Askaules
Encyclopedia
Askaules probably the Greek word for bag-piper, although there is no documentary authority for its use.
--in a note on Dio Chrysostom
, Orat. lxxi. ad fin., where an unmistakable description of the bag-pipe occurs ("and they say that he is skilled to write, to work as an artist, and to play the pipe with his mouth, on the bag placed under his arm-pits")--says that ἄσκαυλος [?] was the Greek word for bag-piper. The only actual corroboration of this is the use of ascaules for the pure Latin utricularius in Martial
x. 3. 8.
Dio Chrysostom flourished about AD 100
; it is therefore only an assumption that the bag-pipe was known to the classical Greeks by the name of ἄσκαυλος. It need not, however, be a matter of surprise that among the highly cultured Greeks such an instrument as the bag-pipe should exist without finding a place in literature. It is significant that it is not mentioned by Pollux
(Onomast. iv. 74) and Athenaeus
(Deipnos. iv. 76) in their lists of the various kinds of pipes.
History
Neither *ἄσκαυλης nor ἄσκαυλος (which would naturally mean the bag-pipe) has been found in Greek classical authors, though JJ ReiskeJohann Jakob Reiske
Johann Jakob Reiske was a German scholar and physician. He was a pioneer in the fields of Arabic and Byzantine philology as well as Islamic numismatics.-Biography:Reiske was born at Zörbig, in Electoral Saxony....
--in a note on Dio Chrysostom
Dio Chrysostom
Dio Chrysostom , Dion of Prusa or Dio Cocceianus was a Greek orator, writer, philosopher and historian of the Roman Empire in the 1st century. Eighty of his Discourses are extant, as well as a few Letters and a funny mock essay In Praise of Hair, as well as a few other fragments...
, Orat. lxxi. ad fin., where an unmistakable description of the bag-pipe occurs ("and they say that he is skilled to write, to work as an artist, and to play the pipe with his mouth, on the bag placed under his arm-pits")--says that ἄσκαυλος [?] was the Greek word for bag-piper. The only actual corroboration of this is the use of ascaules for the pure Latin utricularius in Martial
Martial
Marcus Valerius Martialis , was a Latin poet from Hispania best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan...
x. 3. 8.
Dio Chrysostom flourished about AD 100
100
Year 100 was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Traianus and Frontinus...
; it is therefore only an assumption that the bag-pipe was known to the classical Greeks by the name of ἄσκαυλος. It need not, however, be a matter of surprise that among the highly cultured Greeks such an instrument as the bag-pipe should exist without finding a place in literature. It is significant that it is not mentioned by Pollux
Julius Pollux
Julius Pollux was a Greek or Egyptian grammarian and sophist from Alexandria who taught at Athens, where he was appointed professor of rhetoric at the Academy by the emperor Commodus — on account of his melodious voice, according to Philostratus' Lives of the Sophists. Nothing of his...
(Onomast. iv. 74) and Athenaeus
Athenaeus
Athenaeus , of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourished about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD...
(Deipnos. iv. 76) in their lists of the various kinds of pipes.