Gingras (instrument)

Gingras (alternatively Gingri) was a type of flute used by the Phoenicians, particularly in their mourning rituals. Information about the gingras comes from second-century AD Greek rhetorician Athenaeus in his work The Deipnosophists, where he reports the accounts of Xenophon, Democleides, Corinna, Bacchylides, Antiphanes, Menander, Amphis, and Axionicus about the instrument and its sound.^[1][2][3]

Description and use

Described by Xenophon as about 9 inches (23 centimetres) long, the gingras was a wind instrument that produced a "shrill and mournful tone".^{[lower-alpha 1][1]} According to Democleides, the name "gingri" is derived from the lamentations for Adonis, as the Phoenicians referred to their god as " Adonis Gingres".^[1][5] Amphis describes the gingras as a new invention of the Phoenicians.^[1] According to Athenaeus the instrument is also mentioned by fifth-century BC lyricists Corinna and Bacchylides, by fourth-century BC poet Antiphanes in his work "The Physician", and by late fourth-century BC Athenian poets Menander in "Karine" and Amphis in "Dithyrambos".^[1] The Gingras is also believed to have been used by the Carians in their lamentations.^[6]

Ancient sources

Athenaeus reports the following ancient snippets mentioning the gingras. In "Phileuripides", Axionicus compares the love for the melodious strains of Euripides to an illness, stating that to those afflicted, every other music seems as "shrill as the gingras and a mere misfortune".^[1]

For they are both so sick with love
Of the melodious strains of soft Euripides,
That every other music seems to them
Shrill as the gingras and a mere misfortune.

— Phileuripides by Axionicus, in Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 4.174, Translated by Charles Duke Yonge (1854)

In another passage from Dithyrambos by Amphis, a character says that he has acquired an excellent gingras, a new musical instrument. Although it has never been presented in any theater, he asserts that it is a luxury enjoyed at Athenian banquets. When asked why he does not introduce it to everyone, the character explains that he fears drawing an over-enthusiastic audience, as they would disrupt everything with their applause.^[1]

(A) And I have got that admirable gingras.
(B) What is the gingras?
(A) 'Tis a new invention
Of our countrymen, which never yet
Has been exhibited in any theatre,
But is a luxury of Athenian banquets.
(B) Why then not introduce it to this people?
(A) Because I think that I shall draw by lot
Some most ambitious tribe; for well I know
They would disturb all things with their applause.

— Dithyrambos by Amphis, in Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 4.174, Translated by Charles Duke Yonge (1854)

See also

• Nabla – Musical instrument

Notes

1. According to another translation the Gingras tone is described as "high-pitched and plaintive".^[4]

References

1. Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 4.174 Translated by Charles Duke Yonge (1854)
2. Michaelides, Solon (1978). The Music of Ancient Greece. Faber & Faber. p. 123.
3. Franklin, John C. (2020). "Ancient Greek Music and the Near East". In Lynch, Tosca A.C.; Rocconi, Eleonora (eds.). A Companion to Ancient Greek and Roman Music (1 ed.). Wiley. pp. 229–241. doi:10.1002/9781119275510.ch17. ISBN 978-1-119-27547-3. Retrieved 2024-05-07.
4. Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 4.175 Translated by Charles Burton Gulick (1928)
5. Chappell, William (2023-04-18). The History of Music: Vol. I. BoD – Books on Demand. p. 261. ISBN 978-3-368-81972-9.
6. Arosemena-Ott, Gerhardt (2019). "The Aulos and Tibia: Variation Across the Ancient Mediterranean's Principal Woodwind". Conservatory Students Academic Work: 12.