The Seikilos Epitaph

The more perceptive persons among you may have noticed a square of orange text in the upper left hand corner, from which I draw the title of my blog. The text is as follows:

I am an image in stone. 

Seikilos put me here, where I am forever, the symbol of eternal remembrance. 

Shine, as long as you live; do not be sad. 

For life is surely too short, and time demands its toll.

The original text happens to be in Greek, and that's only one translation among many I found.  In case you have ever tried translating ancient Greek into English, its not an easy task, hence the numerous translations.  But this was the one I liked best, so its the one I posted.  At any rate, it's all greek to me!! Hehehehe!  I love puns!

Not only do I like the sentiment conveyed in this epitaph, but it has a really profound history to go with it.  The text was originally discovered in 1883 in Turkey on a Greek grave stele (aka. ancient Greek Tombstone), and has been dated to around the first century AD-ish.  It is presumeably written by Seikilos for his dead wife, who once lay beneath it, and looks something like this:

 

But the really cool thing about this epitaph is it isn't just a poem.  Its a song.  In fact it is the oldest surviving complete musical composition (meaning music and lyrics) in the world.  The even cooler thing is that because it is complete, we can still play the song today!  Take a listen:

[Note: The first two lines of the epitaph, I am...remembrance, are spoken the composition is actually just the last two lines.  Quite short, but complete]

So there you have it, a beautiful melody written by a husband to commemorate his dead wife.  And haunting even after 2000 years.