The First Musical Composition

Seikilos Epitaph The First Musical Composition Ancient Greece 100 AC- Edit Art, Education, Symbols and Signs, Power of Mind, Mantras, default

The Seikilos epitaph is carved in marble stele dated 100 AC from Ancient Greece

Did you know that the Seikilos epitaph is carved in marble stele, or a column, with poetry and music that is the oldest surviving complete music composition?

Seikilos Epitaph The First Musical Composition Ancient Greece 100 AC at the Museum of Denmark

The melody with lyrics, in the ancient Greek musical notation, was found engraved on a tombstone from the Hellenistic town Tralles, not far from Ephesus in Turkey. The Epitaph was discovered in 1883 by Sir W. M. Ramsay, since it was lost to be rediscovered in 1922, Its base was sawn off straight so that it could stand as a pedestal for flowerpots. In 1966, it was acquired by the Museum of Denmark.

It is a Hellenistic song written in the Ionic dialect, that for me these days rings a bell as Eastern Greece or Alexander the Great or Macedonia or the famous Ancient Egyptian Rossetta Stone (with its 3 languages inscription) and many Ancient Greek scripts found in ancient Greek colonies in Egypt, Malta, Sicily.

In Greek The raw transcription of its text is as follows:

The Seikilos score Ancient Greek Epitaph of Seikilos lyrics and ancient musical score 100 AC