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The Greeks were familiar with the idea that music can alter the disposition of those who hear it. They acknowledged its power to soothe, to console, to distract, to cheer, to excite, to inflame, to madden. They had definite theories, which will be described in a later chapter, about the various moral and emotional effects of different musical modes and rhythms. There are stories of music being employed deliberately to manipulate people's moods. It is said that when Sparta was in a state of unrest in the first half of the seventh century BC, an oracle recommended sending for 'the Lesbian singer': Terpander was invited to come, and his singing restored the city to good order. Similar achievements are attributed to Thaletas and Stesichorus.88 Pythagoras is supposed to have noticed, while out star-gazing one night in Tauromenium, a young man who, carried away by love, jealousy, copious drink, and Phrygian pipe-music, was preparing to set fire to his mistress's door; the sage calmed him by persuading the piper to play a more dignified melody.89 |
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None of these episodes can be taken as historical, but the idea that music might achieve such results certainly enjoyed some currency. The Pythagoreans in particular claimed to have developed (or rather to have inherited from Pythagoras) a science of musical psychotherapy and a daily programme of songs and lyre pieces that made them bright and alert when they got up. and when they went to bed purged them of all the day's cares and prepared them for agreeable and prophetic dreams.90 We also hear of a painter who found that a citharode's singing enabled him to achieve a likeness.91 |
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A more primitive stratum of belief is reflected in the use of music |
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88 Arist fr. 545, Diod. 8. 28, ps.-Plut. De mus 1146b. Suda in 370. 10. etc. Plut Lyc. 4. 3; Philod. Mus. p. 42 Kr. = 221 Rispoli. 182 Kr. = 65 Neubecker (PMG 281 c, d). |
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89 Cic. De consiliis suis fr. 3 p. 339 Müller, Sext. Emp. Math 6 8, Iambl. De vita Pythagorica 112. A like story is told of Damon in Galen, De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis 9.5, Mart. Cap. 9. 926. |
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90 Aristox. frs. 26, 121, Quint. Inst. 9. 4. 12, Dio Chrys. Or. 32. 57 (i. 283. 24 Arnim), Plut. De Is. et Os. 384a, Aristid. Quint. 2. 19 p. 91. 27, Porph. Vita Pythagorae 30, 32f, Iambl. De vita Pythagorica 64f., 110f., 164, 224, Mart. Cap. 9. 923. Cf. P1. Ti. 47 d. Xenocrates ap. Mart. Cap. 9. 926, Chamaeleon fr. 6 Giordano, Aristox. fr. 6; E. R. Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational (Berkeley and LA, 1951), 80. |
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91 Diogenes of Seleucia, SVF iii. 227. 19 (Philod. Mus. 4 pp. 48f. Neubecker). Perhaps the reference is to Parrhasius, who is reported to have sung while painting (Theophr. fr. 79 W. with Ael. VH 9. 11). |
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