Search results for "ētho"
showing 4 items of 4 documents
Phobos, incantamento e catarsi. Alcune riflessioni su ascolto dell’aulos e tragedia.
2009
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.
Singing to the Wind
2021
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…
Music and Medicine
2020
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…
Correcting ēthos and Purifying the Body. Musical Therapy in Iamblichus’ De vita pythagorica
2015
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…