The finding of inscriptions sometimes can be an adventurous story in itself. This is the case of today’s inscription, which was found on a small column found in Aydin (Turkey) and probably dates back to the imperial age. After having traveled through different countries and having been used as a pedestal, it landed in Copenhagen. The epitaph that it contains is short but exceptional: it bears musical notation that allows us to reconstruct the melody that would have accompanied the text, which is a brief reflection on life and time.

Details of the inscription: translations are ours; for the story of the finding, cf. E. Pöhlmann, M. West, “Documents of Ancient Greek Music” (Oxford 2001) pp. 90-91. The reconstructed music of the epitaph of Seikilos is by Marcus Harvey via Wikimedia Commons (Creative Commons license CC BY-SA 2.5).

This episode was written by Davide Massimo in collaboration with James Hua; reading by James Hua; original soundtrack by Gilberto Bartoloni.

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