LIFE OF POLYMNASTUS

is mentioned by two of the lyric poets, Pindar and
Aleman.

Pausanias Description of Greece: The Thales who
stayed the plague at Sparta . . . according to
Polymnastus of Colophon, who composed some epic
lines upon him for the Spartans, was a native of
Gortyn.

Plutarch On Music: There were three modes em-
ploved by Polymnastus and Sacadas, the Dorian, the
Phrygian, and the Lydian .. .

The Same: The first establishment of music at
Sparta was due to Terpander. The second is
best aseribed to Thaletas of Gortyn, Xenodamus
of Cythera, Xenocritus of Locri, Polymnastus of
Colophon, and Sacadas of Argos. For we are told
that the institution of the Feast of Naked Youths
at Sparta, of the Provings in Arcadia, and of the
Feast of Garments as it is called at Argos, was
due to these musicians. Thaletas, Xenodamus, and
Xenocritus were composers of Paeans, Polymnastus
of the so-called Orthian or High-pitched Songs, and
Sacadas of Elegies . . . Polymnastus, too, composed
nomes to be sung to the flute. But whether, as the
writers on the theory of music aver, he employed
his musical powers upon the Orthian, in the absence
of ancient testimony we cannot tell for certain.

The Same: Polymnastus is credited with the in-
vention of what is now called the Hypolydian mode,

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