Having thus discoursed of the several nomes appropriated to the stringed as well as to the wind instruments,
we will now speak something in particular concerning
those peculiar to the wind instruments. First they say,
that Olympus, a Phrygian player upon the flute, invented
a certain nome in honor of Apollo, which he called Polycephalus,
1 or of many heads. This Olympus, they say,
was descended from the first Olympus, the scholar of Marsyas, who invented several forms of composition in honor
of the Gods; and he, being a boy beloved of Marsyas, and
by him taught to play upon the flute, first brought into
Greece the laws of harmony. Others ascribe the Polycephalus to Crates, the scholar of Olympus; though Pratinas will have Olympus the younger to be the author of it.
The Harmatian nome is also said to be invented by Olympus,
the scholar of Marsyas. This Marsyas was by some said
to be called Masses; which others deny, not allowing him
any other name but that of Marsyas, the son of that Hyagnis
who invented the art of playing upon the pipe. But that
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Olympus was the author of the Harmatian nome is plainly
to be seen in Glaucus's treatise of the ancient poets; and
that Stesichorus of Himera imitated neither Orpheus nor
Terpander nor Antilochus nor Thales, but Olympus, and
that he made use of the Harmatian nome and the dactylic
dance, which some rather apply to the Orthian mood, while
others aver it to have been the invention of the Mysians,
for that some of the ancient pipers were Mysians.