Complete Encyclopaedia of Music/A/Arcadians
Arcadians. A people of Arcadia, who were not distinguished in any of the liberal arts, except poetry and music. During their repasts, they all occasionally joined in singing. Music was a stated branch of their education, and under the special patronage of the magistrates. The Arcadian music and poetry were, probably, like those of all nations in their early stages, artless and uncouth ; but they possessed a natural expression and fervid sensibility, that have procured this sequestered nation the first rank in rural song. But music, though it unquestionably softened their domestic manners, did not by any means render the Arcadians effeminate, nor the less formidable to their enemies. On the contrary, the very flute which soothed them in their retirement animated them with rage in the day of battle, and regulated the evolutions of their battalions. To Pan, the god of the shepherds and the patron of rustic festivals, they paid their daily homage, by exercising their skill in the song and the dance, with the music of the pipe.