Listed 6 sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "AGII DEKA Village HERAKLIO" .
GORTYS (Ancient city) HERAKLIO
The mercenaries from Greece amounting to five thousand were led by Hippolochus of Thessaly. Antiochus had also fifteen hundred Cretans who came with Eurylochus, and a thousand Neo-Cretans commanded by Zelys of Gortyna; with whom were five hundred javelin-men of Lydia
Afraid of the Gortynians, because they had narrowly escaped losing their city in the previous year by an attack led by Nothocrates, the Cydonians sent envoys to Eumenes demanding his assistance in virtue of their alliance with him. The king selected Leon and some soldiers, and sent them in haste to Crete; and on their arrival the Cydonians delivered the keys of their city to Leon, and put the town entirely in his hands. . . .
Thales or Thaletas, the celebrated musician and lyric poet. The two forms of the
name are mere varieties of the same word: but Thales seems to be the more genuine
ancient form; for it not only has the authority of Aristotle, Strabo, and Plutarch,
but it is also used by Pausanias (i. 14. Β§ 4) in quoting the verses composed
in honour of the musician by his contemporary Polymnestns. Nevertheless, it is
more convenient to follow the prevailing custom among modern writers, and call
him Thaletas.
The position of Thaletas is one of the most interesting, and at the
same time most difficult points, in that most interesting and difficult subject,
the early history of Greek music and lyric poetry. The most certain fact known
of him is, fortunately, that which is also the most important; namely, that he
introduced from Crete into
Sparta certain principles or elements of music and rhythm, which did not exist
in Terpander's system, and thereby founded the second of the musical schools which
flourished at Sparta (Plut. de Mus. 9, p. 1135, b. ).
He was a native of Crete,
and, according to the best writers, of the city of Gortyna. (Polymnestus, ap.
Paus. l. c. ; Plut. de Mus. l. c.) Suidas has preserved other traditions, which
assigned him to Cnossus or
to Elyrus (Suid. s. v., for
the articles Thaletas Kres and Thaletas Knossios refer without doubt to the same
individual, and in the former article the words e Illurios ought to be Elurios
: comp. Meursius, Cret. i. 9; KΌster, ad loc. ; MΌller, Hist. Lit. of Greece,
vol. i. p. 159).
In compliance, according to tradition, with an invitation which the
Spartans sent to him in obedience to an oracle, he removed to Sparta,
where, by the sacred character of his paeans, and the humanizing influence of
his music, he appeased the wrath of Apollo, who had visited the city with a plague,
and composed the factions of the citizens, who were at enmity with each other
(Paus. l. c. ; Plut. Lycurg. 4 ; Ephorus, ap. Strab. x. pp. 480, 482; Sext. Empir.
adv. Rhet. ii. p. 292, Fabric. ; Aelian. V. H. xii. 50.). At Sparta
he became the head of a new school (katastasis) of music, which appears never
afterwards to have been supplanted, and the influence of which was maintained
also by Xenodamus of Cythera,
Xenocritus of Locris, Polymnestus
of Colophon, and Sacadas
of Argos (Plut. de Mus. l.
c.). These matters will be examined more fully presently; but the brief outline
just given is necessary for the understanding of the chronological investigation
which follows.
In studying the early history of Greek lyric poetry, nothing would
be more desirable, if it were possible, than to fix the precise dates of the musicians
and poets who contributed to its development ; that so we might trace the steps
of its progress, in relation to the time they occupied, the social state of the
people amongst whom they were made, and the order in which they followed from
one another. It must, however, be confessed that, after all the labour which scholars
have bestowed on the subject, there is an uncertainty, generally to the extent
of half a century, and in some cases more, respecting the dates of the earliest
poets, while the more important point of their relative order of succession and
their distance from each other in time is beset with great difficulties. These
remarks apply most strongly to Thaletas, the various dates assigned to whom, by
ancient and modern writers, range over a period from before the time of Homer
down to the year B. C. 620.
How uncertain, and even fabulous, were the traditions followed by
the generality of the ancient writers respecting the date of Thaletas,
is manifest from the statements of Suidas, that he lived before the time of Homer,
of Demetrius Magnes (ap. Diog. i. 38), that he was " very ancient, about the time
of Hesiod and Homer and Lycurgus," and of the many other writers, who make him
contemporary with Lycurgus, and even an elder contemporary. In nearly all the
accounts, above referred to, of the removal of Thaletas to Sparta,
he is said to have gone thither at the invitation of Lycurgus, who used his influence
to prepare the minds of the people for his own laws ; while some even speak of
him as if he were a legislator, from whom Lycurgus derived some of his laws (Sext.
Empir. l. c. ; Arist. Pol. ii. 9. Β§ 5, ii. 12.). These accounts, which Aristotle
condemns as anachronisms, can easily be explained. The influence of music upon
character and manners was in the opinion of the ancients so great, that it was
quite natural to speak of Terpander and Thaletas as fellow-workers with the great
legislator of the Spartans in forming the character of the people; and then such
statements were interpreted by later writers in a chronological sense; for similar
traditions are recorded of Terpander as well as of Thaletas. Moreover, in the
case of Thaletas, the supposed connection with Lycurgus would assume a more probable
appearance on account of his coming from Crete,
from whence also Lycurgus was supposed to have derived so many of his institutions;
and this is, in fact, the specific form which the tradition assumed (Ephor. ap.
Strab. x. p. 482; Plut. Lycurg. 4), namely, that Lycurgus, arriving at Crete
in the course of his travels, there met with Thaletas, who was one of the men
renowned in the island for wisdom and political abilities (hena ton nomizomenon
ekei sophon kai politikon), and who, while professing to be a lyric poet, used
his art as a pretext, but in fact devoted himself to political science in the
same way as the ablest of legislators (poieten men dokounta lupikon melon kai
proschema ten technen tauten pepoiemenon, erloi de haper hoi kratistoi ton nomotheton
diaprattomenon). Add to this the great probability that later writers mistook
the sense of the word nomoi in the ancient accounts of Thaletas; and his association
with Lycurgus is explained. It is not worth while to discuss the statement of
Jerome (Chron. s. a. 1266, B. C. 750), who says that Thales of Miletus
(probably meaning Thales of Crete,
for the philosopher's age is well known) lived in the reign of Romulus. Perhaps
this may only be another form of the tradition which made him contemporary with
Lycurgus.
The strictly historical evidence respecting the date of Thaletas is
contained in three testimonies. First, the statement of Glaucus, one of the highest
authorities on the subject, that he was later than Archilochus (Plut. de Mus.
10, p. 1134, d. e.). Secondly, the fact recorded by Pausanias (i. 14. Β§ 4), that
Polymnestus composed verses in his praise for the Lacedaemonians, whence it is
probable that he was an elder contemporary of Polymnestus, and therefore older
than Alcman, by whom Polymnestus was mentioned (Plut. de Mus. 5, p. 1133, a.).
Thirdly, in his account of the second school or system (katastasis) of music at
Sparta, Plutarch tells us
(de Mus. 9, p. 1134, c.) that the first system was established by Terpander; but
of the second the following had the best claim to be considered as the leaders
(malista aitian echousin hegemones genesthai), Thaletas, Xenodamus, Xenocritus,
Polymnestus, and Sacadas; and that to them was ascribed the origin of the Gymnopaedia
in Lacedaemon, of the Apodeixeis
in Arcadia, and of the Endymatia
in Argos. This important
testimony is very probably derived from the work of Glaucus. Lastly, Plutarch
(de Mus. 10, p. 1134, e.) mentions a vague tradition, which is on the face of
it improbable, and which is quite unworthy to be placed by the side of the other
three, that Thaletas derived the rhythm called Maron and the Cretic rhythm from
the music of the Phrygian
flute-player Olympus (ek gar tes Olumpou auleseos Thaletan phasin exeirgasthai
tauta: the context shows that Plutarch here deserts his guide, Glaucus, and sets
up against him the traditions of other writers, we know not whom).
Now, from these testimonies we obtain the results, that Thaletas was
younger than Archilochus and Terpander, but older than Polymnestus and Alcman,
that he was the first of the poets of the second Spartan school of music, by whose
influence the great Dorian festivals which have been mentioned were either established,
or, what is the more probable meaning, were systematically arranged in respect
of the choruses which were performed at them.
These conditions would all be satisfied by supposing that Thaletas
began to flourish early in the seventh century B. C., provided that we accept
the argument for an earlier date of Terpander than that usually assigned to him.
To escape from the difficulty as Clinton does (F. H. vol. i. s. a. 644), by making
Terpander later than Thaletas, is altogether inadmissible; for, if we reject Plutarch's
account of the two musical schools at Sparta,
the first founded by Terpander, and the second by Thaletas, the whole matter is
thrown into hopeless confusion. Such a mistake, made by so eminent a chronologer,
through following implicitly Eusebius and the Parian
marble, is an excellent example of the danger of trusting to the positive statements
of the chronographers in opposition to a connected chain of inference from more
detailed testimonies. On the other hand, MΌller, while pointing out Clinton's
error, appears to us to place Thaletas much too low, in consequence of accepting
the tradition recorded by Plutarch respecting Olympus, whom also he places later
than Terpander (Hist. Lit. vol. i. pp. 158, 159). The fact is that we have no
sufficient data for the time of Olympus; and even if we had, the tradition recorded
by Plutarch is much too doubtful to be set up against the evidence derived from
the relations of Thaletas to Archilochus and Alcman. When MΌller says that Clinton
" does not allow sufficient weight to the far more artificial character of the
music and rhythms of Thaletas " (i. e. than those of Terpander), he seems to imply
that a long time must necessarily have intervened between the two. Not only is
there no ground for this idea, but it is opposed to analogy. There is no ground
for it; for it is clear from all accounts that the second system of music was
not gradually developed out of the first, by successive improvements, but was
formed by the addition of new elements derived from other quarters, of which the
first and chief were those introduced by Thaletas from Crete.
It is also opposed to analogy, which teaches us that the period of most rapid
improvement in any art is that in which it is first brought under the dominion
of definite laws, by some great genius, whose first efforts are the signal for
the appearance of a host of rivals, imitators, and pupils. Moreover, if there
be any truth in the tradition, it would seem probable that Terpander and Thaletas
were led to Sparta by very
similar causes at no very distant period; and it seems most improbable that, after
music had attained the degree of developement to which Terpander brought it at
Sparta, the important additional
elements, which existed in the Cretan system, should not have been introduced
for a period of forty years, which is the interval placed by MΌller, between Terpander
and Thaletas. MΌller's mode of computing backwards the date of Thaletas from that
of Sacadas (B. C. 590) is altogether arbitrary; but if such a method he allowable
at all, surely thirty years is far too short a time to assign as the period during
which the second school of Spartan music chiefly flourished. On the whole, decidedly
as Clinton is wrong as to Terpander, he is probably near the mark in fixing the
period of Thaletas at B. C. 690--660 ; though it might be better to say that he
deems to have flourished about B. C. 670 or 660, and how much before or after
those dates cannot be determined. It appears not unlikely that he was already
distinguished in Crete, while
Terpander flourished at Sparta.
The improvement effected in music by Thaletas appears to have consisted
in the introduction into Sparta
of that species of music and poetry which was associated with the religious rites
of his native country; in which the calm and solemn worship of Apollo prevailed
side by side with the more animated songs and dances of the Curetes, which resembled
the Phrygian worship of the
Magna Mater (MΌller, p. 160). His chief compositions were paeans and hyporchemes,
which belonged respectively to these two kinds of worship. In connection with
the paean he introduced the rhythm of the Cretic foot, with its resolutions in
the Paeons; and the Pyrrhic dance, with its several variations of rhythm, is also
ascribed to him. He seems to have used both the lyre and the flute (See MΌller,
pp. 160, 161). Plutarch and other writers speak of him as a lyric poct, and Suidas
mentions, as his works, mele and poiemata tina muthika, and it is pretty certain
that the musical compositions of his age and school were often combined with suitable
original poems, though sometimes, as we are expressly told of many of the nomes
of Terpander, they were adapted to the verses of Homer and others of the older
poets. Be this as it may, we have now no remains of the poetry of Thaletas. (Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vol. i. pp. 295--297; MΌller, Hist. of the Lit. of Anc. Greece, vol.
i. pp. 159--161; Ulrici, Gesch. d. Hellen. Dichtkunst, vol. ii. pp. 212, foll.,
a very valuable account of Thaletas; Bernhardy, Geschichte der Griech. Lit. vol.
i. pp. 267, 270, vol. ii. pp. 420, 421, 427.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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