page_title: Music of ancient Greece
section_title: Wind
hierarchical_section_title: Music of ancient Greece / Greek musical instruments / Wind
caption_attribution_description: English: Woman holding a mirror and a tambourine facing a winged genie with a ribbon and a branch with leaves. Red-figure oinochoe, ca. 320 BC. From Magnia Graecia. Français&#160;: Femme tenant un miroir et un tambourin, face à un génie ailé tenant une bandelette et une branche feuillue. Œnochoé à figures rouges, vers 320 av. J.-C. Provenance&#160;: Grance Grèce.
context_page_description: The music of ancient Greece was almost universally present in ancient Greek society, from marriages, funerals, and religious ceremonies to theatre, folk music, and the ballad-like reciting of epic poetry. It thus played an integral role in the lives of ancient Greeks. There are significant fragments of actual Greek musical notation as well as many literary references to ancient Greek music, such that some things can be known—or reasonably surmised—about what the music sounded like, the general role of music in society, the economics of music, the importance of a professional caste of musicians, etc. Even archaeological remains reveal an abundance of depictions on ceramics, for example, of music being performed.
  The word music comes from the Muses, the daughters of Zeus and patron goddesses of creative and intellectual endeavours.
  Concerning the origin of music and musical instruments: the history of music in ancient Greece is so closely interwoven with Greek mythology and legend that it is often difficult to surmise what is historically true and what is myth.
context_section_description: Aulos
  Usually double, consisting of two double-reed (like an oboe) pipes, not joined but generally played with a mouth-band to hold both pipes steadily between the player's lips. Modern reconstructions indicate that they produced a low, clarinet-like sound. There is some confusion about the exact nature of the instrument; alternate descriptions indicate single-reeds instead of double reeds. It was associated with the cult of Dionysus.
  Syrinx or Pan pipes
  (Greek συριγξ, syrinx) is also known as pan-flute is an ancient musical instrument based on the principle of the stopped pipe, consisting of a series of such pipes of gradually increasing length, tuned (by cutting) to a desired scale. Sound is produced by blowing across the top of the open pipe (like blowing across a bottle top).
  Hydraulis
  A keyboard instrument, the forerunner of the modern pipe organ. As the name indicates, the instrument used water to supply a constant flow of pressure to the pipes. Two detailed descriptions have survived: that of Vitruvius and Heron of Alexandria. These descriptions deal primarily with the keyboard mechanism and with the apparatus that supplied the instrument with air.
  Salpinx
  A brass trumpet used for military calls, and even contested in the Olympics. A number of sources mention this metal instrument with a bone mouthpiece.
caption: Woman holding a tympanum with her right hand. red-figure oinochoe, c. 320 BC, from Magna Graecia.[d]
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