Although archaeologists have found written music texts older than the Greek Epitaph of Sicilus, such as the Hurrian Songs dating from 1400 BC, these are incomplete. Only one Hurrian song, the one designated with the number h.6 and called Hymn of cult Hurrita is almost complete.
The oldest surviving complete song, with its text and musical notation, is therefore generally considered to be the Epitaph of Sicilian , dated to the 1st century AD. although some authors consider it earlier, dating back to the second century BC
It was found inscribed on a stela, a marble column placed over the tomb that Sicilus had built for his wife Euterpe, in the ancient Hellenistic city of Trales (today Aydın in Turkey), some 30 kilometers from Ephesus. Q>
Its discoverer was the Scottish archaeologist William Mitchell Ramsay in 1883. Ramsay traveled for three years, between 1880 and 1883 in Greece and Anatolia, becoming the greatest expert of the time in the geography and history of Asia Minor.
The details of the find are not too clear. According to one version, Ramsay would have found the stele in the Aydin railway works, while another affirms that it would have been shown to him by the director of the works, Edward Purser.
It seems that after Ramsay published about the stele and its inscription, it came into Purser's hands. It would then pass to his son-in-law, who kept it in Izmir until the end of the war between Turkey and Greece in 1922, although it seems that experts deduce from the damage it shows that it could have been previously used as a support for a flowerpot.
After the fire of the city the wake was lost. She was found again in 1957 being rescued by the Dutch consul, with whom she went to The Hague. In 1966 it was acquired by the National Museum of Denmark, which is where it is currently displayed.
The song is inscribed following the ancient Greek musical notation system, which was in use from the 6th century BC. until the 4th century AD, and of which several complete compositions are preserved. It consists of symbols placed over the syllables of the text and is called the teleion system .
The translated text of the song is as follows:
Also preceding the song is an inscription that reads:
Although it has been possible to reconstruct the melody following the musical notation of the inscription, the tempo is completely unknown. of it, since it cannot be deduced from the text. Even so, there are numerous recordings that try to approximate how it should have originally sounded.