Aeschylus (ii); Eumenides

Documentary References | DR150

Author details/dating: Aeschylus 458 BCE

Instrument Cited: salpinx, Tyrrhenian

Citation Reference: Aeschylus Eumenides line 569 ff.

Citation Content: Herald, give the signal and restrain the crowd; and let the piercing Tyrrhenian salpinx, filled with human breath, send forth its shrill blare to the people! For while this council-hall is filling, it is good to be silent, and for my ordinances to be learned, by the whole city for everlasting time, and by these appellants, so that their case may be decided well

The text (see below) refers to διάτορος Τυρσηνικὴ σάλπιγξ - diatoros Tursenike salpinx which is generally translated as the shrill Etruscan salpinx.

Recent Reference: Tarr 1977: pp. 15/16 although Tarr refers to the instrument as the Etruscan tuba

Ἀθηνᾶ

κήρυσσε, κῆρυξ, καὶ στρατὸν κατειργαθοῦ, ἥ τ᾽ οὖν διάτορος Τυρσηνικὴ σάλπιγξ, βροτείου πνεύματος πληρουμένη, ὑπέρτονον γήρυμα φαινέτω στρατῷ. 570πληρουμένου γὰρ τοῦδε βουλευτηρίου σιγᾶν ἀρήγει καὶ μαθεῖν θεσμοὺς ἐμοὺς πόλιν τε πᾶσαν εἰς τὸν αἰανῆ χρόνον καὶ τούσδ᾽ ὅπως ἂν εὖ καταγνωσθῇ δίκη.