Ship-shape andSambuca-fashion

Abstract

In Book viii ch. 6 Polybius describes the structure and use of a siege-engine, theσαμβύκη, so called from its resemblance to a musical instrument of that name. The purpose of this article is to review the evidence for the shape of the musical instrument, and for the structure of the siege-engine, and for possible points of similarity between them.References to the musical instrument are not uncommon in literature from the fifth century B.C. onwards; there are a number of points on which they agree. Theσαμβύκηwas a stringed instrument, and was generally thought to be of non-Greek, near-Eastern origin. The alternative view, that it was invented by Ibycus the lyric poet of Rhegium, was probably based on a fanciful etymology, and can reasonably be disregarded. The derivation ofἰαμβύκη(probably just a variant spelling) fromἰαμβόςis also fanciful.As regards chronology, theσαμβύκηseems to have been introduced into Greece in the late fifth century B.C., and was at that time regarded as something of a novelty by the comic poets. Some later scholars, however, saw fit to correct this impression, and point out that it was in fact a very ancient instrument. Its main use was apparently to provide a musical accompaniment for debauchery: in fact, so disreputable was the instrument that the word for a female player of it,σαμβυκιστρία, was virtually synonymous withπορνή.