Herodotus, Histories 1.24.5 · 1.24.5
The High Nome
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καὶ τοῖσι ἐσελθεῖν γὰρ ἡδονὴν εἰ μέλλοιεν ἀκούσεσθαι τοῦ ἀρίστου ἀνθρώπων ἀοιδοῦ, ἀναχωρῆσαι ἐκ τῆς πρύμνης ἐς μέσην νέα. τὸν δὲ ἐνδύντα τε πᾶσαν τὴν σκευὴν καὶ λαβόντα τὴν κιθάρην, στάντα ἐν τοῖσι ἑδωλίοισι διεξελθεῖν νόμον τὸν ὄρθιον, τελευτῶντος δὲ τοῦ νόμου ῥῖψαί μιν ἐς τὴν θάλασσαν ἑωυτὸν ὡς εἶχε σὺν τῇ σκευῇ πάσῃ.
And they were delighted at the thought that they would hear the best singer in the world, so they withdrew from the stern to the middle of the ship. He put on his full costume and took up his lyre, and standing on the quarter-deck he went through the High Nome; and as the nome ended, he threw himself into the sea just as he was, in his full costume.
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The setting
The sailors want to hear the famous singer. Arion performs, then jumps.
A note on this passage
The killers become an audience. Pleasure comes over them at the thought of hearing "the best singer in the world," and they clear the stern for him the way a crowd clears a stage. Arion dresses, takes up his lyre, and performs the <em>nomos orthios</em>, the "High Nome," a set piece for solo singer and kithara, pitched high. Then, as the last notes end, he jumps.
<em>Nomos</em> is the same word that meant "custom" and "law" in the Gyges story, where the whole plot turned on <em>anoma</em>, things outside <em>nomos</em>. In music a <em>nomos</em> was a traditional melody with fixed rules, and the Greeks felt the two senses belonged together: a tune is an order you keep. The sailors have abandoned every <em>nomos</em> of the sea. Arion answers them with one, sung straight through to the end, and goes into the water still dressed for the performance.
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