Philosophical Reconstruction of the Role of Music in Ancient Healing Practices

The article examines the bond between the soul and the body in the light of ancient musical practices and expounds on the divergence between the philosophical distinction between body and soul, and the widespread belief in their affinity, which has a medical, as well as a religious, background. This divergence is particularly evident in the testimonies regarding the use of music in the so-called Pythagorean way of life. These testimonies seem to be related to an ancient holistic approach, which regards bodily well-being as inseparable from psychical balance. MZ_2016_1_FINAL.indd 171 23.6.2016 9:58:40 172 M U Z I K O L O Š K I Z B O R N I K • M U S I C O L O G I C A L A N N U A L L I I / 1 1. Music in the So-called Pythagorean Medicine Many ancient testimonies attribute the research and the use of the healing effect of music to the Pythagoreans. These testimonies never go back to Pythagoras himself. In fact, they do not even reach as far as the old Pythagorean school, since they consist mostly of indirect testimonies by Aristotle’s followers (among them Aristoxenus), transmitted to us through Neopythagorean and Neoplatonic writings. It is not the purpose of this article to link the doubtful origins of the musical practices discussed below to the Pythagoreans. My objective is to separate in these practices (vigorously ascribed to Pythagoreans by the ancient sources) the ethical doctrine of music from the healing practices, which undoubtedly reach back to the times of Pythagoras and possibly even further back. The testimonies about musical practices in Pythagorean schools dwell mostly on the edifying effects of music;1 but the Pythagoreans were supposed to have used its soothing effects in medicine as well. Aristoxenus (4th cent. BC) recounts that among sciences, music, medicine, and divination were honored by Pythagoreans (fr. 58 D 1 Diels-Kranz). Although health was preserved mostly by the appropriate regimen of life (díaita), this regimen included musical practices which were also used in medicine, and healing was performed through incantations (epaoidaí). This expression has a common connotation with the word “spell,” which is why this kind of healing practice tends to be confused with the use of magic.2 In later testimonies there is a clear distinction between music and incantations, although both were said to have been used by Pythagoras in his treatment of the sick.3 Aristoxenus, however, seems to associate the use of incantations with music: “Some diseases they cured by incantations. Music, if used in a proper manner, was by Pythagoras supposed to contribute greatly to health.” (DK 58 D 1 = Iamblichus, On the Pythagorean Way of Life (= VP) 29 [164]; trans. by K. Guthrie) This text, dating from the 3rd century, gives us the testimony of an author from the 4th century BC, who is in his turn separated from Pythagoras by two centuries. Nevertheless, the fragment mentions various methods of healing which could well have been practiced in the times of Pythagoras and even before him: curing by díaita, by poultices and ointments, by cuts and cauterizations and, finally, by music and incantations. The fragment actually begins: “Of medicine, the most emphasized part was dietetics, and they were most scrupulous in its exercise. [...] More frequently than their predecessors the Pythagoreans used poultices, disapproving more of medicated ointments, which they chiefly limited to the cure of ulcerations. Most of all they disapproved of cuts and cauterizations.” (DK 58 D 1 = Iamblichus VP 29 [163]; trans. by K. Guthrie) 1 See fr. 37 B 6 Diels-Kranz (= DK) on the effect of singing and dancing on the human soul. There is no lack of testimony (DK 37 A 8, B 4 and B 7 for example), but the tradition of great Pythagorean mousikoí (Pythocleides, Lamprocles and particularly Damon) never reaches Pythagoras himself. 2 Ludwig Edelstein, Ancient Medicine (London: John Hopkins University Press, 1987 (reprint)), 236–238, is careful to point out that there was no magic in healing with music, as the use of magical incantations was decidedly rejected by Greek physicians. 3 See Porphyry, The Life of Pythagoras (= VP) 33. MZ_2016_1_FINAL.indd 172 23.6.2016 9:58:40 173 S . W E I S S • M E D I C I N E F O R B O D Y O R S O U L ? . . . Among these we can distinguish three species of medicine, which appear to have been already known to the old Indo-European civilization, and to have belonged to three respective social classes: priests (incantations), warriors (surgery) and farmers/ craftsmen (medical potions).4 Benveniste points to a classification in Pindar’s Pythian (= P.) 3.52 where “gentle incantations,” “soothing potions or remedies” and “surgery” echo even more clearly the tripartite medicine of the Indo-Europeans. The problem with Aristoxenus as a source is that he appears to be inconsistent. Another fragment conveys a clear distinction between medicine and music: “The Pythagoreans used medicine to purify the body and music to purify the soul.” (fr. 26 Wehrli) Now, this testimony clearly shows that music was separate from medicine, and thus contradicts the testimony in the text quoted above. The distinction between music and medicine is grounded on a difference between the purification of the soul and that of the body. But does it mean that this distinction was observed in medical practices, Pythagorean or other? From Pindar, at least, this distinction is absent: the “gentle incantations” (malakaì epaoidaí) from P. 3.52 seem to have the same soothing effect as the songs (aoidaí) in the following verses: “[...] Songs, the skillful daughters of the Muses, soothe with their touch. And warm water does not wet the limbs so gently as praise that accompanies the lyre.” (Nemean 4.2-5; trans. by D. A. Svarlien) The Ode proclaims mirth (euphrosýne) and singing to be the best physician, thus implying that the singing of laudatory songs produces a pleasing sense of relaxation after toils.5 The word phrén, hidden in euphrosýne, is integrated in many expressions, and the research of Homeric physiology has shown that they were used to designate not only various states of mind (self-control, for example), but also bodily states.6 According to Machemer, Pindar’s “iatrification” of the word euphrosýne lays emphasis on music’s healing effects, not only on the phrén but, through it, on the limbs as well.7 The same expression (in its verbal form, euphraínesthai) is used in another report on the Pythagorean use of music in medicine, and its recurrence suggests that it may well have been inspired by earlier sources.8 4 Luc Brisson, trans., Jamblique, Vie de Pythagore (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1996), 189 (n. 4 to par. 114), and Émile Benveniste, “La doctrine médicale des Indo-Européens,” Revue de l’histoire des religions 13 (1945): 11–12. 5 For a thorough interpretation of this passage, see Georgia Ann Machemer, “Medicine, Music and Magic: The Healing Grace of Pindar’s Fourth Nemean,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 95 (1993): 113–141. 6 See Wesley D. Smith, “Physiology in the Homeric Poems,” in Transactions and Proceedings of The American Philological Association 97 (London: John Hopkins University Press, 1966), 554–555. The leading role of the phrén as the center of sensation was first rejected by Alcmaeon, who distinguished between intellective functions and sensation, associating the latter with the brain (DK 24 A 5). 7 Machemer, “Medicine, Music and Magic,” 120–125. 8 The text is from Iamblichus, but it is believed that the report had been taken from Aristoxenus (see Brisson, Vie de Pythagore, 188 (n. 1 to par. 110). The first line (“Pythagoras was likewise of the opinion that the music, if properly used, greatly contributed to health.”) is actually repeated in Chapter 29 [164], which is part of the fragment quoted above (DK 58 D 1). MZ_2016_1_FINAL.indd 173 23.6.2016 9:58:40 174 M U Z I K O L O Š K I Z B O R N I K • M U S I C O L O G I C A L A N N U A L L I I / 1 “Pythagoras was likewise of the opinion that the music, if properly used, greatly contributed to health. For he was want to use it in no careless way but as a purification. Indeed, he restricted this word to signify music used in medicine.” The text continues by describing certain musical practices which aimed to relax one’s mind: while one person was playing on the lyre, the others, seated in a circle around him, sang paeans, “through which they were evidently so overjoyed (euphraínesthai), that their manners became elegant and orderly. The music instead of medicines was also used at certain other times.” (Iamblichus, VP 25 [110]; trans. by K. Guthrie.) Guthrie’s translation implies that music was believed to affect one’s psyché, but the text continues by reiterating the use of music instead of iatreía. For this particular passage, Brisson‘s translation seems preferable because he is careful to preserve the ambiguous meaning of the words euphraínesthai, emmelés and énrythmos. “[] les autres chantaient le ensemble des péans, qui, pensaient-ils, provoquaient un sentiment de bien-être et induisaient en eux l‘harmonie et le rythme.” (Trans. by L. Brisson) The testimony clearly offers no distinction between the psychological and possibly somatic effects of the music; rather, they seem to be interlaced. It is true that the text elaborates the point by dwelling on the edifying effects of music on a person’s mind and character9 – the music was obviously used to soothe various psychic troubles, such as anger and fear – but these effects are nevertheless considered as part of the iatreía. Moreover, the expressions emmelés and énrythmos can be applied to a physical as well as to a psychic condition. They fit the doctrine which, despite the philosophical differentiation between man’s soul and body, was deeply rooted in the belief in their affinity and interdependence, and had found in music a middle 9 Another problem is that the role of the music alone is not clearly defined, since it is evident 


Music in the So-called Pythagorean Medicine
Many ancient testimonies attribute the research and the use of the healing effect of music to the Pythagoreans.These testimonies never go back to Pythagoras himself.In fact, they do not even reach as far as the old Pythagorean school, since they consist mostly of indirect testimonies by Aristotle's followers (among them Aristoxenus), transmitted to us through Neopythagorean and Neoplatonic writings.It is not the purpose of this article to link the doubtful origins of the musical practices discussed below to the Pythagoreans.My objective is to separate in these practices (vigorously ascribed to Pythagoreans by the ancient sources) the ethical doctrine of music from the healing practices, which undoubtedly reach back to the times of Pythagoras and possibly even further back.
The testimonies about musical practices in Pythagorean schools dwell mostly on the edifying effects of music; 1 but the Pythagoreans were supposed to have used its soothing effects in medicine as well.Aristoxenus (4 th cent.BC) recounts that among sciences, music, medicine, and divination were honored by Pythagoreans (fr.58 D 1 Diels-Kranz).Although health was preserved mostly by the appropriate regimen of life (díaita), this regimen included musical practices which were also used in medicine, and healing was performed through incantations (epaoidaí).This expression has a common connotation with the word "spell," which is why this kind of healing practice tends to be confused with the use of magic. 2 In later testimonies there is a clear distinction between music and incantations, although both were said to have been used by Pythagoras in his treatment of the sick. 3Aristoxenus, however, seems to associate the use of incantations with music: "Some diseases they cured by incantations.Music, if used in a proper manner, was by Pythagoras supposed to contribute greatly to health."(DK 58 D 1 = Iamblichus, On the Pythagorean Way of Life (= VP) 29 [164]; trans.by K. Guthrie)   This text, dating from the 3rd century, gives us the testimony of an author from the 4th century BC, who is in his turn separated from Pythagoras by two centuries.Nevertheless, the fragment mentions various methods of healing which could well have been practiced in the times of Pythagoras and even before him: curing by díaita, by poultices and ointments, by cuts and cauterizations and, finally, by music and incantations.The fragment actually begins: "Of medicine, the most emphasized part was dietetics, and they were most scrupulous in its exercise.[…] More frequently than their predecessors the Pythagoreans used poultices, disapproving more of medicated ointments, which they chiefly limited to the cure of ulcerations.Most of all they disapproved of cuts and cauterizations."(DK 58 D 1 = Iamblichus VP 29 [163]; trans.by K. Guthrie)   1 See fr.37 B 6 Diels-Kranz (= DK) on the effect of singing and dancing on the human soul.There is no lack of testimony (DK 37 A 8, B 4 and B 7 for example), but the tradition of great Pythagorean mousikoí (Pythocleides, Lamprocles and particularly Damon) never reaches Pythagoras himself. 2 Ludwig Edelstein, Ancient Medicine (London: John Hopkins University Press, 1987 (reprint)), 236-238, is careful to point out that there was no magic in healing with music, as the use of magical incantations was decidedly rejected by Greek physicians.3 See Porphyry, The Life of Pythagoras (= VP) 33.
Among these we can distinguish three species of medicine, which appear to have been already known to the old Indo-European civilization, and to have belonged to three respective social classes: priests (incantations), warriors (surgery) and farmers/ craftsmen (medical potions). 4Benveniste points to a classification in Pindar's Pythian (= P.) 3.52 where "gentle incantations," "soothing potions or remedies" and "surgery" echo even more clearly the tripartite medicine of the Indo-Europeans.
The problem with Aristoxenus as a source is that he appears to be inconsistent.Another fragment conveys a clear distinction between medicine and music: "The Pythagoreans used medicine to purify the body and music to purify the soul."(fr.26 Wehrli)   Now, this testimony clearly shows that music was separate from medicine, and thus contradicts the testimony in the text quoted above.The distinction between music and medicine is grounded on a difference between the purification of the soul and that of the body.But does it mean that this distinction was observed in medical practices, Pythagorean or other?From Pindar, at least, this distinction is absent: the "gentle incantations" (malakaì epaoidaí) from P. 3.52 seem to have the same soothing effect as the songs (aoidaí) in the following verses: "[...] Songs, the skillful daughters of the Muses, soothe with their touch.And warm water does not wet the limbs so gently as praise that accompanies the lyre."(Nemean 4.2-5; trans.by D. A. Svarlien) The Ode proclaims mirth (euphrosýne) and singing to be the best physician, thus implying that the singing of laudatory songs produces a pleasing sense of relaxation after toils. 5The word phrén, hidden in euphrosýne, is integrated in many expressions, and the research of Homeric physiology has shown that they were used to designate not only various states of mind (self-control, for example), but also bodily states. 6ccording to Machemer, Pindar's "iatrification" of the word euphrosýne lays emphasis on music's healing effects, not only on the phrén but, through it, on the limbs as well. 7he same expression (in its verbal form, euphraínesthai) is used in another report on the Pythagorean use of music in medicine, and its recurrence suggests that it may well have been inspired by earlier sources., 1966), 554-555.The leading role of the phrén as the center of sensation was first rejected by Alcmaeon, who distinguished between intellective functions and sensation, associating the latter with the brain (DK 24 A 5). 7 Machemer, "Medicine, Music and Magic," 120-125.8 The text is from Iamblichus, but it is believed that the report had been taken from Aristoxenus (see Brisson, Vie de Pythagore,  188 (n. 1 to par.110).The first line ("Pythagoras was likewise of the opinion that the music, if properly used, greatly contributed to health.") is actually repeated in Chapter 29 [164], which is part of the fragment quoted above (DK 58 D 1).
"Pythagoras was likewise of the opinion that the music, if properly used, greatly contributed to health.For he was want to use it in no careless way but as a purification.Indeed, he restricted this word to signify music used in medicine." The text continues by describing certain musical practices which aimed to relax one's mind: while one person was playing on the lyre, the others, seated in a circle around him, sang paeans, "through which they were evidently so overjoyed (euphraínesthai), that their manners became elegant and orderly.The music instead of medicines was also used at certain other times."(Iamblichus, VP 25 [110]; trans.by K. Guthrie.)Guthrie's translation implies that music was believed to affect one's psyché, but the text continues by reiterating the use of music instead of iatreía.For this particular passage, Brisson's translation seems preferable because he is careful to preserve the ambiguous meaning of the words euphraínesthai, emmelés and énrythmos.
"[] les autres chantaient le ensemble des péans, qui, pensaient-ils, provoquaient un sentiment de bien-être et induisaient en eux l'harmonie et le rythme."(Trans.by L. Brisson)   The testimony clearly offers no distinction between the psychological and possibly somatic effects of the music; rather, they seem to be interlaced.It is true that the text elaborates the point by dwelling on the edifying effects of music on a person's mind and character 9 -the music was obviously used to soothe various psychic troubles, such as anger and fear -but these effects are nevertheless considered as part of the iatreía.Moreover, the expressions emmelés and énrythmos can be applied to a physical as well as to a psychic condition.They fit the doctrine which, despite the philosophical differentiation between man's soul and body, was deeply rooted in the belief in their affinity and interdependence, and had found in music a middle 9 Another problem is that the role of the music alone is not clearly defined, since it is evident that it was never used without the accompaniment of words.The importance of the texts they used emerge from the fact that they used to sing/recite selected verses from Homer and Hesiod in order to "correct" their soul (Iamblichus, VP 25 [111]).The line between musical and spellbinding practices thus becomes thinner, for there is no distinction between music and words in Iamblichus' etymology of the word epoidé (VP 25 [114] ground between them.I suggest that the apparent ambiguity and inconsistence in the testimonies attributed to Aristoxenus is a result of this doctrine, and I will try to demonstrate it in the next two sections.

The Concept of Soul as harmonía: the Affinity between Body and Soul
For a better understanding of the role of music in medical praxes of Classical Antiquity, it is important to observe the fact that it was in the context of Pythagorean doctrines that philosophy first entered the domain of medicine which, in the time of the Ionian naturalists, was a separate art, or rather a craft.At the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 5th centuries BC, the physician Alcmaeon of Croton allegedly applied the Pythagorean doctrine of opposites to his healing technique and thus became the father of the concept of isonomía. 10The status of medicine as a craft unsupported by theoretical research dates back to Homeric times, and it was the influence of philosophy that, according Edelstein, 11 caused the need for scientific knowledge to develop in the field of medicine.This, however, does not explain the interest that philosophy held for medicine which, by general opinion, had by that time lost its battle against philosophy, or rather had voluntarily submitted itself to it. 12hilosophy and medicine in the 5th century BC held one thing in common: their interest in man.The rivalry between ancient medicine and philosophy was injected with renewed vigor when philosophy had first tried to define what it is to be human. 13his was an important step from the cosmological doctrines of the Ionian naturalists, toward an interest in man's nature, which lies at the core of any healing practice.The conviction that a human being cannot be identified with his body alone is already distinct in the Homeric conception of the psyché which, however, is greatly dependent on the characteristics of the human body. 14The influence of Orphic and Pythagorean doctrines had fostered the idea of the ailing soul, not in the sense of psychic illness but as an existential anguish of the soul that finds itself caught in the body.The idea of the soul imprisoned in the body had set into motion the process of the separation of the soul from the body, not only in the philosophical but in the moral sense, as well. 15The doctrine of transmigration, closely associated with Pythagorean philosophy and first imputed to Pherecydes (DK 7 A 2), has brought on the belief that the human psyché is immortal or, at least, that it survives several bodily lives.Thus the gap between the soul and the body had become even wider, even though the doctrine of transmigration, contrary to what may be expected, does not necessarily imply belief in the incorporeal nature of the soul (which will be discussed further below).The conceptual separation from the body lies in the presumed immortality of the soul, and the fact that, once the body is dead, the soul is able to lead a separate and better life away from the body. 16espite this differentiation, or perhaps because of it, the ancients began to wonder in what way the soul coexists with the body, whose survival evidently depends on this symbiosis.One theory is offered by the doctrine of the soul as the harmonía of the body.This doctrine has been attributed to Pythagoreans since antiquity.The first thorough discussion of this doctrine is found in Plato's Phaedo (85e-86d), where Simmias compares the soul as harmonía to the tuning of a lyre.As Gottschalk observes, Simmias' term harmonía has a double meaning, corresponding to the ambiguity of the concept of soul as harmonía, which incorporates the congruous mixture of bodily elements on one side and something incorporeal, divine and immortal (as the Platonic soul should be) on the other.17Even if we cannot be positive that the doctrine of the soul as harmonía is indeed Pythagorean (and there seem to be many reasons to doubt that 18 ), we can safely agree with the assumption that Simmias' theory is founded on the widespread and generally-accepted belief in the mutual dependence between psychic disposition and physical constitution. 19There is also no doubt as to its medical background, 20 which is evident from Alcmaeon's concept of isonomía, identifying health as the harmonious blending (sýmmetros krâsis) of the qualities of the body (DK 24 B 4), and disease as a result of the supremacy (monarchía) of any one of these qualities.The concept of harmony can also be found in Hippocratic treatises 21 which, among other things, dwell on the importance of an equilibrated life, and suggest regulations regarding diet and physical exercises (Regimen 1.2), which were also common in the Pythagorean daily regime (cf.DK 58 D 1).
The main problem, perceived for the first time by Plato, was that, according to this theory, the soul's existence is tied to that of the body, since the harmony of its parts (and thus the soul) is dissolved when a person dies.This, of course, goes against the Platonic belief in the immortality of the soul.On the other hand, it would appear that the theory of health as a "harmonious blending" of physical qualities did not prevent Alcmaeon's belief that the soul was immortal (DK 24 A 12) and, even for Macrobius, the doctrine of soul as harmonía precludes neither immortality nor the incorporeal nature of the soul.22Some scholars, however, began to doubt that Pythagoras' successors had believed the soul to be immortal, and it has been suggested that the Pythagorean school of Philolaus' generation had departed from the original Pythagoreanism, which was of a more religious nature. 23Philolaus may or may not have believed in the immortality of the soul; but it is even less certain that he thought it incorporeal.According to testimonies, he believed the soul to be some kind of life principle;24 in DK 44 B 13, for example, psyché is associated with the faculty of perception, and is separated from intellective functions. 25t would appear that the reason for the incompatibility of the concept of the soul as harmonía and its immortal nature lies with Plato himself; for the Pre-Socratic concept of the soul does not postulate that the soul must be incorporeal in order to be immortal. 26It is true that, with the doctrine of transmigration, the soul became considered as distinct from the body, but this distinction reflected in their separate functions, rather than in the soul's supposedly incorporeal nature. 27he scarcity of testimonies from Pythagoras himself leaves us in doubt as to his concept of the soul.Xenophanes' anecdote about one of Pythagoras' friends who was reincarnated as a puppy (DK 21 B 7) shows that the psyché was used to designate the part of man that outlives the death of his body.According to Huffman, Pythagoras did not use the term psyché to designate the so-called comprehensive soul, which includes all psychic qualities; he argues that the exception of the noetic part of the soul is proof that, for Pythagoras, the psyché was not an incorporeal entity, although it was, as the seat of sensation and emotional character, able to move from one living being to another. 28This conclusion does not explain the kind of corporality in the soul, nor its extent and, consequently, this "corporeal" nature remains a mystery.The reason behind this puzzle probably lies in modern endeavors to solve it from the Platonic point of view; for no sooner do we try to explain the concept of the material soul among the Pre-Socratics, than we discover that there is no need to define this psychic "matter," because it did not exist at the time.The soul had not yet been radically separated from the body, nor had the terms "corporeal" and "incorporeal" been clearly defined.It is no wonder that Hippasus (DK 18 A 10) cannot give us the answer as to the soul's origins.
Aristotle's criticism of the soul as harmonía in his On the Soul (407b 27-408a 18) is interesting precisely in view of soul's association with the body.Although he confutes the theory itself, he takes a moment to consider its implications, and the problems that remain unsolved in face of his arguments: "But, on the other hand, if the soul is different from the mixture, why does it disappear at one and the same moment with that relation between the elements which constitutes flesh or the other parts of the animal body?Further, if the soul is not identical with the ratio of mixture, and it is consequently not the case that each of the parts has a soul, what is that which perishes when the soul quits the body?" (On the Soul 408a 24-28; trans.by J. A. Smith)   We can therefore agree with the assertion that Aristotle was aware of the problems raised by the rejection of this doctrine, 29 as well as of the fact that it was the only theory explaining soul's intimate relation to the body. 30This consideration is important in light of the later remonstrance addressed to his followers, Dicaearchus and Aristoxenus: according to testimonies they would not admit the existence of the soul, 31 except as a kind of force that regulates the functions of the body and is indivisible from it. 32t seems that Aristotle, by introducing the soul to living nature, had led his followers to develop a doctrine that identified the soul with its material substrate. 33However, the following section will discuss the possibility that their lack of belief in the separate existence of the soul in some measure depends on their musical theory, which in its turn reaches back to the ancient healing practices ascribed to the Pythagoreans.It seems that the idea of the soul's close relationship to the body remained rooted in post-Platonic Pythagorean thought, which continued to explore the possibilities of this relationship through music.

The Cathartic Powers of Music
The term harmonía had been associated with music no earlier than at the beginning of the 5 th century, 34 probably in accordance with the Pythagorean doctrine of the Harmony of Spheres. 35This doctrine reveals the importance of the role of music in Pythagorean conceptions of the universe, and of man as part of the world order.In order to examine the cathartic effects of music allegedly propounded by the Pythagoreans, we must return to Aristoxenus' Fragment 26, quoted above.It is the earliest fragment that associates musical therapy as purification, with the Pythagoreans.This association led to the belief that the Pythagorean theory of purification is the core of Aristotle's theory of kátharsis, developed in Book 8 of his Politics.According to some scholars, the Pythagorean concept of kátharsis arose from their practice of ritual purification, which had been given a mystical and ethical connotation.With Aristotle, the concept had been taken to a scientific level. 36Later research, however, leads us to believe that the doctrine of purification is not originally Pythagorean, 37 but rather originates from a more ancient practice, 38 as a result of the strong link between religion and medicine. 39entral to our argument is Aristoxenus' distinction between the purification of the soul by music, and that of the body by medicine.This differentiation suggests that medicine had distanced itself from certain unscientific praxes, which had by the end of the 5th century become associated with magic, a practice shunned by the medicine of the time.The author of the Sacred Disease (cca.400 BC) speaks of the charlatans who pretended to cure epilepsy with incantations and purifications (katharmoí, epaoidaí; Chap.2) because they were unable to discover its natural cause.Magical practices were incompatible with the attempt to give scientific support to 5th century medicine, and were in Late Antiquity disavowed by law. 40On the other hand, the effects of music on the soul were explored more deeply, as is evident from Aristotle's musical theory.
Among the followers of Aristotle, Aristoxenus and Theophrastus were particularly observant of the effects of music on psychic states.They both paid special attention to auditory sensations: Theophrastus considered it the most emotive (pathetikotáte) of all forms of sense perception (fr.91.1.1Wimmer = Plutarchus, On Listening to Lectures, p. 37), and is even convinced that the origins of music lie in the passions of the soul (páthe; Plutarchus, Table Talk 1.5.2 (= 623a 6-9)), like sorrow and joy, since they are accompanied by a change in the voice.Such is Theophrastus' definition of music: "The nature of music is single: a movement of the soul which takes place in order to effect its deliverance [apólysis]  This definition clearly points out that music works on the soul through its movement which, according to Anderson, is the crucial factor to our understanding of the way Theophrastus looked upon the relationship between music and the soul.
But Anderson equally argues that the Pythagorean mousikoí (Damon, for example) studied the immediate influence of this movement on the body (changes of voice and bodily movement). 42These arguments throw interesting light on a testimony from Apollonius, according to which Theophrastus deemed that by music, and by playing on the aulos in particular, even bodily illnesses, such as sciatica, can be cured (see Aristoxenus, fr.6 Wehrli). 43Fortenbaugh warns against assigning such opinions too quickly to Theophrastus, arguing that such immediate effects of music on the body are more likely to fit into the mirabilia of Apollonius, rather than into the ideas of a peripatetic scientist.Below, however, we have a text from Aulus Gellius, who gives an explanation of the belief that playing the aulos (lat.tibia) can cure various diseases of the body; according to Gellius, this belief is founded on an affinity between body and soul, both of which share the same ailments, as well as the same cures for them: "I ran across the statement very recently in the book of Theophrastus On Inspiration that many men have believed and put their belief on record, that when gouty pains in the hips are most severe, they are relieved if a flute-player (tibicen) plays soothing measures.That snake-bites are cured by the music of the flute, when played skillfully and melodiously, is also stated in a book of Democritus, entitled On Deadly Infections, in which he shows that the music of the flute (tibia) is medicine for many ills that flesh is heir to.So very close is the connection between the bodies and the minds of men, and therefore between physical and mental ailments and their remedies."(N. A. 4.13; trans.by  Gellius' observation of the affinitas between body and soul is not expressed as a personal opinion: more likely, he repeats a general belief which seems to have been spread among those who healed by music.Aristoxenus' fr. 26, displays the same analogy between psychic and bodily nature, 44 which reveals the connection between religious doctrines of the Pythagoreans and their scientific endeavors, which included the art of healing, as well as other cathartic practices cultivated by the medical school of Croton. 45ources in Iamblichus and Porphyry, too, give an account of the Pythagorean use of music in healing the body.The paragraph from Iamblichus, comprising the passage quoted above (VP 25 [110]), begins with an explicit reference to kátharsis as he dia ` te ̂s mousikês iatreía, i. e. healing through music, and concludes with the report of still other occasions on which "music instead of medicine" (en iatreías táxei) was used.This passage conveys the idea of music as a substitute for medicine and not its integral part.If its source is indeed Aristoxenus, as the resemblance with DK 58 D 1 seems to show, it clearly demonstrates his reluctance to dwell on the somatic effect of music, or at least his inability to explain these effects.The words "music instead of medicine" point to a separation of music from medicine, which may be attributed to his own use of music to cure psychic disorders. 46The awkward transition from somatic to psychic effects of music is evident in a passage taken from Porphyry's Lige of Pythagoras, referring to the testimony of Antonius Diogenes (2 nd cent.):there the healing effects of music are mostly mentioned in reference to psychic disorders.Although certain dances were used to improve the agility and health of the body (VP 32), the effects of the dance seem to be logically related to the movements of the body rather than to the music itself.While this testimony does not reach beyond the 2nd century, it contains the same references to the use of ancient paeans and of Homer's and Hesiod's verses as the passage from Iamblichus, of which the source is said to be Aristoxenus.47Apart from the possibility of sharing the same older source, Porphyry's (or Diogenes') report is not of much use.Indeed, it gets more and more confusing in the next paragraph, describing the ways in which Pythagoras supposedly used music: "If they were sick, he nursed them; if they were afflicted in mind, he solaced them, some by incantations and charms, others by music.He had prepared songs for the diseases of the body, by singing which he cured the sick."(VP 33)   The point is that none of the sources used by Iamblichus or Porphyry seems willing to dwell separately on the ailments of the body and disorders of the soul.No testimony explains the way in which music is supposed to influence the body, whereas there is no lack of descriptions of its impact on the soul.The language used to describe musical practices of purification is full of musical terms, as a consequence of the conviction that music restores the soul into its harmonious state.48 Interestingly, sometimes we come across medical terms (apart from the obvious case of the word kátharsis 49 ): it is reported that Pythagoras, through music, used to purify the intellective powers of his disciples from "the influxive and effluxive waves of corporeal nature (diekáthairé te synkeklydasménon to ` noetikón)." 50The verb klydázesthai is very rare and refers to the fluctuation of fluid in pleurisy.This could possibly account for the discrepancies in modern translations of it: in the present case, it is Guthrie's translation that I find more inspiring, since it obviously alludes to a presence of a corporeal nature in the intellectual part of the psyché, while Brisson chooses a more neutral expression ("il purifiait leur esprit agité").
Taking into consideration the materialistic concept of psyché, attributed to ancient Pythagoreanism, the idea of healing bodily illnesses through music becomes more comprehensible.But there is another obvious reason for these authors' reticence on the effects of music on the body.Since the latter is governed and influenced by the soul, it must benefit from the purifying effects of the music.This, of course, is not a medical belief but a purely philosophical one: it can be traced back to the Platonic conception of the immortal soul governing the mortal body.

Medicine for the Soul, Medicine for the Body
I have tried to demonstrate that the evasive reports on healing with music are a result of the philosophical veneer spread over medical practices which would otherwise sink to the level of charlatanism condemned by the Hippocratic medicine.But does that necessarily mean that Pythagoras really had cured the sick by playing the aulos, as had been suggested?Here again, Aristoxenus' fragment on the various types of Pythagorean medicine gives us some idea.He mentions dietetics, poultices and ointments, cuts and cauterizations, and incantations/music.These practices are individualized by their subjects of interest, which clearly indicate that Pythagoreans showed least interest for the part of medicine that focused on the body alone: surgery.On the other hand, they paid ample attention to those practices which, while healing, also influenced the soul; or, if we may add, which healed the body through the soul.These practices included not only musical incantations, but also one's daily regimen: again according to Aristoxenus (DK 58 D 8 = VP 31 [207-208]), the food we eat has greater impact on our souls than we realize: the variety of man's aliments has its origin in various psychic impulses responding to different structures of food. 51The term diáthesis is used to designate physical, as well as psychic disposition, but the writer is obviously thinking of the latter (indecent behavior of intoxicated persons).We can safely assume that similar effects were attributed to ointments and medical substances, since it is clear that they preferred not to use medicaments, except when they applied them to wounds, which 49 For the medical background of the poetic kátharsis, see Hellmut Flashar, "Die Medizinischen Grundlagen der Lehre von der Wirkung der Dichtung in der Griechischen Poetik," Hermes 84/1 (1956): 42-43.The word apólysis in the fragment quoted above from Theophrastus (fr.89 W) also belongs to the medical vocabulary (cf.Hipp., Coa praes.378).50 VP 15 [65] in Kenneth S. Guthrie, trans.,The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library.An Anthology of Ancient Writings Which Relate to Pythagoras and Pythagorean Philosophy (Grand Rapids: Phanes Press, 1987).51 On the Pythagorean diet, see Georg Wöhrle, Studien zur Theorie der antiken Gesundheitslehre (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1990): 35-44.have physical causes.The medicine attributed to Pythagoreans by Aristoxenus was evidently focused on curing the body through the soul, and saw the illness as a primarily psychic disorder, which explains their use of music in medicine.
Observing the role of the music in the Pythagorean tradition, we cannot fail to notice the importance given to its psychological effects.The Pythagoreans are generally credited with the discovery of music as a means of soothing a troubled soul, or educating an undeveloped character. 52According to testimonies, music was used to cure the body as well, but the intimate connection of body and soul implies that this was being done through the soul.The question is how much the practice of curing the body by music through the soul depends on the Platonic notion of the soul ruling the body, and how much this doctrine has to do with ancient methods of curing, related to shamanistic practices. 53The theory of music education is quite clearly exposed in Plato. 54In the Republic (376e and 410b-412b), gymnastics is appointed for the education of the body, and music for that of the soul; but later in this passage, it turns out that, fundamentally, they both serve the purposes of the soul, since in excessive devotion, a total neglect of one or the other eventually affects the soul.Only a balanced education brings the required harmony to the soul.The advantages of such education for the body are not mentioned here. 55However, there is a passage in Plato's Charmides (155e-157b) where Socrates champions a completely different approach: young Charmides suffers from a headache, and Socrates offers to cure him by using a certain leaf, accompanied by a charm (epoidé).Such is the introduction in the dialogue, discussing temperance (sophrosýne), the presence of which in the soul assures a healthy body, as well.Charmides must, therefore, submit his soul to a cure by "charms" 56 and, consequently, his head will be cured, too.The origins of this doctrine, according to Socrates, lie with Thracian physicians, operating under orders of their god and king, Zalmoxis: 57 52 See e. g.DK 37 A 8, B 9 and B 10.  53 On shamanism in ancient Greece, see Mircea Eliade, Le chamanisme et les techniques archaïques de l'extase (Paris: Payot, 1968  (reprint)), 305-310, and particularly Dodds, The Greeks and the Irrational, 135-150.54 See e. g. the educational plan for the guardians in the Republic 376c-377a and, particularly, in 398b-403c.These passages raise the question of the Pythagorean influence on Plato's musical education theory.The main difference between the Pythagoreans and Plato could have been, as Guthrie, The Pythagorean Sourcebook, 35, argues, in the practical approach of the Pythagoreans, which they had in common with the Orphics, while in Plato's case it is mainly a theory based on a more intellectual approach.With Platonism, music has left the world of physical phenomena and become a part of the world of ideas.This is the reason why Burkert, Lore and Science, 212, dismisses the concept of purification through science from the early Pythagorean tradition: before Plato, every kind of knowledge included the world of senses, and therefore could not, in the eyes of the Pythagoreans, promote the soul's purification.The same applied to the music.55 As for healthcare, Plato seems to have tried to restrain the influence of medicine, when stating that doctors know best what is healthy and what is not, but that they cannot tell whether health itself is better than illness (Lach.195c-d).However, there is strong evidence of the influence of Hippocratic treatises on Plato's medical and musical theories which sometimes show striking similarities with the methodological approach of contemporary medical writers; for a thorough analysis, see Barker, Psicomusicologia nella Grecia antica, 75-95.56 By epoidé he means the Socratic discourse on temperance rather than music.57 Herodotus (Hist.4.93) depicts Zalmoxis in a double role, both human and divine.As a god, he is related to the mystery of death and the afterlife.There was a custom among his worshipers who, during thunderstorms, would shoot arrows toward the sky, threatening its divinities--this points to a chthonic divinity, of non-Greek origin, as Zalmoxis' criticism of Greek medicine men shows.But his other name was Gebeleisis, who was a Thracian divinity of sky and thunder, but this was later blended with the figure of Zalmoxis, thus becoming a universal deity who rules heaven and earth (Mircea "Zalmoxis, our king, who is a god, says that [...] you should not treat body without soul; and this was the reason why most maladies evaded the physicians of Greecethat they neglected the whole, on which they ought to spend their pains, for if this were out of order it was impossible for the part to be in order.'For all that was good and evil,' he said, 'in the body and in man altogether was sprung from the soul.'"(Charmides 156d-e; trans.by W. R. M. Lamb) Here is a holistic (and non-Greek) approach which makes bodily health dependent on the psyché.There is a certain similarity to the medical method mentioned in Phaedrus: Socrates: "Now do you think one can acquire any appreciable knowledge of the nature of the soul without knowing the nature of the whole man?" Phaedrus: "If Hippocrates the Asclepiad is to be trusted, one cannot know the nature of the body, either, except in that way." (Phaedrus 270c-d) But as it turns out, Plato is only giving a medical analogy to explain his cognitive approach to the human soul.The medical holism ascribed to Hippocrates is restricted to the body and does not make the latter dependent on the soul.On the other hand, Zalmoxis' Pythagorean background in the Charmides passage attests to the Pythagorean pre-Platonic conception of the soul which, in conformity with pre-Socratic hylozoism, was closely associated with the body.This attitude does not agree well with the idea of the soul buried within the body.However, studies have shown by now that, even though the conception of the body as the tomb of the soul had probably developed under the influence of their conceptual separation, the sôma = se ˆma formula is not likely Pythagorean. 58hile no direct testimonies regarding Pythagoras have survived, there is strong reason to believe that the Pythagorean way of life had retained more elements from the old Pythagorean school than the Pythagorean philosophy as a system of doctrines, which had gradually been adopted by other philosophical schools and had evolved accordingly. 59At least in Aristoxenus' times the Pythagoreans seem to have taken every care of the body; not in the sense of athletic training, but of áskesis in the purest sense of the word.Thus, they developed a lifestyle (bíos) where the body has its proper role, not as a dead instrument operated by the soul, but as a living organism that actively contributes to the quality of life.These practices also included music (playing instruments, singing, dancing) and, by recovering the disrupted ratios within a living being, they reconnected it with the universe.The use of music thus represented an important aspect of holistic medicine, indicating that the healing of the body cannot possibly dispense with the "correction" of the soul.Only through this could balance in the body be restored.POVZETEK Vez med dušo in telesom zastavlja v antični kulturi eno temeljnih vprašanj, na katerega so skušale odgovoriti različne filozofske šole, zlasti tiste, ki so zasnovale ideal t. i. filozofskega življenja.Učinki glasbe na duševni ustroj in značaj človeka ter njen vzgojni pomen so bili predmet raziskav vse od predsokratikov dalje, vendar se poleg teh pričevanj pojavljajo tudi namigi na uporabo glasbe v medicinske namene.Te prakse se omenjajo tudi v medicinskih spisih hipokratskega korpusa, ki takšne metode povezuje s staro, religiozno obarvano medicino in jih zavrača kot šarlatanske.Najbolj eksplicitna pričevanja so iz spisov novopitagorejskih filozofov 3. stol.po Kr.Ti pisci se sicer sklicujejo na vire, ki segajo vse do 4. stol.pr.Kr., vendar njihova rekonstrukcija t. i. pitagorejskega življenja in vloge glasbe v njem kaže jasne posledice večstoletnega razvoja, v katerem je prišlo do medsebojnega zlivanja pitagorejske, platonske in peripatetske tradicije.Članek odkriva neskladja v teh pričevanjih in skuša z analizo nekaterih besedil poiskati razloge zanje.Tu je na prvem mestu kompleksno pojmovanje človeka kot skupka duše in telesa, pri čemer je poudarek na psyché.Bogata zgodovina tega koncepta pred nastopom platonizma razkriva idejno ozadje, ki je bilo naklonjeno holističnemu pojmovanju človeka in temu ustreznim zdravilskim metodam, med katerimi je imela glasba v povezavi z magičnim učinkom besede vodilno vlogo.Skopa pričevanja iz tega obdobja nam dovolijo le malo več kot ugibati, zato smo sledove takšnih praks prisiljeni izluščiti iz poznejših pričevanj, ki pa so že filozofsko »kontaminirana«.To je tudi drugi razlog za nedoslednost teh pričevanj, v katerih se doktrinalna načela, ki se močno opirajo na Platonove nauke, ne ujemajo vedno z opisom nekaterih praks, ki kažejo na starejše korenine.Med temi praksami je tudi lajšanje bolezenskih stanj z glasbo in s »pripevanjem« (epaoidé).Tovrstne metode so v poudarjenem nasprotju ne le s t. i. naravno medicino hipokratske šole, ampak tudi z drugimi oblikami zdravljenja, ki so jih poznale že najstarejše civilizacije in ki so ostale veljavne do danes (uporaba zdravilnih snovi in kirurgije).Čeprav teh praks ni mogoče pripisati neposredno Pitagori ali pitagorejcem, pa nekatera pričevanja kažejo, da so se širile v Grčiji prav v okviru pitagorejske šole.Raziskave o šamanizmu v stari Grčiji in drugod po Evropi razkrivajo, da so bile te prakse del skritega vedenja, v katerega je bila posvečena le izbrana peščica ljudi.