Search results for "Aristoxenus"

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

2012

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…