1,355,416 research outputs found
Pitagora e le Muse. Per una lettura di Timeo, F 131 FGrHist.
No full textLe 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
Aristoxenus and Music Therapy: Fr. 26 Wehrli within the Tradition on Music and Catharsis.
No full textThe 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 that “the Pythagoreans used medicine for the purification of the body, and music for that of the soul”. This testimony seems, more than any other, to have determined the almost undisputed acceptance of a true theory of musical catharsis, also seen in an ethical sense, worked out by the ancient Pythagoreans and such as to represent a model for Aristotle.
In this connection, I try to highlight that behind the fragment it is instead easy to recognize the religious-ritual sphere of traditional catharsis, and the widespread belief in the beneficial effects of music on ethos. So the fragment reflects common beliefs, and can also be connected to some Presocratic texts and to Aristoxenus' Pythagorean Precepts
Soothing Lyres and epodai: Music Therapy and the Cases of Orpheus, Empedocles and David
No full textWithin 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
Musical Remedies for Deadly Problems. Music Therapy in the Homeric Poems
No full textThe 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 intended to produce a sort of “anaesthetic” effect, preventing the mind of the sick person from concentrating on his or her physical feelings through a musical combination of rhythm and words that served to act on the evil itself. Apart from these differences, we nevertheless find a fundamental aspect common to the two circumstances, the element of the rite, that, though according to different modalities, in both cases is the background to the treatment. These two testimonies thus sum up the fundamental aspects of “traditional”, pre-Hippocratic medicine and put Greece of the Homeric poems on the same wavelength as the other civilizations in the ancient Mediterranean, for which there are abundant testimonies of the therapeutic use of prayers and magic formulas, that is to say of the inseparable bond between medicine and religion
Strumenti Musicali/ Musical Instruments
No full textNella 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 present in every significant event of an individual’s existence. Musical instruments were classified by Aristoxenus of Tarentum (4th c. BCE) into three main groups: cordophones, aerophones and membranophones (classification still in use). From at least the second half of the 5th c. BCE, ethical features were associated with the lyre and the aulos, the most representative instruments of the first two groups. In Rome, music had a narrower role
Altalena/Swing
No full textGioco popolare connesso con la simbologia della morte, e anche della fecondità, l’altalena evoca, da un lato, la follia femminile e il suicidio per impiccagione nel mito della giovane Erigone, ricordato nella festa ateniese delle Anthesteriai; per altri versi, l’altalena rinvia al passaggio dalla condizione di vergine a quella di sposa, ed assume connotati catartici.A traditional and popular game linked with both the symbolism of death, and of the women’s fertility, the swing reminds, on the one hand, of the women’s madness and young Erigones’ hanging, celebrated in the Athenian festival named Anthesteriai. In other respects, the swing refers to the passage from virginity to the condition of wives, taking on cathartic features
Phobos, incantamento e catarsi. Alcune riflessioni su ascolto dell’aulos e tragedia.
No full textThe 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
Madness and Bestialization in Euripides’ Heracles. Οὔποτ' ἄκραντα δόμοισι Λύσσα βακχεύσει.
No full textAgainst 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 slaughter his own family. This representation includes the monstrous and disturbing Gorgon and the dog, set alongside the metaphor of hunting, that highlights the link between the demon and the Erinyes, those other bringers of madness. Madness itself – represented as harmful subversion of Dionysiac enthousiasmos by Lyssa – seems to constitute in Euripides' Heracles the discriminating element between the exercise of “just” violence, functional at all events in re-establishing an order in things, and “unjust” violence, in which the prevailing of the strongest is translated into the predominance of subversive bestiality in the human order
Correcting ēthos and Purifying the Body. Musical Therapy in Iamblichus’ De vita pythagorica
No full textThe 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 consistent 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 ca-tharsis, that he often links with musical ēthos. Actually the latter is not attested before Plato, but Iamblichus, presenting Py-thagoras in Platonic terms, emphasizes the importance he gives to the improvement of the individual’s character and life by means of music, that is used as a proper pharmakon. In such respect, Iamblichus’ work shows some similarities with Aristides Quintilianus’ De Musica, especially for what concerns the “mixture” of melodies as if they were medicines
Tra incantamento e phobos. Alcuni esempi sugli effetti dell'aulos nei dialoghi di Platone e nella catarsi tragica.
No full textIl 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 i suoni da esso prodotti con le proprie esperienze di vita quotidiana, specie quelle dei riti catartici dionisiaci. Per mezzo della catarsi e grazie alle sue implicazioni etiche, la tragedia – in virtù del suo contesto e del suo ruolo interamente pubblici – pare quindi aver avuto un effetto più significativamente „politico‟ sulle ansie del vastissimo uditorio teatrale.The power of the aulos and its effects on the soul were so emblematic for the Greeks, that they also made this instrument and its sounds into a metaphor of persuasion, as it happens for instance in some Platonic dialogues. On the other side, the aulos was also a „perturbing‟ instrument, as it appears for instance in tragedy. Indeed it seems to work on the fears (phobos) and insecurities of tragic characters, and leads sometimes to the conclusive developments of the theatrical performance. As far as the audience in the theatre is concerned, the aulos instead may have had a role in the development of catharsis, since the audience would be able to connect its sounds with experiences of everyday life, especially with the Dionysiac cathartic rites. By means of catharsis, and because of its ethical implications, tragedy – with its utterly public context and role – seems then to have performed a most meaningful „political‟ effect on the anxieties of the very large theatre audience
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