Skolion

Etymology

Although Greek folk etymology connects skolion with δύσκολος 'difficult', the likeliest connection is with σκέλος 'bent limb, part' as joined verse or repartee. This use is comparable to Japanese renga 'linked verse'.

Background

Skolia are often referred to as 'banquet songs', 'convivial songs", or 'drinking songs'. The term also refers to poetry composed in the same form. In later use, the form was used in a more stately manner for chorus poetry in praise of the gods or heroes.

Terpander is said to have been the inventor of this poetic form, shows in what high esteem skolia were held by the Greeks.

The Epitaph of Seikilos, dated to the first century AD, found with the original music in the ancient Greek notation, is the oldest complete example of ancient Greek music. Although often referred to as a skolion, its context as a short tombstone inscription scarcely suggests such a characterisation. It is, rather, an epigram. The confusion about this piece in modern scholarship is due to the association made by the scholiast to Plato's Gorgias 451e between the epigram and the skolion.

Other uses

• At Balliol College, Oxford, the "Skoliasts" are the undergraduate Classics society.

Sources

• Richard Reitzenstein, Epigramm und Skolion, Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Alexandrinischen Dichtung. Giessen (1893); Olms, Hildesheim (1970).
• Herbert Weir Smyth, Greek Melic Poets, (1900); New York, Biblo and Tannen (1963)
• Gregory Jones, "Non-Elite Origins of the Attic Skolia and the Birth of Democracy", Abstracts of Papers for the Annual Meeting, American Philological Association (APA) (2005)
• Elena Fabbro, Carmina Convivalia Attica, Rome 1995

References

1. {{cite EB1911
2. Christian Werner. (2005-05-18). "review of Derek Collins". Bryn Mawr Classical Review.
3. D. S. Robertson. (June 1961). "Pindar's Skolia - B. A. Van Groningen: Pindare au Banquet. Les fragments des scolies édités avec un commentaire critique et explicatif. Pp. 132. Leiden: Sijthoff. 1960. Cloth, fl. 16". The Classical Review.
4. {{YouTube. IxXHLXkdO8c&watch_response. The Song of Seikilos
5. (22 April 2006). "Skolion of Seikilos". The Session.
6. Thomas Mathiesen. (1999). "Apollo's Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages". University of Nebraska Press.
7. "Societies | Balliol JCR".