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EPIGONION (Gr. errcryovewv)

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 690 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EPIGONION (Gr. errcryovewv) , an See also:ancient stringed See also:instrument mentioned in See also:Athenaeus 183 C, probably a See also:psaltery. The epigonion was invented, or at least introduced into See also:Greece, by Epigonus, a See also:Greek musician of See also:Ambracia in See also:Epirus, who was admitted to citizenship at See also:Sicyon as a recognition of his See also:great musical ability and of his having been the first to See also:pluck the strings with his fingers, instead of using the plectrum.' The instrument, which Epigonus named after himself, had See also:forty strings.2 It was undoubtedly a See also:kind of See also:harp 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 1 See also:Michael See also:Praetorius, Syntagma musicum, torn. 1, c. 13, p. 380: Salomon See also:van Til, Sing-Dicht and Spiel-Kunst, p. 95. 2 See also:Pollux, Onomasticon, See also:lib. iv. cap. 9, 59. EPIGONION a See also:frame like that of the harp, or of the See also:Egyptian See also:cithara which had one of the arms supporting the See also:cross See also:bar or zugon shorter than the other,' or else strings stretched over harp-shaped See also:bridges on a See also:sound-See also:board in the See also:case of a psaltery. See also:Juba II., See also:king of See also:Mauretania, who reigned from 30 B.C., said (ap. Athen. l.c.) that Epigonus brought the instrument from See also:Alexandria and played upon it with the fingers of both hands, not only using it as an See also:accompaniment to the See also:voice, but introducing See also:chromatic passages, and a See also:chorus of other stringed See also:instruments, probably citharas, to accompany the voice.

Epigonus was also a skilled citharist and played with his See also:

bare hands without plectrum? Unfortunately we' have no See also:record of when Epigonus lived. Vincenzo Galilei3 has given us a description of the epigonion accompanied by an See also:illustration, representing his conception of the ancient instrument, an upright psaltery with the outline of the See also:clavicytherium (but no See also:keyboard). (K.

End of Article: EPIGONION (Gr. errcryovewv)

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