Life
Terpander was an ancient Greek poet who, like Olympus and Linus, straddles the line between myth and history. He was said to be born in Lesbos, with the later tradition settling on the town of Antissa there. He was active throughout the first half of the seventh century BCE. He was said to have been invited by the Spartans for the purpose of composing a song that would settle the unrest that had been recently plaguing the city. Terpander is the first such poet heralded at Sparta, and began a musical institution there, which continued on for about two hundred years afterwards.
He is said to have started a musical agon as part of the Carneia festival in the twenty-sixth Olympiad (676-672), for which he was the first winner.
Works
In the estimation of Campbell, the vast majority, if not all, of the fragments ascribed to Terpander are probably spurious. It seems his works did not survive fully into the Hellenistic era, and he was not edited by any Hellenistic scholar that we know. Despite this, he was clearly famous in his own day. Late traditions attempted to make him related or connected to Homer or Hesiod.
He is credited with the invention of the lyric nomos and adding the seventh string to the lyre. Besides the aforementioned win at the Carneia, he also is said to have won at the Pythian musical contest four times.
Further Reading
- David Campbell 1988. Greek Lyric II. Loeb Classical Library. Harvard University Press.
- Herbert Weir Smyth 1963. Greek Melic Poets. Biblo and Tannen.
