SCO'LIA (from cricoAn5s, crooked) were short drinking-songs, which were invented and cultivated by the ancient Greeks. The origin of the name "crooked songs" has been explained by the ancients them selves in a variety of ways, of which we shall mention only two. Some supposed that these songs were called scolia because they were not sung by the guests in succession, and in the order in which they lay on their couches, but irregularly, and without any definite order ; others thought that the name referred to peculiarities in their metrical forms, or, which is the most probable of all, to certain liberties which the singer might take in delivering his song. The first of these two opinimis, though not a probable account of the origin of the name acolion, yet contains the true account of the manner in which scolia were sung. Artemon Ap. Athen.,' xv.) and Plutarch (‘ Symposi distinguish three kinds of Scolia, namely, those which were sung in a chorus by a whole company, those which were sung by all the guests in succession, and those which were only sung by well skilled persons, who, when they ceased, called upon another member of the company to go on. But the name scolion seems, in the first two of these cases, to be applied improperly, as they must rather be considered as a kind of prelude to the real scolia, which is in fact implied in the description given by Plutarch. These drinking songs were generally accompanied
by the lyre, which was handed by the last singer to his successor : in some capes, however, when persons were unable to play the lyre, a laurel or myrtle branch was to them. Scolia were that 'wag and composed by the Creeks of the Milian race, and especially In Lesbos ; but the custom was thence transferred Into Attica, where it subsequently became a universal practice to sing scolia at repasts. Tho contents of these short songs—which, in the specimens still extant, seldom exceed four lines—varied according to time and circumstances. The metres in which KORA were written are of a lively and animated character, and, on the whole, resemble those used by the lyric poets of the &calm schooL Terpander is said to have been the first who wrote scolia, and be was followed by Aloteus, Sappho, Anacreon, Praxilla, Simonides, Pindar, and many others. A collection of Greek 'collo still extant has been made by C. D. Ilgen, in his pecan(: id est Carmine convivialia Oracortini, metric suis restituta et auitnadversionibus illustrata; Jena, 1793. The number of ',collo in this collection is fifty, but they are not all real scolia.
(Compare Muller, of Greek Lit., &e. ; Bode, (:cschiclite der IldleviseArn DkAtkrnst, voL IL, part. 2.)