{"id":8327,"date":"2016-11-07T19:19:46","date_gmt":"2016-11-08T02:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8327"},"modified":"2016-11-08T08:32:28","modified_gmt":"2016-11-08T15:32:28","slug":"8327","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8327","title":{"rendered":"Ancient Music: &#8220;Time Demands an End&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xERitvFYpAk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I often like to post re-creations of <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?s=music\">ancient music<\/a>. Supposedly, the &#8220;Song of Seikilos&#8221; is the oldest that has music <em>and <\/em>lyrics. It is Greek, dating from around 100 CE.<\/p>\n<p>The words can be translated as,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>While you live, shine<br \/>\nhave no grief at all<br \/>\nlife exists only for a short while<br \/>\nand time demands an end.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Blogger Rod Dreher says it reminds him of a song by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Beck\">Beck<\/a>, which contains a vague reference to &#8220;pagans&#8221;: &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/dreher\/beck-sings-of-seikilos\/#post-comments\">Beck Sings of Seikolos<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And a commenter says wait, that ancient tune is on the sound track of Sid Meier&#8217;s game <em>Civilization 5<\/em>.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3kpVrmRkPWk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I played earlier versions of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Civilization_(series)\">Civilization<\/a><\/em> (and its offshoot <em><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sid_Meier%27s_Colonization\">Colonization<\/a><\/em>, a\/k\/a <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0375703462\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0375703462&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=soutrocknatub-20&amp;linkId=6e4dbb9a7cd26b071959f8238f885eb5\" target=\"_blank\">The Barbarous Years<\/a><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0375703462\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0375703462&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=soutrocknatub-20&amp;linkId=6e4dbb9a7cd26b071959f8238f885eb5\" target=\"_blank\">).<\/a><\/p>\n<p>But I just wanted to stay in the Bronze Age, sending out caravans, not progress to railroads and rocket ships.<\/p>\n<p><em>Time demands an end.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I often like to post re-creations of ancient music. Supposedly, the &#8220;Song of Seikilos&#8221; 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[33,34],"class_list":["post-8327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-greece","tag-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6xQTg-8327","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5467,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5467","url_meta":{"origin":8327,"position":0},"title":"Ancient Roman Music (Conjectured, Imagined)","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The trouble with most of the \"early music\" groups that I have heard is that they take stuff originally played by drunken peasants (setting aside Christian church music) and make it sound like it is played by anorexic graduate students. In this case, however, no one knows what ancient Roman\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"music\"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=music"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6445,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6445","url_meta":{"origin":8327,"position":1},"title":"Apollo and the Whammy Bar","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Andy Letcher links to a video reconstructing the ancient Greek kithara, a surprising complex cousin of the common lyre, associated with the god Apollo. Whoever invented the 'whammy bar', the device which gives this ancient lyre its characteristic vibrato, must have been divinely inspired, as must have Michalis Georgiou, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Greece\"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=greece"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7692,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7692","url_meta":{"origin":8327,"position":2},"title":"Singing about &#8220;The&#8221; Flood, in the Original Sumerian","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"For the back story on the video, go here: \"\u2018The Flood\u2019, A Haunting New Album Bringing Ancient Sumerian and Babylonian Language and Music Back to Life\" Not all attempts to re-create old music work well. Some are of interest only to scholars. This one works, I think \u2014 see if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Babylon\"","block_context":{"text":"Babylon","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=babylon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1300,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1300","url_meta":{"origin":8327,"position":3},"title":"Are Epiphany Dreams Found only in the Past?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Bryn Mawr Classical Review's book-review feed recently served up a review of William V. Harris's Dreams and Experience in Classical Antiquity The reviewer writes, Some combination of [cultural expectations, generic demands, and the imperatives of performance and publication.], Harris argues ...\u00a0 accounts for the relative frequency in antiquity of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"dreams\"","block_context":{"text":"dreams","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=dreams"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0674032977","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8604,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8604","url_meta":{"origin":8327,"position":4},"title":"No &#8220;Neos&#8221; Here, We&#8217;re &#8220;Ethnic&#8221;","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A letter from one of the leading Hellenic Pagan groups to the government of Lithuania supports a request by the Lithuanian Romuva for state recognition. Just as the Hellenic Ethnic Religion, Romuva is by no means a \u201cneo-pagan movement\u201d or a \u201cnew religious movement\u201d. It belongs to the category of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Greece\"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=greece"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Romuva_flag-200x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":815,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=815","url_meta":{"origin":8327,"position":5},"title":"Pagans Want Some Bones Back","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Borrowing the rhetorical tools developed in North America, British Pagans are becoming increasingly vocal on the issue of \"ancestral remains.\"British pagan groups are increasingly asking for human remains and grave goods from pre-Christian burials to be returned to them as well. The presence of what they see as their ancestors\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8327"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8332,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8327\/revisions\/8332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}