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Plato, Aristotle, and Women Musicians
Author(s): Roger HarmonSource: Music & Letters, Vol. 86, No. 3 (Aug., 2005), pp. 351-356Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3526606Accessed: 13-11-2015 13:57 UTC
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7/23/2019 Plato, Aristotle, And Women Musicians
2/7
Music&
Letters,
ol.
86
No.
3,
?
The
Author
2005).
Published
y
Oxford
University
ress.
All
rights
eserved.
doi:10.
1093/ml/gci068,
available
nlineat
www.ml.oupjournals.org
PLATO, ARISTOTLE,
AND
WOMEN
MUSICIANS
BY ROGER
HARMON
READERSOF
JUDITH
TICK'S informative and
interesting
New
Grove
II
article
'Women
in
Music: I.
Historiography;
II. Western classical traditions
in
Europe
and the
USA'
will note
in
subsection
II.1,
'Antiquity
to 500
CE',
the
following
statement:
'Both
Plato
(in Protagoras)
nd Aristotle
(in
the
Politics)
differentiated
respectable
domestic
female
musicians from
entertainer-musicians.'1 As
it
happens,
Plato and Aristotle did
not differentiate respectable domestic female musicians from entertainer-musicians,
nor do Aristotle's
remarks occur
in
the Politics. The
purpose
of this article
is to set the
record
straight
on Plato and
Aristotle,
trace the
sequence
of citations
leading
to the
above
statement,
and
reflect
on an
issue
raised
by
recent
discussions
of these ancient
texts.
In
1977
Sarah B.
Pomeroy published
the
influential
essay
'Technikai
kai Mousikai:
The Education
of Women
in
the Fourth
Century
and
in
the Hellenistic
Period'. After a
general
introduction,
she
surveys
the achievements
of women
in
the fields of
painting,
music,
poetry,
philosophy,
medicine,
and
scholarship.
As
an
example
of a
woman who
'had learned to play the harp and kithara,... [the] knowledge [of which]
provided...
the
possibility
of a
profession',
Pomeroy
mentions
a
certain
Polygnota:
In
186 B.C.
[recte
6],
for
example, Polygnota,
daughter
of
Socrates,
a
Theban,
was
given many
rewards,
ncluding
the sum of 500
drachmas,
for
recitations
at
Delphi.
She must have been
a
respectable
artist,
not
a
harp-girl
of the sort mentioned
by
Plato
in the
Protagoras
nd
found
often
in
New
Comedy...
An
endnote
appended
to the word
'Protagoras'
reads: '347D. The
harp-girls
men-
tioned
in
the same context
as
flute-girls
by
Arist. Ath.
pol.
50.2,
and
Men.
319.4
are
also not
respectable
women.'3
'Respectability'
is the leitmotif of the introduction to
Pomeroy's
article;
on the first
page
alone the words
'respectable'
and
'respectability'
occur five
times.4 The
'harp-'
and
'flute-girls'
of the
classical
(Plato,
Aristotle)
and
early
Hellenistic
periods
(Menander),
on the other
hand,
illustrate the
not-respectable
status
quo
for female
musicians from which technitidesuch as
Polygnota emancipated
This
paper
is a
by-product
of
my
article
'Musikerinnen',
which
appeared
n Der
Neue
Pauly,
d. Hubert Cancik
and
Helmuth Schneider
(Stuttgart,
1996-2003),
xii/2
(2002),
cols. 1063-8
(English
edition
forthcoming:
The
New
Pauly
Ency-
clopediafAntiquity,
eiden,
2002-).
'
New
Grove
I,
xxvii.
519-37
at
521.
2
Sarah B. Pomeroy,'TechnikaikaiMousikai',AmericanJournalfAncient istory,/1 (1977),51-68 at 54.
3
Ibid. 65 n.
29.
4
'The role
of
respectable
women received
a
new definition
[in
the Hellenistic
period]
...
respectable
women
began
to be
given
the
advantages
of
an
education...
[Earlier,]
n
the fifth
century,... respectable
women...
worked outside
the home
only
if
they
were forced to
because
they
needed
money...
Thus,
in
Athens,
respectable
women earned
money by
cooking
and
selling
food
[etc.]
...
Contrasting
with
these women were hetairai...
beyond
the
pale
of
respect-
ability' (ibid. 51).
351
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7/23/2019 Plato, Aristotle, And Women Musicians
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themselves.5
As the Platonic
and Aristotelian text
witnesses named
by Pomeroy
are
the
key
to
Tick's statement
quoted
above from the
New
Grove
rticle,
I shall
discuss
them here.6
Protagoras
of Abdera
(c.486-11
Bc),
author of
the
phrase
'man
is the measure of
all
things',7
was a
leading figure
of the
Sophistic
movement,
exponents
of
which
taught
skills rom mathematics o rhetoric.
n
Plato's
eponymousdialogue,Protagoras,
who
pro-
fessed to teach apeTil (virtue)tself(318A,320 B-c),8 s engagedin debate(320 c-362 A)
by
Socrates,
who is
sceptical
of
its
teachability
319
A-320
c).
In
midstream
hey
inter-
pret
a
song by
the
lyric poet
Simonidesof Ceos
(556-468
Be)
on the
difficulty
of'becom-
ing good'
(338
E-347
A).
Afterwards,
with the interlocutorand
Sophist
Hippias
of Elis
(c.481-11)
champing
at
the bit to contribute
his own
interpretation
347 A-B),
Socrates
says
(347 B9-D5)
he'd
just
as soon
have
donewith
songs
and
poems...
For
discoursing
bout
poetry
eems o me to be mostsimilar
to the
symposia
f
uneducated,
ommonmen.
For,
being
unable o entertain
ach other
by
themselves hen
drinking,
eitherwith heirownvoicesnorwith heirown
thoughts,
orwantof
education, heymake the auletrides9xpensive,hiringa voice 'belonging o another'(a,OXtpiav),
5
Polygnota
s known from
an
inscription
arved
n
the first
century
BC
n
Delphi, published
n
full
or
part
several imes
in
the
20th
c.: W.
Dittenberger,Syllogenscriptionum
raecarum,
rd edn.
(Leipzig,
1915-24),
ii
(1917),
no.
738;
Louis
Robert,
Etudes
epigraphiquestphilologiques
Paris,
1938),
38;
H. W.
Pleket,
EpigraphicaLeiden, 1969),
ii.
16-18).
The
inscription
has
been translated nto
Englishby
Mary
R. Lefkowitz
and
Maureen
B.
Fant,
Women's
ife
n GreecendRome
London,
1982),
30,
and
by Stanley
M.
Burstein,
The
Hellenistic
gefrom
heBattle
fIpsos
o heDeath
ofKleopatra
II
(Cambridge,1985),
105-6,
and,
with D. Brendan
Nagle,
The
Ancient
World:
eadings
n
Social
nd
Cultural
istory
2nd
edn.,
Upper
Saddle
River,
NJ,
2002),
199. The
following
is
a
paraphrase
of the
inscription parenthetical losses
added):
In
86 BC
Polygnota,
a choro-
psaltria
choral
accompanist
on the
psalterion, stringed
nstrument),
was
present
in
Delphi
at the
appointed
time
for
the
Pythian
Games
(held
quadrennially
n the site of
Apollo's
victory
over the
Pythiandragon;
he contestswere athleticand
musical),
which however due to
war
(the
firstMithradatic
war
(89-85 Be)
ought
between
King
Mithradates
VI
of
Pontus,
who had freed Asia Minor from Roman rule and was then welcomedin Greece,and the Roman commanderSulla)had
to be
brought
to an
(early)
end;
that
very
day (though)
he
began
(to
play anyway)
and,
encouragedby
the town
magis-
trates and
citizens,
contended three
days long
and was held
in
the
greatest
esteem
...
we
(of
Delphi)
crowned her with a
wreath and
(rewardedher)
with 500 drachmas.'
Among
the
many
hundredsof
inscriptions
of this kind known to
survive,
the
Polygnota
inscription,
which continues with
a
series of
municipal privileges
bestowed
upon
her,
is
unique
as docu-
mentation of
a
courageous
woman
(no
doubt with bills to
pay)
and of
a
war-weary
populace longing
for the
respite
afforded
by
music. The circumstancesof
Polygnota'sperformance
and the
privileges
bestowed show that
she,
in
fact
if
not
in
name,
was a
technitis
female
artisan',
artist'),
ne of the
travelling rofessional
musicians,
poets,
and
actors,
organized
in
the
Guild
of
Dionysus,
who
performed
at festivals
throughout
he Hellenisticworld
(see
Roger
Harmon, 'Technitai',
Der
Veue
Pauly,
xii/1
(2002),
cols.
74-5).
She
was,
as
Pomeroy
says,
a
respectable
artist;
membership
alone in the
Guild of
Dionysus,
however,
ensured neither
respectable
behaviournor
respect,
as the AristotelianProblem
0. 10
suggests:
Why
are
the technitai
f
the Guild of
Dionysus usually
of bad character?
s
it
not because
they
partake
east
in
reason
and wis-
dom since the
great[er]part
of
[their]
ife is devoted to the
arts
necessary[to
their
work],
and
because much of
[their]
ife
is marked
by
lack of self-control
and
[by]
dire
[financial]
straits?
Both are conducive of baseness.'Aulus
Gellius
quotes
this
passage
in
connection with
second-century
AD
technitai
n
Noctes
Atticae
0.
4.
6
Concerning
Menander
(342/1-291/90
BC)
uffice t to
say
that 'Men. 319'
in
Pomeroy's
endnote
cited above refers
to
a
fragment, preserved by
the
second-century
AD
anthologist
Athenaeus
(4.
146d-e and 8.
364d-e),
from his New
Comedy
Methe r 'Carousal'
fr.
319 in the
comici dition of
Theodor Kock
(Comicorum
tticorum
ragmenta
Leipzig,
1888),
iii.
91-2);
fr.
224
in
that of R. Kassel
and
C.
Austin
(Poetae
Comici
Graeci,
i/2
(Berlin
and New
York,
1998), 156-7)).
In
this
fragment,
people's extravagance
towards
themselves-expenditure
of a
talent
(6,000
drachmas)
on
auletrides
(female
aulos-players), erfume,psaltriai
female
psalterion-players),
ine, eels,
cheese,
and
honey-is
contrasted
with
their
meannesstowards he
gods,
for whom
10
drachmasare
spent
on
a
little sacrificial
sheep. Assuming
hat the
most
expens-
ive items
appear
at the
top
of the
list,
the auletridesere are not
the
2-drachma
ype
mentioned
by
Aristotle
see
below)
but
rather are slaves rented at a
much
higher price
from their
owners as
depicted by
Xenophon
(see below),
who,
like
Menander
n
the
Methe
fragment
cited
above,
also
juxtaposes
auletridesnd
perfume (Symposium
.
3-4).
7
Plato, Cratylus85 E-386
A
and Theaetetus52
A;
Aristotle,Metaphysics, 1, 1053a36and K 6,
1062b14.
That man
should be
the measure was connected with
the
Sophists'
educational
mission and
provoked
the
opposition
of Socrates
and
Plato,
for
whom God is the
measure;
Plato calls
Protagoras'position
asebeia
(impiety,profanity):
Laws
4,
716 c.
8
'Aperx,
usually
translated
'virtue',
is
more
closely
rendered
by
the German
Bestheit
'bestness':
Hans
Joachim
Kramer,
Arete eiPlaton nd
Aristoteles
Heidelberg,1959),
39 n.
39)-i.e.
the Bestheit
superordinate
o and
striven or within
the individual
disciplines.
9
Female
aulos-players.
352
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[namely
the
'voice']
of the
auloi,'0
and
with
[the
auloi's]
voice
they
entertain
themselves. But
wherever
noble and
good (cKaXoiKacyaOoi)
ymposiasts
and educated
[symposiasts]
are
[found], [there]
you'll
see neither auletridesor
orchestridesor
psaltriai,'2
ut
rather
men who are
able
to
entertain hemselves...
3
The
equation
of
poetry analysis
and
passive
entertainment,
though specious,
silences
Hippias
and
gets
the debate back on
track.'4
The
key
words are
'noble and
good',
the
persuasive
self-definition of the
relatively
small
Athenian elite
to which Plato
belonged;
partisan
(self-)demarcation
is
an
undercurrent in
literature
proceeding
from the
class-
conscious Athenian fifth
century.'5
Socrates'
ideal of an
auletris-free
symposium
is
enacted
in
Plato's
Symposium,
here
the
symposiasts, having
had the
auletris
perform
the
initial rites
(176
A:
libations,
accompaniment
of the
paean),'6
agree
to
dismiss her
in
order to devote themselves to conversation
(176
E-177
A).'7
Whether
they stayed
on or
were
dismissed, however,
as
sympotic
accessories
the
auletrides,
rchestrides,
nd
psaltriai
referred to
by
Socrates were
way
down
the
social ladder
when
compared,
as
Pomeroy
does,
with
the Hellenistic
technitis
Polygnota.
A non-fictional apercu into the circumstances of such entertainers is provided by the
Constitution
of
the Athenians
('Athenaion
Politeia' in
Greek,
abbreviated as Ath.
pol.
in
Pomeroy's
endnote cited
above).
This work is
attributed to Aristotle.
If
the attribution
is
correct,
then he wrote it
during
his second
stay
in
Athens
(335-23 Be),
a
period
marked
by
large-scale
research
projects
such as
the
collection
of
the constitutions
of
158 Greek
city-states,
from which the Constitution
of
theAthenians
tems. Thus we
find
Aristotle,
who
had
spent
some
twenty
years
under Plato's
tutelage,
at the
greatest possible
remove
from his one-time
master's
idealism as he
positivistically
traces the
constitutional
history
of Athens
(??1-41)
and documents the constitution current
in
his
day
(??42-69).
??42-9
are about the
Council, ??50-9
list the
city
officials and their duties.
Near
the
top
of the
list are ten
magistrates
responsible
for street
maintenance;
their first
obligation,
how-
ever,
is to
see to it
that
auletrides,
saltriai,
nd
kitharistriai18
hall
not be hired out for more than
2
drachmas
[each];
and
if
more
[than
one
customer]
is
eager
to take the
same
[woman],
then
[the
magis-
trates]
assign [her] by
lot and let
[her]
out
for
hire
to him who
obtains
[her]
by
lot
(?50.
2).
Thus these
magistrates
functioned
as a kind
of'wage
and
price
control'
agency,
ensur-
ing
that the
type
of
symposiasts
Socrates
complains
about
in
Protagoras
47
c7-D
I
('they
make the auletridesexpensive') obtain the desired services by lottery instead of by
'o
a&XoTpia
'belonging
o
another')
has
the
secondary
sense
'foreign',
which,
given
the fact that the auloi
were asso-
ciated not
only
with Thebes
(Polygnota'shomeland)
but
also with
Phrygia
n
Asia
Minor,
also resonateshere.
Female
dancers.
12
Female
psalterion-players.
n the
f0akTiplov
see
M. L.
West,
Ancient
GreekMusic
Oxford, 1994),
74.
3
This and
all
other
translations
n
the
followingpages
are
my
own.
4
In
the
Phaedon,
hich
portrays
he last
day
of his
life,
Socratesreveals a
recurring
dream
in
which
a vision
tells
him
to 'make and work on'
music
(60 E).
Music
in this
sense is the
unity
of
arts
practisedby
the
Muses,
encompassing
yre-
accompanied
ong,
dance,
and
poetry
such as
Simonides' ersementionedabove
(see
Hesiod,
Theogony
-11;
Plato,
Alcibiades
,
108
c-D).
The
aged
Socrates,
who
by
his own account had
hitherto
neglected
music
in
favour
of
philosophy,
which he
considered o be the
'greatest
music'
(Phaedon
1
A),obeyed
the
vision.
15
Cf. Roger Harmon, 'FromThemistocles to Philomathes:Amousosnd amousian Antiquityand the EarlyModern
Period',
International
ournal
f
theClassical
radition,
(2002-3),
351-90
at
356-7.
16
A
hymn
to
Apollo.
On
sympotic
culture
n
general
with
literature
on
the
subject,
see ibid.
352-4.
17
In
the
Symposium
f Plato's ellow
Socrates-follower
Xenophon,
the
entertainers
an
auletris,
n
orchestris,
nd a
'cithara-
playing
boy'
owned
by
a man
from
Syracuse)
having
performed
he libations
and
paean,
put
on a show
(detailed
descrip-
tion:
2.
1-3.
1)
before Socrates
persuades
he
other
guests
to
try
entertaining
hemselveswith
conversation
3.
2).
18
Female
cithara-players.
353
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7/23/2019 Plato, Aristotle, And Women Musicians
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auction,19
as
the latter would
drive
up
prices
in the entertainment
industry
and
cause
inflation.20
Judging by
their
wage,
the
social
status of the women
supervised by
these
magistrates-to
return to
Pomeroy-was
far below
that
of the future technitis
Polygnota,
who
was well
paid
and immortalized
in
an
inscription
at
Delphi.
The
sequence
of
(mis)citations
leading
from
Pomeroy's essay
to Tick's
New
Grove rt-
icle is soon
told. In an
article
entitled
'The
Traditional
Role
of Greek
Women
in
Music
from Antiquity to the End of the Byzantine Empire' Diane Touliatos writes:
[1]
Women
newly
educated
in
the arts
became the
main
competitors
o the
hetairai,
esulting
n
two
categories
of
female
musicians
during
the Hellenistic
period:
respectable
women
pursuing
professional
concert careers and
unrespectable
hetairai,
rostitutes
who
used music
to entertain
and seduce their lovers.
[2]
Referencesto female musicians
by
both
Plato and
Aristotle
substan-
tiate this division.
[3]
Plato
in
Protagoras
nd Aristotle
n
Athenian
olitics
sic]distinguish
between
respectable
emale musiciansand
harp-girls
and
flute-girls,
who were
not
respectable.2'
An
endnote
at
the end of this
passage
reads: 'Ibid.
[referring
to
S. B.
Pomeroy,
'Technikai
kai
Mousikai'],
p.
54.'22
Given that
Touliatos cites
page
54 of 'Technikai kai
Mousikai'
for sentence
[3],
that sentence
may
be measured
against Pomeroy's
own words:
Polyg-
nota 'must have
been
a
respectable
artist,
not
a
harp-girl
of the sort
mentioned
by
Plato
in
the
Protagoras347D)...
The
harp-girls
mentioned
in
the same context
as
flute-girls
by
Arist. Ath.
pol.
50.2...
are also not
respectable
women.'
Thus,
contra
Touliatos,
[3]
'Plato
in
Protagoras...'
does
not
'distinguish
between
respectable
female musicans
and
harp-
girls
and
flute-girls,
who
were not
respectable';
it
is
not
Plato but
Pomeroy
herself who
makes the
distinction.23
One look
at the
Protagoras
assage
referred to
by
Pomeroy
would
have
prevented
Touliatos
from
making
such
an
assertion,
for it does not
contain
a
word
about
'respectable
female
musicians'. The same
goes
for
Athenaion
politeia
?50.
2:
the dis-
tinction Touliatos attributes to Aristotle is again that of Pomeroy herself, and the Athenaion
Politeia
passage
referred to
by
Pomeroy
makes no
mention of
'respectable
female musi-
cians'.
Here,
though,
Touliatos would have had trouble
checking Pomeroy's
reference,
for she resolves the abbreviation 'Ath.
pol.'
in
Pomeroy's
endnote
not with
'Athenaion
politeia'
but
rather
with the
lectiofacilior
Athenian
Politics'-which does not
exist. Aristotle
wrote the
Politics
(Io3XlTnKa)
and
perhaps
the
Constitution
of
the Athenians
('A0Tvai0vcv
CoXrT?ia)
but no 'Athenian
Politics'. This
may
seem
to be
a
trivial
distinction,
but its
dismissal
was to
have
a
surprising consequence.
It was
only
a
small
step
from the
passage
in
Touliatos's
essay
quoted
above to the follow-
ing
statement
in
Tick's
New
Grove
rticle 'Women
in
Music': 'Both Plato
(in
Protagoras)
'9
That there were no
restraints n the sale
(auction?)
f auletridesfterthe
symposium
s
implied
by
Persaeusof Citium
(c.306-243 BC),
quoted
in
Athenaeus 13. 607 D-E:
'Then
later,
when the
auletris as
being
sold
(as
is the
custom
in
drink-
ing
bouts),
[a
guest]
became
quite
insolent
[lit.
'youthful']
o the
seller
during
he
haggling,
as
if
[the
seller]
had
consigned
[her]
too
quickly
o
someone else...'. The
entire
passage
s of
interest or its
portrayal
of convivial
mores.
20
This and the
activity
of 'corn-wardens'
mentioned
in
?51
are the
only
economic control
mechanisms
prescribedby
the Constitution
f
the
Athenians;
hester G.
Starrobserves hat
?50.
2
is the
only
evidence
anywhere
or
the
fixing
of
wages
in Athens
('An Evening
with the
Flute-Girls',
La
parola elpassato,
83
(1978),
401-10 at
406),
which
suggests
hat Athens
practised
a
more or less
laissez-faire
conomy
and
that entertainmentand
food were
key
areasof that
economy.
As Starr
points
out,
2
drachmaswere
'at least the
equal
of a
full
day's pay
for a
skilled
workman
n
the later fourth
century' ibid.);
were this benchmark-a
potentially
volatile one at
that-to
spin
out of
control,
drastic
consequences
could ensue for
Athenian
society,
devoted as it was
to
stillingwhatJames
N.
Davidson has
called 'the
consuming
passions'
Courtesans
nd
Fishcakes: heConsumingassionsfClassical thensLondon,1997)).
21
Diane
Touliatos,
'The
Traditional Role of
Greek Women
in
Music
from
Antiquity
to the End of
the
Byzantine
Empire',
n
Kimberly
Marshall
ed.),
Rediscovering
he
Muses:Womens' usical
Traditions
Boston, 1993),
111-23
at
114-15;
bracketedsentence numbers
added.
22
Ibid.
250
n. 19.
23
Strictly speaking
Plato was
precluded
from
making
the said distinction
by
the fact that the
'respectable
artists'
Pomeroy
refers
o,
i.e. technitides
uch as
Polygnota,
ived
in
the Hellenistic
period-after
his death.
354
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7/23/2019 Plato, Aristotle, And Women Musicians
6/7
and Aristotle
(in
the
Politics)
differentiated
respectable
domestic female
musicians from
entertainer-musicians.'
Tick,
following
Touliatos
closely,
appropriates
the
errors noted
above and
introduces two new ones. The
Hellenistic
technitides,
hom Touliatos
rightly
called
'respectable
female
musicians',
become
'respectable
domestic
emale musicians'
(emphasis
added),
which
is
wrong,
technitai nd technitides
being
Mediterranean
world-
travellers,
not homebodies.24 And
Touliatos's
lectiofacilior
Athenian
Politics'
inevitably
becomes the lectiofacillima:Politics'. A New Grove eader, intrigued by the prospect held
out
by
Tick of
a
play-offbetween 'respectable
domestic female musicians' and
'entertainer-
musicians',
may
be able to
get
to the bottom
of
the matter with
regard
to the
Protagoras,
but,
without
Pomeroy
to
clarify
things,
Tick's reference to Aristotle's Politics-the
closing
book
8 of which
just happens
to deal with the
role
of
music and musical education
in
society
and
state-presents
an
insurmountable obstacle.
Thus
by
neglecting
to check sources
New
Grove as
enshrined
a
hardly
Greek,
let alone
Platonic
or
Aristotelian,
distinction between
'respectable
domestic'
and 'entertainer'
female
musicians. Not
only
is the
distinction
false,
but neither
Pomeroy,
Touliatos,
nor
Tick
reflect
on the issue
of
respectability they
invoke. Due to this
lapse,
the onus of
respectability
devolves
by
default,
as it
were,
onto the auletrides
lone,
without
a
thought
given
to the
respectability
or lack thereof of the men
commanding
these women's serv-
ices.
A
prominent
translation of
a
locus
classicus
f
sympotic
sexual
mores,
verses
1326-87
from the
Old
Comedy
The
Waspsby Aristophanes,
shows
that this skewed
perspective
has
a
long
tradition.
Literally
translated,
verses
1345-6
read:
'you
see
how
cleverly
I
[Philocleon]
stole
you
[the
auletris
Dardanis]
away just
as
you
were
about
to fellate the
symposiasts'.
Fellation here
is
obviously
a
routine chore
to
be
performed
by
the
shell-
shocked Dardanis. The Loeb
edition,
however,
placing
the
onus
of
respectability
on
Dardanis
alone,
rendered
these verses as
follows:
'See
now,
how
cleverly
I
filched
you
off, A wanton hussy, flirting with the guests.'25 Wanton hussy', a patent distortion by a
prudish
translator,
paves
the
way,
so to
speak,
for the use of
'-girl' compounds, implic-
itly derogatory, by
Pomeroy
and Touliatos.
To
refer to the auletrides s
'flute-girls',
how-
ever,
is not
only wrong,
the
women
in
question
not
necessarily being
young,26
it is also
gratuitously demeaning.
Thanks to
M. L.
West,
it
is now
recognized
that
'flute' as trans-
lation of aulos
is
incorrect: 'The most
pervasive sign
of
the
average
classicist's uncon-
cern
with the
realities
of music is
the
ubiquitous rendering
of
aulos,
a
reed-blown
instrument,
by
flute ...
countless
literary
scholars and even
archaeologists persist
in
this
deplorable
habit... One
might
as well call the
syrinx
a
mouth
organ.'27
Is
it
not time
to rethink the '-girl' component of 'flute-girl' as well?
Thus
I
propose
calling
female
aulos-players
not
'flute-girls'
but
rather,
as
in
the
pre-
ceding
pages,
auletrides. or 'Women in
Music'
is a
story
worth
getting,
as far
as
possible,
right.
After
all,
it
is-to
speak
with Aretha
Franklin-a
question
of
respect.
24
See n. 5 above. This is not
to
say
that there was no
domestic
music-making
by
women in
classical-era
Greece;
the
vases
above all
testify
to
domestic
music-making
as
full
and varied then as in
any
other
place
or
time
(see
Harmon,
'Musikerinnen',
III. Hausliches
Musizieren,
Hochzeits- und
Arbeitslieder',
ol.
1065).
25
Aristophanes,
The
Wasps,
d. and trans.
Benjamin Bickley Rogers (London,
1924),
i.
535. This translation s rec-
tified in the new Loeb Aristophanesedition, ed. and trans.JeffreyHenderson(Cambridge,Mass. and London, 1998),
ii.
391.
26
The
subject
of
women in the entertainment
ndustry
s
considered
in
studies
by
Ingeborg
Peschel,
Die
Hetire
bei
Symposion
nd
Komosn
der
attisch-roigurigen
asenmalereies
6.-4.
Jahrhunderts
or
Christus
Berne, 1987);
Carola
Reinsberg,
Ehe,
Hetiirentum
nd
Knabenliebe
m
antiken riechenland
Munich, 1989);
and
Elke
Hartmann,
Heirat,
Hetirentum
ndKonkubinat
im
klassischenthen
Frankfurt
m
Main,
2002).
27
West,
AncientGreek
Music,
1-2.
355
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7/23/2019 Plato, Aristotle, And Women Musicians
7/7
ABSTRACT
Plato and
Aristotleallude
to
women musicians
available
or
hire for servicesrenderable
at
symposia
(the
drinkingparties
that
followed
banquets).
These
allusions
have
been
misunderstood
n
recent
scholarship,culminating
n
the
incorrect assertionthat 'Plato
and Aristotle differentiatedrespectabledomestic female musiciansfrom entertainer-
musicians'
New
Grove
I,
'Women in
music').
The
same
scholarship
ends to refer
to such
persons,
furthermore,
as
'flute-girls'
and the
like;
auletris ould be
a
philologically
and
politically
correct alternative.
356
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