La musicoterapia nella Grecia antica

Abstract

Music in ancient Greece was believed to heal both the soul and the body, and especially to soothe wrath and low spirits. According to the ethos theory, music has a prominent role in the education of the young people. With both its medical and magic connotations, the notion of musical catharsis is involved in the performance of music and dance in the Dionysiac rites. The medical thought on music therapy is mainly linked with theories concerning the pulse, where musicology and medicine share a common ground.