scolion

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Ancient Greek σκόλῐον (skólĭon).

Pronunciation

  • enPR: skōʹlĭŏn, IPA(key): /ˈskəʊlɪɒn/
  • Homophone: scholion

Noun

scolion (plural scolia)

  1. (Greek antiquities) Any of a genre of songs sung in turn by symposiasts to the accompaniment of a lyre.
    • 1603, Holland, Plutarch, page 1257:
      Terpander was the inventour of those songs called Scolia, which were sung at feasts.
    • 1656, Stanley, Hist. Philos., book vi, chapter iv, page 7:
      Which Athenæus, proveth against the Calumniations of Demophilus not to be a sacred hymne or Pæan, but a Scolion or Festivall Song.
    • 1776, Burney, Hist. Mus., volume I, page 467:
      In the following Scolium, Timocreon gives his opinion of riches.
    • 1850, Mure, Lit. Greece, volume III, page 101:
      The celebrated scolion, or series of scolia, addressed to Harmodius and Aristogiton.
    • 1874, Mahaffy, Soc. Life Greece, chapter x, page 296:
      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.

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