ABSTRACT
O’Meara mentions this, citing a passage from Olympiodorus’ commentary on the Gorgias, but he then turns to the Neoplatonists’ use of music as a mathematical paradigm of ethics, rather than exploring further their view of the effect of music on the passions. In fact the Neoplatonists integrated the traditional Greek view of music’s effect on the passions into their system and associated this too with Pythagoras. ‘Pythagorean’ music, in O’Meara’s sense, and music as therapy are brought together in a passage from the fifth essay of Proclus’ commentary on the Republic. Both Plato and Aristotle thought that it was possible to train the emotions and that habituation had an important role to play in moral education. Their discussions of the effect of music on the emotions occur in the context of education. The chapter deals with a passage of Olympiodorus, discussed by O’Meara, which mentions the effect of music on the emotions.
