The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-07-06
The ELEGANT
GRECIAN DEIFICATION
Apollo's Presidency Over the
Concord of Sweet
Sounds.
MUSIC AMONG GREEKS,
Morris Steinert's Sixth Ar
ticle on the History
of Music.
Article VI.

religion and Dedication. Among the
numerous Pagan divinities there were
none to whose protection the polite
arts were so Indebted as to the god
Apollo. Identifying Apollo with the
Sun, mankind, from the harmonious
motions of his attending planets, in
ferred his immediate power and presi-
dency over "the concord Of sweet
sounds"
The power to captivate the ear and,
through the ear, to excite the affec-
tions and the passions was the most
distinguishing of the numerous at
tributes Of this god, Hence he is
never represented without his Tyre in
hand-that Tyre whose transporting
sounds conquered the pipe Of Pan and
the flute of Marsyas. Apollo gave the
first example of performing upon the
Tyre with a method and by combining
with 1t the sounds OF his voice, made
it the constant companion of poetry.
AS poetry and music were In constant
coalescence SO was philosophy and
poetry All the precepts Of wisdom
were delivered in verse Every pro-
phecy and every speculative dogma
was sung. Measured language and
beautiful figures adorned and height
ened by the charms Of musical sound,
formed an enchantment that could not
be resisted. We learn from oenomoua
that even the shades of Opollo were
unsteady delivered,
Since Apollo prophesed in music and
gave in melody the stern DEGREES OF
Fate, we are obliged to conclude that
al his less imposing dicta were SUNG
and that, in fact, his current speech
was music, that, as the orb Of which
he Is the living emblem dispenses light
and warmth to the circumvolving
planets, so his inspiring breath in
stilled the gift Of harmony into the
souls of the inferior deities, especially
to the Muses., Since, of all the Pagan
divinities, none are so Immediately al
lied to the God Of Song as those har-
monious mortals; none are knowr
whose powers claim so direct an ATTN.
lty with the attributes by which thai
deity is most distinguished as the In
fiuence of those celebrated female mu.
sicians, those sorl-enchantin and In.
dispensable patronesses of genius and
of art. Some arcient writer's have as
serted that, originally, the Muses. were
only three in number but following
the poetical fabulists, Homer and He
siod, most mythologists have admitted
nine. They say that the citizens Of
Sicyon, having directed three dis.
tinguished sculptors to make each o.
them statues of the three origina
muses., they were all so perfectly ex.
ecuted that they knew not which tt
prefer and therefore erected them all
and that the above authors did nj
more than furnish their applications
In Hesiod's Theogony we find then
mentioned and also In an epigram o
Callimachus, which not only enumer
ates the nine names in so many line
but describes their several powers ant
offices.
"CallIope the deeds Of heroes sung,
The choral Tyre by Clio first wa
| strung,
Euterpe the full tragic chorus found.
Melpomene taught lutes their soothing
sound,
Terpsichore the flutes soft power dis
play'd
BY Erato the pious hymn was made,
Polymnia to the dance her care applied
Urania wise, the starry course de
serted,
And gay Thalla's glass was life's an,
manners guide"
Other authors, however, assign t
these sacred chorists, provinces no
exactly agreeing with the above
Among the pictures found In the ruin
OF Herculaneum are portraits o
Apollo and the Muses. in which the go
is seated on a throne, with a cithar
Of eleven strings in his left hand /
the character of Musagetes or conduc
tor of the Muses.. Clio is Representa-
as the inventress of history. TIL
picture of Uterpe is obliterated but tn
poets generally consider the flute a
her symbol. Thalia is made the au
thoress of comedy and Melpomene G
tragedy. Terpsichore presides over tn
Tyre and Erato appropriates the psalt
cry or long Tyre of nine strings, Pc
lymnia is exhibited as a fabulist, IRA
MIA as the patroness Of astronomy an
Calliope as the inspiring projectress @
poetry.
Though authors do not concur In re
gard of the principal powers and EN-
Payments of the Muses., they all anci
emit and modern, agree that every on
of them excels in song Homer, In hi
hymn to Apollo, tells US that:
By turns the Nine delight to sing,
and in Milton the English Homer's, '',
Penseroso," we read
Hear the Muses. in a ring,
Round about Jove's altar sing"
The Muses. had their terrestrial sec
ondaries, While they were delightin
the ears of the gods, the Sirens wer
i charmers of the mortal auditors. TIL
number of these celebrated songstress
es, inhabitants of the coast of Sicil,
was three. Their names were Pal
thenope, Lygea and Leucosia. The
have been represented under MOI
than one form. BY some ancient al
lists they are exhibited as half-won
en- and half-flsh; by others as hall
women and half-birds. Persuaded b
Juno, they emulated the conf1denC
and temerity Of Pan, Marsyas and S
lenus by vying with heavenly ski
They challenged the MUSES. and, val
pushed, saw their golden feather
plucked from their wings and formt
into crowns for the establishment
the heads of their sacred adtersarie
So seductive were the strains Of II
Sirens that the powers of Orphe,
were scarcely sufficient to save Il
Argonauts by diverting their attentiC