Text: (Gr.) The most important wind instrument of the Greeks. The aulos was sometimes double, the two being called dextra and sinistra, and sometimes male and female. Though generally rendered flute, there is much reason for supposing that it was a reed instrument, or, at least, that the term, used generally, included instruments of the oboe family. The fact that the two tubes were often of different lengths (impares) has been explained by saying that they were tuned in different modes. But it is far more like the arghool, and that the longer tube gave out a drone. The double flute was not unknown to the ancient Egyptians and Assyrians but they were divergent or perhaps separate from each other.

See Also: ARGHOOL

Source: 125