1.
Musical instrument
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A musical instrument is an instrument created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument, the history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture. Early musical instruments may have used for ritual, such as a trumpet to signal success on the hunt. Cultures eventually developed composition and performance of melodies for entertainment, Musical instruments evolved in step with changing applications. The date and origin of the first device considered an instrument is disputed. The oldest object that some refer to as a musical instrument. Some consensus dates early flutes to about 37,000 years ago, many early musical instruments were made from animal skins, bone, wood, and other non-durable materials. Musical instruments developed independently in many populated regions of the world, however, contact among civilizations caused rapid spread and adaptation of most instruments in places far from their origin. By the Middle Ages, instruments from Mesopotamia were in maritime Southeast Asia, development in the Americas occurred at a slower pace, but cultures of North, Central, and South America shared musical instruments. By 1400, musical instrument development slowed in areas and was dominated by the Occident. Musical instrument classification is a discipline in its own right, Instruments can be classified by their effective range, their material composition, their size, etc. However, the most common method, Hornbostel-Sachs, uses the means by which they produce sound. The academic study of instruments is called organology. Once humans moved from making sounds with their bodies—for example, by using objects to create music from sounds. Primitive instruments were designed to emulate natural sounds, and their purpose was ritual rather than entertainment. The concept of melody and the pursuit of musical composition were unknown to early players of musical instruments. A player sounding a flute to signal the start of a hunt does so without thought of the notion of making music. Musical instruments are constructed in an array of styles and shapes
2.
Launeddas
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The launeddas is a typical Sardinian woodwind instrument made of three pipes. It is an instrument, with one of the pipes functioning as a drone. Predecessors of the launeddas can be traced back to approximately 2700 BCE in Egypt, during the Old Kingdom in Egypt, memets were depicted on the reliefs of seven tombs at Saqqarra, six tombs at Giza, and the pyramids of Queen Khentkaus. The launeddas itself dates back to at least the eighth century BCE and are played today during religious ceremonies and dances. Distinctively, they are played using extensive variations on a few phrases. Launeddas are used to play a style of music by circular breathing that has achieved some international attention, especially Efisio Melis, Antonio Lara, Dionigi Burranca. Melis and Lara were the biggest stars of the 1930s golden age of launedda, Launeddas consist of three reed pipes, two five-holed chanters of different lengths and one drone. They are played using circular breathing, since the late 20th century the launeddas has also been used in non-traditional contexts. In 1990, the American jazz saxophonist Dave Liebman released a CD called The Blessing of the Old, long Sound, on which he collaborates with the launeddas players Alberto Mariani, Carlo Mariani, and Dionigi Burranca. The CD was recorded in Milan in November 1989, triple pipes F. W. Bentzon, The Launeddas. A Sardinian folk music instrument, Akademisk Forlag, Copenhagen,1969, P. Mercurio, La Cultura delle Launeddas. I Suoni del Maestro Giovanni Casu, Solinas, Nuoro,2011, F. W. Bentzon, Launeddas, Cagliari,2002 ISBN 88-88998-00-4. (Dansk Musik-tidsskrift, Copenhagen, May,1961, No, theory and Bricolage, Attilio Cannargius Temperament, Yearbook for Traditional Music, Vol.14, pp. 45–54. Strumento dellIdentità Musicale Sarda, collana “Ethnomusica & Istruzione”, Milano,2015 ISBN9786050345346 Efisio Melis and Antonio Lara - Launeddas, the Rough Guide to Sardinia, p.335
3.
Music of ancient Greece
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It thus played an integral role in the lives of ancient Greeks. Even archaeological remains reveal an abundance of depictions on ceramics, for example, the word music comes from the Muses, the daughters of Zeus and patron goddesses of creative and intellectual endeavours. Music played a role in ancient Greek society. Pericles teacher Damon said, according to Plato in the Republic, when fundamental modes of music change, Music and gymnastics comprised the main divisions in ones schooling. Or Apollos musical victories over Marsyas and Pan. It may be that the sounds of the music heard at rituals, games, dramas. Indeed, one reads of the revolution in Greek culture, and Platos lament that the new music. used high musical talent, showmanship, the lyre was used to accompany others or even oneself for recitation and song. It was associated with an aristocratic upbringing and the cult of Apollo, the kithara, also a strummed string instrument, more complicated than the lyre. It had a frame with strings stretched from the cross-bar at the top to the sounding box at the bottom, it was held upright. The strings were tunable by adjusting wooden wedges along the cross-bar and it is one possible origin of the contemporary guitar. The barbitos, a taller lyre considered to be the least complicated, the aulos, usually double, consisting of two double-reed pipes, not joined but generally played with a mouth-band to hold both pipes steadily between the players lips. Modern reconstructions indicate that they produced a low, clarinet-like sound, there is some confusion about the exact nature of the instrument, alternate descriptions indicate single-reeds instead of double reeds. It was associated with the cult of Dionysus, sound is produced by blowing across the top of the open pipe. The hydraulis, an instrument, the forerunner of the modern organ. As the name indicates, the instrument used water to supply a constant flow of pressure to the pipes, Two detailed descriptions have survived, that of Vitruvius and Heron of Alexandria. These descriptions deal primarily with the mechanism and with the device by which the instrument was supplied with air. A well-preserved model in pottery was found at Carthage in 1885, the salpinx was a brass trumpet used for military calls, and even contested in the Olympics. A number of sources mention this metal instrument with a bone mouthpiece, the lyre, kithara, aulos, hydraulis and salpinx all found their way into the music of ancient Rome
4.
Greek art
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Greek art began in the Cycladic and Minoan civilization, and gave birth to Western classical art in the subsequent Geometric, Archaic and Classical periods. Greek art is mainly five forms, architecture, sculpture, painting, artistic production in Greece began in the prehistoric pre-Greek Cycladic and the Minoan civilizations, both of which were influenced by local traditions and the art of ancient Egypt. There are three divisions of the stages of later ancient Greek art that correspond roughly with historical periods of the same names. These are the Archaic, the Classical and the Hellenistic, the Archaic period is usually dated from 1000 BC. Of course, different forms of art developed at different speeds in different parts of the Greek world, there was no sharp transition from one artistic period to another. The art of ancient Greece has exercised an influence on the culture of many countries from ancient times until the present. In the West, the art of the Roman Empire was largely derived from Greek models, following the Renaissance in Europe, the humanist aesthetic and the high technical standards of Greek art inspired generations of European artists. Pottery was either red with black designs or black with red designs, Byzantine art is the term created for the Eastern Roman Empire from about the 5th century until the fall of Constantinople in 1452. It can also be used for the art of people of the former Byzantine Empire under the rule of Ottoman Empire after 1453, in some respects the Byzantine artistic tradition has continued in Russia and other Eastern Orthodox countries to the present day. Byzantine art grew from the art of ancient Greece and, at least before 1453, never lost sight of its classical heritage, the most profound of these was that the humanist ethic of ancient Greek art was replaced by the Christian ethic. If the purpose of art was the glorification of man. One of the most important forms of Byzantine art was, and still is, like the Cretan school it combined Byzantine traditions with an increasing Western European artistic influence, and also saw the first signiand the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C. The Heptanese School of painting succeeded the Cretan School as the school of Greek post-Byzantine painting after Crete fell to the Ottomans in 1669. Like the Cretan school it combined Byzantine traditions with an increasing Western European artistic influence, the school was based in the Ionian Islands, which were not part of Ottoman Greece, from the middle of the 17th century until the middle of the 19th century. Modern Greek art, after the establishment of the Greek Kingdom, after centuries of Ottoman rule, few opportunities for an education in the arts existed in the newly independent Greece, so studying abroad was imperative for artists. Munich, as an important international center for the arts at that time, was the place where the majority of the Greek artists of the 19th century chose to study, later on, they would return to Greece and pass on their knowledge. Both academic and personal bonds developed between early Greek painters and Munich artistry giving birth to the Greek Munich School, nikolaos Gysis was an important teacher and artist at the Munich Academy and he soon became a leading figure among Greek artists. Many of these Munich School artists chose subjects such as everyday Greek life, local customs, several important painters emerged at this time
5.
Oboe
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Oboes /ˈoʊboʊ/ OH-boh are a family of double reed woodwind musical instruments. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range, oboes are usually made of wood, but there are also oboes made of synthetic materials. A soprano oboe measures roughly 65 cm long, with keys, a conical bore. Sound is produced by blowing into the reed and vibrating a column of air, the distinctive oboe tone is versatile, and has been described as bright. When the term oboe is used alone, it is taken to mean the standard treble instrument rather than other instruments of the family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called a hautbois, hoboy. The spelling of oboe was adopted into English c.1770 from the Italian oboè, a musician who plays the oboe is called an oboist or simply an oboe player. In comparison to other woodwind instruments, the treble oboe is sometimes referred to as having a clear. The Sprightly Companion, a book published by Henry Playford in 1695, describes the oboe as Majestical and Stately. Humorously, the sound of the oboe is described in the play Angels in America as like that of a if the duck were a songbird. The rich timbre of the oboe is derived from its conical bore, as a result, oboes are readily audible over other instruments in large ensembles. The highest note of the oboe is a lower than the nominally highest note of the B♭ clarinet. Since the clarinet has a range of notes, the lowest note of the B♭ clarinet is significantly deeper than the lowest note of the oboe. Music for the oboe is written in concert pitch. Orchestras normally tune to a concert A played by the oboe, according to the League of American Orchestras, this is done because the pitch of the oboe is secure and its penetrating sound makes it ideal for tuning purposes. The pitch of the oboe is affected by the way in which the reed is made. The reed has a significant effect on the sound of the instrument, Variations in cane and other construction materials, the age of the reed, and differences in scrape and length all affect the pitch of the instrument. German and French reeds, for instance, differ in many ways, weather conditions such as temperature and humidity also affect the pitch
6.
Armenia
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Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a sovereign state in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia. The Republic of Armenia constitutes only one-tenth of historical Armenia, Armenia is a unitary, multi-party, democratic nation-state with an ancient cultural heritage. Urartu was established in 860 BC and by the 6th century BC it was replaced by the Satrapy of Armenia, in the 1st century BC the Kingdom of Armenia reached its height under Tigranes the Great. Armenia became the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion, in between the late 3rd century to early years of the 4th century, the state became the first Christian nation. The official date of adoption of Christianity is 301 AD. The ancient Armenian kingdom was split between the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires around the early 5th century, under the Bagratuni dynasty, the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia was restored in the 9th century. Declining due to the wars against the Byzantines, the fell in 1045. An Armenian principality and later a kingdom Cilician Armenia was located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea between the 11th and 14th centuries. By the 19th century, Eastern Armenia had been conquered by the Russian Empire, during World War I, Armenians living in their ancestral lands in the Ottoman Empire were systematically exterminated in the Armenian Genocide. By 1920, the state was incorporated into the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, in 1936, the Transcaucasian state was dissolved, transforming its constituent states, including the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, into full Union republics. The modern Republic of Armenia became independent in 1991 during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Republic of Armenia recognises the Armenian Apostolic Church, the worlds oldest national church, as the countrys primary religious establishment. The unique Armenian alphabet was invented by Mesrop Mashtots in 405 AD, Armenia is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Council of Europe and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. Armenia supports the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which was proclaimed in 1991, the native Armenian name for the country is Հայք. The name in the Middle Ages was extended to Հայաստան, by addition of the Persian suffix -stan, the further origin of the name is uncertain. It is also postulated that the name Hay comes from one of the two confederated, Hittite vassal states—the Ḫayaša-Azzi. The exonym Armenia is attested in the Old Persian Behistun Inscription as Armina, the ancient Greek terms Ἀρμενία and Ἀρμένιοι are first mentioned by Hecataeus of Miletus. Xenophon, a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and he relates that the people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians. According to the histories of both Moses of Chorene and Michael Chamchian, Armenia derives from the name of Aram, a descendant of Hayk
7.
Duduk
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The duduk is an ancient double-reed woodwind flute made of apricot wood. It is commonly played in pairs, while the first player plays the song, the plays a steady drone. The unflattened reed and cylindrical body produce a closer to the English horn than to more commonly known double-reeds. Unlike other double reed instruments like the oboe or shawm, the duduk has a large reed proportional to its size. UNESCO proclaimed the Armenian duduk and its music as a Masterpiece of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2005, Duduk music has been used in a number of films, most notably in The Russia House and Gladiator. Variations of the duduk exist in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, the word duduk is derived from Turkish düdük which means whistle. The word dudka in Slavic languages is a diminutive of duda and is of native Proto-Slavic origin and this instrument is not to be confused with the northwestern Bulgarian folk instrument of the same name. The earliest instruments similar to the present form are made of bone or entirely of cane. Today, the duduk is exclusively made of wood with a double reed. The particular tuning depends heavily on the region in which it is played, in the twentieth century, the Armenian duduk began to be standardized diatonic in scale and single-octave in range. Accidentals, or chromatics are achieved using fingering techniques, the instruments body also has different lengths depending upon the range of the instrument and region. The reed, is made one or two pieces of cane in a duck-bill type assembly. Unlike other double-reed instruments, the reed is quite wide, helping to give the duduk both its unique, mournful sound, as well as its remarkable breath requirements, the duduk player is called dudukahar in Armenian. The performer uses air stored in his cheeks to keep playing the instrument while he inhales air into his lungs and this circular breathing technique is commonly used with all the double-reed instruments in the Middle East. Duduk is invariably played with the accompaniment of a second dum duduk, Armenian musicologists cite evidence of the duduks use as early as 1200 BC, though Western scholars suggest it is 1,500 years old. Variants of the duduk can be found in Armenia and the Caucasus, the history of the Armenian duduk music is dated to the reign of the Armenian king Tigran the Great, who reigned from 95–55 B. C. The most important quality of the duduk is its ability to express the language dialectic and mood of the Armenian language, which is often the most challenging quality to a duduk player. While duduk most commonly refers to the reed instrument described on this page
8.
Bagpipes
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Bagpipes are a wind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The term bagpipe is equally correct in the singular or plural, though pipers usually refer to the bagpipes as the pipes, a set of bagpipes minimally consists of an air supply, a bag, a chanter, and usually at least one drone. Many bagpipes have more than one drone in various combinations, held in place in stocks—sockets that fasten the various pipes to the bag, the most common method of supplying air to the bag is through blowing into a blowpipe, or blowstick. In some pipes the player must cover the tip of the blowpipe with their tongue while inhaling, an innovation, dating from the 16th or 17th century, is the use of a bellows to supply air. In these pipes, sometimes called cauld wind pipes, air is not heated or moistened by the players breathing, the bag is an airtight reservoir that holds air and regulates its flow via arm pressure, allowing the player to maintain continuous even sound. The player keeps the bag inflated by blowing air into it through a blowpipe or pumping air into it with a bellows, materials used for bags vary widely, but the most common are the skins of local animals such as goats, dogs, sheep, and cows. More recently, bags made of materials including Gore-Tex have become much more common. A drawback of the bag is the potential for fungal spores to colonise the bag because of a reduction in necessary cleaning. An advantage of a bag is that they have a zip which allows the user to fit a more effective moisture trap to the inside of the bag. Bags cut from larger materials are usually saddle-stitched with an extra strip folded over the seam, holes are then cut to accommodate the stocks. The chanter is the pipe, played with two hands. Almost all bagpipes have at least one chanter, some pipes have two chanters, particularly those in North Africa, the Balkans in Southern Europe, and Southwest Asia. A chanter can be bored internally so that the walls are parallel for its full length. The chanter is usually open-ended, so there is no way for the player to stop the pipe from sounding. Thus most bagpipes share a constant, legato sound where there are no rests in the music, primarily because of this inability to stop playing, technical movements are used to break up notes and to create the illusion of articulation and accents. Because of their importance, these embellishments are often highly technical systems specific to each bagpipe, a few bagpipes have closed ends or stop the end on the players leg, so that when the player closes the chanter becomes silent. A practice chanter is a chanter without bag or drones, allowing a player to practice the instrument quietly, the term chanter is derived from the Latin cantare, or to sing, much like the modern French word chanteur. The note from the chanter is produced by a reed installed at its top, the reed may be a single or double reed
9.
Great Highland bagpipe
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The Great Highland bagpipe is a type of bagpipe native to Scotland. It has acquired widespread recognition through its usage in the British military, the bagpipe is first attested in Scotland around 1400, having previously appeared in European artwork in Spain in the 13th century. Though widely famous for its role in military and civilian pipe bands, though popular belief sets varying dates for the introduction of bagpipes to Scotland, concrete evidence is limited until approximately the 15th century. One Clan still owns a remnant of a set of bagpipes said to have carried at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. There are many ancient legends and stories about bagpipes which were passed down through minstrels and oral tradition, however, textual evidence for Scottish bagpipes is more definite in 1396, when records of the Battle of the North Inch of Perth reference warpipes being carried into battle. However, the loss of the chiefs power and patronage. It was soon realised that Highlanders made excellent troops and a number of regiments were raised from the Highlands over the half of the eighteenth century. The custom was revived by the 51st Highland Division for their assault on the lines at the start of the Second Battle of El Alamein on 23 October 1943. Each attacking company was led by a piper, playing tunes that would allow units to recognise which Highland regiment they belonged to. Although the attack was successful, losses among the pipers were high, the Great Highland bagpipe is classified as a woodwind instrument, like the bassoon, oboe, and clarinet. Although it is classified as a double-reed instrument, the reeds are all closed inside the wooden stocks. The Great Highland bagpipe actually has four reeds, the chanter reed, a modern set has a bag, a chanter, a blowpipe, two tenor drones, and one bass drone. The scale of the chanter is in Mixolydian mode, which has a flattened seventh scale degree and it has a range from one whole tone lower than the tonic to one octave above it. The drones are tuned to this note, called A. So the scale sounds actually as A♭, B♭, C, D, E♭, F, G, A♭, B♭, historically it was indeed flatter, as evidenced by recordings, and extant instruments. Highland bagpipe music is written in the key of D major, due to the lack of chromatic notes, to change key is also to change modes, tunes are in A Mixolydian, D major, B minor, or occasionally E Dorian. In concert pitch it will be B♭ Mixolydian, E♭ major, traditionally, certain notes were sometimes tuned slightly off from just intonation. For example, on some old chanters the D and high G would be somewhat sharp, today, however, the notes of the chanter are usually tuned in just intonation to the Mixolydian scale
10.
Military band
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A military band is a group of personnel that performs musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind and percussion instruments, the conductor of a band commonly bears the title of Bandmaster or Director of Music. Ottoman military bands are thought to be the oldest variety of marching band in the world. Military bands also play a part in funeral ceremonies. There are two types of traditions in military bands. The first is military field music and this type of music includes bugles, bagpipes, or fifes and almost always drums. This type of music was used to control troops on the battlefield as well as for entertainment, following the development of instruments such as the keyed trumpet or the saxhorn family of brass instruments, a second tradition of the brass and woodwind military band was formed. 11th century book Divânu Lügatit-Türk mentions prototype of Mehtaran, as a nevbet, 17th century traveler Evliya Çelebi noted that the Ottoman Empire had 40 guilds of musicians in 1670s Istanbul. Ottoman military bands influenced European equivalents, each regiment in the British Army maintained its own military band. Until 1749 bandsmen were civilians hired at the expense of the colonel commanding a regiment, instruments during the 18th century included fifes, drums, the oboe, French horn, clarinet and bassoon. Drummers summoned men from their farms and ranches to muster for duty, in the chaotic environment of the battlefield, musical instruments were the only means of commanding the men to advance, stand or retire. In the mid 19th century each smaller unit had their own fifer and drummer, when units massed for battle a band of musicians was formed for the whole. The American military band traditions date from the British era, from the American Revolutionary War onward military bands marched in the same manner as their French counterparts. During the American Civil War most Union regiments had both types of groups within the unit and these performed in a concert setting for entertainment, as well as continued to perform drill and martial events. Field music is popular with many organizations such as police, fire. Indeed, Russia has a tradition of military bands and so many military marches have been composed by various composers through the years. The military bands also provide musical support in civil and military events, in a wide range of groups. Some can even continue the old Russian military band traditions by donning the old imperial military uniforms of the Russian Empire, todays French Armed Forces bands are also of the headquarters element from the regimental or brigade level onward and can also provide musical elements for civil and military events
11.
Trireme
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A trireme was an ancient vessel and a type of galley that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greeks and Romans. The trireme derives its name from its three rows of oars, manned with one man per oar. The early trireme was a development of the penteconter, an ancient warship with a row of 25 oars on each side, and of the bireme. The word dieres does not appear until the Roman period and it must be assumed the term pentekontor covered the two-level type. Triremes played a role in the Persian Wars, the creation of the Athenian maritime empire. The term is also used to refer to medieval and early modern galleys with three files of oarsmen per side as triremes. Fragments from an 8th-century relief at the Assyrian capital of Nineveh depicting the fleets of Tyre and Sidon show ships with rams and they have been interpreted as two-decked warships, and also as triremes. Modern scholarship is divided on the provenance of the trireme, Greece or Phoenicia, clement of Alexandria in the 2nd century, drawing on earlier works, explicitly attributes the invention of the trireme to the Sidonians. According to Thucydides, the trireme was introduced to Greece by the Corinthians in the late 8th century BC, and the Corinthian Ameinocles built four such ships for the Samians. This was interpreted by later writers, Pliny and Diodorus, to mean that triremes were invented in Corinth, Thucydides meanwhile clearly states that in the time of the Persian Wars, the majority of the Greek navies consisted of penteconters and ploia makrá. Athens was at that time embroiled in a conflict with the island of Aegina. The first clash with the Persian navy was at the Battle of Artemisium, however, the decisive naval clash occurred at Salamis, where Xerxes invasion fleet was decisively defeated. After Salamis and another Greek victory over the Persian fleet at Mycale, the Ionian cities were freed, gradually, the predominance of Athens turned the League effectively into an Athenian Empire. The source and foundation of Athens power was her strong fleet, in addition, as it provided permanent employment for the citys poorer citizens, the fleet played an important role in maintaining and promoting the radical Athenian form of democracy. Athenian maritime power is the first example of thalassocracy in world history, aside from Athens, other major naval powers of the era included Syracuse, Corfu and Corinth. In the subsequent Peloponnesian War, naval battles fought by triremes were crucial in the balance between Athens and Sparta. Based on all archeological evidence, the design of trireme surely pushed the limits of the ancient world. After gathering the proper timbers and materials it was time to consider the fundamentals of the trireme design and these fundamentals included accommodations, propulsion, weight and waterline, center of gravity and stability, strength, and feasibility
12.
Plato
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Plato was a philosopher in Classical Greece and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy, unlike nearly all of his philosophical contemporaries, Platos entire work is believed to have survived intact for over 2,400 years. Along with his teacher, Socrates, and his most famous student, Aristotle, Plato laid the foundations of Western philosophy. Alfred North Whitehead once noted, the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. In addition to being a figure for Western science, philosophy. Friedrich Nietzsche, amongst other scholars, called Christianity, Platonism for the people, Plato was the innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms in philosophy, which originate with him. He was not the first thinker or writer to whom the word “philosopher” should be applied, few other authors in the history of Western philosophy approximate him in depth and range, perhaps only Aristotle, Aquinas and Kant would be generally agreed to be of the same rank. Due to a lack of surviving accounts, little is known about Platos early life, the philosopher came from one of the wealthiest and most politically active families in Athens. Ancient sources describe him as a bright though modest boy who excelled in his studies, the exact time and place of Platos birth are unknown, but it is certain that he belonged to an aristocratic and influential family. Based on ancient sources, most modern scholars believe that he was born in Athens or Aegina between 429 and 423 BCE. According to a tradition, reported by Diogenes Laertius, Ariston traced his descent from the king of Athens, Codrus. Platos mother was Perictione, whose family boasted of a relationship with the famous Athenian lawmaker, besides Plato himself, Ariston and Perictione had three other children, these were two sons, Adeimantus and Glaucon, and a daughter Potone, the mother of Speusippus. The brothers Adeimantus and Glaucon are mentioned in the Republic as sons of Ariston, and presumably brothers of Plato, but in a scenario in the Memorabilia, Xenophon confused the issue by presenting a Glaucon much younger than Plato. Then, at twenty-eight, Hermodorus says, went to Euclides in Megara, as Debra Nails argues, The text itself gives no reason to infer that Plato left immediately for Megara and implies the very opposite. Thus, Nails dates Platos birth to 424/423, another legend related that, when Plato was an infant, bees settled on his lips while he was sleeping, an augury of the sweetness of style in which he would discourse about philosophy. Ariston appears to have died in Platos childhood, although the dating of his death is difficult. Perictione then married Pyrilampes, her mothers brother, who had served many times as an ambassador to the Persian court and was a friend of Pericles, Pyrilampes had a son from a previous marriage, Demus, who was famous for his beauty. Perictione gave birth to Pyrilampes second son, Antiphon, the half-brother of Plato and these and other references suggest a considerable amount of family pride and enable us to reconstruct Platos family tree
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Aulos". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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