Book 16
18
Harmony, on the other hand, measures the length and pitch of sounds. The measure of the length of a tone is called r(uqmo/s, or rhythm of its pitch, me/los, or melody. There is also another variety of Harmony which is called metrikh/, or Metric, by which the combination of long and short syllables, and those which are neither long nor short, and the verse measure according to the principles of geometry are examined with the aid of the ears. But these things, says Marcus Varro, p. 337, Bipont. we either do not learn at all, or we leave off before we know why they ought to be learned. But the pleasure, he says, and the advantage of such sciences appear in their later study, when they have been completely mastered; but in their mere elements they seem foolish and unattractive. Cf. xvi. 8. 15 ff.
19
A story about the lyre-player Arion, taken from the work of Herodotus.
