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