scholarly journals Una storia della musica e della lirica greca dalle origini al IV secolo a.C. nel De musica attribuito a Plutarco

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonietta Gostoli
Keyword(s):  
Lyric Poetry ◽  
Social Function ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Musical Education ◽  
History Of

Ps. Plutarch’s De musica is an important source for reconstructing the history of ancient Greek music and lyric poetry. It is sharply divided in two parts: the first one is the history of music and lyric poetry, from their mythical origins to the IV century BC; the second one is about the ethical and social function of musical education. The discussion of the first part is about the metrical and rhythmical structure of the pre-Homeric citharodic epic compared to verses of Stesichorus and Terpander; kitharōidikoi and aulōidikoi nomoi, Phrygian origin of aulōidia, musical schools in Sparta in relation to the poetic genres definition. Heraclides of Pontus provides the material for Chapters 3-12 (the main exception being Chapter 11, which is explicity credited to Aristoxenus). He indicates the Anagraphe en Sikyoni as his source about Amphion and the origin of kitharōidia. But the history of aulōidia is attributed to a different writer, Glaucus of Rhegium, who lived in the fifth century and is the earliest musical historian.

Aristotle and the Dramatisation of Legend

1954 ◽  
Vol 4 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 151-157
Author(s):  
H. C. Baldry
Keyword(s):  
Lyric Poetry ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Scanty Information ◽  
The One ◽  
Traditional Stories

This article is a survey of familiar ground—those passages of the Poetics of Aristotle which throw light on the treatment of legend by the tragic poets. Although sweeping generalizations are often made on the use of the traditional stories in drama, our evidence on the subject is slight and inconclusive. We have little knowledge of the form in which most of the legends were known to the Attic playwrights, for the few we find in the Iliad and Odyssey appear there in very different versions from those they take on in the plays, and the fragmentary remains of epic and lyric poetry between Homer and the fifth century B.C. present us with a wide field for speculation, but few certain facts; while vase paintings and other works of art supplement only here and there the scanty information gained from literature.The comments of ancient writers on this aspect of tragedy are surprisingly few, and carry us little farther. The Poetics stands out as the one source from which we can draw any substantial account of the matter. Even Aristotle, of course, is not directly concerned with the history of drama, and deals with it only incidentally in isolated passages; and in considering these it must constantly be borne in mind that he is discussing tragedy as he knew it in the late fourth century, for the benefit of fourth-century readers. But even so, his statements are the main foundation on which our view of the dramatists' use of legend must be built.

LYKOPHRON AND EPIGRAPHY: THE VALUE AND FUNCTION OF CULT EPITHETS IN THEALEXANDRA

2014 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Hornblower
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Religion ◽  
Local Origin ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Many ◽  
And Function

The subject of this paper is a striking and unavoidable feature of theAlexandra: Lykophron's habit of referring to single gods not by their usual names, but by multiple lists of epithets piled up in asyndeton. This phenomenon first occurs early in the 1474-line poem, and this occurrence will serve as an illustration. At 152–3, Demeter has five descriptors in a row: Ἐνναία ποτὲ | Ἕρκυνν' Ἐρινὺς Θουρία Ξιφηφόρος, ‘Ennaian … Herkynna, Erinys, Thouria, Sword-bearing’. In the footnote I give the probable explanations of these epithets. Although in this sample the explanations to most of the epithets are not to be found in inscriptions, my main aim in what follows will be to emphasize the relevance of epigraphy to the unravelling of some of the famous obscurity of Lykophron. In this paper, I ask why the poet accumulates divine epithets in this special way. I also ask whether the information provided by the ancient scholiasts, about the local origin of the epithets, is of good quality and of value to the historian of religion. This will mean checking some of that information against the evidence of inscriptions, beginning with Linear B. It will be argued that it stands up very well to such a check. TheAlexandrahas enjoyed remarkable recent vogue, but this attention has come mainly from the literary side. Historians, in particular historians of religion, and students of myths relating to colonial identity, have been much less ready to exploit the intricate detail of the poem, although it has so much to offer in these respects. The present article is, then, intended primarily as a contribution to the elucidation of a difficult literary text, and to the history of ancient Greek religion. Despite the article's main title, there will, as the subtitle is intended to make clear, be no attempt to gather and assess all the many passages in Lykophron to which inscriptions are relevant. There will, for example, be no discussion of 1141–74 and the early Hellenistic ‘Lokrian Maidens inscription’ (IG9.12706); or of the light thrown on 599 by the inscribed potsherds carrying dedications to Diomedes, recently found on the tiny island of Palagruza in the Adriatic, and beginning as early as the fifth centuryb.c.(SEG48.692bis–694); or of 733–4 and their relation to the fifth-centuryb.c.Athenian decree (n. 127) mentioning Diotimos, the general who founded a torch race at Naples, according to Lykophron; or of 570–85 and the epigraphically attested Archegesion or cult building of Anios on Delos, which shows that this strange founder king with three magical daughters was a figure of historical cult as well as of myth.

The Body of Western Embodiment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Interior Space ◽  
Ancient Greek Philosophy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Body And Soul ◽  
The Relationship

Much of western philosophy, especially ancient Greek philosophy, addresses the problems posed by embodiment. This chapter argues that to grasp the early history of embodiment is to see the category of the body itself as historically emergent. Bruno Snell argued that Homer lacked a concept of the body (sōma), but it is the emergence of body in the fifth century BCE rather than the appearance of mind or soul that is most consequential for the shape of ancient dualisms. The body takes shape in Hippocratic medical writing as largely hidden and unconscious interior space governed by impersonal forces. But Plato’s corpus demonstrates that while Plato’s reputation as a somatophobe is well grounded and may arise in part from the way the body takes shape in medical and other physiological writing, the Dialogues represent a more complex position on the relationship between body and soul than Plato’s reputation suggests.

Therapy of the word and other psychotherapeutic approaches in Ancient Greek medicine

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 741-752
Author(s):  
Chiara Thumiger
Keyword(s):  
Physiological State ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Ancient Medicine ◽  
Pharmaceutical Substances ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ancient Greek Medicine ◽  
Systematic Knowledge

One of the most distinctive aspects of contemporary psychiatry is its firm grounding in a neurological and biochemical framework for the interpretation of mental life and its disturbances. In the absence of any strong neurological understanding or systematic knowledge of active pharmaceutical substances, one might expect that early ancient medicine readily resorted to non-somatic approaches to healing mental suffering. Instead, what is usually labelled “therapy of the word” and other forms of what one may call psychotherapy emerge relatively late in Greek medicine, only in the first centuries of our era. This paper provides an overview and analysis of this development in ancient history of psychology, philosophy and medicine, covering a broad period of time from the fifth century BCE to the end of the late-antique period, the fifth century CE. The focus is on the very idea (or lack thereof) of the curability of mental disturbance, and on the particular branch of therapeutics which addresses the psychological and existential condition of the patient, rather than his or her physiological state.

Demokratia and Arete in Ancient Greek Political Thought

2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Wallach
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Athenian Democracy ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Greek Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
The Relationship

This article interprets demokratia and arete as dynamically related terms of political thought in ancient Greek culture, from Homeric times to the end of the classical era. It does so selectively, identifying three stages in which this relationship is developed: (1) from the Homeric to archaic eras; (2) fifth-century Athenian democracy, in which demokratia and arete are posed as complementary terms; and (3) the fourth century era in which philosophers used virtue to critique democracy. Relying mostly on evidence from writers who have become benchmarks in the history of Western political thought, the argument emphasizes the inherently political dimension of arete during this period of ancient Greek culture. Noting different ways in which arete is related to political power in general and democracy in particular, it also illustrates the manner in which arete is neither philosophically pristine nor merely an instrument of practical power. The effect of the research contradicts traditional and recent readings of democracy and virtue as inherently antagonistic. The aim of the article is to identify ancient Greek contributions to understanding the potential, contingencies and dangers of the relationship between democracy (as a form of power) and virtue (as a form of ethics) — one which may benefit both democracy and virtue.

scholarly journals Τὸ καλόν as a Criterion for Evaluating Innovation (τὸ καινόν) in Greek Theory of Musical Education: “Ancient” versus “New” Music in Ps. Plut. De musica

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 379-390
Author(s):  
Antonietta Gostoli
Keyword(s):  
Lyric Poetry ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
New Music ◽  
Epic Poetry ◽  
Musical Education ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
And Training

The Pseudo-Plutarchan De musica provides us with the oldest history of Greek lyric poetry from the pre-Homeric epic poetry to the lyric poetry of the fourth century B.C. Importantly, the work contains also an evaluation of the role of music in the process of educating and training the citizens. Ps. Plutarch (Aristoxenus) considers the καλόν in the aesthetic and ethical sense, which makes it incompatible with the καινόν dictated by the new poetic and musical season.

Aristophanes’ Bacchylides: Reading Birds 1373–1409

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 184-210
Author(s):  
Theodora A. Hadjimichael
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Lyric Poetry ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
New Music ◽  
History Of

AbstractThe significance of Aristophanes in the history of ancient literary criticism cannot be doubted. Equally undoubted is also the dismissive attitude that he appears to have towards the musical and poetic innovations of the late-fifth century BC. This position of his becomes essential when one considers the manner in which he treats the appraised canonical lyric poets and the contemned representatives of the New Dithyramb. This paper is concerned with the reading specifically of Bacchylides in Aristophanes. It argues in favour of the use of Bacchylides’ Ode 5 to Hieron inBirds1373-1409 as well as for the poem’s reconfiguration by Kinesias within the context of the New Music. In the process it will allow us to comment on a number of poetic characteristics of Bacchylides’ poetry and also to draw conclusions on Bacchylides’ status within the melic tradition as the poet in-between classical lyric poetry and the New Music.

scholarly journals Τὸ καλόν as a Criterion for Evaluating Innovation (τὸ καινόν) in Greek Theory of Musical Education: “Ancient” versus “New” Music in Ps. Plut. De musica

2017 ◽  
pp. 379-390
Author(s):  
Antonietta Gostoli
Keyword(s):  
Lyric Poetry ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
New Music ◽  
Epic Poetry ◽  
Musical Education ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
And Training

The Pseudo-Plutarchan De musica provides us with the oldest history of Greek lyric poetry from the pre-Homeric epic poetry to the lyric poetry of the fourth century B.C. Importantly, the work contains also an evaluation of the role of music in the process of educating and training the citizens. Ps. Plutarch (Aristoxenus) considers the καλόν in the aesthetic and ethical sense, which makes it incompatible with the καινόν dictated by the new poetic and musical season.

scholarly journals Un’antica fonte magno-greca nel De musica attribuito a Plutarco: Glauco di Reggio

Ploutarchos ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 41-54
Author(s):  
Antonietta Gostoli
Keyword(s):  
Lyric Poetry ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Musical Notation ◽  
Fellow Citizen ◽  
Magna Graecia ◽  
Musical Knowledge ◽  
History Of ◽  
Written Sources

Glaucus of Rhegium is often cited in Ps. Plutarch’s De musica as an important source for reconstructing the history of ancient Greek music and lyric poetry. The cultural background of Glaucus’ activity was Rhegium and the Magna Graecia at the end of V century B.C. While Theagenes, his fellow citizen, who was a rhapsode, gave rise to the Homeric studies (VI century B.C.), Glaucus, who was a musician, started the classification and historiography of lyric poetry. He is cited by Ps. Plutarch’s De musica mostly in chapters derived from Heraclides Ponticus. It has been widely questioned whether the author of the De Musica had direct access to Glaucus’ work or deduced its content from Heraclides. Nevertheless, Ps. Plutarch underlined a great difference between Glaucus and Heraclides: the latter founded his research on written sources, whereas, when Glaucus compared Terpander’s melodies to Orpheus’, we cannot think he could have used any sources with musical notation for such ancient pieces of music. Evidently, he referred to orally transmitted melodies attributed to Orpheus and Terpander. Indeed, elsewhere in the De musica Glaucus refers to musical knowledge acquired by directly listening to ritual songs.

Magistri Legis. Eine Studie zur dogmatischen Funktion im industriellen System

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-112
Author(s):  
Pierre Legendre
Keyword(s):  
Social Function ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Human Behaviour ◽  
Cultural Reproduction ◽  
Industrial System ◽  
The West ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Law ◽  
New Look

"Der Beitrag reevaluiert die «dogmatische Funktion», eine soziale Funktion, die mit biologischer und kultureller Reproduktion und folglich der Reproduktion des industriellen Systems zusammenhängt. Indem sie sich auf der Grenze zwischen Anthropologie und Rechtsgeschichte des Westens situiert, nimmt die Studie die psychoanalytische Frage nach der Rolle des Rechts im Verhalten des modernen Menschen erneut in den Blick. </br></br>This article reappraises the dogmatic function, a social function related to biological and cultural reproduction and consequently to the reproduction of the industrial system itself. On the borderline of anthropology and of the history of law – applied to the West – this study takes a new look at the question raised by psychoanalysis concerning the role of law in modern human behaviour. "

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