Tuesday, October 8, 2024

16.12.24: level 1; topic; school [6]; Music [2]: the delight of wanton banqueters

fidicen, fidicinis [3/m]: a lutist; a harp / lyre player; fidicina, -ae [1/f]: a lutist; a harp / lyre player [fem.]

fistula, -ae [1/f]: Pan pipes; shepherd’s pipes; fistulātor, -ōris [3/m]: a player of the Pan pipes

tuba, -ae [1/f]: trumpet

cornū, -ūs [4/n]: horn; the cornū differed from the tuba in that it was curved nearly in the shape of a C

tībia, -ae [1/f]: flute; tībīcen, tībīcinis [3/m]: a piper; flute player

choraula, -ae [1/m]: flute player or choraulēs, -ae [1/m]: flute player; a Greek-type noun with an accusative in -n

[1]

choraulēn meum iussī Latīnē cantāre (Petronius: Satyricon) │ I told my flute-player to sing in Latin

[2]

Quod Thūcȳdidēs, …, Lacedaemoniōs in aciē nōn [i] tubā, sed [ii] tībiīs esse ūsōs dīcit …; quodque Hērodotus Alyattem rēgem [iii] fidicinās in prōcīnctū habuisse trādit; atque inibi quaedam notāta dē Gracchī [iv] fistula contiōnāria. (Gellius)│ The statement of … Thucydides, that the Lacedaemonians in battle did not use [i] a trumpet but [ii] pipes…; and the remark of Herodotus that king Alyattes had [iii] female lyre-players as part of his military equipment; and finally, some notes on the [iv] pipe used by Gracchus when addressing assemblies.

[3] Female flute-players: lascīvientium dēliciae convīviōrum; the delight of wanton banqueters

Hērodotus in Historiīs trādit, concinentēs habuit [i] fistulātōrēs et [ii] fidicinēs atque [iii] fēminās etiam tībīcinās in exercitū atque in prōcīnctū habuit, lascīvientium dēliciās convīviōrum. (Gellius)│ Herodotus tells us in his History, had in his army and his battle-array orchestras of [i] pipe- and [ii] lyre-players, and [iii] even female flute-players, such as are the delight of wanton banqueters.

[4] Suetonius on the life of Nero …

Sub exitū quidem vītae palam vōverat, sī sibi incolumis statūs permānsisset, prōditūrum sē partae victōriae lūdīs etiam hydraulam et choraulam et utriculārium │ Towards the end of his life, in fact, he had publicly vowed that if he retained his power, he would at the games in celebration of his victory give a performance on the water-organ, the flute, and the bagpipes.

The translation, however, refers to those nouns as instruments whereas they describe the players:

hydraula, -ae [1/m] or hydraulēs, -ae [1/m] (Gk. type; accusative in -n) < Gk. δραύλης (hidraulis): one who plays the water organ

hydraulus, -ī [2/m]: water organ; from Greek δραυλος (húdraulos, “water organ”)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_organ

https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062:entry=hydraulus-harpers

putārēs essedarium hydraulē cantante pugnāre (Petronius) │ you would have said that a gladiator in a chariot was fighting to the accompaniment of a water-organ player

utriculārius, -ī [2/m]: bagpipe player

There will be a little more on bagpipes and the players in the next post.



Performance on a Roman water-organ

No comments: