Terpander
Terpander (Ancient Greek: Τέρπανδρος Terpandros), of Antissa in Lesbos, was a Greek poet and citharede who lived about the first half of the 7th century BC. He was the father of Greek music and through it, of lyric poetry, although his own poetical compositions were few and in extremely simple rhythms. He simplified rules of the modes of singing of other neighboring countries and islands and formed, out of these syncopated variants, a conceptual system. Though endowed with an inventive mind, and the commencer of a new era of music, he attempted no more than to systematize the musical styles that existed in the music of Greece and Anatolia.
Also recorded as Terpandros
Terpander
Sailko · CC BY 3.0
- Born
- 712. · Antissa.
- Died
- 645. · Sparta.
- Occupation
- poet, musician, writer and athlete.
- Honours
- Pythian games winner.
- Languages
- Ancient Greek.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Terpander (Ancient Greek: Τέρπανδρος Terpandros), of Antissa in Lesbos, was a Greek poet and citharede who lived about the first half of the 7th century BC. He was the father of Greek music and through it, of lyric poetry, although his own poetical compositions were few and in extremely simple rhythms. He simplified rules of the modes of singing of other neighboring countries and islands and formed, out of these syncopated variants, a conceptual system. Though endowed with an inventive mind, and the commencer of a new era of music, he attempted no more than to systematize the musical styles that existed in the music of Greece and Anatolia.
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wikipedia incomplete · checked 25 September 2026
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Authority files
gnd · 118801635 · wikidata · Q113417 · wikipedia · Terpander
In this article
Biography
Biography
Perhaps the earliest historically certain figure in the music of Ancient Greece.
He gained a reputation as a singer and composer, but after having killed a man in a brawl, he was exiled. About the time of the Second Messenian War, he settled in Sparta, to where, according to some accounts, he had been summoned by command of the Delphic Oracle to settle the differences that had arisen between different classes in the state. Here he gained the prize in the musical contests at the festival of Carneia. He is regarded as the real founder of Greek classical music and lyric poetry, but as to his innovations in music, our information is imperfect. According to Strabo, he increased the number of strings in the lyre from four to seven; others take the fragment of Terpander on which Strabo bases his statement to mean that he developed the citharoedic nomos (sung to the accompaniment of the cithara or lyre) by making the divisions of the ode seven instead of four. The seven-stringed lyre was probably already in existence. Terpander is also said to have introduced several new rhythms in addition to the dactylic and to have been famous as a composer of drinking-songs (skolia). No poems attributed to Terpander survive complete, and very few lines of his are quoted by later Greek writers; it must be regarded as doubtful whether any of his work was recorded in writing. Terpander is said to have died, around Skiades ("shady place" of the Carneia), by choking on a fig when the fruit was thrown in appreciation of one of his performances.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
645
Terpander died at Sparta.
712
Terpander born at Antissa.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Antissa.
Birth place
Sparta.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q113417: Terpander
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Terpander”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
- Terpander, Tyrtaeus, Alcman, The Early Greek Poets and Their Times, 1984
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 1984
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 118801635, Terpander, Antissensis.
Unverified · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.From which the Greek music theory continued thereafter in all the improvements and refinements of later ages
- 2.Müller, Karl Otfried. History of the Literature of Ancient Greece. I. 149. 1847.
- 3.Reese, Gustave. Music in the Middle Ages: With an Introduction on the Music of Ancient Times. W. W. Norton & Company. 11. 1940. 978-0-393-09750-4.
- 4.Durant, Will. The Story of Civilization: The Life of Greece. 75. 1966.
- 5.Terpander. 26. 647.
- 6.676–2 BC; Athenaeus, 635 e.
- 7.xiii. p. 618
- 8.Alexander Beecroft. Authorship and Cultural Identity in Early Greece and China. 120. 2010.
- 9.Suda. Palatine Anthology.
- 10.Charles Dibdin. Heads or Tails. Songs, &c. in Heads or Tails. 28. 1805.
- 11.The Guide to Knowledge. I. 312. 1837.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 3
- Müller, Karl Otfried. History of the literature of ancient Greece. 1. 1840.
- Charles Rollin. The ancient history of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Grecians and Macedonians: including a history of the arts and sciences of the ancients. Harper & Brothers. 2. 412. 1870.
- Müller, Karl Otfried. History of the literature of ancient Greece. Parker. 1858.
References
Citations
References
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scholarly publication
Verifiedauthority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 118801635, Terpander, Antissensis.Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
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