Seikilos epitaph
en.wikipedia.org
Seikilos epitaph
1–10 of 24 posts
Re: Seikilos epitaph
#2> ... in about 1893, as it "was broken at the bottom, its base was sawn off straight so that it could stand and serve as a pedestal for Mrs Purser's flowerpots"; this caused the loss of one line of text, i.e., while the stele would now stand upright, the grinding had obliterated the last line of the inscription.
Sigh.
Re: Seikilos epitaph
#3One of those unexpected things that has been preserved from the ancient times. I actually learned to sing this, I think it's quite sad.
The 1951 film Quo Vadis features Peter Ustinov as emperor Nero singing a version of this in English with changed lyrics, Oh lambent flame: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBIswXv28GI
Re: Seikilos epitaph
#4How serendipitous that the most everlasting song would be about the evanescence of existence!
Re: Seikilos epitaph
#5How it may have sounded:
Re: Seikilos epitaph
#6> ... in about 1893, as it "was broken at the bottom, its base was sawn off straight so that it could stand and serve as a pedestal for Mrs Purser's flowerpots"; this caused the loss of one line of text, i.e., while the stele would now stand upright, the grinding had obliterated the last line of the inscription. Sigh.
Sadly, history is full of stories like that:
> Mummy brown was a rich brown bituminous pigment, intermediate in tint between burnt umber and raw umber, which was one of the favorite colors of the Pre-Raphaelites. [It] was originally made in the 16th and 17th centuries from white pitch, myrrh, and the ground-up remains of Egyptian mummies, both human and feline.
Re: Seikilos epitaph
#7How it may have sounded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xERitvFYpAk
I think the pronunciation is quite good. Not your classical Attic Greek pronunciation but it shouldn't be since the stele is from a later time and from Anatolia where people would have spoken a Ionic dialect originally.
Re: Seikilos epitaph
#8Civ V turned me on to this song, and it's been intermittently stuck in my head ever since. I hum it to my infant daughter often (along with Ocarina tunes from Zelda..)
The lyrics are bittersweet, but I find them fitting for a parent to sing to their child.
``` While you live, shine
have no grief at all
life exists only for a short while
and Time demands his due ```
Re: Seikilos epitaph
#9> ... in about 1893, as it "was broken at the bottom, its base was sawn off straight so that it could stand and serve as a pedestal for Mrs Purser's flowerpots"; this caused the loss of one line of text, i.e., while the stele would now stand upright, the grinding had obliterated the last line of the inscription. Sigh.
Sadly, history is full of stories like that: > Mummy brown was a rich brown bituminous pigment, intermediate in tint between burnt umber and raw umber, which was one of the favorite colors of the Pre-Raphaelites. [It] was originally made in the 16th and 17th centuries from white pitch, myrrh, and the ground-up remains of Egyptian mummies, both human and feline. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummy_brown
The Egyptian's mummified everyone not just pharaohs and other people of note.
Mummies have been used for resources by the local populous heck much more important things were used for local resources many monuments were turned into essentially quarries by the locals.
Exporting "mummies" and their byproduct was going in Egypt since for ever during roman times mummified remains were used in medicine, alchemy, pigments and much more. Mummia which is the "medical" use of mummified remains is documented in Materia Medica which is essentially the oldest surviving medical encyclopedia and the documented use of it dates back to at least Imhotep which was an Egyptian physician (before he was made a god).
While some of these artifacts may have had historical value in hindsight you are essentially arguing against recycling.
Re: Seikilos epitaph
#10How it may have sounded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xERitvFYpAk
There's a nice sound clip in the posted wikipedia page, below the musical score. Less than fifty seconds.
(Only noticed it the second time I looked ...)