scolion

plural scolia · alternative scolium · alternative skolion

1. Greek antiquitiesAny of a genre of songs sung in turn by symposiasts to the accompaniment of a lyre.

   In the following Scolium, Timocreon gives his opinion of riches.

   1776, Burney, Hist. Mus., volume I, page 467

   4 more examples

   Terpander was the inventour of those songs called Scolia, which were sung at feasts.

   1603, Holland, Plutarch, page 1257

   Which Athenæus, proveth against the Calumniations of Demophilus not to be a sacred hymne or Pæan, but a Scolion or Festivall Song.

   1656, Stanley, Hist. Philos., book vi, chapter iv, page 7

   The celebrated scolion, or series of scolia, addressed to Harmodius and Aristogiton.

   1850, Mure, Lit. Greece, volume III, page 101

   I mean the Scolia, when one guest commenced a sentence in verse, and handed a branch to any other he chose, who was compelled to finish the verse in the cleverest way he could.

   1874, Mahaffy, Soc. Life Greece, chapter x, page 296