The epigonion () was an ancient stringed instrument, possibly a Greek harp mentioned in

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (, or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; ) was an ancient Greek rhetorician and Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century ...

(183 AD), probably a

psaltery :''See Rotte (psaltery) for medieval harp psaltery & Ancient Greek harps for earlier psalterion'' A psaltery () (or sawtry, an archaic form) is a fretboard-less box zither (a simple chordophone) and is considered the archetype of the zither and ...

Description

The epigonion was invented, or at least introduced into

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, by Epigonus of Ambracia, a Greek musician of

Ambracia Ambracia (; , occasionally , ''Ampracia'') was a city of ancient Greece on the site of modern Arta. It was founded by the Corinthians in 625 BC and was situated about from the Ambracian Gulf, on a bend of the navigable river Arachthos (or ...

Epirus Epirus () is a Region#Geographical regions, geographical and historical region, historical region in southeastern Europe, now shared between Greece and Albania. It lies between the Pindus Mountains and the Ionian Sea, stretching from the Bay ...

, who was admitted to citizenship at

Sicyon Sicyon (; ; ''gen''.: Σικυῶνος) or Sikyōn was an ancient Greek city state situated in the northern Peloponnesus between Corinth and Achaea on the territory of the present-day regional unit of Corinthia. The ruins lie just west of th ...

as a recognition of his great musical ability and of his having been the first to pluck the strings with his fingers, instead of using the

plectrum A plectrum is a small flat tool used for plucking or strumming of a stringed instrument. For hand-held instruments such as guitars and mandolins, the plectrum is often called a pick and is held as a separate tool in the player's hand. In harpsic ...

. The instrument, which Epigonus named after himself, had forty strings. It was undoubtedly a kind of

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

or psaltery, since in an instrument of so many strings some must have been of different lengths, for tension and thickness only could hardly have produced forty different sounds, or even twenty, supposing that they were arranged in pairs of unisons. Strings of varying lengths require a frame like that of the harp, or of the

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

ian

cithara The kithara (), Latinized as cithara, was an ancient Greek musical instrument in the yoke lutes family. It was a seven-stringed professional version of the lyre, which was regarded as a rustic, or folk instrument, appropriate for teaching mus ...

which had one of the arms supporting the cross bar or zugon shorter than the other, or else strings stretched over harp-shaped bridges on a sound-board in the case of a psaltery.

Juba II Juba II of Mauretania (Latin: ''Gaius Iulius Iuba''; or ;Roller, Duane W. (2003) ''The World of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene'' "Routledge (UK)". pp. 1–3. . c. 48 BC – AD 23) was the son of Juba I and client king of Numidia (30–25 BC) and ...

, king of

Mauretania Mauretania (; ) is the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It extended from central present-day Algeria to the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, encompassing northern present-day Morocco, and from the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean in the ...

, who reigned from 30 BC, said that Epigonus brought the instrument from

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

and played upon it with the fingers of both hands, not only using it as an accompaniment to the voice, but introducing chromatic passages, and a chorus of other stringed instruments, probably citharas, to accompany the voice. Epigonus was also a skilled citharist and played with his bare hands without plectrum. Unfortunately, we have no record of when Epigonus lived.

Vincenzo Galilei Vincenzo Galilei (3 April 1520 – 2 July 1591) was an Italian lutenist, composer, and music theory, music theorist. His children included the astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei and the lute virtuoso and composer Michelagnolo Galilei. Vinc ...

has given us a description of the epigonion accompanied by an illustration, representing his conception of the ancient instrument, an upright psaltery with the outline of the clavicytherium (but no keyboard).

Virtual epigonion

In 2008, members of the Ancient Instruments Sound/Timbre Reconstruction Application (ASTRA) project used

physical modeling synthesis Physical modelling synthesis refers to sound synthesis methods in which the waveform of the sound to be generated is computed using a mathematical model, a set of equations and algorithms to simulate a physical source of sound, usually a musical i ...

to simulate the epigonion. The instrument was simulated using historical records and its audio output (music) was rendered digitally. The first digital audio rendering of the Epigonion, released by ASTRA, has a duration of one minute and 57 seconds and took about four hours to render. Due to the complexity of this process, the ASTRA project uses grid computing, to model sounds on hundreds of computers simultaneously. The epigonion is part of the Lost Sounds Orchestra, alongside other ancient instruments which ASTRA has recreated the sounds for, including the salpinx, the

aulos An ''aulos'' (plural ''auloi''; , plural ) or ''tibia'' (Latin) was a wind instrument in ancient Greece, often depicted in art and also attested by archaeology. Though the word ''aulos'' is often translated as "flute" or as " double flute", ...

, the

barbiton The barbiton, or barbitos (Greek language, Gr: wikt:βάρβιτον, or wikt:βάρβιτος, ; Latin, Lat. ''barbitus''), is an ancient stringed instrument related to the lyre known from Greek literature, Greek and Ancient Rome, Roman classic ...

, and the

syrinx In classical Greek mythology, Syrinx () was an Arcadian nymph and a follower of Artemis, known for her chastity. Being pursued by Pan, she fled into the river Ladon, and at her own request was metamorphosed into a reed from which Pan then mad ...

Recordings

ASTRA describes the sound of their modelled epigonion as "metallic, crisp and bright, with a quite different timbre in the low and high range". Recordings ASTRA's reconstructed epigonion:
Dufay recordingScarlatti Sonata in D Minor recordingScarlatti Sonata in G Major recording

Notes

References

* {{Greek musical instruments Ancient Greek musical instruments