Seikilos stele

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The Seikilos stele in the National Museum of Denmark
Details of the stele
Seikilos inscription with ancient Greek music notation
The melody of the Seikilos epitaph has been transformed into today's notation

The Seikilos stele is an ancient Greek gravestone from Tralles ( Asia Minor ), on which the preliminary form of a musical notation was found. The song, chiseled in an ancient notation with Greek text, was hammered into the stone at the earliest in Hadrianic times (117-138 AD) and at the latest at the beginning of the 3rd century AD. Only at this time is there a volute-shaped letter Omega in the inscriptions of Tralleis , which hovers over a continuous cross hatch. It is therefore one of the oldest completely preserved pieces of music. The diatonic piece is in the iastic-ionic key, without fitting seamlessly into the systematics of ancient Greek music theory .

The stele was discovered and published in 1883 by Sir William Mitchell Ramsay near Aydın . However, Ramsay did not recognize that there was a form of musical notation and therefore noted: " I do not understand the meaning of the small letters placed above the lines of the second part ." This credit went to Otto Crusius . After an eventful history, the stele is now in the Danish National Museum (inventory number 14897).

Greek text

Εἰκὼν ἡ λίθος
εἰμί τίθησί με
Σεικιλος ἔνθα
μνήμης ἀθανάτου
σῆμα πολυχρόνιον.

Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ
λυποῦ · πρὸς ὀλί-
γον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν.
τὸ τέλος ὁ χρό-
νος ἀπαιτεῖ.

Transcription (without accents)

Eikōn hē lithos
eimi; tithēsi me
Seikilos entha
mnēmēs athanatou
sēma polychronion.

Hoson zēs, phainou
mēden holōs sy
lypou; pros oligon
esti to zēn.
to telos ho chronos
apaitei.

A possible translation

I am a picture
in stone; Seikilos placed
me here,
in eternal memory,
as a timeless symbol.

As long as you live, also appear.
Sorry about nothing
too much. There is a short period of
time to live.
The end brings
time by itself.


Audio file / audio sample Audio sample (pronunciation of Koine Greek) ? / i

literature

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. Meier 2017, p. 103. 108 with note 41.
  2. Ramsay 1883, p. 278.