Among wind instruments we must, in the first instance, consider the flute. Although for a time this was not popular in the most fashionable circles at Athens, still it was much in use in Boeotia, and also in the rest of Greece, even among amateurs, and at all times was of great importance, especially for choruses
Fig. 139.
and festive performances, for entertainments during meals, dancing, and other such occasions. The form of this instrument which is commonest on the monuments is the double flute. The ancient flute (ἀὐλός) differed in shape and use from that which bears the name at the present day, since the players did not blow into it at the side, but made use of a mouthpiece like that of a clarinet. This mouthpiece, which was usually of the same material as the flute proper, has an easily vibrating tongue cut in its upper part, which vibrates within the mouth, as the greater part of the mouthpiece is taken right into the mouth by the player. The principal part of the flute, the pipe, which is either of the same thickness throughout, or else somewhat widened at the lower end, was sometimes formed of a single piece and sometimes of several component parts. Various notes were produced by the holes of which there were at first only three or four, but afterwards a larger number; there were also holes at the side, which helped to increase the compass of the flute, and various other helps, such as valves on the side, rings which in turning either opened or closed the holes, etc. In spite of the very numerous practical attempts instituted during the present century to procure some notion of the mode of playing and the effect of the ancient flute, it does not seem possible to obtain any proper conception of it.
The pipe seems never to have been used singly in Greece, but only as the double flute, as we see on so many representations, and, as a rule, the flutes are both of equal length. In order to facilitate the playing on two instruments at the same time or in quick succession, and perhaps also to prevent the escape of air, they often, though not always, made use of a cheek-piece round the mouth. The bronze statue of a flute player, of which both sides are represented in Figs. [138] and [138], shows very plainly the mode in which this bandage was fastened by two leathern thongs passed round the head; we can also recognise it in the flute player in Fig. [140], a vase painting which undoubtedly, as the pedestal on which he stands indicates, represents a flute player at a public contest; this is also suggested by his curious costume—the long festive robe and short jacket without sleeves.
In the vase painting represented in Fig. [127], the flute player, who accompanies the gymnastic exercises, is also playing the double flute with the mouth bandage; over his arm hangs the flute case, which was usually made of skin, and with which the case for the mouthpieces, of which they had several, was connected. On the other hand, the youth in Fig. [75] has no bandage; nor yet the two women in Fig. [126], or the seated hetaera in Fig. [142], nor the youth who
Fig. 140.