Uploaded June 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Engraved on an ancient Burial Stele at Tralles, Asia Minor, this beautiful melody was discovered and published by Ramsay, 1883. Musical signs deciphered by Wessley, 1891. The stone itself, long preserved in the collection of Young at Doudja, disappeared after the burning of Smyrna (September 1923). It is now in the Copenhagen Museum, Inv. No. 14897.
This new arrangement of the piece will form track 18 of my new album, "Magic of the Kithara" - out on all the usual digital platforms on 1st January 2025, studio quality audio (superior to CD quality!) can be downloaded from Bandcamp, complete with a PDF booklet of the detailed album notes:
michaellevy.bandcamp.com/album/magic-of-the-kithara
This song, written in the ancient Greek Hypophrygian Mode, is so far, the oldest complete piece of music ever found - unlike the other precious shards of ancient Greek music which have survived, this piece is unique, as it survived in its entirety. The ancient Greek burial stele on which it was found, , bore the following epitaph: "I am a portrait in stone. I was put here by Seikilos, where I remain forever, the symbol of timeless remembrance".
The timeless words of the song are:
"Hoson zes, phainou
Meden holos su lupou;
Pros oligon esti to zen
To telos ho chronos apaitei"
Translation - "While you live, shine
Don't suffer anything at all;
Life exists only a short while
And time demands its toll"
Subscribe:
youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=Klezfiddle1
Official Artist Links:
Official Website:
ancientlyre.com
Digital Music Artist Profiles:
Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/7Dx2vFEg8DmOJ5YCRm4A5v
iTunes & Apple Music:
itunes.apple.com/us/artist/michael-levy/id4324920
Amazon:
amzn.to/2zmJph3
Bandcamp:
michaellevy.bandcamp.com
Facebook Page:
facebook.com/beautifullyre
Twitter:
twitter.com/AncientLyre
Instagram:
instagram.com/mlevy1400bce
Patreon:
patreon.com/Michael_Levy_Ancient_Lyre_Music
Engraved on an ancient Burial Stele at Tralles, Asia Minor, this beautiful melody was discovered and published by Ramsay, 1883. Musical signs deciphered by Wessley, 1891. The stone itself, long preserved in the collection of Young at Doudja, disappeared after the burning of Smyrna (September 1923). It is now in the Copenhagen Museum, Inv. No. 14897.
This new arrangement of the piece will form track 18 of my new album, "Magic of the Kithara" - out on all the usual digital platforms on 1st January 2025, studio quality audio (superior to CD quality!) can be downloaded from Bandcamp, complete with a PDF booklet of the detailed album notes:
michaellevy.bandcamp.com/album/magic-of-the-kithara
This song, written in the ancient Greek Hypophrygian Mode, is so far, the oldest complete piece of music ever found - unlike the other precious shards of ancient Greek music which have survived, this piece is unique, as it survived in its entirety. The ancient Greek burial stele on which it was found, , bore the following epitaph: "I am a portrait in stone. I was put here by Seikilos, where I remain forever, the symbol of timeless remembrance".
The timeless words of the song are:
"Hoson zes, phainou
Meden holos su lupou;
Pros oligon esti to zen
To telos ho chronos apaitei"
Translation - "While you live, shine
Don't suffer anything at all;
Life exists only a short while
And time demands its toll"
Subscribe:
youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=Klezfiddle1
Official Artist Links:
Official Website:
ancientlyre.com
Digital Music Artist Profiles:
Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/7Dx2vFEg8DmOJ5YCRm4A5v
iTunes & Apple Music:
itunes.apple.com/us/artist/michael-levy/id4324920
Amazon:
amzn.to/2zmJph3
Bandcamp:
michaellevy.bandcamp.com
Facebook Page:
facebook.com/beautifullyre
Twitter:
twitter.com/AncientLyre
Instagram:
instagram.com/mlevy1400bce
Patreon:
patreon.com/Michael_Levy_Ancient_Lyre_Music









![The Cave of Hermes
A presentation of track 1, The Cave of Hermes from my new album of the same title - out on all major digital music platforms from 1st January 2022, this release is available to pre-order now, from Bandcamp & direct from my website:
https://michaellevy.bandcamp.com/album/the-cave-of-hermes
https://ancientlyre.com/album/2073284/the-cave-of-hermes
The track features an original composition for recreated custom made ancient Greek tortoise shell lyre; featuring an actual tortoise shell, arms of goat horn & authentic gut strings, as featured on the album cover, custom made in modern Greece, by Luthieros. As no two tortoise shells are alike, the timbre of the lyre featured in the second track o the album, Song of the Tortoise Shell Lyre, is completely different!
This piece attempts to capture some of the essense of the story of the birth of Hermes, born in a cave and who was said to have invented the first lyre out of the shell of a tortoise - as described here by Pseudo-Apollodorus, in Bibliotheca 3. 112 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer, circa 2nd A.D.) :
The oldest daughter [of Atlas] Maia, after her intercourse with Zeus, bore Hermes in a cave on Kyllene. Though he was laid out in swaddling-clothes with her winnowing-basket for a cradle, he escaped and made his way to Pieria
To capture an essence of the legend of the birth of Hermes, the haunting reverb added into the mixing & mastering process of this track, was sampled from an actual cave!
The piece is in the intense & mournful ancient Greek Hypodorian Mode - misnamed the Aolian mode in the Middle Ages, this mode, the equivalent intervals as A-A on the white notes of the piano, is the basis of our modern minor scales, but heard here in the focussed purity of just intonation.
Subscribe:
http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=Klezfiddle1
Official Artist Links:
Official Website:
http://www.ancientlyre.com/
Digital Music Artist Profiles:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7Dx2vFEg8DmOJ5YCRm4A5v
iTunes & Apple Music:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/michael-levy/id4324920
Amazon:
http://amzn.to/2zmJph3
Bandcamp:
https://michaellevy.bandcamp.com/
Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/beautifullyre
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/AncientLyre
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/mlevy1400bce/
Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/Michael_Levy_Ancient_Lyre_Music The Cave of Hermes](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/s31j0RRb8Mg/mqdefault.jpg)
![The Discord of Eris (Microtonal Improvisation for Ancient Greek Tortoise Shell Lyre)
Eris, Roman Discordia, in Greco-Roman mythology, the personification of strife. She was called the daughter of Nyx (Night) by Hesiod, but she was sister and companion of Ares (the Roman Mars) in Homer’s version. Eris is best known for her part in starting the Trojan War
[Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eris-Greek-and-Roman-mythology]
In this improvisation, I attempt to evoke the feeling of discord, by the use of the dissonant, exotic-sounding ancient Greek Archytas Enharmonic Genus - a microtonal ancient Greek musical mode, which features the use of quartertones:
http://www.ex-tempore.org/ARCHYTAS/ARCHYTAS.html
The lyre featured in this performance, has a resonator fashioned from a foraged Greek land tortoise & a plectrum carved from goats horn - custom made in modern Greece, by Luthieros:
https://www.luthieros.com
For full details of my many musical adventures in time travel, please check out all my official artist links below - many thanks for watching!
Subscribe:
http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=Klezfiddle1
Official Artist Links:
Official Website:
http://www.ancientlyre.com/
Digital Music Artist Profiles:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7Dx2vFEg8DmOJ5YCRm4A5v
iTunes & Apple Music:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/michael-levy/id4324920
Amazon:
http://amzn.to/2zmJph3
Bandcamp:
https://michaellevy.bandcamp.com/
Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/beautifullyre
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/AncientLyre
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/mlevy1400bce/
Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/Michael_Levy_Ancient_Lyre_Music The Discord of Eris (Microtonal Improvisation for Ancient Greek Tortoise Shell Lyre)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sFdndehhUgs/mqdefault.jpg)