Akrasia simposiale. Cibo ed effetti della musica auletica a partire da un passo delle Quaestiones Convivales di Plutarco (704c-706c)

Abstract

Search for pleasure (hedone), a typical feature of banquets and symposia in ancient Greece, is said to often lead the way to akrasia, that is, to excesses, especially linked with the wine. According to the two characters of Question 5 in Plutarch’s Table Talks (Quaestiones Convivales, 704c-706c), excesses in music in banquets – especially for what concerns the aulos music – are more dangerous than those concerning food, for the former affect the soul. The article aims to show that the aulos music, linked with pleasure – such as eros, in the performances of female aulos players (auletrides) – excesses and catharsis, may offer a therapy of excesses themselves, as it happens in the Dionysiac rites. By means of analogies between culinary and music, a passage in the Hippocratic treatise On Regimen (1, 18) shows that harmonia concerns both. Considering that the chef (mageiros) is able to blend different flavours, just as the true musician – who is also a philosophos – is able to understand the ethos of musical compositions, that depends on mixture (Aristox. ap. Ps. Plut. De Mus. 32-33, 1142d-1143b), the chef may aspire to represent himself as a philosophos.