PROSODION. Prosodia (προσόδια scil. ᾄσματα; also called προσοSiakol) were chorals of supplication or thanksgiving, sung to the music of the flute in solemn processions to the temples or altars of the gods. Their character varied somewhat with the god whose sanctuary was visited or to whom offerings were made. Sometimes the festival was in honour of a god whose cult was native; sometimes a festal chorus or fewpia was sent abroad to a famous shrine, and the prosodion was sung when the representatives of the state reached their destination, as in the case of the Messenian embassy to the Delian Apollo (Eumelos). The prosodia were often petitionary (Plato Laws 796 c). The prosodia naturally formed the introductory part of the festival-while the approach was made to the temple or while the sacred offerings were brought to the altar. After the prosodion came a hyporchematic song, and this was followed by the hymn proper. ἐξόδια οι ἀποτρεπτικά seem to have attended the departure from the shrine of the god. Apollo and Artemis claimed most of the prosodia proper, which were particularly cultivated at Delphi and at Delos; but other gods were honoured with processionals, as for example, Dionysos. As the processional song is only a species of hymn, so there are various species of prosodia, e.g. the partheneia and daphnephorika. We hear of prosodia as eiresionai at the Pyanepsia, at the Eleusinia, Thesmophoria, Heraia, Haloa, etc. Sometimes the prosodion was akin to the paian, and we have prosodiac paians, e.g. in Pindar Frag. vi., though according to Proklos this was a misuse of words. παιάν is here the wider, poσódiov the narrower, term. 1 Schol. Hephaist. 134. с If Σ 567 ff. is a prosodion, X 391 is closely akin to a prosodiac paian, perhaps nearer to the prosodion than to the paian. It is noteworthy that Homer does not allude to the ancient form of the simple prosodion. Prosodia and embateria may have been accompanied originally by the music of the lyre. It was the flute, however, that was regarded as the proper instrument for processions whether these were attended by songs or not. In a Delphic inscription (Wescher-Foucart no. 45) an avλnrýs is especially provided for the prosodia; flute players are seen in the frieze of the Parthenon that represents the Panathenaic procession; and a flute player accompanied the boy who carried the laurel bough from Tempe to Delphi. (A vase (no. 1686) in the Berlin Museum represents a procession with lyrists as well as flute players.) The story that Klonas, the aulode, was the 'inventor' of prosodia (and the prosodiac metre) shows merely that there was a close connection in early times between aulodic and this form of melic. Some think that it was Klonas who first employed the flute instead of the lyre to accompany the prosodia. The movements of the chorus were solemn, stately, and in harmony with the contents of their songs and the Dorian mode to which they were sung. Of the metre in the earliest period we have no accurate information-but it is probable that the dactylic hexameter, measured by dipodies, was in common use; and a reminiscence of this early form may be seen in the closing hexameters of the Frogs. When the influence of the epos was on the decline, lyric poetry employed the 'prosodiac' rhythm to increase the liveliness of the movement. Westphal thinks that was the original 1Cf. Athen. 4. 139 E on the Lakonian prosodia at the Hyakinthia; Pollux 4. 64, was sub form, and that ~~ stituted for the dactylic tripody at a time when flute music became prominent-perhaps in the time of Klonas. The anapaestic parodes of the scenic poets are descendants of the old prosodia. Pindar used dactylo-epitrites and logaoedics, and Bacchylides employed the latter metre both alone and mixed with cretics. Eumelos of Korinth was the author of the first prosodion of which we have record. It was intended to be sung at Delos, and this seat of the Apolline cult remained the chief place for the presentation of this form of melic. Next in point of time is Klonas the founder of aulodic. The prosodia of Pindar, in two books, and of Bacchylides were famous. Pronomos of Thebes, the teacher of Alkibiades, is said to have composed a prosodion to be rendered at Delos by the Chalkidians, but unless we suppose that there was no text, it is probable that he merely set to music the words of another.1 His fame rested solely on his ability as a musical virtuoso (he could play the three modes the Dorian, Lydian, and Phrygian-on one set of flutes). The return of Demetrios to Athens (FOLK-SONGS Xxvii.) was hailed with ithyphallic songs and prosodiac choruses, and the song in honour of a god was profaned to suit the degeneracy of the times. At the festival of the Soteria, at Delphi, between 275 and 255 B.C., prosodia were sung that were the compositions of Álexinos, Xenon, and Dexinikos (WescherFoucart Inscr. de Delphes 5. 13). Kleochares of Athens, who probably lived in the third century, was honoured by the Delphians on account of a processional (B.C.H. 18. 71), and Weil thinks the choral in cretics (see APPENDIX) that was sung at Delphi is 1ãoμa avλeîv may refer to a poem set to music, or to the music alone (ψιλὴ αὔλησις). a prosodion. We hear of an Amphikles (B.C.H. 10. 36, 13. 245) at Delos. Two late inscriptions (C. I. Sept. 1760, 1773) record the continuance of prosodia in Boiotia till very late times. The musical games, at least in the late period, were opened by processional songs sung by the whole body of the artists, priests, etc., as they entered the scene of the contest. PAIAN. The paian, which derives its name from the burden in aιav, was one of the most ancient of the Greek lyrics. In its earliest form it is intimately connected with the worship of Apollo, the patron god of music and song, the sender and averter of calamity. In ascribing its introduction to Apollo himself, tradition made the paian as old as the cult of the god. When 1 In like manner the Linos-song, the hymenaios, and possibly the dithyramb received their names from the refrain (púμviov). Taιnwv in Homer, Archil. 76. Dor. Taιáv, Ionic Attic raiv contain a different suffix. παιών is not generic, or παιάν specific (cf. schol. Plato Symp. 177 a: waiŵvas: ¿dàs éπì εὐτυχίᾳ καὶ νίκῃ, παιᾶνας: ὕμνους εἰς ̓Απόλλωνα ἐπὶ καταπαύσει Xoμou). The etymology is unknown. Baunack's ' ἐπ ̓ αἰᾶνα come for healing' is incredible; Fick suggests a connection with ἔμπαιος, 'skilled' in healing. Poßos is himself the 'healer.' It is possible to regard Apollo's victory over the Python as a triumph over pestilence and to see in the paian a prayer for deliverance to the god who has power to heal all distress. Against this, however, is the fact that, despite II 528, where Apollo performs the office of a physician, he is distinct from Пanwv in Homer and Hesiod. Ἰηπαιήων is used of Apollo in Hymn 2. 94, but with reference to the god of Delphi. Possibly the paian was originally a song of triumph which was identified with the prayer to relieve pain or distress when Apollo came to be regarded as the god of medicine (Asklepios was his son) and IIatáv and Пalúv were held to be equivalents. The exclamation in was connected by the ancients with inu: cf. Kallim. 2. 103 in in raiñov, lei Béλos. See on Timoth. viii. Apollo had slain the python, with lyre in hand he led the Cretans to his sanctuary at Delphi (Hymn 2. 336 ff.). οἱ δὲ ῥήσσοντες ἕποντο Κρῆτες πρὸς Πυθὼ καὶ ἰηπαιήον ̓ ἄειδον, Homer narrates (A 472 ff.) how the Achaians before Troy sang the paian to propitiate Apollo after the expiatory sacrifice which cleansed them from pollu tion. The localities in which the paian was first cultivated-in Crete, at Sparta in conjunction with the festivals of the Hyakinthia and Gymnopaidia, at Delphi and in Delos-are all Dorian and closely connected with the cult of Apollo; and the association with the Apolline ritual remained a common feature of the paian throughout the classical age. On occasions of public danger or calamity, and especially when the state was afflicted by plague, the paian was sung in solemn chorus to express the devotion of the people to the god and to implore his succour as αλεξίκακος.1 When the divinity who occasioned the distress stayed the pestilence or the assault of the enemy, paians of thanksgiving were raised in his honour.2 With Apollo, his sister Artemis 3 was associated as a protecting divinity: "EVTI μὲν χρυσαλακάτου τεκέων Λατοῖς ἀοιδαὶ ὥριαι παιανίδες (Pind. Frag. 139). As early as Homer the paian appears as a triumphal 1Cf. Soph. O. T. 5, 186. Vernal paians were supposed to have a remedial effect in cases of madness (Aristox. Frag. 36). Even in the presence of danger the paian might be full of confidence (Aisch. Sept. 268). 2Cf. Theogn. 779, Aristoph. Vesp. 869 ff. 3 Cf. Eur. I. T. 1404, I. A. 1469. |