Lamprus of Erythrae
Lamprus of Erythrae or Lamprus of Athens ({{langx|grc|Λάμπρος}}) was an ancient Greek musician with excellent skill at the playing of the lyre.H. W. Garrod {{cite journal | doi=10.1017/S0009840X00014013 | journal = The Classical Review |year=1920|volume= 34 | issue = 7–8 |pages= 129–136 | jstor=700422 | title = The Hyporcheme of Pratinas | last1 = Garrod | first1 = H. W. | s2cid = 162126289 }}
Life
Lamprus was born in Athens,{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20030506233211/http://www.musesrealm.net/writings/mhpaper.html musesrealm.net]}}[https://www.msu.edu/~nails/I-L-plato.html msu.edu website] alive in the early part of the fifth century B.C.E., and taught music to Sophocles according to some.page.123 of Mary Ellen Snodgrass & James Lamar Roberts [1988] [https://books.google.com/books?id=jOk1H7epwhEC&q=Lamprus&pg=PA123 books.google.co.uk website] Retrieved 2011-12-03. {{ISBN|0-8220-0566-2}}.Copyright © 1997–2010. European Graduate School EGS [http://www.egs.edu/library/sophocles/biography/ egs.edu website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111230193318/http://www.egs.edu/library/sophocles/biography/ |date=2011-12-30 }} Retrieved 2011-12-03. He was a teacher of the lyreBigelow, Caroline {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20030506233211/http://www.musesrealm.net/writings/mhpaper.html musesrealm.net website]}} and dance.William Smith (ed) (1870) {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110805073517/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/1824.html ancientlibrary.com website]}} Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology {{ISBN|1-84511-002-1}}
A teacher named Lamprus, sometime before 343 B.C.E, while in Mantineia,Thomas J. Mathiesen within {{cite book | url =https://archive.org/details/apolloslyregreek0000math| url-access =registration| page =[https://archive.org/details/apolloslyregreek0000math/page/294 294]| quote =Lamprus of.| title = Apollo's lyre: Greek music and music theory in antiquity and the Middle Ages | publisher = University of Nebraska Press ( 1999 )| isbn = 0803230796 | year = 1999 }}{{ISBN|0803230796}} Retrieved 2011-09-13.Lewis Rowell [https://www.jstor.org/pss/843694 jstor.org website] is held to have taught Aristoxenus.Andrew Barker [http://ebooks.cambridge.org/chapter.jsf?bid=CBO9780511482465&cid=CBO9780511482465A014 ebooks.cambridge.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160829031446/http://ebooks.cambridge.org/chapter.jsf?bid=CBO9780511482465&cid=CBO9780511482465A014 |date=2016-08-29 }} Retrieved 2011-12-03.{{cite book |url=http://www.rosetta.bham.ac.uk/issue6/pythagoras-sparta.pdf |title=Was Pythagoras Ever Really in Sparta? |author=Moore, K. R. |year=2009 |page=17 |publisher=rosetta.bham.ac.uk website) |access-date=2013-09-23}} However, the fifth-century Lamprus would not have survived long enough to be the teacher of Aristoxenus, so that "Either this is a Lamprus of whom we know nothing else, or the reference has been added to the biographical tradition in order to emphasize Aristoxenus' connection with traditional ancient Greek music as opposed to the "New Music" of the late fifth and fourth centuries.Christopher C. Marchetti, Aristoxenus Elements of Rhythm, Diss. Rutgers 1999, p. 3, citing [https://archive.org/stream/aristoxnedetaren00lalo#page/10/mode/2up Laloy 1904, p. 11] for the chronological problem.
Lamprus was noted for his sober lifestyle, choosing to drink water instead of wine; Phrynichus said of him, "that the gulls lamented, when Lamprus died among them, being a man who was a water-drinker, a subtle hypersophist, a dry skeleton of the Muses, a nightmare to nightingales, a hymn to hell."Translated by C.D.Yonge (1854) [http://www.attalus.org/old/athenaeus2.html (attalus.org website)] from excerpts of Athenaeus : The Deipnosophists - BOOK 2 : [21.]. Retrieved 2011-09-13.
Music
The music of Lamprus is considered restrained, indicating a sober temperament, rather than wild and realistic.Blake Tyrrell (Michigan State University) [http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ElAnt/V9N1/TyrrellSuda.pdf scholar.lib.vt.edu] LIFE OF SOPHOCLES Retrieved 2011-09-14.
Plato's Socrates recognizes Lamprus as a great music teacher, although placing him below his own teacher, Connus son of Metrobius (Menexenus [http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=GreekTexts&query=Pl.%20Menex.%20236a&getid=1 236a] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160822055153/http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=GreekTexts&query=Pl.%20Menex.%20236a&getid=1 |date=2016-08-22 }}). Lamprus was also praised by Cornelius Nepos.J.Dymock & D.Dymock (1833) [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZSMQAAAAYAAJ&dq=lamprus&pg=PA480 Bibliotheca classica (books.google.co.uk website)] Pseudo-Plutarch's De Musica [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Ps.+Plut.+Mus.+1142b&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0401 1142b] "quotes Aristoxenus as including Lamprus among lyric composers who composed good songs." Lamprus, the "most distinguished musician of his day,"Stanley Hochman [1984] [https://books.google.com/books?id=2SrVpFGioFUC&dq=lamprus&pg=PA487 books.google.co.uk] McGraw-Hill publishing {{ISBN|0-07-079169-4}} was a famous composer in Sophocles' day[http://www.notablebiographies.com/Sc-St/Sophocles.html notablebiographies.com] and was considered by some as perhaps the greatest musician of his time.[http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?Itemid=269&id=285&option=com_content&task=view libertyfund.org website] Retrieved 2011-09-13.