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that an unstable and variable melody is adapted to ecstasies, such as are the melodies of Olympus,[1] and others of the like kind; all these appear to me to be adduced in a way foreign to enthusiasm. For they are physical and human, and the work of our art; but nothing whatever of a divine nature in them presents itself to the view.
We must rather, therefore, say, that sounds and melodies are appropriately consecrated to the Gods. There is, also, an alliance in these sounds and melodies to the proper orders and powers of the several Gods, to the motions in the universe itself, and to the harmonious sounds which proceed from the motions. Con-
- ↑ Proclus in Polit. p. 865, says, "that the melodies of Olympus were the causes of ecstasy." .
part; but it is reason which is initiated, and which energizes enthusiastically." See, likewise, on this subject, Ptolem. Harmonic, lib. iii. cap. 7 and 8, who observes among other things, "that our souls directly sympathize with the energies of melody, recognizing, as it were, their alliance to them—and that at one time the soul is changed to a quiet and repressed condition, but at another to fury and enthusiasm. Ταις ενεργειαις της μελῳδιας συμπασχειν ημων αντικρυς τας ψυχας, την συγγενειαν ωσπερ επιγινωσκουσαςet, . And, in the last place, see Plato in his Io, and Aristotle in his Politics.
