You may need a drink

After yesterday's discussion about the lyric metre, you may feel like you need a stiff drink. Why not accompany it with an ancient drinking song or two? The scolia (scolion in the singular) were popular drinking and banquet songs, especially in 5th century Athens. Many of them written by the best and most famous poets. They would have been sung in chorus by all present, or by the best singers in succession, accompanied by the lyre. A myrtle branch would be passed around to designate the singers, skipping the bad ones along the way. It is on account of its zig-zag course around the room that the scolia received their name, which is literally "crooked songs."


The subjects varied greatly, and the following two examples honoured the Athenian heroes Harmodius and Aristogeiton, who killed the tyrant Hipparchus at the festival of the goddess Athena. They had a famous statue of them set up in the Agora which is now lost, but thankfully, a very nice Roman copy survives which is now kept in Naples.

In the midst of myrtle branches I shall bear the sword
As Harmodius and Aristogeiton did
When they both killed the tyrant
And made Athens a city where all have equal rights.

In the midst of myrtle branches I shall bear the sword
As Harmodius and Aristogeiton did
When at the festival of Athena
They both killed the man Hipparchus, a tyrant.

1. κλαδι: dative sg. of το κλαδος, young shoots broken off and tied into a bundle, which were presented by suppliants to a god.
3. κτανετην: 3 pers. dual aorist act. ind. of –εκτανον with no augment, an alternative stem to απεκτεινα found in poetry.
8. εκαινετην: 3 pers. dual aorist act. ind. of καινω, a poetic variant of –κτεινω.

And here is the metre for both songs.

ˉ × ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˉ
ˉ × ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˉ
˘ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ
ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ