The oldest greek paintings (The Diver of Paestum and the Dancers of Ruvo) | Epitaph of Seikilos

WARNING: This video is the only one version existing...If you find it posted on other websites know that was published without my assent...
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La Tomba del Tuffatore (Paestum)
The Tomb of Diver (Paestum - Campania - Italy)

Le Danzatrici di Ruvo (Ruvo di Puglia, affresco ora conservato al Museo Archeologico di Napoli)
The Dancers of Ruvo (Ruvo di Puglia, now in Neaples Archaeological Museum - Italy)

Le più antiche pitture greche del Periodo Classico
The oldest paintings of Classical Period of Greece
V th - IV th Century BC

Soundtrack:
1) Voice declaiming the first part of Epitaph of Seikilos (a funerary text from ancient Greece)
2) The Epitaph of Seikilos arranged for solo lyre by Michael Levy - http://www.ancientlyre.com/
3) The Epitaph performed by two greek students with their music teacher
4) The second part of Epitaph of Seikilos performed by the ensemble SAVAE

The Epitaph of Seikilos is the only piece of music from antiquity in the entire western world, which has survived in its complete form, and unlike much earlier surviving fragments of melodies that have been found, this song is written in a totally unambiguous alphabetic musical notation, which can be played, note for note, as it was written 2000 years ago. Although other songs have been found that pre-date 'The Epitaph of Seikilos' by many centuries, they only survive in fragments.
This amazing melody is written in the ancient Greek "Hypophrygian" mode; the equivelant intervals as heard in a scale of G-G played on the white notes of the piano. (This mode confusingly has exactly the same intervals as heard in the medieval "Mixolydian" mode - the original ancient greek "Mixolydian" mode, was, in fact, B-B (Michael Levy).
Seikilos carved the epitaph on a tomb pillar in dedication to his wife. The Grave was discovered in 1883, near Aydin in Turkey. Archaeologists it dates between I th BC and I th AD.

THE TEXT:

« ΕΙΚΩΝ Η ΛΙΘΟΣ ΕΙΜΙ • ΤΙ ΘΗΣΙ ΜΕ ΣΕΙΚΙΛΟΣ ΕΝΘΑ ΜΝΗΜΗΣ ΑΘΑΝΑΤΟΥ ΣΗΜΑ ΠΟΛΥΧΡΟΝΙΟΝ •
Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνοὺ • μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποὺ • πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν. τὸ τέλος ὁ χρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ. »

I AM THE STONE, A SIMULACRUM • SEIKILOS PUT ME HERE AS A LASTING SIGN OF IMMORTAL PRECEPT • As long as you live, shine • Let nothing grieve you beyond measure • The life is short, and Time will claim its toll.

« Io sono la pietra, un simulacro. Sicilo mi ha posto qui come duraturo segno di un immortale precetto. Finché vivi, sii gioioso, non rattristarti mai oltre misura: la vita è breve e il Tempo esige il suo tributo. »

THE PAINTINGS:
1) One of the glories of Campania (Italy), the remains of three Doric temples and the ancient city of Paestum attract surprisingly few persons visiting Naples, Sorrento or Amalfi. Paestum, one of the most important cities of Magna Grecia (= Grater Greece, an area of Southern Italy and Sicily that was extensively colonized by Greek settlers in the VIII th century BC) in ancient time was named 'Poseidonia' (Paestum is the latin name) to honour of the sea god by its Greek founders in the VII th B.C. It was abandoned some time in the Middle Ages when, as happened in other flat lands drained by the Romans - the spread of the malarial mosquito made life impossible - and the ruins were lost until the 18th century. The Archeological Museum contains many decorated panels from burial monuments, most unusually depicting human activity. The most celebrated of all is the 'Tomb of the Diver' (V th century BC, found in 1968 by the archaeologist Mario Napoli). It is a case-tomb, consisting of four side plates and a cover, all in local travertine, plastered and decorated with the fresco technique. In the 4 side plates, are depicted scenes of feast and banquet, and people on way; the main scene on the lid, represents a naked man diving into the sea by a platform: the dive symbolizes the passage from life to death.

2) The Dancers of Ruvo were found in a tomb, of kind so-called 'half-room', built in the IV th century BC, discovered in November of 1833 in Ruvo di Puglia (Italy). The subject of paintings represented on the walls of the tomb is a succession of women with a characteristic walk with cross arms proceeding rhythmically to the right in a dance. The dancers are wrapped in a large cloak from which comes out a light and wavy dress that adhering to the legs, let imagine their movements. In this crowded procession (in surviving parts of the painting there are thirty women) are also involved three young men who, for their position in the cortege, it seems to monitor the progress and direct its movements.

More info in italian:
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomba_de...
http://www.prolocoruvodipuglia.it/dan...