To march in phalanx, to jump with weights, to knead the bread, to tread the grapes. What is the aulos for?

Abstract

The present article aims to study the musical accompaniment of physical activities such as work, athletic or military practices. Such accompaniment, mainly by the aulos, is verified over a millennium both in iconographic and literary sources from the Homeric poems to late Antique texts and mosaics from the time of Justinian. This work seeks to identify an internal logic of this cultural phenomenon and to investigate whether the reasons for this musical usage over this long period, in varied situations, including labour, athletic and military activities, follows the same general trans-historical logic, or whether the likeness is only superficial. Therefore, it analyses the musical repertoire of work songs, and the related iconography of the vintage or bread-kneading. Furthermore, it looks for the cultural explanations formulated in Antiquity for the presence of aulos-music in sporting competition and military activities. It concludes that on the level of rhythm and melody there was a form of permanence regarding the internal logic.