Ancient state to the east of the Roman Empire, extending at the height of its power from Mesopotamia to the Indus, and independent from about 250 bce until its overthrow by the Persians in 224 ce. Texts and pictorial representations illuminate the prominent role of minstrels (gōsān in the Parthian language) in the Parthian Empire and the subject of their songs is clear from a fragment of text written a few centuries after the fall of the empire, when the language was still spoken: ‘like a gōsān, who proclaims the worthiness of kings and heroes of old’ (Boyce, 11). The Greek writer Strabo (c64 bce – 19 ce) noted that Parthians taught their young men songs about ‘the deeds both of gods and of the noblest men’ (Geographica, xv.3.18) and according to Plutarch (c46 – c120 ce) the gōsān praised Parthian heroes and ridiculed the Romans with equal gusto (Crassus, xxxii.3). The Parthian minstrels influenced the Armenians, whose courtly gusanner sang heroic tales to the accompaniment of drums, pipes, lyres and trumpets (see Boyce, 13–14). Parthian songs probably continued to be performed, at least in the north-eastern parts of greater Iran, long after the Empire had ceased and by being absorbed into the Iranian national epic, Šāhnāme, collected by Firdausi in about 1000.
To the bewilderment of the Romans, the Parthian army used large drums (Gk. rhoptra) to prepare for battle: ‘they had rightly judged that, of all the senses, hearing is the one most apt to confound the soul, soonest rouses its emotions and most effectively unseats the judgement’ (Plutarch, Crassus, xxiii.7). Many of the instruments mentioned in the surviving texts are also depicted in Parthian art, and the majority appear to have been patterned on Hellenistic models known in Greece, Rome and Egypt. The most magnificent depictions are those carved on ivory drinking horns (Gk. rhuta) of the 2nd century bce found at the ancient Parthian capital of Nisa (modern Nessa, near Ashkhabad in Turkmenistan; see Colledge, fig.2 and Karomatov, 54–9) but probably made in Bactria (Boardman, 90). The carvings show auloi, kitharai and syrinxes played at Dionysian dances, ritual processions, sacrificial offerings and theatrical performances.
Musicians are also commonly shown on terracotta plaques, one of which, for example, portrays a female harp player (Colledge, pl.20d). Similar plaques from Babylon also depict harps, lutes, tambourines, syrinxes, lyres and clappers (Karvonen-Kannas, nos.277–336). Several bronze statuettes from Dura-Europus on the Euphrates (Qal’at as Sālihīyah, Syria) show a double aulos and unusually long panpipes; and bone tablets dating from the 1st or 2nd centuries ce and originating in Olbia, Ukraine, depict female dancers, musicians and acrobats. A temple at Hatra (Al Hadr, Iraq), dedicated to the Sun, the Moon and the goddess Atargatis, has a stone frieze dating from the 2nd century ce that shows a wedding procession. Among the celebrants is a singer surrounded by musicians playing tambourines, a 13-pipe syrinx, a transverse flute, double and single reed pipes and a trumpet (see Rashid, 156–65).
Christianity and with it the music of the East Syrian liturgy penetrated the area beyond the upper Tigris, via Edessa (now Urfa, Turkey) in Roman Syria, probably in the first half of the 2nd century (see Syrian church music). It coexisted with pagan minstrel traditions.
M.I. Rostovtzeff and P.V.C. Baur, eds.: The Excavations at Dura-Europos, ix: Preliminary Report of the Ninth Season of Work, 1935–1936, i (New Haven, 1944)
M. Boyce: ‘The Parthian Gōsān and Iranian Minstrel Tradition’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (1957), 10–45
M.A.R. Colledge: The Parthians (New York, 1967)
S.A. Rashid: Mesopotamien, Musikgeschichte in Bildern, ii/2 (Leipzig, 1984)
F.M. Karomatov, V.A. Meskeris and T.S. Vyzgo: Mittelasien, Musikgeschichte in Bildern, ii/9 (Leipzig, 1987)
J. Boardman: The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity (London, 1994)
K. Karvonen-Kannas: The Seleucid and Parthian Terracotta Figurines from Babylon in the Iraq Museum, the British Museum and the Louvre (Florence, 1995)
BO LAWERGREN