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II. 3. THE HEAVENLY BODIES OF THE MUSES

a) Prooimion

We have already mentioned some affinities between the Sirens, Moirai, and

Muses, and we must now deal with the Muses themselves as bearers of cosmic

harmony. We are going to show that the Muses share with the Sirens the association

with heavenly spheres/bodies, the fact that they were considered as embodiments of

sound, and the function of leading the souls through heaven. The main difference

between Muses and Sirens in this connection is that the former were not believed to

be souls of the dead. Otherwise, the link between Muses and heavenly bodies may be

of not too later origin than the celestial Sirens discussed in the previous chapter,

although it had a greater literary success, and even survived among Christian Latin

writers and medieval music theorists. The association of the Muses with the sounds of

the musical system, and more specifically with the strings of the lyre, is far clearer

than in the case of the Sirens, but it was of later origin (as we shall see in the next

section, it was the Pleiads, not the Muses, who were linked with the strings of the lyre

in the Classical period). On the other hand, Plato hinted at the role of the Muses as

celestial psychopomps, whereas he did not attribute it to the Sirens. The Neoplatonists

made further allusions to this aspect of the Muses.

b) Muses and Heavenly Realms191

In the previous chapter we mentioned that, according to a passage of

Plutarch’s Table Talk, the three Moirai singing in Plato’s myth of Er were a hint at

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three Muses belonging to a Delphic tradition, whose names were Hypate, Mese,

Neate,192 and who were linked with cosmic regions:193

Still I wonder how Lamprias missed what they say in Delphi, namely, that among

them the Muses are not the eponyms of the sounds or the strings, but since the world

is as a whole divided in three parts, the first one is that of the fixed stars; second, that

of the errant ones; last, the sublunar one, and all are joined together and arranged

according harmonic ratios.194 A Muse is the protector of every one of them: Hypate

guards the first region; Neate guards the last one; Mese, the middle one, who holds

together and turns at the same time as much as possible the mortal things with the

divine ones, those surrounding the Earth with those of heavens. Plato hinted at this

with the names of the Moirai, giving to one of them the name ‘Atropos,’ to the other,

‘Klotho,’ and to the last one, ‘Lachesis,’ for he placed the Sirens, not the Muses,

(who were equal in number) on the orbits of the eight spheres.195

The names mentioned by Plutarch are attested for the Muses on an inscription from

Argos (ca. 300 B. C. E.), where three Muses, called Neta, Messa and Hypata appear

besides a fourth one, Prata (dialect form for Prote, i. e., “first”), possibly a local

denomination of a string of the lyre otherwise called hyperhypate.196 Yet Plutarch did

not refer those names of the Muses to the strings of the lyre, but to different regions of

the Universe:

a) “Hypate” (“the uppermost”) was linked with the sphere of the fixed stars,

because of the most general meaning of the adjective hypatos, “the

uppermost.”

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b) “Mese,” meaning “the middle,” was linked with the region of the planets as a

whole, since it is placed between the sphere of the fixed stars and that of the

Moon.

c) “Nete,” meaning “the uttermost,” was linked with the sublunar region.197

Plutarch suggested that these Delphic Muses were already at work in the

Platonic myth of Er, concealed under the names of the three Moirai,198 but Plato did

not associate his Moirai with any cosmic region. Such a connection seems to be

exclusively Plutarchean, but these three Muses and the Moirai, all linked with regions

of a threefold cosmic scheme, will deserve further comments in another chapter.

On the other hand, Proclus, in his commentaries to Plato’s Timaeus, stated a

relationship between the nine Muses and a nine-fold division of the universe.199

c) Muses as Stars of Cosmic Music

The first source where a link between Muses and heavenly bodies might have

been suggested is a fragment of the Latin poet Ennius (239-169 B. C. E.200): Musae,

quae pedibus magnum pulsatis Olympum (“O ye Muses, who stamp with your feet the

mighty Olympus”). Varro (116-27 B. C. E.201), commenting on Ennius’s fragment,

explains that the Greeks called the heaven “Olympus” (caelum dicunt Graeci

Olympum).202 This might imply that for Ennius the Muses are the heavenly bodies:203

even if Ennius’s fragment makes sense without identifying heavens and Olympus, it is

likely that Ennius, born in Rudiae, near Brindisi and Tarentum, in the third century B.

C. E. (the same century in which Tarentum was conquered by Rome), knew and was

influenced by the Pythagorean doctrines so widely extended in Magna Graecia.204 And

the equation “Olympus” = “Heaven,” mentioned for the first time by Varro, as we

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have seen, was ascribed to Philolaus by the first-second centuries C. E. doxographer

Aetius, which suggests that it was accepted in Pythagorean circles.205

A far more clear, direct piece of evidence for the Muses being related to

cosmic harmony is at least three centuries later than Plato, and only a few decades

later than Varro and earlier than Plutarch (ca. 45-125 C. E.): Philo of Alexandria (25

B. C. E. – 50 C. E.) is the first author qualifying the harmony of the celestial

movements as “like that of all the Muses” or alluding to the “harmonic arrangement

and dance of the stars, truly like that of all the Muses.”206 Maximus of Tyrus (125-185

C. E. 207 ) seems to imply an identification between Muses and stars in his

interpretation of a passage of Hesiod: according to Maximus, Hesiod was alluding to

the heavenly music when describing Mount Helicon, the most holy choirs dancing

there, and Helios or Apollo as their coryphaeus. Given the Hesiodic passages, where

Apollo leads the choir of the Muses, it is likely that Maximus of Tyrus was implying

an identification between Muses and stars.208

Maximus of Tyrus also suggests that a factor enhancing the association of the

Muses with the stars might have been Apollo’s identification with the Sun. As a

matter of fact, Apollo and the Sun are distinct from one another in the earliest sources

(for example, in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Apollo alludes to the Sun as being

different from himself209), but they became identified in Classical times.210 It seems

that the Pythagoreans had some influence on that idea: according to Macrobius, the

astronomer Oenopides explained the Apollinean epithet Loxiva" on the ground that

the Sun follows an inclined path through the ecliptic: the equation Apollo = Sun is

implicit in this interpretation.211 Oenopides was not far from the Pythagoreans: Aetius

says that Oenopides had kidnapped Pythagoras’s discovery of the obliquity of the

ecliptic, and Aristotle attributed to “some Pythagoreans” the doctrine (later ascribed

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to Oenopides) that the Milky Way was the ancient path of the Sun.212 If Apollo was

already identified with the Sun, the Muses could be associated with the planets,

because they constituted the choir usually lead by Apollo, and this god was honored

by Plato as “conductor” of the cosmic harmony.213 Thus, the association of Muses and

planets could have existed in Classical times as well, but our first piece of actual

evidence is hardly to be dated to the third century B. C. E., if we accept that Ennius

was implying such an association in the fragment discussed above.

No one of those authors specified the number of the Muses, but beyond the

three Delphic Muses perhaps mentioned by Plutarch, other authors such as Arnobius

take into account the nine Hesiodic Muses,214 and Porphyrius attributes to Pythagoras

himself a link between those nine Muses and the heavenly bodies, as we shall see

below. We can observe that, while there is no ancient source specifying individual

links between the Sirens and the heavenly bodies,215 it is a different matter with

respect to the Muses. We have seen a possible correspondence between the three

Delphic Muses and the threefold division of the cosmos. When it came to linking

Muses and heavenly bodies, the Ancients made several attempts to establish a

correspondence between nine Muses and seven or eight cosmic spheres.

According to Plutarch, “the elders bequeathed us nine Muses: eight (according

to Plato) bewitching around the heavenly bodies, and the ninth around the terrestrial

realms.”216 In the Table Talk, the author places this ninth Muse between Moon and

Earth and makes her transmit harmony and rhythm to the Earth, charming what is

prone to disorder and trouble in human life.217 Other efforts to assign the nine Muses

to eight positions are those of Porphyrius, who suggested that Apollo was the Sun and

“the nine Muses who entice him are the sublunar sphere, the seven planetary spheres,

and the sphere of the fixed stars.”218 This seems a logical derivation of the association

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between Sun and Apollo, a link we can trace back to the fifth century B. C. E., and the

seven planetary spheres mentioned by Porphyrius would be those of Mercury, Venus,

Earth, Moon, Mars, Juppiter, and Saturn. Porphyrius also attributed to Pythagoras an

identification of the sounds of the seven planets, the sphere of the fixed stars, and the

Counter-Earth with the Muses, as we shall see later. One can argue that these

identifications involving nine heavenly bodies or regions cannot go back to the

Pythagoreans of Classical times, who counted ten heavenly bodies; but it should be

remembered that one of those ten heavenly bodies was the Sun, identified with

Apollo, and, as we have seen, the Pythagoreans admitted this equation Apollo = Sun.

The identification of Muses with planets, however, should belong to a tradition

different from that of a Pythagorean aphorism quoted by Porphyrius himself, and

according to which the planets are the dogs of Persephone.219

Another system, attributed to Porphyrius by Macrobius, considers that the

ninth Muse corresponds to the harmony of all the eight celestial spheres together.220

Last, Martianus Capella is the only ancient author who specifies which sphere is

linked with each Muse, taking into account the Earth: Urania is assigned the sphere of

the fixed stars; Polyhymnia, that of Saturn; Euterpe, that of Jupiter (the “jovial” star);

Erato, that of Mars; Melpomene, that of the Sun; Terpsichore, that of Venus; Calliope,

that of Mercury; Clio, that of the Moon, and Thalia, that of the Earth.221 We can see

that Porphyrius linked Apollo with the Sun, and included the Counter-Earth in the

system attributed to Pythagoras, whereas Martianus Capella drops out the Counter-

Earth, does not take Apollo into account, and associates the Sun with a Muse.

Last, we should remember Eratosthenes, the Alexandrine scholar of the third

century B. C. E., author of a catalogue of constellations in which the myths related to

them were also told. Of this work only an abridged version, perhaps dating from the

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second century C. E., survives. It is known as the Pseudo-Eratosthenes’

Catasterismoi, and in its chapter 31, devoted to the constellation of the Dolphin, it is

said that this animal is fond of music because the number of stars of its constellation

its equal to that of the Muses.222

d) Muses as Divine Embodiments of Sound

At the beginning of this chapter we saw that, according to Plutarch, the names

of the three Delphic Muses, Hypate, Mese, and Nete, did not allude to the strings of

the lyre, but to regions of the Universe (the sphere of the fixed stars, the region

between Sun and Moon, and the sublunar realm). No one of the other authors

examined so far specified any link between the Muses and the sounds of the musical

system, but such links are attested elsewhere and constitute a further trait shared by

Sirens and Muses. An association between Muses and strings of the lyre is even more

consistently attested when it comes to the Muses than in the case of the Sirens.223

For example, in plain opposition to Plutarch, Censorinus (third century C.

E.224) says that three Muses were worshipped in the past, Hypate, Mese, and Nete,

because of the three pitch-regions of the instruments.225 In fact, “Hypate” (“the

uppermost”) was the name for the string yielding the lowest sound, but the one being

the farthest from the body of the player;226 “Mese,” meaning “the middle,” was the

name for the string that yields a sound being a fourth higher than the “hypate,” and

“Nete,” meaning “the uttermost,” was the highest in pitch.

Another link between the number of Muses and that of the sounds of ancient

musical systems is also suggested two centuries before Censorinus: according to

Cornutus, some men believed that the Muses were four or seven because that was the

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number of sounds of the ancient instruments of the musicians.227 All this can be

adaptations of an idea which may go back to Eratosthenes: the Alexandrine scholar

seems to have written that Orpheus increased the number of strings of the lyre from

seven to nine, “because of the number of the Muses.”228 If this actually goes back to

Eratosthenes himself, it is the earliest piece of evidence associating Muses and strings

of the lyre, and Cornutus and Censorinus would have adapted the idea to traditions

presenting a different number of Muses.

Besides, Porphyrius attributes to Pythagoras himself the link between the nine

Muses and the sounds of the heavenly bodies: according to Porphyrius, Pythagoras

would have identified the sounds of the seven planets, the sphere of the fixed stars,

and the Counter-Earth with the Muses.229 This brings to our mind that, according to

Theon of Smyrna, the Pythagoreans interpreted the Sirens of Plato’s myth of Er as

personifications of the sound of the stars. Both Sirens and Muses shared this

association with celestial sounds.

e) Celestial Psychopomps?230

Beyond these attempts at equating Muses, heavenly bodies, and musical

sounds, or at identifying correspondences among them, we can say that the Muses

represented the divine and musical character of the stars, as the Sirens also did.

Amelius (a disciple of Plotinus, third century C. E.), quoted by the sixth century C. E.

historian Johannes Lydus, said that:

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The Muses are the souls of the spheres, who bring together the operations of all the

causal powers and essences that they send forth toward the universe, and join them in

one consonance, that has been settled by the Demiurge.231

Obviously, this may remind us of the function of the Sirens, according to Proclus’s

commentaries on Plato’s Republic (see II. 1. c. 4), which note that the Sirens are

inferior to the Muses as spirits to be carried round together with the heavenly

circles.232 Both Muses and Sirens are interpreted as the musical tunes of the spheres

by Macrobius, even if they are not identified:

[1] In a discussion in the Republic about the whirling motion of the heavenly spheres,

Plato says that a Siren sits upon each of the spheres, thus indicating that by the

motions of the spheres divinities were provided with song; for a singing Siren is

equivalent to a god in the Greek acceptance of the word. Moreover, cosmogonists

have chosen to consider the nine Muses as the tuneful song of the eight spheres and

the one predominant harmony that comes from all of them. [2] In the Theogony,

Hesiod calls the eighth Muse Urania because the eighth sphere, the star bearer,

situated above the seven errant spheres, is correctly referred to as the sky; and to

show that the ninth was the greatest, resulting from the harmony of all sounds

together, he added: “Calliope, too, who is preeminent among all.” The very name

shows that the ninth Muse was noted for the sweetness of her voice, for Calliope

means “best voice.”233

Besides being considered spirits of the heavenly spheres, the Muses, according

to Proclus, share with the Sirens the cathartic function of cosmic music. For example,

in the commentaries to Plato’s Republic, Proclus says:

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For one is the harmony that is fit for the gods, that saves the souls and sets them

among the gods; the other is the harmony incident to generation, the harmony that

binds the soul to material things. And the first one is actually the work of the Muses,

who educate our intellectual faculties and bring them to perfection and make them

resemble the celestial order, whereas the other one, belonging to a certain kind of

Sirens, resembles the harmonies that favor generation.234

The same author of these lines said that the Muses teach the souls how to proceed,

purified, towards the stars allotted to them, and Porphyrius credits them with that

function as well.235

Plato did not explicitly attribute a cathartic function to the Muses, but we may

infer he was hinting at it in certain passages of the Symposium and the Timaeus. In

this dialogue, Plato states that the faculty of hearing and everything helpful for music

was given to mankind in order to keep harmony, and that this is not oriented to

irrational pleasure, but is a gift of the Muses to those who make use of them according

to reason, for adapting the soul’s movements to those of music, and restore in that

way the harmony of the soul.236 It is especially interesting that, for Plato, the Muse

who most clearly plays this role is Urania. This was one of the Muses most frequently

invoked in archaic Greek literature, and in the Hellenistic period she would become

Muse of Astronomy.237 In the Symposium, Plato considered music as an erotic art, on

the ground of its harmonizing power, and stated that love which infuses harmony into

human soul is the heavenly one, that of Muse Urania.238 This is still alluded to by

Diodorus Siculus, who wrote that Urania owes her name to the fact that she snatches

to heaven those she has instructed. 239 An interesting iconographic hint at this

consideration of Urania can be seen on a Roman sarcophagus:240 next to a sitting man

with a papyrus roll in his hand, Urania, standing, touches with a wand a starry sphere.

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The meaning of that image, acccording to Marrou241 and Cumont,242 was this: the

Muse of Astronomy was showing that the knowledge of heavens leads to

immortality.243 This was an echo of the important role Plato had bestowed upon

Urania.244

f) Conclusion

As we have seen, the Muses share almost all the characteristics of the Sirens

as mythical bearers of the harmony of the spheres, but their role in this connection is

attested later than in the case of the Sirens. Their association with certain regions of

the universe, or with the heavenly bodies, begins to be alluded to in literary sources of

the first century B. C. E.-first century C. E., although it might be suggested by Ennius

in the third-second centuries C. E. The individual links of the Muses with different

heavenly bodies, however, is more clearly detailed than those of the Sirens. The same

can be said about the Muses as divine embodiments of the sound: this character was

first suggested by Cornutus in the first century C. E. Last, but not least, their function

as psychopomps and purifiers of the soul was already suggested by Plato, and the

Neoplatonists developed this idea and connected it with the ascent of the soul and the

belief in astral immortality. On the other hand, we do not know any source hinting at

a relation between the Muses and the souls of the dead: this is an important difference

with respect to the Sirens.

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g) Appendix: The Conductors of the Cosmic Choir

We have seen that, before the Muses were associated with other heavenly

bodies, Apollo was identified with the Sun and thought to be the conductor of cosmic

harmony, and we have even suggested that both “equations” (Apollo – Sun; Muses –

planets and sphere of the fixed stars) could have been linked.245 Now it seems

interesting to present some other sources for Apollo-Sun as conductor of the harmony

of heavens. We are going to show that, although the equation “Apollo – Sun” is older

than the one identifying Muses and the other heavenly bodies, both ran a parallel story

in literary sources during the Roman Empire.

It is really intriguing that the first divine conductor of the cosmic choir was

Dionysus, not Apollo: in his Antigone, Sophocles invokes Dionysus as “chorus-leader

of the fire-breathing stars.”246 This was, so far as we know, an isolated testimony,

whereas the function of leading the chorus of the stars corresponded to Apollo,

associated with the Sun. We have already alluded to Plato’s discussion of Apollo as

conductor of the cosmic choir: in the Cratylus, speculating about possible

etymologies of the name “Apollo,” Socrates says:

And with reference to music we have to understand that alpha often signifies

“together,” and here it denotes moving together in the heavens about the poles, as we

call them, and harmony in song, which is called concord; for, as the ingenious

musicians and astronomers tell us, all these things move together by a kind of

harmony. And this god directs the harmony, making them all move together, among

both gods and men; and so, just as we call the homokeleuthon (him who

accompanies), and homokoitin (bedfellow), by changing the homo to alpha,

akolouthon and akoitin, so also we called him Apollo who was Homopolo, and the

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second lambda was inserted, because without it the name sounded of disaster (apolô,

apolôla, etc.).247

This function of Apolo might already be hinted at in a fragment by the fifth century B.

C. E. poet Scythinus. According to Plutarch, the Megareans dedicated a golden

plectron to Apollo, because the god attuned his instrument with the sunlight, as the

poet Scythinus had said when talking about Apollo’s lyre

Which the good-looking son of Zeus attunes in its wholeness,

encompassing its beginning and its end, and he has as his shining plectron the sunlight.248

We can guess that, if Apollo’s plectron is the sunlight, his lyre, in this context, would

be the cosmic one, constituted by the other heavenly bodies, whose sounds would

correspond to those of the lyre, according to an image we find attested in later

sources.249 It may be rather puzzling that the connection of Apollo-Sun with the

harmony of the spheres, possibly hinted at by Scythinus and more clearly stated by

Plato, was not attested again until the first century B. C. E. Cornutus wrote that

Apollo was called “musician” and “cithara-player” “because he harmonically strikes

every part of the universe and makes it to be in harmony with every other part.”250 The

verb employed for “strike” (kroúo in Greek) was also commonly used for “play an

instrument,”251 and this implies that the universe (the kósmos mentioned in the text)

was considered to be Apollo’s instrument.

On the other hand, Varro attributed to the Sun the same function in relation

with the cosmic lyre:

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The Sun, handling the pliant lyre of the gods with a certain tuning method, makes it

alive with divine movements.252

The musical connotations of the Sun’s relevance among heavenly bodies are also

hinted at by Cicero, when he calls the Sun “leader, chief, and ruler of the other

luminaries, mind and ordering principle of the world.”253 Boyancé observed that the

words dux et princeps (“leader and chief”) correspond to the Greek hegemon kai

arkhon the epithets with which the musicians described the function of the mese, the

central string of the lyre:254Aristotle said that “the mese is the chief,” and, in the

pseudo-aristotelian Problemata, we read that the mese is the highest leader of the

tetrachord; in fact, another passage of those Problemata states that “for all [sc. ‘the

strings’] to be attuned is to be in a certain relation to the mese,” and Dio

Chrysostomus says that the musicians first attuned the mese, then the other strings in

relation to the mese. 255 This affinity between the position and function of the Sun and

those of the mese was developed by Philo of Alexandria in a passage of the Life of

Moses, where he wrote:

The Sun, placed like the lampstand amidst the other six, in the fourth position, brings

light for the three which are above as well as for those, equal in number, which are

below, and attunes the musical and truly divine instrument.256

It must be pointed out257 that the central position given by Cicero and Philo of

Alexandria to the Sun was accepted by some of the Pythagoreans. Theo of Smyrna

attributes to the Pythagoreans, without further specification, the following ordination

of the heavenly bodies, with the Sun in the middle: Earth, Moon, Mercury, Venus,

Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the sphere of the fixed stars.258 Aetius, however,

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attributes to Philolaus a cosmographical system in which the Sun follows immediately

the Moon.259 This suggests that the Sun’s association with the mese and its function as

“conductor” of the music of the spheres belonged, at least partly, to the Pythagorean

lore as well.

After Varro, Cicero, and Philo of Alexandria, the next piece of evidence for

the musical connotations of the leading role of the Sun is to be found in some of the

systems of the harmony of the spheres propounded by the ancients. Trying to

establish links between the strings of the lyre and the heavenly bodies, some authors

ascribed the mese to the Sun: for example, Alexander of Ephesus,260 Plutarch,261

Nicomachus of Gerasa,262 and Boethius.263

Later, the so-called Orphic Hymns (second-third centuries C. E.) contain a

couple of relevant passages for our topic. The Orphic Hymn Nr. 8, v. 10, invokes the

Sun with these words: “Thou of the golden lyre, who drags the harmonious course of

the world.”264 Another Orphic hymn, the Nr. 34, offers further details about Apollo’s

ruling function of the cosmic harmony:

Thou govern the whole heaven with thy much-sounding cithara, when, going to the

limit of the nete, and other times in turn to that of the hypate, sometimes tempering

the whole heaven according to the Dorian arrangement, thou distinguish the life-

supporting species. For that thou harmoniously mix the universal fate of men,

combining for both265 the same amount of winter as of summer, distinguishing winter

with the most acute sounds, summer with the lowest, with the Dorian mode the fresh

flower of the much-loved spring.266

This text hints at an analogy between the strings of the lyre and the seasons of the

year. Such analogy is attested elsewhere from the first century B. C. E. onwards.267

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The point here is that the analogy between sounds and seasons of the year is taken to

be the ground on which Apollo regulates the succession of the seasons: the summer

comes with the help of the highest string of Apollo’s lyre, and the winter, with that of

the lowest string. It is rather strange that the name of a mode (“Dorian”) should be put

at the same level of the strings corresponding to two individual sounds of that

mode.268 We suggest that “Dorian” could have been here substituted for the string

“mese”, corresponding to the spring in the other source linking three seasons with

three strings (Diodorus Siculus, I, 16, quoted in n. 267): it is not the only example in

which the names of the modes are mentioned in systems of cosmic harmony, instead

of the names of the strings.269 Substituting the name of a mode for the “mese” can be

due to the fact that the “mese” was the sound most frequently repeated in a melody,

that is: it could be taken as the most characteristic sound of the mode.270

In the last centuries of the ancient world, Apollo’s role as conductor of the

harmony of the spheres was connected with that of coryphaeus of the Muses by

Macrobius. Commenting on Cicero’s Somnium Scipionis, Macrobius wrote:

They call Apollo, god of the sun, the “leader of the Muses,” as if to say that he is the

leader and chief of the other spheres, just as Cicero, in referring to the sun, called it

leader, chief, and regulator of the other planets, mind and moderator of the

universe.271

Besides, Macrobius alludes to this function of Apollo in his Saturnalia:

The seven-stringed lyre of Apollo is better for the movements of the same number of

heavenly spheres to be understood, for which nature appointed the Sun as their

ruler.272

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Last, but not least, Proclus, who has provided us with evidence about the Muses as

souls of the spheres, mentioned Apollo as unifying conductor of the music of the

universe:

The ancients set the Muses and their leader Apollo over the universe: the latter leads

the unique union of the whole harmony, whereas the former hold together the

differentiated harmonies emerging from that harmony.273

Thus we can see that the notion of Apollo as conductor of the cosmic harmony is consistently

attested along the whole literary history of the ancient world, since the fifth century B. C. E.,

and the belief in this function of Apollo paralleled that in the Muses as bearers of the music of

the spheres in Latin and Greek sources of the imperial period.

191 Cf. II. 1. a-b., about the Sirens. 192 A. Homer and Hesiod mention nine Muses (Od., XXIV, 60: Mou'sai d∆ ejnneva pa'sai ajmeibovmenai ojpi;

kalh'/; Hesiod, Th., 75-76: tau't∆ a[ra Mou'sai a[eidon ∆Oluvmpia dwvmat∆ e[cousai É ejnneva qugatevre"

megavlou Dio;" ejkgegaui'ai), but other authors, chronologically near to Plutarch, mention three: Diodorus

Siculus, IV, 7, 2 (oiJ me;n ga;r trei'" levgousin, oiJ d∆ ejnneva, kai; kekravthken oJ tw'n ejnneva ajriqmo;" uJpo;

tw'n ejpifanestavtwn ajndrw'n bebaiouvmeno", levgw de; ÔOmhvrou te kai; ÔHsiovdou kai; tw'n a[llwn tw'n

toiouvtwn); Cornutus, De nat. deor., 14, p. 15, 3 Lang (trei'" me;n dia; th;n proeirhmevnhn th'" triavdo"

teleiovthta), and Pausanias, IX, 29, 2 (oiJ de; tou' ’Alwevw" pai'de" ajriqmovn te Mouvsa" ejnovmisan ei\nai

trei'" kai; ojnovmata aujtai'" e[qento Melevthn kai; Mnhvmhn kai; ∆Aoidhvn). This tradition may go back to

Eumelus (eighth-seventh centuries B. C. E.), fr. 17 Bernabé: ajll∆ Eu[mhlo" me;n oJ Korivnqio" trei`" fhsi;n

ei\nai Mouvsa", qugatevra" ∆Apovllwno", Khfisou`n, ∆Acelwi?da, Borusqenivda (cf. Cramer, 1835, IV,

424).

B. Apart from the passage quoted in n. 195, Plutarch insists that the designation of those Delphic Muses did not

refer to the first, fourth and last notes of a scale, in Table Talks, IX, 14, 3, 744c-d: Ei\pen ou\n oJ ajdelfov", o{ti

trei'" h[/desan oiJ palaioi; Mouvsa": Ækai; touvtou levgein ajpovdeixin ojyimaqev" ejsti kai; a[groikon ejn

tosouvtoi" kai; toiouvtoi" ajndravsin. aijtiva d∆ oujc wJ" e[nioi levgousi ta; melw/douvmena gevnh, to;

diavtonon kai; to; crwmatiko;n kai; to; ejnarmovnion: oujd∆ oiJ ta; diasthvmata parevconte" o{roi, nhvth

kai; mevsh kai; uJpavth: kaivtoi Delfoiv ge ta;" Mouvsa" ou{tw" wjnovmazon, oujk ojrqw'" eJni; maqhvmati,

ma'llon de; morivw/ maqhvmato" eJno;" tou' mousikou', tw'/ g∆ aJrmonikw'/, prostiqevnte". 193 Cf. Molina Moreno, 2003, 431. 194 Literally “enharmonic ratios,” but it is almost sure that Plutarch is not referring here to a specific genus: the

strings whose names coincide with those of the Muses mentioned by Plutarch (Hypate, Mese, Nete) correspond to

the fixed sounds in the ancient Greek musical system, and did not vary depending on the genus. Cf. our n. 104 to

II. 1. c. 4.

161

195 Plutarch, Table Talks, IX, 4, 3, 745a-c: ajll∆ ejkei'no qaumavzw, pw'" e[laqe Lamprivan to; legovmenon uJpo;

Delfw'n. levgousi ga;r ouj fqovggwn oujde; cordw'n ejpwnuvmou" gegonevnai ta;" Mouvsa" par∆ aujtoi'",

ajlla; tou' kovsmou trich'/ pavnta nenemhmevnou prwvthn me;n ei\nai th;n tw'n ajplanw'n merivda, deutevran

de; th;n tw'n planwmevnwn, ejscavthn de; th;n tw'n uJpo; selhvnhn, sunhrth'sqai de; pavsa" kai;

suntetavcqai kata; lovgou" ejnarmonivou", w|n eJkavsth" fuvlaka Mou'san ei\nai, th'" me;n prwvth"

ÔUpavthn, th'" d∆ ejscavth" Neavthn, Mevshn de; th'" metaxuv, sunevcousan a{ma kai; sunepistrevfousan,

wJ" ajnustovn ejsti, ta; qnhta; toi'" qeivoi" kai; ta; perivgeia toi'" oujranivoi": wJ" kai; Plavtwn (R. 617b-c)

hj/nivxato toi'" tw'n Moirw'n ojnovmasin th;n me;n “Atropon ãth;n de; Klwqw;Ã th;n de; Lavcesin

prosagoreuvsa": ejpei; tai'" ge tw'n ojktw; sfairw'n periforai'" Seirh'na" ouj Mouvsa" ijsarivqmou"

ejpevsthsen. Cf. De animae procreatione in Timaeo, 1029d, where the problem of linking nine Muses with eight

heavenly spheres is also alluded to: oiJ de; presbuvteroi Mouvsa" parevdwkan kai; hJmi'n ejnneva, ta;" me;n

ojktw; kaqavper oJ Plavtwn peri; ta; oujravnia, th;n d∆ ejnavthn ta; perivgeia khlei'n ajnakaloumevnhn kai;

kaqista'san ejk plavnh" kai; diafora'" ajnwmalivan kai; tarach;n ejcouvsh". 196 Vid. the inscription in Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, 30, 382; cf. West, 1992, 224, n. 14. For these

names as referred to the strings of the lyre, vid. c) “Muses as Divine Embodiments of Sound,” in this same chapter. 197 As we saw in II. 2., the Moirai are the only singing mythical figures, other than the Sirens, in Plato’s myth, but

we do not find them singing anywhere else in Greek sources, besides some commentaries to the myth of Er. In his

treatise De facie in orbe Lunae, 945c-d, Plutarch associates certain regions of the Universe with the three Moirai:

the solar region corresponds to Átropos; that of the Moon, to Clotho, and that of the Earth, to Láchesis; cf. text in

n. 183 B to II. 2. This threefold cosmological schema has been attributed to Anaximander by Aetius, p. 345, ll. 9-

13 Diels (= Anaximander, fr. 18 DK: (∆Anaxivmandro") ·kai;‚ ajnwtavtw me;n pavntwn to;n h{lion tetavcqai,

met∆ aujto;n de; th;n selhvnhn: uJpo; de; aujtou;" ta; ajplanh' tw'n a[strwn kai; tou;" planhvta"). Some

authors had suggested that Pythagoras could link those cosmic regions with the three basic consonances of fourth,

fifth, and octave (cf. Burkert, 1962, 355, n. 25 of the English version; Burnet, 41930, 110; Kranz, 1939, 437-8, and

Pépin, 1986, col. 609-10). On the other side, Xenocrates (a disciple of Plato; fourth century B. C. E.) proposed

another threefold schema and employed, in order to designate its parts, the adjectives u{paton and nevaton, as in

the Delphic schema described by Plutarch; this may suggest a Platonic origin of this structure. Cf. Xenocrates, fr.

18 Heinze = 216 Isnardi-Parente, ap. Plut. Quaestiones platonicae, 1007 f (to; ga;r a[nw kai; prw'ton u{paton oiJ

palaioi; proshgovreuon: h|/ kai; Xenokravth" (fr. 18 H.) Diva to;n me;n ejn toi'" kata; ta; aujta; kai;

wJsauvtw" e[cousin u{paton kalei', nevaton de; to;n uJpo; selhvnhn), and fr. 5 Heinze = 83 Isnardi-Parente, ap.

Sextus Empiricus, Adversus mathematicos, 7, 147 (Xenokravth" de; trei'" fhsin oujsiva" ei\nai, th;n me;n

aijsqhth;n th;n de; nohth;n th;n de; suvnqeton kai; doxasthvn, w|n aijsqhth;n me;n ei\nai th;n ejnto;"

oujranou', nohth;n de; ãth;nà pavntwn tw'n ejkto;" oujranou', doxasth;n de; kai; suvnqeton th;n aujtou' tou'

oujranou'). Vid. also Dörrie, 1954, esp. p. 336, and Heinze, 1892, 75-76. 198 Cf. Plutarch, Table Talks, IX, 14, 4, 745b-c, in n. 195, and our section II. 2. 199 Proclus, In Tim., vol. II, p. 234 Diehl: λοιπῆς δὲ οὔσης τῆς εἰς ὀκτὼ μὲν σφαίρας τοῦ οὐρανοῦ τομῆς, εἰς

ἐννέα δὲ τοῦ κόσμου παντός, καὶ τῆς μὲν ταῖς ἐν <Πολιτείᾳ> [X 617 B] Σειρῆσι, τῆς δὲ ταῖς ὅλαις

Μούσαις ἀνειμένης, ὑφ' ἃς καὶ αἱ Σειρῆνες, πάλιν εἰκότως ὁ τόνος συνέκλεισε τὸ διάγραμμα πᾶν. Cf.

Hermias, In Phdr., p. 215, lines 16-7 Couvreur (οὕτως οὖν οἱ ἄνθρωποι ἦσαν πρὶν γενέσθαι τὰς Μούσας,

τουτέστι τὰς σφαίρας καὶ τὸν αἰσθητὸν κόσμον). 200 Cf., for Ennius’s birthdate, Cicero, Brutus, 72 (quoted from

http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/brut.shtml#72, as consulted on July 6, 2005: Atqui hic Livius [qui] primus

fabulam C. Claudio Caeci filio et M. Tuditano consulibus docuit anno ipso ante quam natus est Ennius, post

Romam conditam autem quarto decumo et quingentesimo, that is 753 – 514 = 239 B. C. E.); for the year of his

162

death, Cicero, De senectute, 14 (quoted from http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/senectute.shtml#14, as

consulted on July 6, 2005): Annos septuaginta natus (tot enim vixit Ennius), which implies that he died in 169 B.

C. E. 201 Cf. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0062&layout=&loc=Varro,

as consulted on July 5, 2005, and Dahlmann, 1935, col. 1173; cf. St. Hieronymus, Chronicon, sub Olympiade 166,

1: Marcus Terentius Varro philosophus et poeta nascitur; for Varro’s death, ibid., sub Olympiade 188, 2: Marcus

Terentius Varro philosophus prope nonagenarius moritur. According to this same work, the beginning of the

“common era” corresponds to Olympiad 194 (Jesus Christus filius Dei in Betheleem Judae nascitur), and

Olympiads were held every four years. Latin quotations from St. Hieronymus are taken from

http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/pld-idx.pl?type=DIV2&byte=142555945&q1=Varro&q2=nascitur&q3=,

http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/pld-idx.pl?type=DIV2&byte=142724118&q1=Varro&q2=moritur&q3=, and

http://www.letrs.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/pld-idx.pl?type=DIV2&byte=142759387&q1=Christ&q2=Juda&q3=, as

consulted on July 6, 2005. Cf. still http://www.attalus.org/translate/jerome1.html, and

http://www.attalus.org/translate/jerome2.html, as consulted on July 6, 2005. 202 Cf. Ennius, fr. 1 Vahlen, and Varro, De lingua latina, 7, 20. 203 Vid. Todini, 1971, and Deschamps, 1979, 21. 204 More specifically, Pythagoras is said to have preached the cult to the Muses in Crotona (Iambl. VP, 9, 45:

∆Apaggelqevntwn d∆ ou\n uJpo; tw'n neanivskwn pro;" tou;" patevra" tw'n eijrhmevnwn ejkavlesan oiJ civlioi

to;n Puqagovran eij" to; sunevdrion, kai; proepainevsante" ejpi; toi'" pro;" tou;" uiJou;" rJhqei'sin

ejkevleusan, ei[ ti sumfevron e[cei levgein toi'" Krotwniavtai", ajpofhvnasqai tou'to pro;" tou;" th'"

politeiva" prokaqhmevnou". o} de; prw'ton me;n aujtoi'" sunebouvleuen iJdruvsasqai Mousw'n iJerovn, i{na

thrw'si th;n uJpavrcousan oJmovnoian: tauvta" ga;r ta;" qea;" kai; th;n proshgorivan th;n aujth;n aJpavsa"

e[cein kai; met∆ ajllhvlwn paradedovsqai kai; tai'" koinai'" timai'" mavlista caivrein, kai; to; suvnolon

e{na kai; to;n aujto;n ajei; coro;n ei\nai tw'n Mousw'n, e[ti de; sumfwnivan, aJrmonivan, rJuqmovn, a{panta

perieilhfevnai ta; paraskeuavzonta th;n oJmovnoian. ejpedeivknue de; aujtw'n th;n duvnamin ouj peri; ta;

kavllista qewrhvmata movnon ajnhvkein, ajlla; kai; peri; th;n sumfwnivan kai; aJrmonivan tw'n o[ntwn).

Pythagoras’s devotion to the Muses is attested also by the first century B. C. E. Roman architect Vitruvius, IX, 7

(ita quantum areae pedum numerum duo quadrata ex tribus pedibus longitudinis laterum et quattuor efficiunt,

aeque tantum numerum reddidit unum ex quinque descriptum. id Pythagoras cum invenisset, non dubitans a Musis

se in ea inventione moitum, maximas gratias agens ostias dicitur his immolavisse, quoted from

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/9*.html, as consulted on July 14 2005). According

to Clement of Alexandria, Pythagoras taught that the Muses were more lovely than the Sirens (Strom., I, 10, 48, 6:

Mouvsa" Seirhvnwn hJdivou" hJgei'sqai Puqagovra" parainei'). Maximus of Tyrus (15, 6f-g) says that if the

Muses stopped singing, the world would be thrown into confusion and disorder (h\ ga;r a]n ejpauvsato kai;

oujrano;" periferovmeno": kai; gh' trevfousa, kai; potamoi; rJevonte", kai; decomevnh qavlatta, kai; w|rai

ajmeivbousai, kai; Moi'rai dialagcavnousai, kai; Mou'sai a[/dousai: ejpauvsanto d∆ a]n kai; aiJ ajnqrwvpwn

ajretaiv, kai; zwv/wn swthrivai, kai; karpw'n genevsei", kai; to; pa'n tou'to au\qi" a]n peri; auJtw'/

sfallovmenon sunecuvqh kai; sunetaravcqh). 205 Philolaus, 44 A 16 DK = A 16b Huffman, ap. Aetius, II, 7, 7, p. 336 D. = Stob. 1, 22, 1d: Filovlao" pu'r ejn

mevsw/ peri; to; kevntron, o{per eJstivan tou' panto;" kalei' kai; Dio;" oi\kon kai; mhtevra qew'n, bwmovn te

kai; sunoch;n kai; mevtron fuvsew": kai; pavlin pu'r e{teron ajnwtavtw, to; perievcon. Prw'ton d∆ ei\nai

fuvsei to; mevson, peri; de; tou'to devka swvmata qei'a coreuvein, oujranovn meta; th;n tw'n ajplanw'n

sfai'ran, tou;" e planhvta", meq∆ ou}" h{lion, uJf∆ w|/ selhvnhn, uJf∆ h|/ th;n gh'n, uJf∆ h|/ th;n ajntivcqona,

meq∆ a} suvmpanta to; pu'r eJstiva" peri; ta; kevntra tavxin ejpevcon. To; me;n ou\n ajnwtavtw mevro" tou'

163

perievconto", ejn w|/ th;n eijlikrivneian ei\nai tw'n stoiceivwn, “Olumpon kalei': ta; de; uJpo; th;n tou'

∆Oluvmpou foravn, ejn w|/ tou;" pevnte planhvta" meq∆ hJlivou kai; selhvnh" tetavcqai, kovsmon. 206 Cf. Philo of Alexandria, De somniis, I, 6, 35, t. III, p. 212, 25 C.-W.: oJ de; oujrano;" ajei; melw/dei', kata; ta;"

kinhvsei" tw'n ejn eJautw'/ th;n pavmmouson aJrmonivan ajpotelw'n, and De congressu eruditionis gratia, 10, 51,

III, p. 82 C.-W.: to;n aijsqhto;n oujrano;n kai; th;n ejn aujtw'/ tw'n ajstevrwn ejnarmovnion tavxin kai;

pavmmouson wJ" ajlhqw'" coreivan. According to Cumont, 1942, 259, it is obvious that pavmmouso" means “all

the Muses,” in those passages, if we compare them with the myth told by the same Philo in De plantatione Noe,

28, 127 ff. (II, p. 156 ff. C.-W.), where the daughters of Mnemosyne are called also to; pavmmouson kai;

uJmnw/do;n gevno" (ibid., 30, 129, II, p. 159 C.-W.). Cf. also Cumont, 1919, esp. p. 78. However, LSJ, s. v.

pavmmouso" translate it as “all-musical.” For the Muses as daughters of Mnemosyne, cf. Hesiod, Theogony, vv.

52-4: Mou'sai ’Olumpiavde", kou'rai Dio;" aijgiovcoio. É ta;" ejn Pierivh/ Kronivdh/ tevke patri; migei'sa É

Mnhmosuvnh... 207 According to St. Hieronymus, Chron., sub anno CXLIX, Maximus of Tyre lived around that year (Arrianus

Philosophus Nicomediensis agnoscitur, et Maximus Tyrius), and Suda, s. v., says that he lived in Rome when

Commodus was emperor (182-192 C. E.): Mavximo" Tuvrio" filovsofo", dievtriye de; ejn ÔRwvmhi ejpi;

Komovdou. Cf. Kroll, 1930, col. 2555. 208 A. The Hesiodic passages commented by Maximus of Tyrus are:

A. 1. Theogony, vv. 1-10: Mousavwn ÔElikwniavdwn ajrcwvmeq∆ ajeivdein, É ai{ q∆ ÔElikw'no" e[cousin

o[ro" mevga te zavqeovn te, É kaiv te peri; krhvnhn ijoeideva povss∆ aJpaloi'sin / ojrceu'ntai kai;

bwmo;n ejrisqenevo" Kronivwno": É kaiv te loessavmenai tevrena crova Permhssoi'o É hjæ ”Ippou

krhvnh" hjæ ∆Olmeiou' zaqevoio É ajkrotavtw/ ÔElikw'ni corou;" ejnepoihvsanto, É kalou;"

iJmeroventa", ejperrwvsanto de; possivn. É e[nqen ajpornuvmenai kekalummevnai hjevri pollw'/ É

ejnnuvciai stei'con perikalleva o[ssan iJei'sai.

A. 2. Ps. Hesiod, Shield of Heracles, vv. 201-6: ∆En d∆ h\n ajqanavtwn iJero;" corov": ejn d∆ a[ra mevssw/ É

iJmeroven kiqavrize Dio;" kai; Lhtou'" uiJo;" É cruseivh/ fovrmiggi: ªqew'n d∆ e{do" aJgno;" “Olumpo": É

ejn d∆ ajgorhv, peri; d∆ o[lbo" ajpeivrito" ejstefavnwto É ajqanavtwn ejn ajgw'ni:º qeai; d∆ ejxh'rcon

ajoidh'" É Mou'sai Pierivde", ligu; melpomevnh/" ejikui'ai.

B. The commentary on those lines by Maximus of Tyrus (37, 4-5) reads: Eij de; Puqagovra/ peiqovmeqa, w{sper

kai; a[xion, kai; melw/dei' oJ oujranov", ouj krouovmeno", w{sper luvra, oujde; ejmpneovmeno", w{sper aujlov",

ajll∆ hJ perifora; tw'n ejn aujtw'/ daimonivwn kai; mousikw'n swmavtwn, suvmmetrov" te ou\sa kai;

ajntivrropo", h\covn tina ajpotelei' daimovnion. Th'" wj/dh'" tauvth" to; kavllo" qeoi'" me;n gnwvrimon, hJmi'n

de; ajnaisqev", di∆ uJperbolh;n me;n aujtou', e[ndeian de; hJmetevran. Tou'tov moi ajmevlei kai; ÔHsivodo"

aijnivttetai, ÔElikw'nav tina ojnomavzwn to;n qeovn, kai; corou;" hjgaqevou" ejn aujtw'/, korufai'on de; ei[te

”Hlion, ei[te ∆Apovllwna, ei[tev ti a[llo o[noma fanotavtw/ kai; mousikw'/ puriv. 209 Homeric Hymn to Apollo, vv. 362-71: oJ d∆ ejphuvxato Foi'bo" ∆Apovllwn: É ejntauqoi' nu'n puvqeu ejpi;

cqoni; bwtianeivrh/, É oujde; suv ge zwoi'si kako;n dhvlhma brotoi'sin É e[sseai, oi} gaivh" polufovrbou

karpo;n e[donte" É ejnqavd∆ ajginhvsousi telhevssa" eJkatovmba", É oujdev tiv toi qavnatovn ge dushlegev∆

ou[te Tufweu;" É ajrkevsei ou[te Civmaira duswvnumo", ajlla; sev g∆ aujtou' É puvsei gai'a mevlaina kai;

hjlevktwr ÔUperivwn. É ’W" favt∆ ejpeucovmeno", th;n de; skovto" o[sse kavluye. É th;n d∆ aujtou' katevpus∆

iJero;n mevno" ÔHelivoio. 210 The first piece of direct evidence we know of the equation Apollo = Sun is provided by Aeschylus, Seven

against Thebes, 859-60 (ta;n ajstibh' ∆Apovllwni, ta;n ajnavlion É pavndokon eij" ajfanh' te cersovn);

Euripides, Phaeth., fr. 781, vv. 11-13 Kannicht (= 781 Nauck = Phaethon, vv. 224-6 Diggle = Phaethon, fr. 4, vv.

224-6 Jouan-Van Looy, in Codex Parisinus Graecus 107B, fol. II, verso, col. 2: w\ kallifegge;" ”Hli∆, w{" m∆

164

ajpwvlesa" É kai; tovnd∆: ∆Apovllwn d∆ ejn brotoi'" ojrqw'" kalh'i, É o{sti" ta; sigw'nt∆ ojnovmat∆ oi\de

daimovnwn); Timotheos, fr. 24 Page (suv t∆ w\ to;n ajei; povlon oujravnion É lamprai'" ajkti's∆ ”Hlie bavllwn, É

pevmyon eJkabovlon ejcqroi'sià bevlo" É sa'" ajpo; neura'", w\ i{e Paiavn); Skythinos, fr. 1 West, ap. Plut., De

Pythiae oraculis, 402a-b (u{steron mevntoi plh'ktron ajnevqhkan tw'/ qew'/ crusou'n ejpisthvsante" wJ" e[oike

Skuqivnw/ levgonti (fr. 1) peri; th'" luvra" Æh}n aJrmovzetai É Zhno;" eujeidh;" ∆Apovllwn pa'san, ajrch;n kai;

tevlo" É sullabwvn, e[cei de; lampro;n plh'ktron hJlivou favo"Æ); Oenopides, 41 A 7 DK, ap. Macrobius, Sat.,

I, 17, 31 (Loxiva" cognominatur ut ait Oenopides, o{ti ejkporeuvetai to;n loxo;n kuvklon ajpo; dusmw'n ejp∆

ajnatola;" kinouvmeno", id est quod obliquum circulum ab occasu ad orientem pergit); Callimachus, Hecale, fr.

302 Pfeiffer, ap. schol. in Pi. N. 1, 3 (oi{ nu kai; ∆Apovllwna panarkevo" ÔHelivoio É cw'ri diatmhvgousi kai;

eu[poda Dhwivnhn É ∆Artevmido"); [Ps.] Eratosthenes, Cat., 24 (= Aeschylus, p. 138 Radt = OF 113 T Kern =

536 T, 1033 T Bernabé: [∆Orfeu;"] to;n... ”Hlion mevgiston tw'n qew'n ejnovmisen, o}n kai; ∆Apovllwna

proshgovreusen. Cf. OF 323 Bernabé, 172 Kern, ap. Proclus, Theologia platonica, VI, 12 = vol. VI, p. 58, 1

Saffrey-Westerink: prw'ton dh; tou'to katanohvswmen, o{pw" kai; aujto;" (sc. Plato) w{sper ∆Orfeu;", to;n

”Hlion eij" taujvtovn pw" a[gei tw'i ∆Apovllwni); Diogenes of Babylonia, fr. 33 Von Arnim, ap. Philodemus, De

pietate, 15 (= Diels, H., 1879, p. 549: kai; to;(n h{li)on m(e;n) ∆Apovll(w)); Varro, Antiquitates rerum divinarum,

XVI, fr. 32 Agahd (= 16, 251 Cardauns, quoted by Aug., CD, VII, 16: Apollinem… solem esse dixerunt; cf.

Cardauns, B., 1976, I, p. 194 and II, p. 229); Cic. ND, 2, 68 (iam Apollinis nomen est Graecum, quem solem esse

volunt); Plut. De defectu oraculorum, 433d (oiJ me;n polloi; tw'n progenestevrwn e{na kai; to;n aujto;n

hJgou'nto qeo;n ∆Apovllwna kai; h{lion); De latenter vivendo, 1130a (to;n me;n h{lion ∆Apovllwna kata; tou;"

patrivou" kai; palaiou;" qesmou;" nomivzonte" Dhvlion kai; Puvqion prosagoreuvousi). Cf. also Boyancé,

1966; Deschamps, 1979, 16, Farnell, 1907, 136-144, and 366-7; Moreau, 1996, and our section III. 4. B., with the

notes 435-39. 211 Cf. Macrobius, Sat., I, 17, 31 (= Oenopides, 41 A 7 DK): Loxiva" cognominatur ut ait Oenopides, o{ti

ejkporeuvetai to;n loxo;n kuvklon ajpo; dusmw'n ejp∆ ajnatola;" kinouvmeno", id est quod obliquum circulum ab

occasu ad orientem pergit. According to Proclus, Commentary on Euclides’s First Book of the “Elements”, p. 66,

2 Friedlein, Oenopides was a little younger than Anaxagoras. Cf. Boyancé, 1936, 94, and 1966. 212 For Oenopides’s plagiarism of the Pythagorean discovery, cf. Aetius, Placita philosophorum, II, 12, 2, p. 340-1

Diels (= Oenopides, 41 A 7 DK: Puqagovra" prw'to" ejpinenohkevnai levgetai th;n lovxwsin tou' zw/diakou'

kuvklou, h{ntina Oijnopivdh" oJ Ci'o" ejpivnoian wJ" ijdivan sfeterivzetai); as to the Pythagorean doctrine

about the Milky Way, cf. Aristotle, Meteorologica, 345a 11-17 (o{pw" de; kai; dia; tivn∆ aijtivan givgnetai kai;

tiv ejsti to; gavla, levgwmen h[dh. prodievlqwmen de; kai; peri; touvtou ta; para; tw'n a[llwn eijrhmevna

prw'ton. tw'n me;n ou\n kaloumevnwn Puqagoreivwn fasiv tine" oJdo;n ei\nai tauvthn oiJ me;n tw'n

ejkpesovntwn tino;" ajstevrwn, kata; th;n legomevnhn ejpi; Faevqonto" fqoravn, oiJ de; to;n h{lion tou'ton

to;n kuvklon fevresqaiv potev fasin). Achilles Tatius, Isagoge ad Aratum, 24, p. 55, ll. 18-19 Maass, attributes

that idea to Oenopides (e{teroi dev fasin, w|n ejstin kai; Oijnopivdh" oJ Ci'o", o{ti provteron dia; touvtou

ejfevreto oJ h{lio"). The latter text dates probably from the third century C. E. 213 For Apollo and cosmic harmony, cf. Pl., Crat., 405c-d: kata; de; th;n mousikh;n dei' uJpolabei'n ªw{sper to;n

ajkovlouqovn te kai; th;n a[koitinº o{ti to; a[lfa shmaivnei pollacou' to; oJmou', kai; ejntau'qa th;n oJmou'

povlhsin kai; peri; to;n oujranovn, ou}" dh; Æpovlou"Æ kalou'sin, kai; ªth;nº peri; th;n ejn th'/ wj/dh'/ aJrmonivan,

h} dh; sumfwniva kalei'tai, o{ti tau'ta pavnta, w{" fasin oiJ komyoi; peri; mousikh;n kai; ajstronomivan,

aJrmoniva/ tini; polei' a{ma pavnta: ejpistatei' de; ou|to" oJ qeo;" th'/ aJrmoniva/ oJmopolw'n aujta; pavnta kai;

kata; qeou;" kai; kat∆ ajnqrwvpou": w{sper ou\n to;n oJmokevleuqon kai; oJmovkoitinÆ ajkovlouqon kai; a[koitin

ejkalevsamen, metabalovnte" ajnti; tou' ÆoJmo-Æ Æaj-,Æ ou{tw kai; ∆Apovllwna ejkalevsamen o}" h\n

ÔOmopolw'n, e{teron lavbda ejmbalovnte", o{ti oJmwvnumon ejgivgneto tw'/ calepw'/ ojnovmati. For Apollo as

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conductor of the choir of the Muses, vid. Il., I, 602 ff. (daivnunt∆, oujdev ti qumo;" ejdeuveto daito;" eji>vsh", É ouj

me;n fovrmiggo" perikavlleo", h}n e[c∆ ∆Apovllwn, É Mousavwn q∆, ai} a[eidon ajmeibovmenai ojpi; kalh'i); cf. also the Hesiodic passages quoted above, n. 208, A. About Apollo as conductor of the cosmic choir, cf.

“Appendix: The Conductors of the Cosmic Choir,” at the end of this chapter. 214 Arnobius, Adversus nationes, 3, 37: Hesiodus novem Musas prodit, dis caelum et sidera locupletans. 215 Perhaps this was due to a Pythagorean or Platonic innovation, because, as we have seen, Homer mentions only

two Sirens, who could not be associated with heavenly bodies; cf. Od., 12, 52 (o[fra ke terpovmeno" o[p∆

ajkouvsh/" Seirhvnoii>n); Od., 12, 167 (nh'son Seirhvnoii>n). Eustathius, Ad Od., vol. 2, p. 5, ll. 16-20: Duvo de;

aujta;" ejmfaivnei oJ poihth;" ejn oi|" levgei: o[pa ajkouvsh/" Seirhvnoii>n, kai; nh'son Seirhvnoii>n, dui>ko;n

ga;r to; Seirhvnoi>n, wJ" to; podoi'i>n kai; w[moii>n. kai; sunevdramovn tine" tw'/ ÔOmhvrw/, oi} kai; ojnovmatav

fasin ei\nai aujtai'" ∆Aglaofhvmhn kai; Qelxievpeian. oiJ de; newvteroi, ejn oi|" kai; Lukovfrwn, trei'"

aujtaV" ajriqmou'si, Parqenovphn, Livgeian, kai; Leukwsivan. 216 Plutarch, De animae procreatione in Timaeo, 1029 d: oiJ de; presbuvteroi Mouvsa" parevdwkan hJmi'n

ejnneva, ta;" me;n ojktw; kaqavper oJ Plavtwn peri; ta; oujravnia th;n d∆ ejnavthn ta; perivgeia khlei'n. 217 Plut., Quaest. conv., IX, 14, 7, p. 746 A: Mou'sai d∆ eijsi;n ojktw; me;n aiJ sumperipolou'sai tai'" ojktw;

sfaivrai", miva de; to;n peri; gh'n ei[lhce tovpon. aiJ me;n ou\n ojktw; periovdoi" ejfestw'sai th;n tw'n

planwmevnwn a[strwn pro;" ta; ajplanh' kai; pro;" a[llhla sunevcousi kai; diaswv/zousin aJrmonivan: miva

de; to;n metaxu; gh'" kai; selhvnh" tovpon ejpiskopou'sa kai; peripolou'sa, toi'" qnhtoi'", o{son

aijsqavnesqai kai; devcesqai pevfuke carivtwn kai; rJuqmou' kai; aJrmoniva", ejndivdwsi dia; lovgou kai;

wj/dh'", peiqw; politikh'" kai; koinwnhtikh'" sunergo;n ejpavgousa paramuqoumevnhn kai; khlou'san hJmw'n

to; taracw'de" kai; to; planwvmenon w{sper ejx ajnodiva" ajnakaloumevnhn ejpieikw'" kai; kaqista'san. 218 Porphyrius, Peri; ajgalmavtwn, fr. 8, p. 12 *.12 Bidez = Eus., PE, III, 11, 24: kai; hJlivou de; th;n toiavnde

duvnamin uJpolabovnte", ∆Apovllwna prosei'pon ajpo; th'" tw'n ajktivnwn aujtou' pavlsew". ejnneva de;

ejpavidousai aujtw'i Mou'sai, h{ te uJposelhvnio" sfai'ra kai; eJpta; tw'n planhtw'n kai; miva th'"

ajplanou'". 219 Cf. Porphyrius, Life of Pythagoras, 41: tou;" de; planhvta" kuvna" th'" Fersefovnh" (sc. oJ Puqagovra"

ejkavlei). 220 For the ninth Muse corresponding to the harmony of all the eight celestial spheres, cf. Porph., In Tim., fr. 68

Sodano, ap. Macrobius, In Somn. Scip., II, 3, 1 (theologi quoque novem Musas octo sphaerarum musicos cantus et

unam maximam concinentiam quae confit ex omnibus esse voluerunt). Other systems may be found in the

Mythographi Vaticani, III, 8, 19: Addunt quoque physiologi, novem Musas nihil aliud intelligendas, quam VII

sphaerarum musicos cantus, et unam illam, quae ex omnibus consonantibus conficitur, harmoniam. Vnde et

octavam Vraniam, id est caelestem, nonam vero Musam, ipsam videlicet octo vocum universitatem, Calliopen, id

est “optimae vocis” dicunt; cf. Ps. Isidor of Sevilla, De musica caelesti, in PL, LXXXIII, col. 987 D: Vnde et

philosophi IX musas finxerunt, quia a terra usque ad caelum IX consonantias deprehenderunt. In this same

section, in the paragraph corresponding to nn. 209-211, we have exposed the evidence for the Pythagorean

character of the equation Apollo = Sun. 221 Martianus Capella, I, 27-8: superi autem globi orbesque septemplices suavis cuiusdam melodiae harmonicis

tinnitibus concinebant ac sono ultra solitum dulciore, quippe Musas adventare praesenserant; quae quidem

singillatim circulis quibusque metatis, ubi suae pulsum modulationis agnoverant, constiterunt. Nam Vranie

stellantis mundi sphaeram extimam continatur, quae acuto raptabatur sonora tinnitu, Polymnia Saturnium

circulum tenuit, Euterpe Iovialem, Erato ingressa Martium modulatur, Melpomene medium, ubi Sol flammanti

mundum lumine convenustat, Terpsichore Venerio sociatur auro, Calliope orbem complexa Cyllenium, Clio

citimum circulum, hoc est Luna collocavit hospitium, quae quidem graves pulsus modis raucioribus personabat.

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Sola vero, quod vector eius cycnus impatiens oneris atque etiam subvolandi alumna stagna petierat, Thalia

derelicta in ipso florentis campi ubere residebat. Cf. Regino of Prümm, De harmonica institutione, 17

(http://www.music.indiana.edu/tml/9th-11th/REGDHI_TEXT.html, as consulted on March 22nd 2006): cum octo

musae subvectae in circulis coelestibus essent, nona, id est, Thalia in terra remansit. Nam cum Urania sphaeram

coelestem, Polymnia Saturni, Euterpe Iovis, Erato Martis, Melpomene Solis, Terpsichore Veneris, Calliope

Mercurii, Clio Lunae circulos subintrassent, ut ibi dulces resonarent modos: sola Thalia derelicta in ipso florentis

campi ubere, id est, in circulo terrae resedit. At the end of the eleventh century C. E., this system has survived in a

manuscript edited by Alverny, 1964, 11-14; cf. later Bartolomé Ramos de Pareja, Musica practica, I, 3, 59

(http://www.music.indiana.edu/tml/15th/RAMPP1T3_TEXT.html, as consulted on March 21nd 2006: Sic et

unicuique versum imponemus, per quem convenientia cum musica denotetur. Disponemus ergo eas sic, ut Thalia

silentium teneat sicut Terra. Deinde Clionem Lunae attribuemus, sed Calliopen Mercurio dicabimus ac

Terpsichoren Veneri affigemus. Melpomenen Sol decolorabit, Erato Martem incitabit, Euterpen Jupiter benevolam

facit et laetam, Polyhymniam vero Saturnus contristat. Ultimae vero Uraniae coelum stellatum dabit decorem ac

requiem). Those correspondences are enlarged with further ones, linking Muses and heavenly bodies with lyre-

strings and Gregorian modes, in a diagram at the beginning of the treatise Practica musica, by Franchino Gaffuri

(1496) (cf. http://www.music.indiana.edu/tml/15th/GAFPM1_01GF.gif, as consulted on March 21nd 2006; our pl.

32).

Pl. 32: Muses, heavenly bodies, lyre strings, and Gregorian modes (from Franchino Gafuri’s Practica musica).

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222 Cf. [Ps.] Eratosthenes, Catasterismi, 31 (levgetai de; kai; filovmouson ei\nai to; zw'/on dia; to; ajpo; tw'n

Mousw'n to;n ajriqmo;n e[cein tw'n ajstevrwn). 223 The consideration of the Sirens as embodiment of sound was limited to an observation by Theon of Smyrna (cf.

II. 1. b), who attributed such view to the Pythagoreans. 224 In his De die natali, XXI, Censorinus says that he wrote that book in the year of the consulate of V. C. Pius and

Pontianus, which corresponds to 991 A. V. C.: Secundum quam rationem nisi fallor hic annus, cuius velut index et

titulus quidam est V. C. Pii et Pontiani consulatus, ab olympiade prima millensimus est et quartus decimus, ex

diebus dumtaxat aestivis, quibus agon Olympicus celebratur; a Roma autem condita nongentesimus nonagensimus

primus, quoted from http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Censorinus/text*.html, as consulted on

July 9, 2005. Now 991 A. V. C. = 238 C. E. 225 Censorinus, fr. 12, 3 (p. 75 Sallmann): organum quondam habuit tres intentiones, gravem, mediam et acutam.

Inde Musae quoque tres olim existimatae, hypate, mese, nete. Nunc in ampliore numero soni considerantur. 226 Vid. Plutarch, Quaestiones Platonicae, 1008e (aujth;n th;n uJpavthn oJrw'nta" ejn me;n luvra/ to;n ajnwtavtw

kai; prw'ton, ejn d∆ aujloi'" to;n kavtw kai; to;n teleutai'on ejpevcousan, e[ti de; th;n mevshn ejn w|/ ti" a]n

cwrivw/ th'" luvra" qevmeno" wJsauvtw" aJrmovshtai, fqeggomevnhn ojxuvteron me;n uJpavth" baruvteron de;

nhvth"), and Nicomachus of Gerasa, p. 241 ff. Jan (ajll∆ ajpo; me;n tou' kronikou' kinhvmato" ajnwtavtou

o[nto" ajf∆ hJmw'n oJ baruvtato" ejn tw/' dia; pasw'n fqovggo" uJpavth ejklhvqh, u{paton ga;r to; ajnwvtaton.

ajpo; de; tou' selhniakou' katwtavtou pavntwn kai; perigeiotevrou keimevnou neavth: kai; ga;r nevaton to;

katwvtaton). Cf. West, 1992, 64, quoted from Indiana University Library, Bloomington, on line,

http://www.netLibrary.com/Reader/, as consulted on November 21st, 2004, and Mathiesen, 1999, 246. 227 Cornutus, De nat. deor., 14, p. 15, 3 Lang (tevttare" de; kai; eJpta; tavca dia; to; ta; palaia; tw'n

mousikw'n o[rgana tosouvtou" fqovggou" ejschkevnai). 228 Pseudo-Eratosthenes, Catasterismi, 24 (almost literally identical to a scholion to Aratus, 269): kateskeuavsqh

de; to; me;n prw'ton uJpo; ÔErmou' ejk th'" celwvnh" kai; tw'n ∆Apovllwno" bow'n, e[sce de; corda;" eJpta; h]

ajpo; tw'n z∆ planhtw'n ajpo; tw'n ∆Atlantivdwn. metevlabe de; aujth;n ∆Apovllwn kai; sunarmosavmeno"

wjidh;n ∆Orfei' e[dwken, o}" Kalliovph" uiJo;" w[n, mia'" tw'n Mousw'n, ejpoivhse ta;" corda;" ejnneva ajpo;

tw'n Mousw'n ajriqmou'. Cf., in the fourth century C. E., Callistratus, 7, 2 (meteceirivzeto th;n luvran, hJ de;

ijsarivqmou" tai'" Mouvsai" ejxh'pto tou;" fqovggou"), and Avienus, Aratea, 621-5: hanc ubi rursum

concentus superi complevit pulcher Apollo / Orphea Pangaeo docuit gestare sub antro. / hic iam fila novem docta

in modulamina movit / Musarum ad speciem Musa satus, ille repertor / carmina Pleiadum numero deduxerat. Vid.

Molina Moreno, 1998b, 431-2. 229 Porphyrius, Life of Pythagoras, 31: ta; d∆ ou\n tw'n eJpta; ajstevrwn fqevgmata kai; th'" tw'n ajplanw'n ejpi;

tauvth" te th'" uJpe;r hJma'" legomevnh" de; kat∆ aujtou;" ajntivcqono" ta;" ejnneva mouvsa" ei\nai

diebebaiou'to. Cf. sch. in Od., I, 371: θεοῖς ἐναλίγκιος] ἢ ταῖς μούσαις, ἢ ταῖς τῶν ἀστέρων

ἀπηχήσεσι. P. Boyancé, 1946, 16, says that the mention of the Counter-Earth, in Porphyrius’ text, makes it

likely to go back to quite early sources; actually, Porphyrius may be drawing on Aristotle, Metaph., 986a 8-12:

ejpeidh; tevleion hJ deka;" ei\nai dokei' kai; pa'san perieilhfevnai th;n tw'n ajriqmw'n fuvsin, kai; ta;

ferovmena kata; to;n oujrano;n devka me;n ei\naiv fasin, o[ntwn de; ejnneva movnon tw'n fanerw'n dia; tou'to

dekavthn th;n ajntivcqona poiou'sin (sc. oiJ Puqagovreioi). But the earliest Pythagorean cosmology, as

described by Aristotle, counts ten heavenly bodies; on the other hand, the scientific astronomy of Porphyrius’s

time could not accept the existence of the Counter-Earth (cf. Cumont, 1942, 259). It seems that Porphyrius pushed

the old-fashioned Counter-Earth into his system in an effort to match the number of the Muses. That this

conception of the cosmic Muses may go back to Aristotle’s times is suggested by Iamblichus as well: in his Life of

Pythagoras, 9, 45, we read: kai; to; suvnolon e{na kai; to;n aujto;n ajei; coro;n ei\nai tw'n Mousw'n. Cf. Arist.

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Metaph., 986 a 2-3: to;n o{lon oujrano;n aJrmonivan ei\nai kai; ajriqmovn), e[ti de; sumfwnivan, aJrmonivan,

rJuqmovn, a{panta perieilhfevnai ta; paraskeuavzonta th;n oJmovnoian. ejpedeivknue de; aujtw'n th;n

duvnamin ouj peri; ta; kavllista qewrhvmata movnon ajnhvkein, ajlla; kai; peri; th;n sumfwnivan kai;

aJrmonivan tw'n o[ntwn. 230 Cf. II. 1. d, about the Sirens as psychopomps. 231 Lydus, De mensibus, IV, 85: Ὅτι ὁ Ἀμέλιος· Μοῦσαί εἰσι, φησίν, αἱ τῶν σφαιρῶν ψυχαί, αἳ τὰς τῶν ὅλων

δυνάμεών τε καὶ οὐσιῶν ἐνεργείας ὅσας εἰς τὸ πᾶν ἀφιᾶσιν ὁμοῦ καὶ εἰς μίαν συνάγουσι συμφωνίαν τὴν

ὑπὸ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ τεταγμένην. For Amelius as disciple of Plotinus, cf. Porphyrius, Vita Plotini, 7 (“Esce de;

ajkroata;" me;n pleivou", zhlwta;" de; kai; dia; filosofivan sunovnta" ∆Amevliovn te ajpo; th'"

Touskiva"...). For the meanings of the terms duvnami", oujsiva, ejnevrgeia, cf. Sleeman (✝) and Pollet, 1980, s. vv. 232 A. Proclus, In R., 2, 237 Kroll: Touvtwn d∆ ou\n ou{tw" aujtw'/ diatetagmevnwn, wJ" ei[rhtai, tivna" ei\nai

rJhtevon ta;" Seirh'na" tauvta"… to; me;n ou\n dh; levgein ta;" Mouvsa" ei\nai kai; par∆ hJmw'n hJma'"

prostiqevnai th;n loiphvn, i{na to;n th'" ejnneavdo" sumplhrwvswmen ajriqmovn, oujk e[stin eJpomevnwn tai'"

rJhvsesin: pro;" tw'/ kai; to; sumperifevresqai toi'" kuvkloi" ta;" Seirh'na" katadee(stevra") ei\nai tw'n

Mousw'n .. 20 .. a.eid ..20 .. yucikh'" swmatik . .16 . fwnai'" tw'n Mousw'n ei\n(ai): dio; kai;

ejnarm(onivou") e[cein kinhvsei" kai; toi'" kuvkloi" oi|" ej(pibe)bhvkasin proxenei'n th;n e[rruqmon

kivnh(sin) panavlhqe". tivna ou\n oujsivan kai; tavxin ejcouvsa"… o{ti me;n dh; pro; swmavtwn ou[sa"

ajnagkai'on kai; prosecw'" ejfestwvsa" toi'" kuvkloi" ei\nai yuca;" aujtav", dh'lon, ejpei; kai; to;

sumperifevresqai toi'" kuvkloi" kinei'sqai dhvpou metabatikw'" aujta;" ajnadidavskei.

B. On the other hand, Muses and Sirens shared some features already in the Homeric and Hesiodic poems: cf. the

wisdom of the Sirens, in Od., 12, 189-191 (i[dmen gavr toi pavnq∆, o{s∆ ejni; Troivh/ eujreivh/ /É...É i[dmen d∆ o{ssa

gevnhtai ejpi; cqoni; pouluboteivrh/), and that of the Muses, in Il., 2, 485 (i[stev te pavnta), and in Hes. Th., 27-

8 (i[dmen yeuvdea polla; levgein ejtuvmoisin oJmoi'a, É i[dmen d∆ eu\t∆ ejqevlwmen ajlhqeva ghruvsasqai).

Moreover, they were associated by Alcman (fr. 86 Calame = 30 Page: aJ Mw'sa kevklag∆ aJ livgha Shrhvn,

quoted by Aelius Aristides Rhet., Περὶ τοῦ παραφθέγματος, Jebb page 377, line 29). This poet compares their

song with that of his choir in fr. 3 Calame = fr. 1, vv. 96 ss. Page: aJ de; ta'n Shrhn(iv)dwn / ajoidotevra m(e;n

oujciv, / siai; gavr, ajnt(i; d∆ e{ndeka / paivdwn dek(av" a{d∆ ajeivd)ei). West, 1965, 200, suggests that “being

half-birds in form”, the Sirens “make good Muses for a poet who thinks of himself as an imitator of bird-music”,

as we may see in the fr. 39 Page (Ûevph tavde kai; mevlo" ∆Alkma;n / eu|re geglwssamevnan / kakkabivdwn

o[pa sunqevmeno" = fr. 91 Calame: e[ph dev ge kai; mevlo" ∆Alkmavn / eu|re †te glwssamenon† / kakkabivdwn o[pa sunqevmeno"); fr. 40 Page (Ûoi'da d∆ ojrnivcwn novmw"; cf. fr. 140 Calame). Pindar substitutes

the Sirens for the Muses too, as he talks of his work as an imitation of the singing of the Sirens (fr. 94b Snell-

Maehler, vv. 13-15: seirh'na de; kovmpon / aujlivskwn uJpo; lwtivnwn / mimhvsom∆ ajoidai'"). We know that

music, in Greek legends, was held to be learned from the birds: cf. Plutarch, De sollertia animalium, 20, 974a

(Geloi'oi d∆ i[sw" ejsme;n ejpi; tw'/ manqavnein ta; zw'/a semnuvnonte", w|n oJ Dhmovkrito" (B 154)

ajpofaivnei maqhta;" ejn toi'" megivstoi" gegonovta" hJma'": ajravcnh" ãejnà uJfantikh'/ kai; ajkestikh'/,

celidovno" ejn oijkodomiva/, kai; tw'n ligurw'n, kuvknou kai; ajhdovno", ejn wj/dh'/ kata; mivmhsin); vid. Bowra, 21961, 30, and Hofstetter, 1990, 19 and 312, n. 116 to p. 19. We may recall that Orpheus learnt his art through the

imitation of the birds, according to Theophilus of Antiochia, Ad Autolycum, II, 30 (a[lloi de; ∆Orfeva ajpo; th'"

tw'n ojrnevwn hJdufwniva" fasi;n ejxeurhkevnai th;n mousikhvn), and Philostratus the Elder, Im., II, 15, 6

(perievcousin d∆ aujto;n kai; ajlkuovne" oJmou' me;n a[idousai ta; tw'n ajnqrwvpwn, ejx w|n aujtaiv te kai; oJ

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Glau'ko" meqhrmovsqhsan, oJmou' d∆ ejndeiknuvmenai tw'i ∆Orfei' th;n eJautw'n wjidhvn, di∆ h}n oujde; hJ

qavlatta ajmouvsw" e[cei). 233 Macrobius, In Somn. Scip., 2, 3, 1-2: Hinc Plato in Re publica sua cum de sphaerarum caelestium uolubilitate

tractaret, singulas ait Sirenas singulis orbibus insidere, significans sphaerarum motu cantum numinibus exhiberi.

nam Siren deo canens Graeco intellectu ualet. theologi quoque nouem Musas octo sphaerarum musicos cantus et

unam maximam concinentiam quae confit ex omnibus esse uoluerunt. unde Hesiodus in Theogonia sua octauam

Musam Vraniam uocat, quia post septem uagas quae subiectae sunt octaua stellifera sphaera superposita proprio

nomine caelum uocatur, et ut ostenderet nonam esse et maximam quam conficit sonorum concors uniuersitas,

adiecit Kalliovph q j: h} deV proferestavth ejstin aJpasevwn ex nomine ostendens ipsam uocis dulcedinem nonam

Musam uocari, nam Kalliovph optimae uocis Graeca interpretatio est (quoted from

http://www.music.indiana.edu/tml/3rd-5th/MACCOM2_TEXT.html, as consulted on November 20th 2004). Transl.

by Stahl, 1952, 193-4. 234 Proclus, In R., 2, 68 Kroll: h} me;n gavr ejstin aJrmoniva qeopreph;" kai; ta;" yuca;" swvzousa kai;

ejnidruvousa toi'" qeoi'", h} de; genesiourgo;" kai; sunavptousa aujta;" toi'" ejnuvloi": kai; h} me;n o[ntw"

e[rgon tw'n Mousw'n tw'n paideuousw'n ta;" noera;" hJmw'n dunavmei" kai; teleiousw'n kai; pro;" th;n

oujranivan tavxin ajfomoiousw'n, h} de; Seirhvnwn ou\sav tinwn tai'" th;n gevnesin aujxouvsai" aJrmonivai"

proseoikui'a. 235 Proclus, Hymn No. 3, vv. 6-7: kai; speuvdein ejdivdaxan uJpe;r baquceuvmona lhvqhn É i[cno" e[cein,

kaqara;" de; molei'n poti; suvnnomon a[stron. This notion of the “allotted star” is found in Plato’s Timaeus, 42

b (kai; oJ me;n eu\ to;n proshvkonta crovnon biouv", pavlin eij" th;n tou' sunnovmou poreuqei;" oi[khsin

a[strou, bivon eujdaivmona kai; sunhvqh e{xoi); cf. Proclus, In Tim., 3, 290, 18-9 Diehl (to; de; suvnnomon

a[stron ejsti; peri; o} hJ spora; kai; hJ dianomh; tw'n te yucw'n kai; tw'n ojchmavtwn). The Muses are credited

with the same cathartic function by Porphyrius, Life of Plotinus, 22, vv. 20-8 (∆All∆ a[ge Mousavwn iJero;"

corov", ajpuvswmen É eij" e}n ejpipneivonte" ajoidh'" tevrmata pavsh": É u{mmi kai; ejn mevssaisin ejgw;

Foi'bo" baqucaivth": É dai'mon, a[ner to; pavroiqen, ajta;r nu'n daivmono" ai[sh/ É qeiotevrh/ pelavwn, o{t∆

ejluvsao desmo;n ajnavgkh" É ajndromevh", rJeqevwn de; polufloivsboio kudoimou' É rJwsavmeno"

prapivdessin ej" hj/ovna nhcuvtou ajkth'" É nhvce∆ ejpeigovmeno" dhvmou a[po novsfin ajlitrw'n É sthrivxai

kaqarh'" yuch'" eujkampeva oi[mhn). 236 Cf. Pl. Tim., 47b-d, quoted in n. 160 C to II. 1. d. Vid. Molina Moreno, 2002b. 237 Vid. Bacchylides, IV, 7-8 (= 5 ed. Irigoin: ajna- É xifovrmiggo" Oujraniva"); V, 13-14 (= 7 Irigoin:

crusavmpiko" Oujraniva"); VI, 10-11 (= 4-5 Irigoin: ajnaximovlpou É Oujraniva"), and Dithyrambi, 16, 3-4

(Pier[iavqen ej[u?q]rono" [O]ujraniva). For Urania as Muse of Astronomy, cf. sch. in Hes., Th., 76, p. 16, l. 23 Di

Gregorio (Oujraniva ajstronomivan, sc. eu|re); Anthologiae Graecae Appendix, 134 (∆Astevra" hjreuvnhsa

sofh'/ freni; patriv t∆ ejoiko;" É ou[nom∆ e[cw: levgomai d∆ hJ Dio;" Oujranivh); Anthologia Graeca, IX, 504, 9

(Oujranivh povlon eu|re kai; oujranivwn coro;n a[strwn), and 505, 13-14 (Oujranivh yhvfoio qeorrhvtwi tini;

mevtrwi É ajstrwvihn ejdivdaxa palindivnhton ajnavgkhn); later, Ps. Ausonius, Id., III, 20, v. 8 (URANIE coeli

motus scrutatur, et astra). Cf. Molina Moreno, 2002b. 238 Cf. Pl. Smp., 187c-e (th;n de; oJmologivan pa'si touvtoi", w{sper ejkei' hJ ijatrikhv, ejntau'qa hJ mousikh;

ejntivqhsin, e[rwta kai; oJmovnoian ajllhvlwn ejmpoihvsasa: kai; e[stin au\ mousikh; peri; aJrmonivan kai;

rJuqmo;n ejrwtikw'n ejpisthvmh. kai; ejn mevn ge aujth'/ th'/ sustavsei aJrmoniva" te kai; rJuqmou' oujde;n

calepo;n ta; ejrwtika; diagignwvskein, oujde; oJ diplou'" e[rw" ejntau'qav pw e[stin: ajll∆ ejpeida;n devh/

pro;" tou;" ajnqrwvpou" katacrh'sqai 187d rJuqmw'/ te kai; aJrmoniva/ h] poiou'nta, o} dh; melopoiivan

kalou'sin, h] crwvmenon ojrqw'" toi'" pepoihmevnoi" mevlesiv te kai; mevtroi", o} dh; paideiva ejklhvqh,

ejntau'qa dh; kai; calepo;n kai; ajgaqou' dhmiourgou' dei'. pavlin ga;r h{kei oJ aujto;" lovgo", o{ti toi'" me;n

170

kosmivoi" tw'n ajnqrwvpwn, kai; wJ" a]n kosmiwvteroi givgnointo oiJ mhvpw o[nte", dei' carivzesqai kai;

fulavttein to;n touvtwn e[rwta, kai; ou|tov" ejstin oJ kalov", oJ oujravnio", oJ th'" Oujraniva" mouvsh"

“Erw"). Vid. Molina Moreno, 2002b. 239 Cf. D. S., IV, 7, 4 (Oujranivan d∆ ajpo; tou' tou;" paideuqevnta" uJp∆ aujth'" ejxaivresqai pro;" oujranovn). 240 This sarcophagus belongs to the old Simonetti Collection, and dates from the third century C. E.; vid. Marrou,

1933, 173 ff. (with a reproduction on p. 174, fig. 4); eiusd., 1938, 159-60, and Cumont, 1942, 300. 241 1933 and 1938. 242 1942, 300. 243 Urania is also represented on a sarcophagus of Palazzo Mattei (vid. Cumont, 1942, pl. XXXI, 1). 244 Plato showed a high esteem for Urania in another passage, besides that of the Symposium quoted above. In

Phaedr., 259 d, Socrates says: “To the eldest, Calliope, and to the one who follows her, Urania, they make report

of those who pass their lives in philosophy and do honor the music of those two Muses, who certainly are most

related to divine and human thoughts among all, and have the most beautiful voice” (th'/ de; presbutavth/

Kalliovph/ kai; th'/ met∆ aujth;n Oujraniva/ tou;" ejn filosofiva/ diavgontav" te kai; timw'nta" th;n ejkeivnwn

mousikh;n ajggevllousin, ai} dh; mavlista tw'n Mousw'n periv te oujrano;n kai; lovgou" ou\sai qeivou" te

kai; ajnqrwpivnou" iJa'sin kallivsthn fwnhvn). 245 Of course this was not the case when it came to the Delphic Muses alluded to by Plutarch, and linked with the

sphere of the fixed stars, the region of the planets, and the sublunar sphere, as we saw in b) “Muses and Heavenly

Realms,” in this same chapter. 246 Cf. Sophocles, Antigone, 1146-7 (ijwv, pu'r pneiovntwn cora'g∆ a[strwn). It should be noted that Dionysus

was also linked with the Sun: cf. OF 239a Kern = 542 Bernabé (”Hlio", o}n Diovnuson ejpivklhsin kalevousi),

and OF 239b Kern = 543 Bernabé (ei|" Zeuv", ei|" ”Aidh", ei|" ”Hlio", ei|" Diovnuso"), both quoted by

Macrobius, Sat., I, 18, 17. On the other hand, Dionysos was called “star” by Aristophanes, Frogs, 341-2 (“Iakce /

nuktevrou teleth'" fwsfovro" ajsthvr); cf. “Eumolpus,” quoted by Diodorus of Sicily, I, 11, 3 (ajstrofah'

Diovnuson ejn ajktivnessi purwpovn, where Lloyd-Jones, H., and Wilson, N. G., 1990, p. 145, read tuvrannon

instead of purwpovn). He was also worshipped with choral dances, according to Euripides, Bacchae, 220

(Diovnuson, o{sti" ejsti, timw'sa" coroi'"). Moreover, the v. 9 of the prooemion to the Orphic hymns calls

Dionysos coreuthv", “dancer;” the Orphic Hymn Nr. 52, v. 7, calls him coroimanhv". The stars are invited to

join the Orphic ritual, in the Orphic Hymn Nr. 7, v. 12 (e[lqet∆ ejp∆ eujievrou teleth'" polui?stora" a[qlou"),

in what may be a late echo of the notions evoked by Sophocles. Thanks to Prof. Gabriella Ricciardelli, Università

di Roma, for these references (e-mail July 18th 2005). In some texts of the Classical period, the stars are said to

participate in the night festivals of Dionysus (Euripides, Ion, 1074 ff.: aijscuvnomai to;n poluvu- / mnon qeo;n, eij

para; kallicovvroisi pagai'" / lampavda qewro;n eijkavdwn / o[yetai ejnnuvcio" a[u>pno" w[n, o{te É kai;

Dio;" ajsterwpo;" / ajnecovreusen aijqhvr / coreuvei de; selavna). We may add a passage by Lydus, De

mensibus, IV, 51, lines 21-4 Wünsch, where it is suggested that there was an allegorical interpretation of Mount

Kithairon as heaven, which because of the harmony of the seven celestial bodies was called “Kitharon” (from

κιθάρα), and, since Dionysus was called “Bacchic Dancer of the Kithairon”, this could suggest that he was

considered a conductor of cosmic music (οἱ δέ γε Ῥωμαῖοι τὸν Διόνυσον Βακχευτὴν τοῦ Κιθαιρῶνός φασιν,

οἱονεὶ βακχευτὴν καὶ ἀνατρέχοντα ἀνὰ τὸν οὐρανόν, <ὃν> ἐκ τῆς τῶν ἑπτὰ συμφωνίας ἀστέρων

Κιθάρωνα ὠνόμασαν). We can see that this late and over-elaborate interpretation had its roots in Classical times. 247 Cf. Plato, Cratylus, 405c-d (transl. by Harold. N. Fowler, quoted from http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-

bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0172;query=section%3D%23112;layout=;loc=Crat.%20405d, as

consulted on July 7, 2005).

171

248 Cf. Scythinus, fr. 1 West, ap. Plu. De Pythiae oraculis, 402a-b: u{steron mevntoi plh'ktron ajnevqhkan tw'/

qew'/ crusou'n ejpisthvsante" wJ" e[oike Skuqivnw/ levgonti (fr. 1) peri; th'" luvra"

æh}n aJrmovzetai

Zhno;" eujeidh;" ∆Apovllwn pa'san, ajrch;n kai; tevlo"

sullabwvn, e[cei de; lampro;n plh'ktron hJlivou favo". 249 Cf., among other sources:

a) Eratosth. Hermes, fr. 15 Powell (= 397 A SHell, quoted by Theo Sm. pp. 105-6 Hiller (Τιμόθεός φησι

καὶ παροιμίαν εἶναι τὴν „πάντα ὀκτὼ“ διὰ τὸ τοῦ κόσμου τὰς πάσας ὀκτὼ σφαίρας περὶ γῆν

κυκλεῖσθαι, καθά φησι καὶ Ἐρατοσθένης· ὀκτὼ δὴ τάδε πάντα σὺν ἁρμονίῃσιν ἀρήρει, p. 106

ὀκτὼ δ’ ἐν σφαίρῃσι κυλίνδετο κύκλῳ ἰόντα .................... ἐνάτην περὶ γαῖαν); cf. also Anat. Laod.

Decad., p. 14 Heiberg; Iambl. Theol. ar., pp. 75-6 De Falco, and Tzetzes, Exegesis in Homeri Iliadem A

97-609, esp. v. 601.

b) Varro of Atax, fr. 14 Morel (= 12 Traglia, = 11 Büchner, quoted by Marius Victorinus, in Grammatici

Latini, VI, 60 Keil = Orph. vest. 419 Bernabé: vidit et aetherio mundum torquerier axe / et septem

aeternis sonitum dare vocibus orbes / nitentes aliis alios, quae maxima divis / laetitia est. at tunc longe

gratissima Phoebi / dextera consimiles meditatur reddere voces);

c) Alexander of Ephesus, fr. 21 SHell (quoted by Heraclitus, Allegoriae homericae, 12, and by Theo of

Smyrna, pp. 138-41 Hiller: ὑψοῦ δ’ ἄλλοθεν ἄλλος ὑπέρτερον ἔλλαχε κύκλον· / ἀγχοτάτη μὲν δῖα

Σεληναίη περὶ γαῖαν, / δεύτερος αὖ Στίλβων χελυοξόου Ἑρμείαο, / τῷ δ’ ἔπι Φωσφόρος ἐστὶ

φαεινότατος Κυθερείης, / τέτρατος αὐτὸς ὕπερθεν ἐπ’ Ἠέλιος φέρεθ’ ἵπποις, / πέμπτος δ’ αὖ

Πυρόεις φονίου Θρήϊκος Ἄρηος, / ἕκτος δ’ αὖ Φαέθων Διὸς ἀγλαὸς ἵσταται ἀστήρ, / ἕβδομος

<αὖ> Φαίνων Κρόνου ἀγχόθι τέλλεται ἄστρον· / πάντες δ’ ἑπτατόνοιο λύρης φθόγγοισι

συνῳδὸν / ἁρμονίην προχέουσι, διαστάσει ἄλλος ἐπ’ ἄλλῃ· / γαῖα μὲν οὖν ὑπάτη τε βαρεῖά τε

μεσσόθι ναίει· / ἀπλανέων δὲ σφαῖρα συνημμένη ἔπλετο νήτη· / μέσσην δ’ Ἠέλιος πλαγκτῶν

θέσιν ἔσχεθεν ἄστρων· / τοῦ δ’ ἀπὸ δὴ ψυχρὸς μὲν ἔχει διὰ τέσσαρα κύκλος· / κείνου δ’

ἡμίτονον Φαίνων ἀνίησι χαλασθείς, / τοῦ δὲ τόσον Φαέθων ὅσον ὄβριμος Ἄρεος ἀστήρ· /

Ἠέλιος δ’ ὑπὸ τοῖσι τόνον τερψίμβροτος ἴσχει, / αἴγλης δ’ Ἠελίοιο τριημίτονον Κυθέρεια· /

ἡμίτονον δ’ ὑπὸ τῷ Στίλβων φέρεθ’ Ἑρμείαο, / τόσσον δὲ χρωσθεῖσα φύσιν πολυκαμπέα Μήνη·

/ κέντρου δ’ Ἠελίοιο θέσιν διὰ <πέντ’> ἔλαχε χθών· / αὕτη πεντάζωνος ἀπ’ ἠέρος εἰς φλογόεν

πῦρ / ἁρμοσθεῖσ’ ἀκτῖσι πυρὸς κρυερῇσί τε πάχναις / οὐρανοῦ ἑξατόνου τόνον ἔσχεθε τὸν διὰ

πασῶν. / τοίην τοι σειρῆνα Διὸς πάϊς ἥρμοσεν Ἑρμῆς, / ἑπτάτονον κίθαριν, θεομήστορος εἰκόνα

κόσμου);

d) Philo of Alexandria, De opificio mundi, 126 (luvra me;n ga;r hJ eJptavcordo" ajnalogou'sa th'i tw'n

planhvtwn coreivai ta;" ejllogivmou" aJrmoniva" ajpotelei', scedovn ti th'" kata; mousikh;n

ojrganopoiiva" aJpavsh" hJgemoni;" ou\sa);

e) Nicomachus of Gerasa, Ench., 3, pp. 241-2 Jan (”Oti hJ prwvth ejn aijsqhtoi'" mousikh; peri; tou;"

plavnhta" qewrei'tai kata; mivmhsin d∆ ejkeivnh" hJ par∆ hJmi'n: Ta; me;n ou\n ojnovmata tw'n

fqovggwn ajpo; tw'n kat∆ oujrano;n ijovntwn eJpta; ajstevrwn kai; th;n gh'n peripoleuovntwn

piqano;n wjnomavsqai. pavnta ga;r ta; rJoizouvmenav fasi swvmata kaqupeivkontov" tino" kai;

rJa'/sta kumainomevnou yovfou" ajnagkaivw" poiei'n megevqei kai; fwnh'" tovpw/ parhllagmevnou"

ajllhvlwn h[toi para; tou;" eJautw'n o[gkou" h] para; ta;" ijdiva" tacuth'ta" h] para; ta;"

ejpoca;", ejn ai|" hJ ejkavstou rJuvmh suntelei'tai, eujkumantotevra" h] toujnantivon duspalei'"

uJparcouvsa". aiJ de; trei'" au|tai diaforai; tranw'" oJrw'ntai peri; tou;" plavnhta" megevqei te

kai; tavcei kai; tovpw/ diestw'ta" ajllhvlwn kai; dia; tou' aijqerivou ajnacuvmato" dihnekw'" kai;

172

ajstavtw" rJoizoumevnou". e[nqen ga;r kai; tou' ajsth;r ojnovmato" tevteucen e{kasto" oi|on

stavsew" ejsterhmevno" kai; ajei; qevwn, par∆ o} kai; qeo;" kai; aijqh;r wjnomatopepoivhtai. ajll∆

ajpo; me;n tou' kronikou' kinhvmato" ajnwtavtou o[nto" ajf∆ hJmw'n oJ baruvtato" ejn tw'/ dia; pasw'n

fqovggo" uJpavth ejklhvqh, u{paton ga;r to; ajnwvtaton. ajpo; de; tou' selhniakou' katwtavtou

pavntwn kai; perigeiotevrou keimevnou neavth: kai; ga;r nevaton to; katwvtaton ajpo; de; tw'n

par∆ eJkavteron tou' me;n uJpo; to;n Krovnon, o{" ejsti Dio;", parupavth: tou' d∆ uJpe;r Selhvnhn, o{"

ejstin ∆Afrodivth", paraneavth. ajpo; de; tou' mesaitavtou, o{" ejstin hJliakou' tetavrtou

eJkatevrwqen keimevnou, mevsh dia; tessavrwn pro;" ajmfovtera a[kra e[n ge th'/ eJptacovrdw/ kata;

to; palaio;n diestw'sa kaqavper kai; oJ ”Hlio" ejn toi'" eJpta; plavnhsin eJkatevrwqevn ejsti

tevtarto", mesaivtato" w[n. ajpo; de; tw'n par∆ eJkavtera tou' ÔHlivou “Areo" me;n metaxu; Dio;"

kai; ÔHlivou th;n sfai'ran eijlhcovto" uJpermevsh hJ kai; licanov". ÔErmou' de; to; metaivcmion

∆Afrodivth" kai; ÔHlivou katevconto" paramevsh). This system is attributed to Orpheus in an

anonymous text copied by Constantinos Lascaris and conserved in the manuscript Matritensis gr. 4621

(former N-72), ff. 134 r – 136 r, of the Biblioteca Nacional of Madrid (cf. Ruelle, 1878, and Martínez

Manzano, 1994, 50 and 56-7).

f) Nicomachus of Gerasa, Theol. ar., p. 71, 14-18 De Falco (o{ti ouj movnon th'" ajnqrwpivnh" fwnh'"

ajlla; kai; ojrganikh'" kai; kosmikh'" kai; aJplw'" ejnarmonivou fwnh'" z uJpavrcei ta; stoiceiwvdh

fqevgmata, ouj movnon para; to; uJpo; tw'n z∆ ajstevrwn ajfivesqai movna kai; prwvtista, wJ"

ejmavqomen, ajll∆ o{ti kai; to; prw'ton diavgramma para; toi'" mousikoi'" eJptavcordon

uJpevpesen);

g) On Claudius Ptolemaeus’ systems of cosmic harmony, cf. Redondo Reyes, 2003, and Swerdlow, 2004.

h) Ps. Lucianus, De astr., X (OF 418 Bernabé: ”Ellhne" de; ou[te par∆ Aijqiovpwn ou[te par∆

Aijguptivwn ajstrologivh" pevri oujde;n h[kousan, ajlla; sfivsin ∆Orfeu;" oJ Oijavgrou kai;

Kalliovph" prw'to" tavde ajphghvsato, ... phxavmeno" ga;r luvrhn o[rgiav te ejpoieveto kai; ta;

iJra; h[eiden: hJ de; luvrh eJptavmito" ejou'sa th;n tw'n kineomevnwn ajstevrwn aJrmonivhn

sunebavlleto);

i) Servius, In Verg. Aen., VI, 645 (Orpheus ... primus etiam deprehendit harmoniam, id est circulorum

mundanorum sonum, quos novem esse novimus. e quibus summus quem anastron dicunt, sono caret,

item ultimus, qui terranus est. reliqui septem sunt, quorum sonum deprehendit Orpheus, unde uti septem

fingitur chordis);

j) Servius, In Verg. Buc., VIII, 75: septem chordae, septem planetae, septem dies nominibus deorum,

septem stellae in septemtrione, et multa his similia.

k) Macrobius, Sat., I, 19, 15 (et tetrachordum Mercurio creditur attributum, quippe significat hic numerus

vel totidem plagas mundi vel quattuor vices temporum quibus annus includitur, vel quod duobus

aequinoctiis duobusque solstitiis zodiaci ratio distincta est; ut lyra Apollinis chordarum septem tot

caelestium sphaerarum motus praestat intellegi, quibus solem moderatorem natura constituit);

l) Sch. in Verg. Aen., VI, 119 ap. Cod. Par. Lat. 7930 (OF 417 Bernabé: Dicunt tamen quidam liram

Orphei cum vii cordas fuisse, et celum habet vii zonas, unde teologia assignatur). On this text, cf.

Molina Moreno, 2011.

m) Hermias, In Phdr., p. 217, lines 19-21 Couvreur: καί τινες δὲ τὰ ὀνόματα τῶν χορδῶν ἐκ τῶν

οὐρανίων σφαιρῶν ὠνόμασαν, οἷον ὅτι προσλαμβανομένη ἐστὶν ἡ τοῦ Κρόνου σφαῖρα, καὶ ἐπὶ

τῶν ἄλλων ὁμοίως ἄλλας χορδὰς εἶπον.

n) Manuel Bryennios, I, 1, p. 56, lines 12-15 Jonker: Ὁ Ἑρμῆς, οὗ θρύλλος ἦν πάλαι πολὺς ἐν τοῖς

Ἕλλησι, πρῶτος τὴν εἰρημένην ἀρχαιότροπον ἑπτάχορδον λύραν εὗρε καὶ ἐκ δυοῖν

173

τετραχόρδων ὁμοίων κατὰ σχῆμα ὀξυτέρου τε καὶ βαρυτέρου ἡρμόσατο κατὰ μίμησιν τῶν

σφαιρῶν τῶν ἑπτὰ ἀστέρων. Cf. ibid., p. 58, line 20 – p. 60, line 16 Jonker: Ὅθεν οὗτος τὴν μὲν

πρώτην καὶ βαρύφθογγον αὐτῆς χορδήν, ἣν ὑπάτην ἐκάλεσε διὰ τὸ ὕπατον τὸ πρῶτον παρὰ

τοῖς παλαιοῖς καλεῖσθαι, τῇ τῆς Σελήνης σφαίρᾳ οὐκ ἀπεικότως παρείκασεν, ἐπειδήπερ καὶ ὁ

ἀπ’ αὐτῆς φθόγγος τῶν ἀπὸ τῶν ἄλλων πλανωμένων βαρύτατος· τὴν δὲ ἑβδόμην καὶ

ὀξύφθογγον, ἣν πάλιν νήτην ἐκάλεσε διὰ τὸ νέατον τὸ ἔσχατον παρὰ τοῖς παλαιοῖς καλεῖσθαι

τῇ τοῦ Κρόνου, ἐπειδήπερ καὶ ὁ ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ φθόγγος τῶν ἀπὸ τῶν ἄλλων ὀξύτατος· τὴν δὲ

τετάρτην καὶ τῆς μὲν ὑπάτης ὀξυφθογγοτέραν, τῆς δὲ νήτης βαρυφθογγοτέραν, ἣν ἀπὸ τῆς

τάξεως μέσην ὠνόμασε—μεσαιτάτη καὶ γὰρ αὕτη τῆς τοιαύτης λύρας ἐστί—τῇ τοῦ Ἡλίου,

ἐπειδήπερ καὶ ὁ ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ φθόγγος τοῦ μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς Σελήνης φθόγγου ὀξύτερος, τοῦ δὲ ἀπὸ

τοῦ Κρόνου βαρύτερος· τὴν δὲ δευτέραν καὶ ὀξυφθογγοτέραν τῆς ὑπάτης, ἣν καὶ παρυπάτην

προσηγόρευσε διὰ τὸ ἑξῆς ὑπὲρ τὴν ὑπάτην κεῖσθαι, τῇ τοῦ Ἑρμοῦ, ἐπειδήπερ καὶ ὁ ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ

φθόγγος τοῦ ἀπὸ τῆς Σελήνης ὀξύτερος· τὴν δὲ ἕκτην καὶ βαρυφθογγοτέραν τῆς νήτης, ἣν

παρανήτην προσηγόρευσε διὰ τὸ ὑπὸ τὴν νήτην κεῖσθαι, τῇ τοῦ Δίος, ἐπειδήπερ καὶ ὁ ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ

φθόγγος τοῦ ἀπὸ Κρόνου βαρύτερος· τὴν δὲ τρίτην καὶ τῆς μὲν μέσης βαρυφθογγοτέραν, τῆς δὲ

παρυπάτης ὀξυφθογγοτέραν, ἣν καὶ ὑπερπαρυπάτην ἐκάλεσε διὰ τὸ ἑξῆς ὑπὲρ τὴν παρυπάτην

κεῖσθαι, τῇ τῆς Ἀφροδίτης, ἐπειδήπερ καὶ ὁ ἀπ’ αὐτῆς φθόγγος τοῦ μὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἡλίου

βαρύτερος, τοῦ δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἑρμοῦ ὀξύτερος· ἡ τοιαύτη δὲ χορδὴ καὶ λιχανὸς καλεῖται, δι’ ἣν

αἰτίαν μετ’ ὀλίγον εἰσόμεθα· τὴν δὲ πέμπτην καὶ τῆς μὲν μέσης ὀξυφθογγοτέραν, τῆς δὲ

παρανήτης βαρυφθογγοτέραν, ἣν καὶ παραμέσην ἐκάλεσε διὰ τὸ παρακεῖσθαι τῇ μέσῃ, τῇ τοῦ

Ἄρεος, ἐπειδήπερ ὁ ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ φθόγγος τοῦ μὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἡλίου ὀξύτερος, τοῦ δὲ τοῦ Δίος

βαρύτερος.

Vid. also Jan, 1894; Reinach, 1900; Bragard, 1929; Gundel, 1950; Burkert, 1961, esp. 28-43; Pizzani, 1986;

Freyburger, 1996, and Richter, 1999. 250 Cf. Cornutus, 32, p. 67, ll. 17-9 Lang (mousiko;" de; kai; kiqaristh;" pareish'ktai tw'i krouvein

ejnarmonivw" pa'n mevro" tou' kovsmou kai; sunwido;n aujto; pa'si toi'" a[lloi" mevresi poiei'n). 251 Cf., among many others, Philostr. Iun. Im. 11, p. 344 Fairbanks (prosav/dwn toi'" th'" kiqavra" krouvmasi),

and Them. Or. 16, p. 209c-d Hardouin (toi'" krouvmasi toi'" ∆Orfevw"). 252 Cf. Varro, “Ono" luvra", fr. 351 Buecheler (ap. Nonnius, 100, 25 M. = p. 140 Müller): quam mobilem divum

lyram sol harmoge / quadam gubernans motibus diis veget. 253 Cf. Cic., De re p., VI, 17: Sol… dux et princeps et moderator luminum reliquorum, mens mundi et temperatio. 254 Cf. Boyancé, 1936, 98. 255 Cf. Arist. Metaph., IV, 2, 5, p. 1018 b 29 (hJ mevsh ajrchv); Ps. Arist. Probl., XIX, 33, 920a 21 (hJ ga;r mevsh

kai; hJgemw;n ojxutavth tou' tetracovrdou), and XIX, 36, 920b 9-10 (h] o{ti to; hJrmovsqai ejsti;n aJpavsai" to;

e[cein pw" pro;" th;n mevshn); Varro, fr. 282 Funaioli (mevsh in musica initium cantionis), and D. Chrys.,

LXVII, 234 Dind. (crh; de; w{sper ejn luvrai to;n mevson fqovggon katasthvsante" e[peita pro;" tou'ton

aJrmovttontai tou;" a[llou", eij de; mh; oujdemivan oujdevpote aJrmonivan ajpodeivxousin). Martianus Capella,

II, 187, p. 73 Dick addresses these words to the Sun: Hinc est quod quarto ius est te currere circo, / ut tibi perfecta

numerus ratione probetur: / nonne hac principio geminum tu das tetrachordum? 256 Cf. Philo, De vita Mosis, III, 9: oJ ga;r h{lio" w{sper hJ lucniva mevso" tw'n e}x tetagmevno" ejn tetavrthi

cwvrai fwsforei' toi'" uJperavnw trisi; kai; toi'" uJf∆ auJto;n i[soi", aJrmozovmeno" to; mousiko;n kai; qei'on

wJ" ajlhqw'" o[rganon. 257 Cf. Boyancé, 1936, 97.

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258 Cf. Theo of Smyrna, p. 138 Hiller (th;n de; kata; tovpon tw'n sfairw'n <h]> kuvklwn qevsin te kai; tavxin,

ejn oi|" keivmena fevretai ta; planwvmena, tine;~ me;n tw'n Puqagoreivwn toiavnde nomivzousi:

prosgeiovtaton me;n ei\nai to;n th'" selhvnh" kuvklon, deuvteron d∆ uJpe;r tou'ton <to;n tou'> ÔErmou',

e[peita to;n tou' fwsfovrou, kai; tevtarton ãto;nà tou' hJlivou, ei\ta to;n tou' “Arew", e[peita to;n tou'

Diov", teleutai'on de; kai; suvneggu" toi'" ajplanevsi to;n tou' Krovnou: mevson ei\nai boulovmenoi to;n tou'

hJlivou tw'n planwmevnwn wJ" hJgemonikwvtaton kai; oi|on kardivan tou' pantov"). 259 Cf. Aetius, Plac., II, 7, 7, pp. 336-7 Diels (ap. Stob. I, 22, 1d = Philolaus, 44 A 16 DK = A 16b Huffman):

Filovlao" pu'r ejn mevsw/ peri; to; kevntron, o{per eJstivan tou' panto;" kalei' kai; Dio;" oi\kon kai; mhtevra

qew'n, bwmovn te kai; sunoch;n kai; mevtron fuvsew". kai; pavlin pu'r e{teron ajnwtavtw to; perievcon.

prw'ton d∆ ei\nai fuvsei to; mevson, peri; de; tou'to devka swvmata qei'a coreuvein, oujranovn † te

planhvta", meq∆ ou}" h{lion, uJf∆ w|/ selhvnhn, uJf∆ h|/ th;n gh'n, uJf∆ h|/ th;n ajntivcqona, meq∆ a} suvmpanta to;

pu'r eJstiva" peri; ta; kevntra tavxin ejpevcon. It is rather puzzling that the Moon were also called mese and

endowed with the function of harmonizing the cosmos, according to a passage of the hippocratic treatise De

hebdomadibus, 2 (cf. West, 1971 b, 368-9): ἡ μὲν γῆ ο[ὖσα μέση] καὶ ὁ Ὀλύμπιος κόσμος ὕπατος ὢν

ἀκίνητά ἐστιν· ἡ δὲ σελήνη μέση οὖσα συναρμόζει αὐτὴ <πάντων τῶν ἄλλων μερέων, τῶν μὲν

ἀνωτέρων , τῶν δὲ κατωτέρων,> συναρμόζει αὐτὴ τἆ[λ]λα πάντα, ἐν ἀλλήλοισ ι ζῷντα καὶ δι’

[ἀ]λλήλων δι ιόντα · αὐτά τε ὑφ’ ἑωυτῶν καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ἀεὶ ὄντων θ[εῶν] αϊδ ϊως κινεῖτα ι. 260 Cf. Alexander of Ephesus, fr. 21 SHell., v. 14 (mevsshn d∆ hjevlio" plagktw'n qevsin e[sceqen a[strwn).

Vid. full quotation of this fragment in n. 249 to this same chapter. 261 Cf. Plutarch, De animae procreatione in Timaeo, 1029a (aujto;n to;n h{lion wJ" mevshn sunevcein to; dia;

pasw'n ajxiou'sin). 262 Cf. Nicomachus of Gerasa, Enchiridion, 3, p. 242 Jan (ajpo; de; tou' mesaitavtou, o{" ejstin hJliakou'

tetavrtou eJkatevrwqen keimevnou, mevsh dia; tessavrwn pro;" ajmfotevra a[kra e[n ge th'i eJptacovrdwi

kata; to; palaio;n diestw'sa kaqavper kai; oJ ”Hlio" ejn toi'" eJpta; plavnhsin eJkatevrwqevn ejsti

mesaivtato"). 263 Cf. Boethius, De mus., I, 27: Namque hypate meson Saturno est adtributa, parhypate vero Ioviali circulo

consimilis est. Lichanon meson Marti tradidere. Sol mesen obtinuit. Triten synemmenon Venus habet, paraneten

synemmenon Mercurius regit. Nete autem lunaris circuli tenet exemplum. 264 crusoluvrh, kovsmou to;n ejnarmovnion drovmon e{lkwn. 265 “Both,” that is, the life-supporting species, and the human kind. 266 Cf. Orphic Hymn, 34, vv. 16-23 (su; de; pavnta povlon kiqavrhi polukrevktwi É aJrmovzei", oJte; me;n

neavth" ejpi; tevrmata baivnwn, É a[llote d∆ au\q∆ uJpavth", pote; Dwvrion eij" diavkosmon É pavnta povlon

kirna;" krivnei" bioqrevmmona fu'la, É aJrmonivhi keravsa" øth;nØ pagkovsmion ajndravsi moi'ran, É mivxa"

ceimw'no" qevreov" t∆ i[son ajmfotevroisin, É tai'" uJpavtai" ceimw'na, qevro" neavtai" diakrivna", É

Dwvrion eij" e[aro" poluhravtou w{rion a[nqo"). 267 A. Cf. Diodorus of Sicily, I, 16, who tells a myth about Hermes’s invention of the lyre, according to which the

first lyre had three strings because of the seasons of the year: the string yielding the highest pitch corresponded to

the summer, the one yielding the lowest pitch, to the winter, and the intermediate, to the spring (luvran te

neurivnhn poih'sai trivcordon, mimhsavmenon ta;" kat∆ ejniauto;n w{ra": trei'" ga;r aujto;n

uJposthvsasqai fqovggou", ojxu;n kai; baru;n kai; mevson, ojxu;n me;n ajpo; tou' qevrou", baru;n de; ajpo; tou'

ceimw'no", mevson de; ajpo; tou' e[aro"). Diodorus’s source was probably Hecataeus of Abdera (fourth-third

century B. C. E.); cf. F Gr Hist., 264 F 25 Jacoby.

B. Later sources consider a year divided in four seasons: cf. Plutarch, De animae procreatione in Timaeo, 1028 e-f

(Caldai'oi de; levgousi to; e[ar ejn tw'/ dia; tettavrwn givgnesqai pro;" to; metovpwron, ejn de; tw'/ dia;

175

pevnte pro;" to;n ceimw'na, pro;" de; to; qevro" ejn tw'/ diaV pasw'n); Aristides Quintilianus, III, 19, who

attributes that system to Pythagoras (e{xei toivnun to; e[ar, kaqa; kai; Puqagovran e[fasan levgein, pro;" me;n

metovpwron to; dia; tessavrwn, pro;" de; ceimw'na to; dia; pevnte, pro;" de; qevro" to; dia; pasw'n), and

Marcrobius, I, 19, 15 (et tetrachordum Mercurio creditur attributum, quippe significat hic numerus vel totidem

plagas mundi vel quattuor vices temporum quibus annus includitur, vel quod duobus aequinoctiis duobusque

solstitiis zodiaci ratio distincta est). 268 Cf. Palumbo Stracca, 1999, 190-191. 269 Cf. Pliny the Elder, NH, II, 84 (Sed Pythagoras interdum et musica ratione appellat quantum absit a terra luna,

ab ea ad Mercurium dimidium spatii et ab eo ad Veneris, a quo ad solem sescuplum, a sole ad Martem tonum [id

est quantum ad lunam a terra], ab eo ad Iovem dimidium et ab eo ad Saturni, et inde sescuplum ad signiferum; ita

septem tonis effici quam dia; pasw'n aJrmonivan hoc est universitatem concentus; in ea Saturnum Dorio moveri

phthongo, Iovem Phrygio et in reliquis similia, iucunda magis quam necessaria subtilitate, quoted from

http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/pliny.nh2.html, as consulted on July 20, 2005), Martianus Capella, II, 196 (in

Iovialis sideris pervenere fulgores, cuius circulus Phrygio phthongo personabat), and eiusd., II, 197 (hunc etiam

praetergressa circum ac parili interiectione sublimis deorum rigidissimum creatorem in algido haerentem

pruinisque nivalibus conspicata: verum idem quem circumire nitebatur orbis melo Dorio tinniebat). Lydus, Mens.,

II, 3, p. 20 Wünsch speaks of rhythms instead of modes, in a way we have no explanation for (Pavnta" tou;"

rJuqmou;" ejk th'" tw'n planhvtwn kinhvsew" ei\nai sumbaivnei: oJ me;n ga;r Krovno" tw'/ Dwrivw/, oJ de; Zeu;"

tw'/ Frugivw/, oJ d∆ “Arh" tw'/ Ludivw/ kai; oiJ loipoi; toi'" loipoi'" kinou'ntai kata; to;n Puqagovran pro;"

to;n h\con tw'n fwnhevntwn: oJ me;n ga;r ÔErmou' to;n a, oJ d∆ ∆Afrodivth" to;n e, oJ d∆ ”Hlio" to;n h, kai; oJ

me;n tou' Krovnou to;n i, oJ de; tou' “Areo" to;n o, kai; Selhvnh to;n u, o{ ge mh;n tou' Dio;" ajsth;r to;n w

rJuqmo;n ajpotelou'sin: oJ de; h\co" tw'n rJuqmw'n wJ" hJma'" oujk ajfiknei'tai dia; th;n ajpovstasin). 270 Cf. Ps. Arist. Probl., 919a 19-22 (pavnta ga;r ta; crhsta; mevlh pollavki" th'/ mevsh/ crh'tai, kai; pavnte"

oiJ ajgaqoi; poihtai; pukna; pro;" th;n mevshn ajpantw'si, ka]n ajpevlqwsi, tacu; ejpanevrcontai, pro;" de;

a[llhn ou{tw" oujdemivan). Vid. West, 1992, 219, and Varro, fr. 282, p. 302, 32 Funaioli (mevsh in musica initium

cantionis). 271 Transl. by Stahl, 1952, 194; cf. Macrobius, In Somn. Scip., II, 3, 3 (Apollinem ideo Moushgevthn vocant quasi

ducem et principem orbium ceterorum, ut ipse Cicero refert, "dux et princeps et moderator luminum reliquorum,

mens mundi et temperatio"). Cf. Ps. Ausonius, Id., III, 20, vv. 10-11 (p. 412 Piper): Mentis Apollineae vis has

movet undique Musas, / in medio residens complectitur (= sunevcei) omnia Phoebus. According to

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02112d.htm, as consulted on July 17th 2005, Ausonius was born ca. 310 C. E.,

and died ca. 394 C. E. 272 Cf. Macrobius, Sat., I, 19, 15 (lyra Apollinis chordarum septem tot caelestium sphaerarum motus praestat

intellegi, quibus solem moderatorem natura constituit). 273 Cf. Proclus, In Tim., II, 208, 9 Diehl: Mouvsa" oiJ palaioi; kai; ’Apovllwna Moushgevthn ejpevsthsan

tw'i pavnti (?), tou' me;n th;n mivan e{nwsin th'" o{lh" aJrmoniva" corhgou'nto", tw'n de; th;n dihirhmevnhn

aujth'" provodon sunecousw'n. Cf. Iambl., VP, 9, 45, quoted in n. 204 and 229 to this chapter.