Eracle e l’odio di Era. L’immagine del toro nell’‘Eracle’ di Euripide

S. Butler - S. Nooter, eds. Sound and the Ancient Senses (The Senses in Antiquity, vol. 6), London-New York: Routledge, 2019

Review of S. Butler - S. Nooter, eds. Sound and the Ancient Senses (The Senses in Antiquity, vol. 6), London-New York: Routledge, 2019. An essential read for all those interested in the ‘soundscape’ of Antiquity – from rites to the human body, the physiology of hearing, myth, music on the stage, ancient emotions and contemporary attempts in reconstructing ancient sounds –, the volume offers a broad perspective on sounds and hearing in Antiquity by means of its fourteen essays, distributed into three parts (“Ancient soundscapes”, “Theories of sound”, “Philology and sound”).

La medicina delle Muse. La musica come cura nella Grecia antica

I riferimenti agli effetti rasserenanti della musica sono ampiamente diffusi nei testi letterari greci sin dalle origini. Insieme con tale constatazione empirica, si sviluppa l’idea che la musica, nelle forme dell’“incantesimo cantato” (epodè) e del peana, sia in grado di curare i mali. Da questi aspetti della musicoterapia, strettamente connessi con religione e magia, nasce, a partire dai Pitagorici, la riflessione sull’efficacia psicagogica della musica, alla quale si riconosce un'affinità con l'anima che ne determina l'effetto terapeutico: agendo come catarsi, la musica controlla le emozioni, "corregge" le disposizioni caratteriali e influenza i comportamenti individuali. Le testimonianz…

Pitagora e le Muse. Per una lettura di Timeo, F 131 FGrHist.

Le testimonianze letterarie riguardanti la presenza delle comunità di Pitagorici in Magna Grecia, insieme con la documentazione archeologica relativa ai culti locali, mostrano il rilievo assunto in tale contesto dai misteri dionisiaci e la loro connessione con l’ambito funerario. Tale aspetto coinvolge in misura preponderante la musica, che sembra offrire, nella simbologia della harmonia e nel legame con le Muse, una importante chiave interpretativa dell’escatologia di stampo orfico-dionisiaco.

Madness and Bestialization in Euripides’ Heracles. Οὔποτ' ἄκραντα δόμοισι Λύσσα βακχεύσει.

Against a background of anxious evocation of Dionysiac rites, Euripides’ Heracles stages the extreme degradation of the tragic hero, who as a consequence of the hatred of a divinity loses his heroic traits and above all his human ones in the exercise of brutal violence. By means of comparing Heracles to a furious bull assailing its prey, the tragedian clearly shows the inexorability of the divine will and its arbitrariness, and emphasizes madness itself through images traditionally associated with the bull. However, the reference to monstrosity and animals does not involve only Heracles, but also concerns the representation of Lyssa, the demon of madness sent by Hera to induce Heracles to s…

Catarsi ed Ethos. La musica tra formazione del carattere e cura dei mali nella Grecia antica

Nella Grecia antica la musica è presenza costante e riguarda tutti gli aspetti del sapere. L’idea di un influsso esercitato sull’uomo, e persino sulla sua salute, trova espressione nella nozione di catarsi e nella dottrina dell’ethos, secondo cui la musica esplica un’azione psicagogica in base alle harmoníai («scale musicali») seguite dalle composizioni, e agli strumenti usati. A partire dai riti, la catarsi entra nella riflessione di Platone e di Aristotele. Nel De musica di Aristide Quintiliano, l’analisi della capacità della musica di influire sull’anima si affianca alla speculazione sulle harmoníai e apre la strada alla comprensione del suo influsso sull’indagine medica, definendo nel c…

MADNESS AND BESTIALIZATION IN EURIPIDES'HERACLES

Against a background of anxious evocation of Dionysiac rites, Euripides'Heraclesstages the extreme degradation of the tragic hero who, as a consequence of the hatred of a divinity, loses his heroic traits and above all his human ones in the exercise of brutal violence. By comparing Heracles in the grip of madness to a furious bull assailing its prey, the tragedian clearly shows the inexorability of the divine will and its arbitrariness, and emphasizes madness itself through images traditionally associated with the bull. However, the reference to monstrosity and animals does not only involve Heracles, but also concerns the representation of Lyssa, the demon of madness sent by Hera to induce …

Tra incantamento e phobos. Alcuni esempi sugli effetti dell'aulos nei dialoghi di Platone e nella catarsi tragica.

Il potere dell‟aulos e i suoi effetti sull‟animo erano così emblematici per i Greci da far loro trasformare lo strumento e le sue sonorità in una metafora di persuasione, come si riscontra in alcuni dialoghi di Platone. Da un altro punto di vista, però, l‟aulos fu anche uno strumento „perturbante‟, come appare ad esempio nella tragedia. In tale contesto esso sembra operare sulle paure (phobos) e le insicurezze dei personaggi tragici, e talora addirittura condurre agli sviluppi conclusivi della performance teatrale. Per quel che riguarda invece l'uditorio in teatro, l‟aulos può aver giocato un ruolo nello sviluppo della catarsi, in quanto gli spettatori potevano essere in grado di collegare …

Authorship and Greek Song: Authority, Authenticity, and Performance, edited by Bakker, Egbert J.

Di madre in figlio: fuoco, punizione e riti nella Pitica III di Pindaro

Argomento dell’articolo sono i miti di Coronide e del figlio Asclepio nella Pitica 3 di Pindaro, in cui l’immagine del fuoco assume particolare rilievo in relazione ad entrambi. Asclepio è sottratto dal padre, Apollo, al corpo della madre che brucia sulla pira funeraria, e colpito dal fulmine di Zeus dopo aver cercato di riportare in vita un morto: il ciclo della sua esistenza – precedente alla divinizzazione – sembra pertanto replicare quello di Coronide, che si unisce ad un mortale mentre porta in grembo il figlio di Apollo, ed infrange la legge umana che prescrive i riti nuziali. Apollo causa quindi la sua morte attraverso l’intervento della sorella Artemide, che è detta θύοισα (‘furente…

Musical Remedies for Deadly Problems. Music Therapy in the Homeric Poems

The attempt to cure illnesses by having recourse to music is one of the most interesting phenomena of ancient Greek culture, but also one of the most controversial, because of the complex relations between religion, magic, medicine and music constituting its background. Beginning from the Iliad (I, 472-474), the paean represents the song par excellence, “that puts an end to the plague”. Wholly different from this is healing through the epode, the “sung charm”, in Book XIX of the Odyssey, which gives us the first testimony of this remedy.The fundamental intent of such treatment seems to be to remedy the physical pain: in this sense, the epode, as a sung magic formula, in my opinion was inten…

Una voce per un "Lessico della genetica". Generazione e aspetti dell'ereditarietà dai Presocratici a Galeno: le nozioni principali e la terminologia tecnica

This article aims at dealing with the historical development and the terminology of the notion of generation in ancient Greece, taking as well into consideration several aspects of the notion of heredity, for, at present, research in this field lacks a consistent encyclopedic entry on such subjects. The Presocratic – mainly Empedoclean – notions of ‘mixing’ and ‘separation’ lurk behind the Hippocratic treatise De genitura/De natura pueri, in which the process of generation is explained through the ‘mixing’ mechanism of a female semen and a male one. Semen comes from each part of both parents, so it is sound from the sound parts, and unhealthy from the unhealthy parts. It is considered as th…

Medicina e musica in Platone: Il "Timeo" e il progetto paideutico della "Repubblica"

Gli Heraia di Olimpia e le donne di Elide. Riti di passaggio e inni tra Era e Dioniso

Gli agoni dedicati ad Era che si tenevano ad Olimpia ogni quattro anni (Paus. V, 16, 2-4), in cui erano previste competizioni atletiche e musicali femminili contrapposte e complementari a quelle maschili delle Olimpiadi, non solo illustrano alcune caratteristiche fondamentali del culto di Era, che rimanda alla sfera femminile delle nozze, ma rivelano anche interessanti aspetti del culto di Dioniso, divinità alla quale Era appare connessa da quella che W. Burkert ha definito una “strana intimità”. La presenza dei culti di Era e di Dioniso negli Heraia, i cui agoni si configuravano come fasi di riti di passaggio per le fanciulle che vi prendevano parte, ben rappresenta i reciproci condizionam…

La morte di Pitagora e i culti delle Muse e di Demetra. Mousiké ed escatologia nelle comunità pitagoriche di Magna Grecia

L’articolo propone un’analisi delle testimonianze relative alla connessione tra la morte di Pitagora e i culti delle Muse e di Demetra (la cui fonte sembra essere Timeo, FGrHist 566 F 131) alla luce della simbologia escatologica della musica e dei riti misterici, e del ruolo della memoria in ambito pitagorico. Tali testimonianze sembrano presupporre concezioni relative ai Misteri e alla katabasis, ambiti familiari non solo al culto di Demetra, ma anche a quello delle Muse, e rinviano al ruolo delle donne nei sodalizi Pitagorici. Alla luce delle rivolte antipitagoriche di metà V sec. a.C., inoltre, il culto di Demetra appare funzionale alla difesa e al consolidamento del ruolo politico dei P…

Soothing Lyres and epodai: Music Therapy and the Cases of Orpheus, Empedocles and David

Within the frame of the role of music in ancient Greece, this short essay focuses on the soothing effects of the lyre as evidence for the use of music not only for religious or educational purposes, but also for therapeutic ones. The music of the lyre proves useful both for the performer, and for people listening to it. The main two pieces of evidence analyzed, namely Iamblichus, De Vita Pythagorica 113, and, within a different cultural context - the biblical one - 1 Samuel XVI.16, that after many centuries was taken up again by the historian Joseph Flavius (Antiquitates Iudaicae VI 166-169), well illustrate the healing effects of music.

The Myth of Io and Female Cyborgic Identity

The figure of Io, the priestess of Hera seducted by Zeus and turned into a cow that wanders from Argo to Egypt pursued by a gadfly, shares in Hera’s bovine imagery and can be considered as a mythical paradigm of the unavoidable ‘yoke’ of love and marriage for women. She actually takes back a fully human aspect by means of conceiving and bearing Epaphus, a son with a name that tells his exceptional conception and divine birth. In the light of readings of some core studies concerning the theory of the cyborg, this paper aims at showing that the girl-heifer – sometimes also represented as a girl-bull, a possible link with Dionysus as hypostasis of sexual potency and fertility – does not only u…

Philia, eros e la dinamica della generazione. Euripide, fr. 898 Kannicht nel libro ottavo dell'Etica Nicomachea di Aristotele (1155b 2-4)

Tra gli esempi di philia tra contrari, Aristotele (EN 1155b) cita un frammento drammatico (Eur. fr. 898 Kannicht) con l’immagine cosmologica della generazione ad opera del Cielo, che feconda la Terra con la pioggia. A partire dal frammento, nell’ambito della disamina sulla philia nell'Etica Nicomachea, e alla luce della teoria della generazione in Generazione degli Animali, e dell’inferiorità e passività naturale della femmina rispetto al maschio, l’articolo analizza la relazione tra uomo e donna, che è estranea all’ethos e preesiste alla politica. Among examples of philia between contraries, Aristotle (EN 1155b) cites a dramatic fragment (Eur. fr. 898 Kannicht) with the cosmological image …

Correcting ēthos and Purifying the Body. Musical Therapy in Iamblichus’ De vita pythagorica

The tradition relating to the Pythagoreans and music therapy is most widely attested in two Neoplatonic works, Porphyry’s The Life of Pythagoras, and Iamblichus’ On the Pythagorean Way of Life. Although the chronological distance from the early Pythagoreans makes their accounts controversial, they offer interesting evidence on the beneficial effects of music. Iamblichus, whose work will be focused on in this paper, describes the effects of music on health through the notion of catharsis, which he often links with musical ēthos. The latter is not in fact attested before Plato, but Iamblichus, presenting Pythagoras in Platonic terms, emphasizes the importance he gives to the improvement of th…

Phobos, incantamento e catarsi. Alcune riflessioni su ascolto dell’aulos e tragedia.

The power of the aulos and its therapeutic effects on the soul are so emblematic for the Greeks that, on the one hand, they made this instrument and its sounds into a metaphor of persuasion and, on the other, they emphasized its upsetting effects, as happens for instance in some tragedies. The aulos sometimes contributes to the development of a drama, and may play a role in the development of tragic catharsis by reminding the audience of the cathartic Dionysiac rites. In this way, tragedy seems to have performed a meaningful ‘therapeutic’ effect on the emotions of the theatre audience.

Women and Pythagorean Philosophy. Review of D.M. Dutsch, Pythagorean Women Philosophers. Between Belief and Suspicion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.

In the last few decades, Pythagorean women and their intellectual status have aroused the interest of several scholars (C. Montepaone, S. Pomeroy and others). Against this background, the present book is a most welcome instrument for scholars interested in Pythagoreanism and in women in antiquity, for it deals with Pythagorean women philosophers between ‘critique and compliance’, that is, as the subtitle says, with both belief and suspicion, the two foundations of hermeneutics highlighted by P. Ricœur. Such a critical positioning induces D. to analyse anecdotes and pseudepigrapha in search for a possible identity of Pythagorean women philosophers at the margins of official discourses and te…

From Myth to Science. A Short Survey on Heredity and Its Causes in Ancient Greece

In this contribution, I deal with the notion of “cause” concerning hereditary diseases in ancient Greece. A notion of hereditary disease is already foreshadowed in myths, where guilt is often depicted as a pathologic contamination (miasma) affecting both the individual and his offspring (ghenos). The notion of miasma especially concerns diseases whose signs are not visible: in such cases, either gods or maleficent daemons were believed to harass human beings and inflict them punishments that took the shape of diseases. Contamination mainly spreads itself by means of blood-shedding: the slaughter of kinsmen (especially the murder of one’s parents) was widely considered as a main cause of man…

Music and Medicine

The relationship between music and medicine involves the notions of affinity between the human body and musical structures, relief, catharsis and therapy. The Homeric poems attest to the use of healing songs (paeans) and spells (epaoidai). The early Pythagoreans used musical catharsis for both the soul and the body. The doctrine of musical ēthos (whose main source is Plato) presupposes a relationship between music and character based on mimēsis, also establishing a link between therapy and ēthos. According to Aristotle, melodies performed in the rites are able to arou-se the emotions and purify from their excesses (the same dynamics appear in Theophrastus). The musical notions first detecta…

Un destino paradigmatico. L'ibrido e la necessità del γάμος nel mito di Io

The main stages in the myth of the Argive Io are seduction by Zeus, being guarded by “all-seeing” Argos, her bovine hybridization and mad wanderings from Argos to Egypt, and finally her return to the human form and the birth of Epaphus, Zeus’ son. The agent of Io’s hybridization is either Zeus or Hera. Another aspect of this myth is the rejection of one’s love – also of marriage – for the purpose of preserving a condition of virginity and of “freedom” that is anomalous for women. If it is the case that Hera is the cause of Io’s evils, the girl herself appears as the paradigm of the unavoidable “yoke” of love and marriage for women, especially in Aeschylus’ Suppliant Women. Io shares the sam…

La musicoterapia nella Grecia antica

Music in ancient Greece was believed to heal both the soul and the body, and especially to soothe wrath and low spirits. According to the ethos theory, music has a prominent role in the education of the young people. With both its medical and magic connotations, the notion of musical catharsis is involved in the performance of music and dance in the Dionysiac rites. The medical thought on music therapy is mainly linked with theories concerning the pulse, where musicology and medicine share a common ground.

Sound and the Ancient Senses, edited by Butler, S., and Nooter, S.

Aristoxenus and Music Therapy: Fr. 26 Wehrli within the Tradition on Music and Catharsis.

The importance of music for the ancient Pythagoreans, together with recognition of its therapeutic function, favoured the rise of a long tradition relating to the Pythagoreans and music therapy, which in two Neoplatonic works, Vita Pythagorae by Porphyry of Tyre (c. 234-305 AD) and De vita pythagorica by Iamblichus of Chalcis (ca. 245-325 AD), has its best-known testimonies and the ones richest in details. Although the most ancient sources on Pythagoras tell us nothing on the subject, the tradition relating to the Pythagorean use of music therapy at all events dates back to long before the two Neoplatonics, as is shown by a brief and well-known fragment by Aristoxenus (fr. 26 Wehrli) saying…

Review of E.J. Bakker, ed., Authorship and Greek Song: Authority, Authenticity and Performance (Studies in Archaic and Classical Greek Song, Vol. 3), Leiden - Boston: Brill.

The innovative idea shared by all the essays in the volume consists in the identification of authority as the cornerstone of a poetic piece of art, independent from both the context of its original performance—considering its reperformances in different times and contexts—and its performers, within a wider and more variegated cultural landscape than the original context of a given song. Such an approach especially highlights the idea of the survival of songs through generations, beyond the social and political context, the performers, and the audience of their first performance, from a panhellenic perspective.

Singing to the Wind

Abstract This paper focuses on a passage of Himerius’ Oration 47 (Simon. fr. 251 Poltera = 535 PMG + p. 157 SLG), where Simonides is cited for a song that leads a ship with favourable winds, and on a passage in Plutarch’s Quaestiones Convivales (722b–c) quoting a Simonidean fragment (17 Poltera = 595 PMG) on the propagation of sounds through still air. I argue that they both can be linked with the Argonautic myth of Orpheus. In fact, the former might have some connections with the myth of Oreithyia and Boreas, parents of Zetes and Kalaïs, involved in the Argonautic expedition; moreover, it has some similarities with a fragment from Euripides’ Hypsipyle (752g Kannicht) representing Orpheus o…

The Domestication of the Other. Hermes, the Lyre and the Satyrs between Violence and Civilization

Within the general frame of violence and its representations in Ancient Greece, this paper focuses on the myth of Hermes inventing the lyre and on the relationship between this god and the Satyrs. The representation of Satyrs on vessels used at Symposia clearly shows the civilizing effects of music, that allows a shift from “savagery” to “culture”, and from the “other” to the “self”.

Musica, catarsi ed eunomía. I Pitagorici in Magna Grecia e l'uso terapeutico del peana.

Accanto allo sviluppo del pensiero filosofico-scientifico e al sorgere di nuovi ordinamenti politici in diverse poleis, la presenza delle comunità pitagoriche in Magna Grecia sembra aver dato impulso anche a livello religioso -ad esempio, con l’affermarsi del culto di Apollo- e musicale. A tale riguardo, si propone una riflessione sulla musicoterapia presso i Pitagorici antichi, e in particolare sull’uso da parte loro del peana, come emerge ad esempio nella Vita Pythagorica di Giamblico (§ 110: la catarsi “primaverile” di gruppo) e nella Vita Pythagorae di Porfirio (§ 32). Il peana, che nella tradizione appare rivolto soprattutto a calmare l’ira (in particolare quella divina, come emerge da…

Sirene nell'Ade. L'aulo, la lira e il lutto

Although music might seem to have nothing to do with death and the grief caused by it (to ban any music making from one’s house is a distinctive feature of mourning), yet dirges (threnoi) bestow upon the deceased both praise and the possibility to be remembered, and soothe the grief of his family and friends, and of the community as a whole. Thus the living accompany the soul of the dead in its descent to the Underworld by means of music, that seems to be the last connection with life. On a mythical-religious level, such an accompaniment is brought about by the Sirens, prayed by Helen so that they could join her in mourning the loss of the many warriors who have died because of her (Eur. He…

The Pythagoreans and the Therapeutic Effects of the Paean between Religion, Paideia and Politics

The interest of the Early Pythagoreans in musical speculation appears in literary sources as strictly linked with religion and education. The use of paeans for healing and calming both rage and anger among the Pythagoreans (see for instance Iamblichus, De vita pythagorica 110; Porphyrius, Vita Pythagorae 30) shows that catharsis was meant within such groups as a “purification” from every kind of excess in which religion, medicine and ethics were blended together in order to provide a harmonious order within the individuals. Music and musical education in Pythagorean communities had also a “political” role, since they were intended to foster social order.

Strumenti Musicali/ Musical Instruments

Nella Grecia antica la musica ricopriva un ruolo molto importante in ogni contesto significativo della vita comunitaria; allo stesso modo era presente in ogni evento rilevante dell’esistenza individuale. Gli strumenti musicali furono classificati da Aristosseno di Taranto (4° sec. a.C.) in tre gruppi principali: cordofoni, aerofoni e membranofoni (classificazione ancora in uso). Almeno a partire dal 5° sec. a.C., caratteristiche etiche furono associate alla lira e all’aulos, gli strumenti più rappresentativi dei primi due gruppi. A Roma la musica ebbe un ruolo più limitato. In ancient Greece, music played a very important role in every meaningful context of community life; similarly, it was…