Achilles and Cheiron
• 'Homer, that splendid poet, taught us the uses
of music that are appropriate for a man. [e]
Thus to show that music is of value in many
situations, his poem describes Achilles
digesting his anger with the help of music
which he had learned from the wise Cheiron
• Plutarchian De Musica (On Music) 40,
1145e-1146a
Cheiron’s Education
• Thus we hear of Heracles, Achilles, and many
others making use of music, and their teacher,
according to tradition, was the wise Cheiron,
who gave instruction not only in music but in
justice and medicine as well.
• Plutarchian De Musica (On Music) 40,
1145e-1146a
Lyre a spoil of war
• "They found him beguiling his heart with the
clear-sounding phorminx. It was beautiful and
skilfully decorated, and the crossbar on it
was silver: he had chosen it from the spoils
when he sacked the city of Eëtion. (The
phorminx is regarded as an object of reward)
• With it he was giving delight to his heart, and
singing the famous deeds of men."
• Plutarchian De Musica (On Music) 40,
1145e-1146a
Music: suitable for Heroes
• Homer thought it suitable for the hero to
sharpen his spirit with the noblest songs, so
that he should be prepared to go out into
battle, as he was soon to do; and this is plainly
what he was doing as he recounted deeds of
long ago.
• it was suitable for Achilles, son of the most
upright Peleus, to sing of the glories of men
and the deeds of demigods
Homer
• Mythical poet and singer.
• “Collective name” for many oral poets.
• He was blind (otherness-prophecy).
Great Panathenea
• At Athens, relays of rhapsodes were
organized into performing the complete
Iliad and Odyssey at the Great
Panathenaea held every four years
Hesiod
• Blessed by the Muses.
• Skilled in every kind of wisdom.
Odysseus
• not a musician but a listener
• The iron-willed Odysseus give way to
tears listening to music:
• it was a catharsis, an emotive
purification.
Odysseus and the Sirens
• Three sea-daemones with the heads of
women and the bodies of bird.
• They dwelt on the island of Anthemoessa
and lured sailers to their death with
their irresistable song.
• One of the few to hear their song and live
was Odysseus who had himself bound to
the ship's mast, in frustration the Sirens
leapt into the sea and drowned
Oblivion and destruction
• "When a sailor hears the Seiren’s perfidious
song, and bewitched by the melody, he is
dragged to a self-chosen fate too soon;
• no longer he cleaves the waves, no longer he
whitends the blue water with his oars unwetted
now, but falling into the net of melodious
Moira (Fate), he forgets to steer, quite happy,
caring not for the seven starry Pleiades and
the Bear’s circling course." - Nonnus,
Dionysiaca 2.10
Orpheus vs. Sirens
• And soon they saw a fair island, Anthemoessa, where
the clear-voiced Sirens used to beguile with their
sweet songs whoever cast anchor there, and they
destroy him.
• And they were already about to cast from the ship the
hawesers to the shore, had not Thracian Orpheus,
son of Oeagrus, stringing in his hands his Bistonian
lyre (phorminx), rung forth the hasty snatch of a
rippling melody so that their ears might be filled with
the sound of his twanging; and the lyre (phorminx)
overcame the maidens' voice.
Contest: Thamiris
• X.7.2-3: The oldest contest and the one for which
they first offered prizes, was, according to tradition,
the singing of a hymn to the god. The man who sang
and won the prize was Chrysothemis of Crete,
whose father Carmanor is said to have cleansed
Apollo. After Chrysothemis, says tradition,
Philammon won with a song, and after him his son
Thamyris. But they say that Orpheus, a proud man
and conceited about his mysteries, and Musaeus,
who copied Orpheus in everything, refused, it is said,
to submit to the competition in musical skill
Thamiris
• Thamyris , a Thracian by birth, sang more
melodiously [1132b] and with a more beautiful
voice than anyone else in those days, which
led him to compete, so the poets say, in a
contest against the Muses. He is also said to
have composed a piece on the war of Titans
against the gods
• Plutarchian De Musica (On Music) 1132a-b
Contest with the Muses
• Thamyris, however, who possessed unusual
natural ability, perfected the art of music and
claimed that in the excellence of song his voice
was more beautiful than the voices of the
Muses.
• Whereupon the goddesses, angered at him,
took from him his gift of music and maimed
the man
• Diodorus Siculus III 67
The end of the song
• There met the Muses Thamyris of Thrace /
And made an end of his song;
• But him, enraged, they maimed, and from him
took / The gift of song divine and made him
quite / Forget his harping (kitharistyn).
Painful punishment
• In the case of Thamyris, punishment is more
painful than death: by taking away his
memory of song, divine gift, along with the
technique of instrumental accompaniment, the
Muses deprive him of the means by which
one learns and transmits one's knowledge
The wrath
•
•
•
•
We Muses, for great strife of minstrelsy
With Thracia 's cunning bard;
and we made blind
Thamyris, who full oft had mocked our skill
• Euripides, Rhesus 915-925
Thamyris
• For Hyacinth, Thamyris, the son of Philammon
and a nymph Argiope, conceived a passion, he
being the first to become enamoured of
males.
• Thamyris first played the lyre without using
the voice (cithara sine voce cecinit)
• Plinius, Naturalis Historia 7, 207
Thamyras.
a Thracian musician who boasted
he was as good as the Muses, for which he was blinded
Linos and Mousaios
Linus and Heracles
• Linus also, who was admired because of his
poetry and singing, had many pupils and three
of greatest renown, Heracles, Thamyras, and
Orpheus. Of these three Heracles, who was
learning to play the lyre (kitharizein), was
unable to appreciate what was taught him
because of his sluggishness of soul, and once
when he had been punished with rods by Linus
he became violently angry and killed his
teacher with a blow of the lyre.
Amphion
Amphion
• Amphion is the son of Zeus and the
nymph Antiope, the queen of Thebes.
• Amphion's songs drew even stones and
beasts after him
• He has build the walls of Thebes, while
played his lyre. The magic of his music
caused the stones to move into place on
their own accord.
Amphion and Hermes
• Amphion was the first harpist (lyra), and that
Hermes was his teacher
• Myro of Byzantium, a poetess who wrote epic
and elegiac poetry, states that Amphion was
the first to set up an altar to Hermes, and for
this reason was presented by him with a lyre
• The god Hermes taught Amphion music and
gave him a beautiful golden lyre
The punishment
• It is also said that Amphion is punished in
Hades for being among those who made a
mock of Leto and her children
Arion
• Arion of Methymna was carried ashore at
Taenarum upon a dolphin's back.
• This man was a harper second to none of
those who then lived, and the first, so far
as we know, who composed a
dithyramb, naming it so and teaching it to
a chorus at Corinth