Chiron Cane

I'd like to meet:

ANCIENT MUSIC

Although I intend to frequently change the background audio track on this page it is likely that I will continue to return to the music of the group Daemonia Nymphe because they have managed to create a compelling reconstruction of early Greek music which has coherence and integrity using faithful reproductions of the original instruments.

You can hear more of their tracks on their MySpace page.

• Daemonia Nymphe

There are a number of historic renditions of actual Greek music available on CD.

The best of these in my opinion is Musique de la Grece Antique (Atrium Musicae de Madrid, Gregorio Paniagua).

When this was released as an album in came with an incredible booklet containing all of the original lyrics, textual references and detailed information about the instruments.

Sadly, "progress" has meant that the CD version was more expensive and contained none of this invaluable information.

I can also recommend a track named Iphigeneia performed by a group called Ruby Muse

This is a retelling of the story of Iphigeneia, the daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon who was sacrificed to awaken the winds and allow the Greek fleet to sail to Troy.

In some versions of the myth, the Goddess Artemis intervenes at the very last moment and replaces her with a milk white doe and carries Iphigeneia her safely over the Mediterranean Sea to the Island of Aulis where she becomes Her priestess.

Ruby Muse manages to awaken her myth into life with a lyric beauty and a tenderness that verges on the truly magical.

• Ruby Muse

No discussion of reconstruction of ancient Greece, Magna Graecia and Europe music would be complete without reference to the genius of Castus Rabensang and Corvus Corax.

Their music captures the Dionysian ecstasies of the Bronze Age, the raw energy of the Classic Greek-inspired Latin carmina and the lyric majesty and enchantment of medieval Europe and the early Renaissance.

They are without a doubt travellers through time and their musical reconstructions keep faith with the spirit of place.

Here are their music pages to explore:

• Corvus Corax
• Castus Rabensang
• Cantus Buranus

For an instrumental version of the "Hymn to the Muse" by 2nd Century Greek lyric poet, Mesomedes of Crete, you can visit the page of the musical group known as Pantheon Legio Musica.

• Pantheon Legio Musica

Parts of this are excellent but other sections lack the expected pauses between musical phrases and come off as a bit clumsy..

My favourite is the vocal version by the Atrium Musicae de Madrid. It is not only incredibly haunting but in my opinion is the most convincing restoration of the original. At one time the works of Mesomedes were the only surviving written music from the ancient world.

• Christian Persecutions against the Hellenes
SOURCE: Andromeda's blog - a must read.

Besides, the philosopher has notions of good and evil
unlike those of other men.

For they are courageous because they are afraid of greater dangers,
and temperate because they desire greater pleasures.

But he disdains this balancing of pleasures and pains,
which is the exchange of commerce and not of virtue.

All the virtues, including wisdom,
are regarded by him only as purifications of the soul.

And this was the meaning of the founders of the mysteries when they said,

‘ Many carry the thyrsus but few are Bacchae ’

(Multi thyrsigeri, pauci Bacchi)

from Plato, Phaedo (387-347 BC)

Music:

The Dance of Zalongo

The fish cannot live
on the land
Nor the flower
on the sand
And the women of Souli
Cannot live without
freedom

So, goodbye springs,
Valleys, mountains
and hills
Goodbye springs
And you, women of Souli

The women of Souli
Have not only learnt
how to survive
They also know
how to die
Not to tolerate slavery

So, goodbye springs,
Valleys, mountains
and hills
Goodbye springs
And you, women of Souli

Dance of Zalongo

Television:

Wikipedia Links

Epirus • Dodona
• Acheron
• Nicopolis
• Necromanteion
• Acherusia
• Souli
Epirote Deities • Despoina
• Dione
History of Epirus • Pyrrhus of Epirus
• Alexander II of Epirus
• Cynane : half-sister of Alexander
• Olympias
• Souliotes
• Dance of Zalongo
• Klephts
Epirote Colonies • Magna Graecia
• Griko
• Indo-Greek
• Ashoka Period
• Graeco-Buddhism
• Yona
• Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
• Graeco-Buddhist Art
Written Greek • The Greek alphabet
• Oxyrhynchus
• Sibylline Books
• Cumaean alphabet
Greece and Libya • Siwa Oasis
• Lake Tritonis
Shrines • Oracle of Trophonius
Minoan Crete • Anemospilia
Hellenic Culture • Hellenism
• Hellenismos
Myth & Ritual School • Jane Ellen Harrison
• Karl Kerenyi
• Walter Burkert
• A.B. Cook
• Gilbert Murray
The Phantis Wiki • Main Page
• Souli
Audio Links • Greek History lectures
Books • Eleni
• A Place for Us
by Nicholas Gage

Books: