Ancient Music: “Time Demands an End”

I often like to post re-creations of ancient music. Supposedly, the “Song of Seikilos” is the oldest that has music and lyrics. It is Greek, dating from around 100 CE.

The words can be translated as,

While you live, shine
have no grief at all
life exists only for a short while
and time demands an end.

Blogger Rod Dreher says it reminds him of a song by Beck, which contains a vague reference to “pagans”: “Beck Sings of Seikolos.”

And a commenter says wait, that ancient tune is on the sound track of Sid Meier’s game Civilization 5.

I played earlier versions of Civilization (and its offshoot Colonization, a/k/a The Barbarous Years).

But I just wanted to stay in the Bronze Age, sending out caravans, not progress to railroads and rocket ships.

Time demands an end.

One thought on “Ancient Music: “Time Demands an End”

  1. You know, I thought I recognized that…

    In either 2009 or 2010 (I can’t remember which exactly), in the “Yes They Are! Meeting and Greeting the Queerest of Gods” ritual at PantheaCon, a version of that song (with the tune, but in English rather than Greek) was used as a processional hymn for the ritual. I was in the ritual both of those years, but we (as people portraying various Deities) didn’t learn the processional, we were just focusing on our own parts, so I heard it a few times as they were all coming in, but didn’t ever learn it myself.

    Interesting, in any case! Thanks for sharing that!

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