scolia

scolia (from skolios, ‘crooked’), at a Greek banquet or drinking-party, short songs sung by guests in succession but in random order, ‘crookedly’. These songs were accompanied by the lyre. Athenaeus (book 15) preserves a collection of anonymous Attic scolia of the late sixth and early fifth centuries BC. They either comment on some historical incident (such as the assassination attempt of Harmodius and Aristogeiton) or contain some personal sentiment or comment on life. The singer held a myrtle branch while he sang, and when he had finished passed the branch to another. Tradition makes Terpander the originator of the scolion.