Womans Work in Music | Page 5

chief occupation consisted in sitting on the rocks by the sea
and singing to passing mariners. According to Homer, their island lay
between Æaea and the rock of Scylla, or near the southwestern coast of
Italy; but the Roman poets place them on the Campanian coast. Their
magic power to charm all hearers was to last only until some one
proved himself able to resist their spell; and here again accounts differ.
Homer gives the credit to Ulysses, who stuffed his mariners' ears with
wax, and had them bind him to the mast. Apollonius Rhodius, however,
in the Argonautica, claims the credit for Orpheus, who saved the
expedition of the Argonauts by singing the Sirens into silence, after
which the musical damsels fell from their heights and were themselves
changed into rocks. If some of our modern musicians were put to the
same test, and condemned to death if they failed to charm their auditors,
the results would be beneficial both to art and to the cemeteries. The
power of the Sirens lasted after their death, and, like their cousins in
Egyptian and Indian lore, they used their music to charm the souls of
the blessed dead.
Leaving the realms of the supernatural, the only great name that the
student will find among the musical women of Greece is that of Sappho.
The story of her life is known only in its general outlines, and even
these have been the subject of many learned disputes. She was born
near the close of the seventh century B.C., either at Mytilene or at
Eresos in the island of Lesbos. She grew to maturity at the former place,
and became one of the two great leaders of the Æolian school of lyric
poetry. From the fragments of her poetry, and those of her great rival,
Alcæus, it is evident that the two were not envious of each other's fame,
but lived in the most friendly intercourse. Of the events of her life, we
have only two. One, referred to in the Parian marble and by Ovid, is her
flight from Mytilene to Sicily, between 604 and 592, to escape from

some unknown danger. The other is the well-known story that, being in
love with Phaon, and finding her love unrequited, she cast herself from
the Leucadian rock. This rock is a promontory on the island of Leucas,
upon which was a temple to Apollo. At the annual festival of the god, it
was the custom to cast down a criminal from this rock into the sea. To
break his fall, birds of all kinds were attached to him, and, if he reached
the sea uninjured, boats were ready to pick him up. This apparently was
a rite of expiation, and as such gave rise to the well-known story that
unfortunate lovers leaped from this rock to seek relief from their
distress. The story of Sappho and Phaon is one of these, but it has been
claimed that its authenticity vanishes at the first breath of criticism.
It is fair to class Sappho as a musician, for in ancient Greece poetry and
music were inseparable. Of her poems, which filled nine books, only a
few fragments remain, of which the most important is a splendid ode to
Aphrodite. At Mytilene she appears to have gathered about her a large
and elegant circle of young women, who were her pupils in poetry,
music, and personal cultivation. Her influence must have been
widespread, for the list of her disciples includes names from all parts of
Greece. Her work of teaching, in the midst of her fair followers, has
been compared with that of Socrates surrounded by the flower of the
Athenian youth. The power of her poetry is shown by the story of its
effect on the rugged character of Solon, the lawmaker. Hearing for the
first time one of her pieces, sung to him by his nephew, he expressed in
the most impassioned terms the wish that he might not die before
having learned such a beautiful song.
The career of Sappho is made more wonderful by the fact that woman's
work in ancient Greece was supposed to consist only of family duties.
She taught her sons in childhood until they were sent to their regular
masters, and she guided her daughters and set them an example in
doing household duties. According to Pericles, that woman was most to
be prized of whom no one spoke, either in praise or blame. Because of
Sappho's prominence and social activity, but more especially because
of the ardent character of some of her poems, her good name has been
assailed by many modern critics. The majority, however, consider the
accusations as groundless.

Alcman, the great lyric poet of Sparta (Lydian by birth), brought the
so-called Lydian measure to its highest