Greek Lyric
Eumelus
Fragmentum
1 (696 P.M.G. ) (a) Paus. 4. 33. 2 (i 348 Rocha-Pereira)
ἄγουσι δὲ καὶ ἑορτὴν ἐπέτειον Ἰθωμαῖα, τὸ δὲ ἀρχαῖον καὶ ἀγῶνα ἐτίθεσαν μουσικῆς· τεκμαίρεσθαι δ᾿ ἔστιν ἄλλοις τε καὶ Εὐμήλου τοῖς ἔπεσιν· ἐποίησε γοῦν καὶ τάδε ἐν τῷ προσοδίῳ τῷ ἐς Δῆλον·
τῷ γὰρ Ἰθωμάτᾳ καταθύμιος ἔπλετο Μοῖσα ἁ καθαρὰ καὶ ἐλεύθερα σάμβαλ᾿ ἔχοισα.
οὐκοῦν ποιῆσαί μοι δοκεῖ τὰ ἔπη καὶ μουσικῆς ἀγῶνα ἐπιστάμενος τιθέντας.
2 καθαρὰ<ν κίθαριν> suppl. Bergk ἔχουσα codd., em. Dindorf
(b) Paus. 4. 4. 1 (i 278 Rocha-Pereira)
ἐπὶ δὲ Φίντα τοῦ Συβότα πρῶτον Μεσσήνιοι τότε τῷ Ἀπόλλωνι ἐς Δῆλον θυσίαν καὶ ἀνδρῶν χορὸν ἀποστέλλουσι· τὸ δέ σφισιν ᾆσμα προσόδιον ἐς τὸν θεὸν ἐδίδαξεν Εὔμηλος, εἶναί τε ὡς ἀληθῶς Εὐμήλου νομίζεται μόνα τὰ ἔπη ταῦτα.
Eumelus
Eumelus
Processional Hymn To Delos1
1 (a) Pausanias, Description of Greece (on Messenia)
They keep an annual festival, the Ithomaea, and in ancient times they used also to hold a contest in music. This can be proved by the lines of Eumelus among other things: at any rate he wrote the following in his Processional Hymn to Delos:
For the god of Ithome2 took pleasure in the Muse, the pure Muse3 wearing her free sandals.4
I think he composed these lines because he knew that the Messenians held a music contest.
(b) Pausanias, Description of Greece (on Messenia)
In the time of Phintas,1 son of Sybotas, the Messenians first sent a sacrifice and a chorus of men to Apollo at Delos. Their processional song to the god was taught them by Eumelus, and these lines are reckoned to be his only genuine work.
- 1See C.M. Bowra, C.Q. 57 (1963) 145 ff.
- 2Zeus.
- 3Or, supplementing the text, ‛the Muse with her pure lyre’.
- 4The lines seem to indicate that Messenia’s freedom is already threatened. The first quarrel with Sparta took place in the reign of Phintas (Paus. 4. 4. 1: see next note).
- 1Father of Androcles and Antiochus, who were kings of Messenia at the beginning of the first war (c. 740–720 b.c.). Eumelus may have named Phintas in his poem.