, the major thirds that begin or end the last three phrases would be perceived as bright, as would the rising fith at the opening. These bright intervals cast the message of the poem in a somewhat optimistic light.
This melody is interesting also because it confronts closely to Greek theoretical writings on melody. It uses patterns described by theorists such as Cleonides and Aristides Quintilianus: repeating notes, as in the first and fourth phrases; moving up or down the scale, as in the second phrase; and repeating the same interval succession a step lower or higher, as at the end of the third phrase and the beginning of the fourth. Subtle melodic resemblances link each phrase to the next. For example, the last four notes of the first phrase are echoed at the beginning of the second; the second and third phrases end with the same three notes and rhythms; and the third and fourth phrases begin with similar contours. Like the poem, the music is more complex and intriguing than it may appear at first hearing.
Although there is no indication of an accompaniment, a singer would likely have accompanied himself or herself on a lyre or other plucked string instrument, perhaps playing the melody in unisson or sounding the "a", "e" or other prominent notes.
adapted from Claude Palisca
