(Gk.; Lat. scolium).
Term applied to several different types of song performed at symposia (see Symposium). Greek writers differ among themselves in their descriptions of the genre. Two characteristics of performance were common: the guests sang successively, perhaps most often in random order; and following the order of singers, a myrtle branch passed from guest to guest. Plutarch (Table-Talk, 615b–c) described the genre, stating that it was named ‘skolion’ because of the intricate and twisted character of its path, an etymology based on the similarity among the terms skólion, skolión and duskolos. Among other things, skolión means ‘winding’ or ‘obscure’, while duskolos means ‘difficult’. The skolion may therefore be seen as ‘obscurely constructed’, winding its way around the room from couch to couch, or difficult to sing. In some cases skolia may have been composed of verses improvised sequentially by each guest, whereas in other cases one guest might begin a traditional song by Simonides or Stesichorus, hand the myrtle to another guest, who would be expected to continue the song until handing the myrtle to the next guest, and so on. In defining the skolion, Proclus (Useful Knowledge) adds that skolia could be biting or satirical in character and were influenced by Dionysian intoxication, an observation supported by Aristophanes' Wasps (1216–62), which offers a glimpse of singing at a symposium. Scholiasts commenting on Wasps observe that the songs were called ‘skolia’ because it was difficult to pick up a piece at some point in the middle without any warning or preparation. The scholiast to Plato's Gorgias (451e) states that skolia were so called because the drinking companions offered the sprig to each other in turn and those who did not sing were shown to be uncultured.
Athenaeus emphasizes the ancient and simple style of skolia and names Alcaeus, Anacreon and Praxilla as famous exponents. 25 skolia are preserved in his Sophists at Dinner (xv, 693f–696a), and he suggests that the set could be viewed as representing a single performance. After the first 7 songs, there is a short interruption during which the guests comment on the song and one quotes a parody of it by Anaxandrides; the songs then resume. Athenaeus's arrangement of skolia 10–13, which can be combined to form a part of the ‘Song of Harmodius’, one of the skolia specifically mentioned in Aristophanes' Wasps (1225) and Acharnians (978–80 and 1093), provides a clear example of the way in which the verses of a traditional song could be passed from guest to guest. The text itself employs a constant measure and refrains. The first two lines of the first verse are repeated in the third verse, and the last two lines of the first verse are nearly repeated in the fourth verse. All this suggests a simple repetitive melody that would be easy for a group of symposiasts to pass from one person to the next, perhaps representing the free and convivial manner in which the skolia were performed. On the authority of Artemon Kasandreus (from whose collection the skolia were perhaps drawn), Athenaeus defines three types: an initial Nomos sung by all the guests at the symposium; a sequence of verses in which the men would sing one after another; and a series of songs performed by select singers in whatever order occurred. This accords in general with Plutarch's description and with the scholiast to Plato's Gorgias where the definitions are ascribed to Dicaearchus's treatise on musical competitions. Athenaeus, however, asserts that ‘skolion’ does not refer so much to a particular type of composition as to the irregular performance, moving from person to person. The skolia presented by Athenaeus would seem to fall primarily in his second category: they are short and simple, with texts ranging over historical incidents, life in general and personal sentiment. None is satirical in the sense suggested by Proclus's definition.
The famous Epitaph of Seikilos, one of the surviving fragments of ancient Greek music (see Greece, §I, 8(i)), has been frequently described since its discovery in 1883 as a skolion. Although this piece, inscribed on a tombstone, is short and simple in style, its context hardly suggests a skolion. Rather, the piece is an epigram, a short and simple verse commonly placed on grave stones and votive tablets. The scholiast to Plato's Gorgias made an explicit association between the epigram and the skolion, and the confusion of modern scholarship on this composition is not surprising.
R. Reitzenstein: Epigramm und Skolion (Giessen, 1893)
W. Aly: ‘Skolion’, Paulys Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, 2nd ser., iii (Stuttgart, 1894), 558–66
E. Pöhlmann: ‘Parōidia’, Glotta, l (1972), 144–56
M. van der Valk: ‘On the Composition of the Attic Scolia’, Hermes, cii (1974), 1–20
A.J. Neubecker: Altgriechische Musik (Darmstadt, 1977), 57–9
D.A. Campbell, ed. and trans.: Greek Lyric, v (Cambridge, MA, and London, 1993), 270–303
T.J. Mathiesen: Apollo's Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Lincoln, NE, 1999), 141–51
THOMAS J. MATHIESEN