Æolian race) have preserved at all times very nearly the same customs and institutions; but the population of the Ionians has been a great deal changed, and has gone through many transitions, because they have at all times resembled whatever nations of barbarians have from time to time been their masters. Accordingly, that species of melody which the Dorians composed they called the Dorian harmony, and that which the Æolians used to sing they named the Æolian harmony, and the third they called the Ionian, because they heard the Ionians sing it.
"Now the Dorian harmony is a manly and high-sounding strain, having nothing relaxed or merry in it, but, rather, it is stern and vehement, not admitting any great variations or any sudden changes. The character of the Æolian harmony is pompous and inflated, and full of a sort of pride; and these characteristics are very much in keeping with the fondness for breeding horses and for entertaining strangers which the people itself exhibits. There is nothing mean in it, but the style is elevated and fearless; and therefore we see that a fondness for banquets and for amorous indulgences is common to the whole nation, and they indulge in every sort of relaxation: on which account they cherish the style of the Sub-Dorian harmony; for that which they call the Æolian is, says Heraclides, a sort of modification of the Dorian, and is called [Greek: hypodôrios]. And we may collect the character of this Æolian harmony also from what Lasus of Hermione says in his hymn to the Ceres in Hermione, where he speaks as follows:—
I sing the praise of Ceres and of Proserpine,
The sacred wife of Clymenus, Melibœa;
Raising the heavy-sounding harmony
Of hymns Æolian.
But these Sub-Dorian songs, as they are called, are sung by nearly everybody. Since, then, there is a Sub-Dorian melody, it is with great propriety that Lasus speaks of Æolian harmony. Pratinas, too, somewhere or other says—
Aim not at too sustain'd a style, nor yet
At the relax'd Ionian harmony;
But draw a middle furrow through your ground,
And follow the Æolian muse in preference.
And in what comes afterwards he speaks more plainly—
But to all men who wish to raise their voices,
The Æolian harmony's most suitable.
