Music and the Divine

Only one fragment of the great scientist Eudoxus of Cnidus (ca. 390-337) deals with music, and more specifically, συμφωνία (Theon of Smyrna, Introductio arithmetica, p. 61 Hiller). Therefore, scholars of ancient music have generally overlooked it. Recently, the authenticity of the mention of Eudoxus has even been doubted (C. Huffman, Archytas of Tarentum, Cambridge, 2005, p. 477).

The aim of this paper is to investigate the forms and functions of sacred musical performances in the classizing culture of the Roman Empire, by singling out two works by the second-century AD sophist Aelius Aristides as fascinating examples of the relation between music and the divine in imperial times.

Music in Plato’s dialogues ‘represents’ or ‘resembles’ at least two seemingly very different things. In the Timaeus, melody and rhythm are kinds of audible motion which mirror the revolutions of a rationally ordered universe (see Pl. Tim. 34b10-7b6, esp. 36e5-7b6, and for a modern account of how music can ‘move’ see Scruton contra Budd; cf. Wittgenstein; Robinson contra Kivy).

What is the relationship of music to the divine in Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura? I argue that the gods are silent. Music is a human production, neither transcendent, nor a gift from the gods. To begin with, Lucretius calls upon Venus and the muses to aid in the composition of the poem (1.24-25, 6.47, 6.93-5), but there is no associated reference to sound or music. We can compare this with Hesiod’s Theogony, the invocation of which is filled with language of singing and music. Even as he draws upon traditional depictions of the muses, Lucretius is reshaping the images.