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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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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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3/7

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



4/7

[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



5/7

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



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



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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