The trumpet and the games/A trombeta e os jogos

• Published in: Revista do Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia no. 29; p. 75
• Main Author: Cerqueira, Fabio Vergara
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Portuguese
• Published: Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia - Universidade de Sao Paulo 01.01.2018
• Subjects: Grecia
• ISSN: 0103-9709

The musical accompaniment of sports is an outstanding feature of games in ancient Greece, either in training or in competitions. This accompaniment was done with wind instruments, namely the aulos and the salpinx (trumpet). Such accompaniment of athletic activities with aulos, mainly in the modalities of the pentathlon, widely represented in the iconography of black-and red-figure Attic vases (6th and 5th century B.C.), has received more attention from scholars. We aim here to deal with the presence of the trumpet in games, represented with a lower frequency in iconography, but informed by literary sources dating from different periods, mainly from the imperial times (namely Plutarch, Athenaeus and Pollux). We will analyze the following situations: musical accompaniment of races (foot and chariot races), supporting the rhythm of the movements; awards ceremony; advertisements through the emission of signals, with communicative function; and competitions for trumpet players, in relation with the constitution of a social profile of this musician-athlete based on the fame of his well above average strength. This superlative strength, mixed with bizarre customs, makes him a popular type in the Hellenistic-Roman world. Keywords: Games; Classical Antiquity; Music; Salpinx; Iconography. O acompanhamento musical das praticas esportivas e uma caracteristica marcante dos jogos na Grecia antiga, seja nos treinamentos, seja nas competicoes. Este acompanhamento se dava com instrumentos de sopro, especificamente o aulos e a salpinx (trombeta). Amplamente representado na pintura dos vasos aticos de figuras negras e de figuras vermelhas (sec. VI-V a.C.), o acompanhamento das praticas atleticas com o aulos, sobretudo nas provas que integram o pentatlo, tem recebido maior atencao dos estudiosos. Nosso objetivo e abordar a presenca da trombeta nos jogos, representada com menos frequencia no registro iconografico, porem informada pelas fontes literarias de diferentes periodos, sobretudo do periodo imperial (nomeadamente, Plutarco, Ateneu e Polux). Analisaremos as seguintes situacoes: acompanhamento musical de corridas (a pe ou de quadriga), contribuindo para marcar o ritmo; celebracoes de entrega de premios; funcao comunicativa, pela divulgacao de anuncios por intermedio da emissao de sinais; competicoes para trombeteiros, relacionadas a constituicao de um perfil social deste musico-atleta baseado na forca muito acima da media. Esta forca superlativa, misturada com costumes bizarros, faz do trombeteiro um tipo popular no mundo helenistico-romano. Palavras-chave: Jogos; Antiguidade Classica; Musica; Salpinx; Iconografia.