Book 14
10
Tryphon also gives a list of the different names of songs, as follows. He says—"There is the Himæus, which is also called the Millstone song, which men used to sing while grinding corn, perhaps from the word ἱμαλίς.. But ἱμαλίς is a Dorian word, signifying a return, and also the quantity of corn which the millers gave into the bargain. Then there is the Elinus, which is the song of the men who worked at the loom; as Epicharmus shows us in his Atalantas. There is also the Ioulos, sung by the women who spin. And Semus the Delian, in his treatise on Pæans, says—'"They used to call the handfuls of barley taken separately, ἄμάλαι; but when they were collected so that a great many were made into one sheaf, then they were called οὔλοι and ἴουλοι.. And Ceres herself was called sometimes Chloe, and sometimes Ioulo; and, as being the inventions of this goddess, both the fruits of the ground and also the songs addressed to the goddess were called οὖλοι and ἴουλοι: and so, too, we have the words δημήτρουλοι and καλλίουλοι, and the line— πλεῖστον οὖλον οὖλον ἵει, ἴουλον ἵει. But others say that the Ioulis is the song of the workers in wool. There are also the songs of nurses, which are called καταβαυκαλήσεις. There was also a song used at the feast of Swings,There is no account of what this feast of Swings was. The Greek is ἔωραι. Some have fancied it may have had some connexion with the images of Bacchus (oscilla) hung up in the trees. See Virg. G. ii. 389. in honour of Erigone, which is called Aletis. At all events, Aristotle says, in his treatise on the Constitution of the Colophonians—Theodorus also himself died afterwards by a violent death. And he is said to have been a very luxurious man, as is evident from his poetry; for even now the women sing his songs on the festival of the Swing.
