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Music and divine possession (1)

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03 Religious festivals, cults, rituals and practices
03 Religious festivals, cults, rituals and practices


 		Keywords
frenzy
music
Period
4th century CE
Roman Empire 		Channel
Helleno-Roman philosophers and scholars

Text
Iamblichus, De Mysteriis 3.9.118:
Well, then; that music is moving and sensuous, and that the sound of pipes causes or heals disordered passions; that music displaces the temperaments or dispositions of the body; that by some tunes the Bacchic frenzy is aroused, but by others, the Bacchic frenzy is made to cease, and how the differences of these accord with the individual dispositions of the soul; and that the unstable and irregular tune is proper to ecstasies, such as those of Olympus (the pipe-player), and all which are said to be such: all this seems to me to be irrelevant when mentioned in connection with divine possession. For these are both physical and human, and accomplishments of our skill, and the divine is in no way manifested in them.

Source (list of abbreviations)
Iamblichus, De Mysteriis 3.9.118

Bibliography

Clarke, Dillon and Hershell 2003, 139Clarke, Emma C., John M. Dillon and Jackson P. Hershbell. Iamblichus, De Mysteriis. Translated with an Introduction and Notes. Writings from the Graeco-Roman World 4. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature 2003.

Amar Annus


URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0001133.php

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