Askaules (
Greek: ἄσκαυλος from ''ἀσκός'' "bag" and ''αὐλός'' "pipe"), probably the Greek word for bag-piper, although there is no documentary authority for its use.
History
Neither *''ἄσκαυλης'' nor ''ἄσκαυλος'' (which would naturally mean the
bag-pipe
Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, Nor ...
) has been found in Greek classical authors, though
JJ Reiske—in a note on
Dio Chrysostom
Dio Chrysostom (; el, Δίων Χρυσόστομος ''Dion Chrysostomos''), Dion of Prusa or Cocceianus Dio (c. 40 – c. 115 AD), was a Greek orator, writer, philosopher and historian of the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD. Eighty of his ...
, ''Orat.'' lxxi. ad fin., where an unmistakable description of the bag-pipe occurs ("and they say that he is skilled to write, to work as an artist, and to play the pipe with his mouth, on the bag placed under his arm-pits")--says that ''ἄσκαυλος''
was the Greek word for bag-piper. The only actual corroboration of this is the use of ''ascaules'' for the pure
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''utricularius'' in
Martial
Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman poet from Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of ''Epigrams'', published in Rome between AD 86 and ...
x. 3. 8.
Dio Chrysostom flourished about AD 100; it is therefore only an assumption that the bag-pipe was known to the classical Greeks by the name of ''ἄσκαυλος''. It need not, however, be a matter of surprise that among the highly cultured Greeks such an instrument as the bag-pipe should exist without finding a place in literature. It is significant that it is not mentioned by
Pollux (''Onomast.'' iv. 74) and
Athenaeus
Athenaeus of Naucratis (; grc, Ἀθήναιος ὁ Nαυκρατίτης or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; la, Athenaeus Naucratita) was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of th ...
(''Deipnos.'' iv. 76) in their lists of the various kinds of pipes.
See also
*
Aulos
An ''aulos'' ( grc, αὐλός, plural , ''auloi'') or ''tibia'' (Latin) was an ancient Greek wind instrument, depicted often in art and also attested by archaeology.
Though ''aulos'' is often translated as "flute" or "double flute", it was usu ...
References
Attribution:
*
{{EB1911 article with no significant updates
Greek words and phrases
History of the bagpipes