A scene from the gynaikeion (women’s quarters): women with a mirror. Fragment of an Attic white-ground vase, tentatively attributed to the Dokimasia Painter; 470s BCE. Now in the Louvre. Photo credit:  © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons.

A Lyre-Player’s Retirement

Anthologia Palatina 6.83 = Macedonius the Consul (6th cent. CE) Once Eumolpus, reproaching his aged hands,   Laid his lyre on a tripod for Phoebus; And he said, “May I no longer touch the lyre, nor wish   To bear the instrument of my old harmonies. Let the lyre-string be the concern of young men; for instead of the plectrum,   I’ve propped my shaking hands on a staff.” Τὴν κιθάρην Εὔμολπος ἐπὶ τριπόδων ποτὲ Φοίβῳ   ἄνθετο, γηραλέην χεῖρ’ ἐπιμεμφόμενος, εἶπε δέ· „Μὴ ψαύσαιμι λύρης ἔτι μηδ’ ἐθελήσω   τῆς πάρος ἁρμονίης ἐμμελέτημα φέρειν. ἠιθέοις μελέτω κιθάρης μίτος· ἀντὶ δὲ πλήκτρου   σκηπανίῳ τρομερὰς χεῖρας ἐρεισάμεθα.“

A man holding a lyre and plectrum (pick).  Tondo of an Attic red-figure kylix, attributed to the Dokimasia Painter; ca. 480 BCE.  Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Photo credit: Marie-Lan Nguyen.