Mesomedes
Who was Mesomedes?
Greek poet and composer (early 2nd century AD)
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Mesomedes (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Mesomedes of Crete was a Greek musician, poet, and composer in the early 2nd century AD during Roman Greece. Born in Crete, he gained prominence at the imperial court and is believed to have served as a freedman under Emperor Hadrian, who ruled from 117 to 138 AD. Hadrian was a great admirer of Greek culture and supported many Greek artists and thinkers. Mesomedes was particularly favored during this time, creating works that mixed classical Greek literary traditions with the Roman imperial world.
He composed hymns, epigrams, and lyric poetry, including hymns to the Muses, Nemesis, and Helios. These works are significant for their literary content and because they survive with their original musical notation. Before the Seikilos epitaph was found in the late 19th century, Mesomedes' hymns were the only surviving written music from ancient times, making them an important piece of ancient musical history. The notation uses the ancient Greek alphabetic system, allowing modern scholars and musicians to approximate how these hymns were performed.
His hymns have survived thanks to Byzantine manuscript copying and appear in the Greek Anthology. They became more widely known in the early modern period when Florentine scholar Girolamo Mei brought them to the attention of Vincenzo Galilei, the father of Galileo. Vincenzo published three of the hymns in his 1581 work Dialogo della musica antica e della moderna, during a time of keen interest in ancient Greek music.
As a citharode, Mesomedes was a professional singer who played the kithara, a large, complex lyre considered the prestige instrument of ancient Greek music. This tradition was deeply rooted in classical and Hellenistic Greece, with performers trained to compete at major festivals and gain social recognition. Mesomedes operated within this tradition but also under Roman patronage, which influenced his compositions' themes and audience.
In addition to hymns, Mesomedes wrote epigrams found in the Greek Anthology. Historian Dio Cassius noted that after Hadrian died, his successor Antoninus Pius reduced Mesomedes' salary, confirming his connection to Hadrian's court and implying he sought support after Hadrian's death. Although his exact birth and death dates are unknown, it's agreed that his career was active in the first half of the 2nd century AD.
Before Fame
Mesomedes was born in Crete, an island with strong cultural ties to both Greek tradition and Roman provincial life. We don't have details about his early life, education, or training from surviving sources. However, the sophistication seen in his surviving works suggests he was well-versed in classical Greek poetic forms, music theory, and the citharode tradition. In ancient times, this kind of expertise would usually come from apprenticeship or studying at a well-known place of learning.
The early 2nd century AD saw a significant revival of Greek culture under Roman rule, which modern scholars sometimes call the Second Sophistic. Greek intellectuals, rhetoricians, poets, and musicians gained patronage and prestige at the Roman imperial court, especially under the philhellene emperor Hadrian. Mesomedes rose to prominence in this environment of revived Greek cultural status, eventually earning favor at Hadrian's court, a position that defined his career and helped ensure the survival of at least some of his work.
Key Achievements
- Composed hymns to the Muses, Nemesis, and Helios that survive with their original ancient Greek musical notation intact.
- Served as a favored court poet and composer under the Emperor Hadrian, securing imperial patronage that preserved his reputation.
- Produced the earliest surviving body of written music from the ancient world, predating other recovered examples.
- Authored epigrams preserved in the Greek Anthology, contributing to the lyric and epigrammatic literary tradition of Roman Greece.
- His works, transmitted through the Byzantine manuscript tradition, were published in Renaissance Florence in 1581, influencing early modern scholarship on ancient Greek music.
Did You Know?
- 01.The hymns of Mesomedes were the only surviving written music from the ancient world until the discovery of the Seikilos epitaph in the late 19th century.
- 02.Vincenzo Galilei, father of the astronomer Galileo Galilei, published three of Mesomedes' hymns in his 1581 treatise Dialogo della musica antica e della moderna.
- 03.The Roman historian Dio Cassius recorded that Emperor Antoninus Pius cut the salary that Hadrian had granted to Mesomedes, one of the few contemporary references to a composer's pay in ancient history.
- 04.The musical notation in his surviving hymns uses the ancient Greek alphabetic system and has been studied and reconstructed by modern musicologists seeking to revive ancient Greek music.
- 05.Girolamo Mei, the Renaissance scholar who helped recover Greek musical theory, was the intermediary who brought the hymns of Mesomedes to Vincenzo Galilei's attention.