Strabo Geography Musical Worship Pagan Background
The following quotations come primarily from Strabo. They provide background for Paul's warning against singing and speaking in tongues in Corinth. We finally understand why he told them they would just look mad or insane.
Every example of music as a device of worship in the Old and New Testaments is derived from or compared to the pagan practices which rejected the Words of God and demanded a direct revelation from the gods delivered through something like speaking in tongues and often from the musical instrument as the actual idol.
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The Corinthians say (and the Lesbians agree) that the most marvellous thing that happened to him in his life was the landing on Taenarus of Arion of Methymna, brought there by a dolphin.
This Arion was a lyre-player second to none in that age; he was the first man whom we know to compose and name the dithyramb (dance music associated with cult of Dionysus) which he afterwards taught at Corinth.
[1.24.1] They say that this Arion, who spent most of his time with Periander, wished to sail to Italy and Sicily, and that after he had made a lot of money there he wanted to come back to Corinth. [1.24.2] Trusting none more than the Corinthians,
he hired a Corinthian vessel to carry him from Tarentum. But when they were out at sea,
the crew plotted to take Arion's money
and cast him overboard. (Corinthians were like that)Discovering this, he earnestly entreated them, asking for his life and offering them his money.
[1.24.3] But the crew would not listen to him, and told him either to kill himself and so receive burial on land or else to jump into the sea at once. [1.24.4]
Abandoned to this extremity, Arion asked that, since they had made up their minds, they would let him stand on the half-deck in all his regalia and sing; and he promised that after he had sung he would do himself in. [1.24.5]
The men, pleased at the thought of hearing the best singer in the world, drew away toward the waist of the vessel from the stern. Arion, putting on all his regalia and taking his lyre, stood up on the half-deck and sang the "Stirring Song," and when the song was finished he threw himself into the sea, as he was with all his regalia. (The song was a high-pitched and very well-known song or hymn in honor of Apollo, the Apollyon or Abbadon of the Bible).
[1.24.6] So the crew sailed away to Corinth; but a dolphin (so the story goes) took Arion on his back and bore him to Taenarus.
Landing there, he went to Corinth in his regalia, and when he arrived, he related all that had happened. Periander, skeptical, kept him in confinement, letting him go nowhere, and waited for the sailors. When they arrived, they were summoned and asked what news they brought of Arion. While they were saying that he was safe in Italy and that they had left him flourishing at Tarentum, Arion appeared before them, just as he was when he jumped from the ship; astonished, they could no longer deny what was proved against them.
This is what the Corinthians and Lesbians say, and there is a little bronze memorial of Arion on Taenarus, the figure of a man riding upon a dolphin.
Strabo 1.That is the reason why in Greece the various states educate the young, at the very beginning of their education, by means of poetry; not for the mere sake of entertainment, of course, but for the sake of moral discipline. Why, even the musicians, when they give instruction in singing, in p57 lyre-playing, origin flute-playing, lay claim to this virtue, for they maintain that these studies tend to discipline and correct the character.
Now, my view is that everyone should be
trained in music along with running a
jumping. That does not mean that either should be USED to
manipulate disciples of Christ and get paid to replace Jesus Christ
the ONLY Spirit and only Intercessor.
Strabo, Geography identifies the LOCUSTS or musical performers in Revelation
6.[9] The Halex River, which marks the boundary between the Rhegian and the Locrian territories, passes out through a deep ravine; and a peculiar thing happens there in connection with the grasshoppers, that although those on the Locrian bank sing, [phthengomai] the others remain mute. As for the cause of this, it is conjectured that on the latter side the region is so densely shaded that the grasshoppers, being wet with dew, cannot expand their membranes, whereas those on the sunny side have dry and horn-like membranes and therefore can easily produce their song. And people used to show in Locri a statue of Eunomus, the cithara-bard, with a locust seated on the cithara. Timaeus says that Eunomus and Ariston of Rhegium were once contesting with each other at the Pythian games and fell to quarrelling about the casting of the lots;48 so Ariston begged the Delphians to cooperate with him, for the reason that his ancestors belonged49 to the god and that the colony had been sent forth from there;50 and although Eunomus said that the Rhegini had absolutely no right even to participate in the vocal contests, since in their country even the grasshoppers, the sweetest-voiced of all creatures, were mute, Ariston was none the less held in favor and hoped for the victory; and yet Eunomus gained the victory and set up the aforesaid image in his native land, because during the contest, when one of the chords broke, a grasshopper lit on his cithara and supplied the missing sound. Strabo Geography
In Geography [9.3.5] Strabo notes that "They say that the seat of the oracle is a cave that is hollowed out deep down in the earth, with a rather narrow mouth,
from which arises breath that inspires a divine frenzy; and that over the mouth is placed a high tripod, mounting which
the Pythian priestess receives the breath and then
utters oracles in both verse and prose,
though the latter too are put into verse by poets who are in the service of the temple.
They say that the first to become Pythian priestess was Phemonoe; and that both the prophetess and the city were so called from the word pythésthai," though the first syllable was lengthened, as in athanatos, akamatos, and diakonos.
Now the following is the idea which leads to the founding of cities and to the holding of common sanctuaries in high esteem: men came together by cities and by tribes,
because they naturally tend to hold things in common,
and at the same time because of their need of one another;and they met at the sacred places that were common to them for the same reasons,
holding festivals and general assemblies;for everything of this kind tends to friendship, beginning with eating at the same table, drinking libations together, and lodging under the same roof; and the greater the number of the sojourners
and the greater the number of the places whence they came,
the greater was thought to be the use of their coming together.9.3.10 As for the contests at Delphi, there was one in early times between citharoedes, who sang a paean in honor of the god; it was instituted by the Delphians. But after the Crisaean war, in the time of Eurylochus, the Amphictyons instituted equestrian and gymnastic contests in which the prize was a crown, and called them Pythian Games. And to the citharoedes 18 they added both fluteplayers and citharists who played without singing [Aoide], who were to render a certain melody [melos] which is called the Pythian Nome. There are five parts of it: angkrousis, ampeira, katakeleusmos, iambi and dactyli, and syringes. Now the melody was composed by Timosthenes, the admiral of the second Ptolemy, who also compiled
The Harbours, a work in ten books;19 and through this melody he means to celebrate the contest between Apollo and the dragon, setting forth the prelude [melous humnein] as anakrousis, the first onset of the contest as ampeira, the contest itself as katakeleusmos, [anakrou-sis II. in Music, first beginning of a tune, Str.9.3.10]
the triumph following the victory as iambus and dactylus, the rhythms being in two measures,
one of which, the dactyl, is appropriate to hymns of praise,
whereas the other, the iamb, is suited to reproaches (compare the word "iambize"), and the expiration of the dragon as syringes,since with syringes (pipe) players imitated the dragon (drakon) as breathing its last in hissings.(pipings) [surigmos]
Footnote 18 The citharoedes sang to the accompaniment of the cithara, and their contests must have had no connection with those of the fluteplayers and the citharists, whose performance (of the Pythian Nome) was a purely instrumental affair.
surig-mos , ho, A. shrill piping sound, hissing, as of serpents, Arist.HA536a6, Str.9.3.10 (pl.); in sign of derision, X.Smp.6.5; as a military signal, Aen. Tact.24.17; s. kai chleuasmoi Plb.30.29.6 ; s. kalôn the whistling of rigging, D.H.Comp.16; of the sound of sibilants, ib.14; hissing in the theatre, Plu.Cic.13; of the cry of elephants, Arr.An.5.17.7; singing in the ears, Dsc.2.78.
9.3.12 A little further on, when discussing who the Delphians were, he says that in olden times certain Parnassians who were called indigenous inhabited Parnassus; and that at this time Apollo, visiting the land, civilized the people by introducing cultivated fruits and cultured modes of life; and that when he set out from Athens to Delphi he went by the road which the Athenians now take when they conduct the Pythias; 22 and that when he arrived at the land of the Panopaeans he destroyed Tityus, a violent and lawless man who ruled there;
and that the Parnassians joined him and informed him of another cruel man named Python and known as the Dragon, and that when Apollo shot at him with his arrows the Parnassians shouted "Hie Paean"23 to encourage him (the origin, Ephorus adds, of the singing of the Paean which has been handed down as a custom for armies just before the clash of battle);
and that the tent of Python was burnt by the Delphians at that time, just as they still burn it to this day in remembrance of what took place at that time. But what could be more mythical than Apollo shooting with arrows and punishing Tityuses and Pythons, and travelling from Athens to Delphi and visiting the whole earth? But if Ephorus did not take these stories for myths, by what right did he call the mythological Themis a woman, and the mythological Dragon a human being--unless he wished to confound the two types, history and myth? Similar to these statements are also those concerning the Aetolians; for after saying that from all time their country had been unravaged, he at one time says that Aeolians took up their abode there, having ejected the barbarians who were in possession of it, and at another time that Aetolus together with the Epeii from Elis took up their abode there, but that these were destroyed by the Aeolians, and that these latter were destroyed by Alcmaeon and Diomedes. But I return to the Phocians.
10:III. As for the Curetes, some assign them to the Acarnanians, others to the Aetolians; and some assert that they originated in Crete, but others in Euboea; but since Homer mentions them, I should first investigate his account. It is thought that he means that they were Aetolians rather than Acarnanians, if indeed the sons of Porthaon were
Agrius and Melas, and, the third, Oeneus the knight;
and they lived in Pleuron and steep Calydon.
These are both Aetolian cities, and are referred to in the Aetolian catalogue; and therefore, since, even according to the poet, the Curetes obviously lived in Pleuron, they would be Aetolians. Those writers who oppose this view are misled by Homer's mode of expression when he says, the Curetes were fighting, and the Aetolians steadfast in battle, about the city of Calydon; for, they add, neither would he have spoken appropriately if he had said, "the Boeotians and the Thebans were fighting against one another"; or "the Argives and the Peloponnesians." But, as I have shown heretofore, this habit of expression not only is Homeric, but is much used by the other poets also. This interpretation, then, is easy to defend; but let those writers explain how the poet could catalogue the Pleuronians among the Aetolians if they were not Aetolians or at least of the same race.
[2] Ephorus, after saying that the Aetolians were a race which had never become subject to any other people, but throughout all time of which there is any record had remained undevastated,
both because of the ruggedness of their country and because of their training in warfare, says at the outset that the Curetes held possession of the whole country, but when Aetolus, the son of Endymion, arrived from Elis and overpowered them in war, the Curetes withdrew to what is now called Acarnania, whereas the Aetolians came back with Epeians and founded the earliest of the cities of Aetolia, and in the tenth generation after that Elis was settled by Oxylus the son of Haemon, who had crossed over from Aetolia. And he cites as evidence of all this two inscriptions, the one at Therma in Aetolia (where it is their ancestral custom to hold their elections of magistrates), engraved on the base of the statue of Aetolus:
Founder of the country, once reared beside the eddies of the Alpheius, neighbor of the race-courses of Olympia, son of Endymion, this Aetolus has been set up by the Aetolians as a memorial of his valor to behold;
and the other inscription in the marketplace of the Eleians on the statue of Oxylus:
Aetolus once left this autochthonous people, and through many a toil with the spear took possession of the land of Curetis; but the tenth scion of the same stock, Oxylus, the son of Haemon, founded this city in early times.
[3] Now through these inscriptions Ephorus correctly signifies the kinship of the Eleians and Aetolians with one another, since both inscriptions agree, not merely as to the kinship of the two peoples, but also that each people was the founder of the other, through which he successfully convicts of falsehood those who assert that, while the Eleians were indeed colonists of the Aetolians, the Aetolians were not colonists of the Eleians. But here, too, Ephorus manifestly displays the same inconsistency in his writing and his pronouncements as in the case of the oracle at Delphi, which I have already set forth; for, after saying that Aetolia has been undevastated throughout all times of which there is any record, and after saying also that in the beginning the Curetes held possession of this country, he should have added as a corollary to what he had already said that the Curetes continued to hold possession of the Aetolian land down to his own time, for only thus could it have been rightly said that the land had been undevastated and that it had never come under the power of others; and yet, utterly forgetting his promise, he does not add this, but the contrary, that when Aetolus arrived from Elis and overpowered the Curetes in war, they withdrew into Acarnania. What else, pray, is specifically characteristic of a devastation than being overpowered in war and abandoning the country? And this is evidenced also by the inscription among the Eleians, for Aetolus, it says, through many a toil with the spear took possession of the land of Curetis.
[4] Perhaps, however, one might say that Ephorus means that Aetolia was undevastated from the time when it got this name, that is, after Aetolus arrived there; but Ephorus has deprived himself of the argument in support of this idea by saying in his next words that this, meaning the tribe of the Epeians, constituted the greatest part of the people who stayed on among the Aetolians, but that later, when Aeolians, who at the same time with Boeotians had been compelled to migrate from Thessaly, were intermingled with them, they in common with these held possession of the country. Is it credible, pray, that without war they invaded the country of a different people and divided it up with its possessors, when the latter had no need of such a partnership? Or, since this is not credible, is it credible that those who were overpowered by arms came out on an equality with the victors? What else, pray, is devastation than being overpowered by arms? Apollodorus, also, says that, according to history, the Hyantes left Boeotia and settled among the Aetolians. But Ephorus, as though he had achieved success in his argument, adds: "It is my wont to examine such matters as these with precision, whenever any matter is either altogether doubtful or falsely interpreted."
[5] But though Ephorus is such, still he is better than others. And Polybius himself, who praises him so earnestly, and says concerning the Greek histories that Eudoxus indeed gave a good account, but Ephorus gave the best account of the foundings of cities, kinships, migrations, and original founders, "but I," he says, shall show the facts as they now are, as regards both the position of places and the distances between them; for this is the most appropriate function of Chorography. But assuredly you, Polybius, who introduce "popular notions" concerning distances, not only in dealing with places outside of Greece, but also when treating Greece itself, must also submit to an accounting, not only to Poseidonius, and to Apollodorus, but to several others as well. One should therefore pardon me as well, and not be vexed, if I make any mistakes when I borrow from such writers most of my historical material, but should rather be content if in the majority of cases I improve upon the accounts given by others, or if I add such facts as have elsewhere, owing to lack of knowledge, been left untold.
[6] Concerning the Curetes still further accounts, to the following effect, are given, some of them being more closely related to the history of the Aetolians and the Acarnanians, others more remotely. More closely related are such accounts as I have given before--that the Curetes were living in the country which is now called Aetolia, and that the Aetolians came with Aetolus and drove them into Acarnania; and also accounts of this kind, that, when Pleuronia was inhabited by the Curetes and was called Curetis, Aeolians made an invasion and took it away from them, and drove out its occupants. Archemachus the Euboean says that the
Curetes settled at Chalcis, but since they were continually at war for the Lelantine Plain
and the enemy would catch them by the front hair and drag them down,
he says, they let their hair grow long behind but cut short the part in front,
and because of this they were called "Curetes," from the cut of their hair,
and they then migrated to Aetolia, and, after taking possession of the region round Pleuron,
called the people who lived on the far side of the Acheloüs "Acarnanians," because they kept their heads "unshorn."But some say that each of the two tribes got its name from a hero; others, that the Curetes were named after the mountain Curium, which is situated about Pleuron, and also that this is an Aetolian tribe, like the Ophians and the Agraeans and the Eurytanians and several others. But, as I have already stated, when Aetolia was divided into two parts, the region round Calydon, they say, was in the possession of Oeneus, whereas a certain part of Pleuronia was in the possession of the sons of Porthaon, that is, Agrius and his followers, if it be true that they lived in Pleuron and steep Calydon; the mastery over Pleuronia, however, was held by Thestius (the father-in-law of Oeneus and father of Althaea), who was leader of the Curetes;
but when war broke out between the sons of Thestius, on the one hand, and Oeneus and Meleager, on the other ( about the hog's head and skin, as the poet says, following the mythical story of the boar,
but in all probability about the possession of a part of the territory), according to the words of the poet, the Curetes were fighting, as also the Aetolians steadfast in battle. So much for the accounts which are more closely related.
Strabo Geography 10.3.7
In [10.3.7] Strabo continues, "The accounts which are more remotely related, however, to the present subject, but are wrongly, on account of the identity of the names, brought into the same connection by the historians--I mean those accounts which, although they are called "Curetan History" and "History of the Curetes," just as if they were the history of those Curetes who lived in Aetolia and Acarnania, not only are different from that history, but are more like the accounts of the Satyri, Sileni, Bacchae, and Tityri;
for the Curetes (clergy or priests), like these,
are called genii or ministers of gods by those who have
handed down to us the Cretan and the Phrygian traditions,
which are interwoven with certain sacred rites,
some mystical, the others connected in part
with the rearing of the child Zeus in Crete and
inpart with the orgies in honor of the mother of the gods
which are celebrated in Phrygia and in the region of the Trojan Ida.Genun
Sileni: Greek woodland gods or spirits, closely connected to the satyrs. They were occasionally referred to as being half-man half-horse, in stead of half-man half-goat. The Sileni were portrayed as lechers and drunkards, bald-headed and pot-bellied, with thick lips and stub noses, and with the tails and ears of a horse. The flute and lyre are their attributes. The Sileni can often be found in the company of Dionysus. Later mentioned as only one Silenus, the tutor and companion of Dionysus.
THE SATYROI were rustic fertility Daimones (Spirits) of the wilderness and countryside. They were usually associated with the gods Dionysos, Rheia, Gaia, Hermes and Hephaistos; and were said to mate with the Nymphai in the mountains.
Satyroi were depicted as animal-like men with the tail of a horse, the ears of an ass, upturned pug noses, reclining hair-lines, and erect members.
As companions of Dionysos, they were depicted draped in animal skins, drinking, dancing, playing tambourines and flutes (the instruments of the Dionysian orgy) and sporting with the Nymphai Bakkhai.
They were also frequently shown in vase paintings, dancing around the goddess Gaia (Earth), rising up from the fertile earth.
Other closely related Daimones included: the Panes (goat-legged satyroi), and the Seilenoi (elderly satyroi). Child satyrs were known as Satyriskoi.
Orgi-a , iôn, ta,
A. secret rites, secret worship, practised by the initiated, a post-Hom. word ; used of the worship of Demeter at Eleusis, h.Cer.273,476. Ar.Ra.386, Th.948 ; of the rites of the Cabeiri and Demeter Achaia, Hdt.2.51,5.61; of Orpheus, Id.2.81; of Eumolpus, App.Anth.1.318 ; of Cybele, E.Ba.78 (lyr.): most freq. of the rites of Dionysus, Hdt.2.81, E.Ba.34, al., Theoc.26.13.
II. generally, rites, sacrifices, SIG57.4 (Milet., v B. C.), A.Th.179 (lyr.), S.Tr.765, Ant.1013 ; orgia Mousôn Ar.Ra.356 .
2. metaph., mysteries, without reference to religion, epistêmês Hp.Lex5 ; tois tês Aphroditês o. eilêmmenon Ar.Lys.832 , cf. Ach.Tat.4.1; ta Epikourou theophanta o. Metrod.38 .--The sg. orgion is rare, Jahresh.13Beibl.29 No.3 (Erythrae, iv B. C.), Luc.Syr.D.16, Orph.H.52.5. (Prob. cogn. with erdô, rhezô, cf. ergon, orgeôn.)
Mousa , ês, hê, Aeol. Moisa Sapph.84, IG42(1).130.16, etc.; Dor. Môsa Alcm. 1, etc.; Lacon. Môha (for Môsa) Ar.Lys.1298, cf. An. Ox.1.277:--Muse,
A. Olumpiades M., Dios aigiochoio thugateres Il.2.491 , cf. Hes.Th.25, etc.; nine in number, first in Od.24.60; named in Hes.Th.75 sqq.
II. mousa, as Appellat., music, song, m. stugera A.Eu.308 (anap.); euphamos Id.Supp.695 (lyr.); kanachan . . theias antiluron mousas S.Tr.643 (lyr.); Aiakôi moisan pherein Pi.N.3.28 ; tis hêde mousa; what strain is this ? E.Ion757; aluros m. Id.Ph.1028 (lyr.); dia mousas êixa Id.Alc.962 (lyr.): in Prose, aidein adokimon m. Pl.Lg. 829d : in pl., mousai Sphingos, of the Sphinx's riddle, E.Ph.50; esp. liberal arts, accomplishments, tas mousas aphanizôn Ar.Nu.972 ; apaideuton tôn peri tas numphikas m. Pl.Lg.775b : also in sg., tês alêthinês m. êmelêkenai Id.R.548b ; koinônein mousês ib.411c.
2. hautê hê Sôkratous m. that was Socrates's way, Gal.UP1.9.
But the variation in these accounts is so small that, whereas some represent the Corybantes, the Cabeiri, the Idaean Dactyli, and the Telchines as identical with the Curetes, others represent them as all kinsmen of one another and differentiate only certain small matters in which they differ in respect to one another;
but, roughly speaking and in general, they represent them, one and all, as a kind of inspired people and as subject to Bacchic frenzy, and,
in the guise of ministers, as inspiring terror at the celebration of the sacred rites by means of war-dances, (Note: one legitimate use of the silver trumpets God gave Israel was "to inspire panic." Paul also likened cymbals and drums to military or carnal weapons in 1 Cor. 13-14).
accompanied by uproar and noise and cymbals and drums and arms, and also by flute and outcry;
and consequently these rites are in a way regarded as having a common relationship, I mean these and those of the Samothracians and those in Lemnos and in several other places, because the divine ministers are called the same. However, every investigation of this kind pertains to theology, and is not foreign to the speculation of the philosopher.
Nietzsche.Tragedy
In these Greek festivals, for the first time nature achieves its artistic jubilee. In them, for the first time,
the tearing apart of the principii individuationis [the individualizing principle] becomes an artistic phenomenon.
Here that dreadful witches' potion of lust and cruelty was without power. The strange mixture and ambiguity in the emotions of the Dionysian celebrant remind him, as healing potions remind him of deadly poison, of that sense that pain awakens joy, that the jubilation in his chest rips out cries of agony.
From the most sublime joy echoes the cry of horror or the longingly plaintive lament over an irreparable loss.
In those Greek festivals it was as if a sentimental feature of nature is breaking out, as if nature has to sigh over her dismemberment into separate individuals.
The language of song and poetry of such a doubly defined celebrant was for the Homeric Greek world something new and unheard of.
Dionysian music especially awoke in that world fear and terror. If music was apparently already known as an Apollonian art, this music, strictly speaking, was a rhythmic pattern like the sound of waves, whose artistic power had developed for presenting Apollonian states of mind. The music of Apollo was Doric architecture expressed in sound, but only in intimate tones, characteristic of the cithara [a traditional stringed instrument}. The un-Apollonian character of Dionysian music keeps such an element of gentle caution at a distance, and with that turns music generally into emotionally disturbing tonal power, a unified stream of melody, and the totally incomparable world of harmony.
Strabo Geography [10.3.8] But since also the historians, because of the identity of name of the Curetes, have classed together things that are unlike, neither should I myself shrink from discussing them at greater length, by way of digression, adding such account of their physical habits as is appropriate to history. And yet some historians even wish to assimilate their physical habits with those others, and perhaps there is something plausible in their undertaking.
For instance, they say that the Curetes (Musical Ministers of war) of Aetolia got this name because,
Like "girls," they wore women's clothes, for, they add, there was a fashion of this kind among the Greeks, and the Ionians were called "tunic-trailing,"
(Note: the Jews thought that John wore soft clothing which would identify him as a catamite - a male prostitute. And David got frenzied and stripped off his ephod which was derived from women's clothing)
and the soldiers of Leonidas were "dressing their hair" when they were to go forth to battle,
so that the Persians, it is said, conceived a contempt for them, though in the battle they marvelled at them.
And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away. 2S.18:9
Speaking generally, the art of caring for the hair consists both in its nurture and in the way it is cut, and both are given special attention by "girls" and "youths"; (corai, curae) so that there are several ways in which it is easy to derive an etymology of the word "Curetes." It is reasonable to suppose,
also, that the war-dance was first introduced by persons who were trained in this particular way in the matter of hair and dress, these being called Curetes,
and that this dance afforded a pretext to those also who were more warlike than the rest and spent their life under arms, so that they too came to be called by the same name, "Curetes "-
I mean the Curetes in Euboea, Aetolia, and Acarnania. And indeed Homer applied this name to young soldiers, choose thou the noblest young men (Curetes) from all the Achaeans, and bring the gifts from the swift ship, all that we promised yesterday to Achilles"; and again, the young men of the Achaeans brought the gifts. So much for the etymology of the word "Curetes."
The war-dance was a soldiers' dance; and this is plainly indicated both by the "Pyrrhic dance," (Dionysiac dance) and by "Pyrrichus," who is said to be the founder of this kind of training for young men, as also by the treatises on military affairs (work of a soldier).
"The Pyrrhic dance of our time seems to be a sort of Dionysiac dance, being more respectable than that of early times, for the dancers have thyrsi instead of spears, and hurl them at one another, and carry fennel-stalks and torches" (Athenaeus 14.631b).
(Note: When Israel rejected the Theocratic rule of God, He gave them kings to lead them into battle and to victory, but to defeat them spiritually. After the wars, David and the commanders of the army employed the Levitical war musicians for rituals at the capital of the nation. Also Click Here for Chronicles.
Strabo [10.3.9] From Perseus: "But I must now investigate how it comes about that so many names have been used of one and the same thing, and the theological element contained in their history. Now this is common both to the Greeks and to the barbarians,
to perform their sacred rites in connection with the relaxation of a festival,
these rites being performed sometimes with religious frenzy, sometimes without it;
sometimes with music, sometimes not; and sometimes in secret, sometimes openly.
And it is in accordance with the dictates of nature that this should be so, for, in the
first place, the relaxation draws the mind away from human occupations and turns the real mind towards that which is divine; and,
secondly, the religious frenzy seems to afford a kind of divine inspiration and to be very like that of the soothsayer; and,
thirdly, the secrecy with which the sacred rites are concealed induces reverence for the divine, since it imitates the nature of the divine, which is to avoid being perceived by our human senses; and,
(The musical practices among the Levites were closely-held secrets even as musical ministers keep the profane out of their business.)
fourthly, music, which includes dancing as well as rhythm and melody, at the same time, by the delight it affords and by its artistic beauty,
"Together with song and music goes the dance, which is a common way of expressing the encounter with the body. The dance is a spontaneous human expression of the sense of rapture (raped), At a higher religious level it develops into an expression of the joy at the encounter with the Holy One, an act for the glory of God (II Samuel 6:20 ff)). It behooves one to give such visible and boisterous expression of the joy before Yahweh." (Sigmund Mowinckel, translated by D. R. Ap-Thomas, The Psalms in Israel's Worship (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962), p. 10)
Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick (sumphonia) and dancing (choros, ring dance). Luke 15:25
brings us in touch with the divine, and this for the following reason;
for although it has been well said that human beings then act most like the gods when they are doing good to others,
yet one might better say, when they are happy; and such happiness consists of rejoicing, celebrating festivals, pursuing philosophy, and engaging in music;
for, if music is perverted when musicians turn their art to sensual delights
at symposiums and in orchestric and scenic performances and the like,
we should not lay the blame upon music itself, but should rather examine the nature of our system of education, since this is based on music."This is the first mention in the OT of a band of prophets. These were men who went about in companies and were able by means of music and dancing to work themselves up into a convulsive and ecstatic frenzy (2 Kings 3:1-10). Their abnormality was believed to be caused by the invasive influence of the spirit of god.
The word prophesied here does not mean either foretelling the future or preaching after the manner of the later prophets, but engaging in the ritual dance of the prophetic guild (19:18-24).
Their behavior was commonly regarded as a form of madness (2 Kings 9:11; Jeremiah 29:26)" (The Int. Bible Ency., I Sam. p. 932).
"It was probably usual to welcome a king or general with music and dancing...The distinctly religious dance is more frequently mentioned. The clear instances of it in the Bible are the dance of the women of Israel at the Red Sea, headed by Miriam with her tambourine (Exodus 15:20); the dance of the Israelites round the golden calf (Exodus 32:19); the dance of the maidens of Shiloah at the annual feast (Judges 21:19 ff); the leaping or limping of the prophets of Baal round their altar on Carmel (1 Kings 18:26); and the dancing of David in front of the ark (2 Samuel 6:14-16) (Int. Std. Bible Ency., p. 1169-70)
Strabo Geography [10.3.10] And on this account Plato, and even before his time the Pythagoreians, called philosophy music; and
they say that the universe is constituted in accordance with harmony,
assuming that every form of music is the work of the gods.
And in this sense, also, the Muses are goddesses,
and Apollo is leader of the Muses,
and poetry as a whole is laudatory of the gods.
And by the same course of reasoning they also attribute to music the upbuilding of morals, believing that everything which tends to correct the mind is close to the gods.
Now most of the Greeks assigned to Dionysus, Apollo, Hecate, the Muses (9 women team), and above all to Demeter, everything of an orgiastic or Bacchic or choral nature, as well as the mystic element in initiations; and they give the name "Iacchus" not only to Dionysus but also to the leader-in-chief of the mysteries, who is the genius of Demeter.
Orgi-astikos , ê, on,
A. of or for orgia, exciting, ouk estin ho aulos êthikon, alla . . orgiastikon Arist.Pol.1341a22 ; o. kai pathêtika ib.1342b3.
Kin-êtikosDaimôn, Geni.Genius.Genun.Daimon.D.html
And branch-bearing, choral dancing, and initiations are common
elements in the worship of these gods.
As for the Muses and
Apollo,
A. carrying of trees, as a religious ceremony, Str.10.3.10(pl.).
II. bearing, production of trees, Gp. 2.9.3.A. bearing trees, pharanx Theodor. ap. Ath.14.621b; aroura BGU328i17 (ii A. D.): Sup. -ôtatos Plu.Sull.12 ; hê d. (sc. gê) Ph.2.583.
II. in pl., tree-bearers, a guild in the cult of Cybele, mêtêr dendrophorôn IGRom.1.614 (Tomi, iii A.D.); freq. in Lat. Inscrr., cf. Lyd.Mens.4.5
the Muses (female pastors) preside over the choruses,
whereas Apollo presides both over these and the rites of divination.
But all educated men, and especially the musicians, are ministers of the Muses;
and both these and those who have to do with divination are ministers of Apollo;
and the initiated and torch-bearers and hierophants, of Demeter; and the Sileni and Satyri and Bacchae, and also the Lenae and Thyiae and Mimallones and Naïdes and Nymphae and the beings called Tityri, of Dionysus.So Judas came to the grove, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons. Jn.18:3
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In Lystra the people tried to seduce Paul into
pagan worship even as the Jews had Jesus:
When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!" Acts 14:11
Consistent with all pagan, Old Testament and historical evidence, musical sacrifices denied that God had come down and was not far from any of them. The one sacrifice had been mande and with that the punishment was over ant the Jews understood that music had no place outside of Jerusalem, outside of the Temple and therefore where animal sacrifices could not be made. Denouncing these sacrifices also denounced any musical attempt to move the audience into the presence or force the gods to come into your presence. See how the Abomination of Desonation was Zeus Dionysus worship in the temple in Jerusalem |
[10.3.11] In Crete, not only these rites, but in particular those sacred to Zeus, were performed
along with orgiastic worship and
with the kind of ministers who were in the service of Dionysus, (Coroi, youth) mean the Satyri (Gender-bent musical Pan types).These ministers they called "Curetes," young men who executed movements in armour, accompanied by dancing,
as they set forth the mythical story of the birth of Zeus; in this they introduced Cronus as accustomed to swallow his children immediately after their birth,
Cronus' functions were connected with agriculture; in Attica his festival, the Kronia, celebrated the harvest and resembled the Saturnalia. In art he was depicted as an old man holding an implement, probably originally a sickle but interpreted as a harp, or curved sword. (As does the Hebrew, Paul used the same word to define lifeless musical instrument and carnal weapon)Rhea used the booming gongs and tinkling cymbals to keep the father from eating the children alive. Is music the mother's uninformed effort to save the children being lost for lack of the Word as spiritual food.
and Rhea as trying to keep her travail secret and, when the child was born, to get it out of the way and save its life by every means in her power; and to accomplish this it is said thatshe took as helpers the Curetes, who, by surrounding the goddess with tambourines and similar noisy instruments and with war-dance and uproar,
were supposed to strike terror into Cronus and
without his knowledge to steal his child away; and that, according to tradition, Zeus was actually reared by them with the same diligence; consequently the
Curetes, either because,
being young, that is "youths," they performed this service, or because they "reared" Zeus "in his youth" (for both explanations are given), were accorded this appellation (Curo-trophein), as if they were Satyrs, so to speak,in the service of Zeus. Such, then, were the Greeks in the matter of orgiastic worship.
[10.3.12] But as for the Berecyntes, a tribe of Phrygians, and the Phrygians in general, and those of the Trojans who live round Ida, they too hold Rhea in honor and worship her with orgies, calling her Mother of the gods and Agdistis and Phrygia the Great Goddess, and also, from the places where she is worshipped, Idaea and Dindymene and Sipylene and Pessinuntis and Cybele (Ku bel' - e) and Cybebe.
The Greeks use the same name "Curetes" for the ministers of the goddess, not taking the name, however, from the same mythical story (Cretan Curetes), but regarding them as a different set of "Curetes," helpers as it were, analogous to the Satyri; and the same they also call Corybantes.
[10.3.13] The poets bear witness to such views as I have suggested. For instance,
when Pindar, in the dithyramb which begins with these words, In earlier times there marched (drawled) the lay of the dithyrambs long drawn out,
mentions the hymns sung in honor of Dionysus, both the ancient and the later ones, and then, passing on from these, says, To perform the prelude in thy honor, great Mother,
the whirling of cymbals is at hand, and among them,
also, the clanging of castanets,
and the torch that blazeth beneath the tawny pine-trees,(The booms and clangs of 1 Cor. 13-14 related to speaking in tongues)
he bears witness to the common relationship between the rites exhibited in the worship of Dionysus among the Greeks and those in the worship of the Mother of the gods among the Phrygians, for he makes these rites closely akin to one another.
And Euripides does likewise, in his Bacchae, citing the Lydian usages at the same time with those of Phrygia, because of their similarity:
But ye who left Mt. Tmolus (Sardis was on this mt.), fortress of Lydia,
revel-band of mine, women whom I brought from the land of barbarians as my assistants and travelling companions,There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. 1 Corinthians 14:10
Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. 1 Corinthians 14:11
uplift the tambourines native to Phrygian cities, inventions of mine and mother Rhea. (Zoe) See Hypostasis of the Archons and Zoe's Musical Team
And again, happy he who, blest man, initiated in the mystic rites, is pure in his life, . . . who, preserving the righteous orgies of the great mother Cybele, and brandishing the thyrsus on high, and wreathed with ivy, doth worship Dionysus.
Come, ye Bacchae, come, ye Bacchae, bringing down (double entendre) Bromius, (boisterous one) god the child of god, out of the Phrygian mountains into the broad highways of Greece.
And again, in the following verses he connects the Cretan usages also with the Phrygian:
O thou hiding-bower (Where Zeus was hid) of the Curetes, and sacred haunts of Crete that gave birth to Zeus,
where for me (the leader of the chorus) the triple-crested (pope's crown) Corybantes (Phrygian priests of Cybele) in their caverns
invented this hide-stretched circlet, (tambourine) and blent its Bacchic (Dionysiac) revelry
with the high-pitched, sweet-sounding breath of Phrygian flutes,and in Rhea's hands placed its resounding noise,
to accompany the shouts of the Bacchae, ("ev-ah" ovatio or ZOE) and from Mother Rhea frenzied Satyrs obtained itand joined it to the choral dances of the Trieterides, (Triennial Festivals) in whom Dionysus takes delight.
And in the Palamedes the Chorus says,
Thysa, daughter of Dionysus, who on Ida (mountain) rejoices with his dear mother in the Iacchic revels of tambourines.
10.3.14] And when they bring Seilenus and Marsyas and Olympus into one and the same connection,
and make them the historical inventors of flutes, they again, a second time, connect the Dionysiac and the Phrygian rites; and they often in a confused manner "drum on" Ida and Olympus as the same mountain.
Now there are four peaks of Ida called Olympus, near Antandria; and there is also the Mysian Olympus, which indeed borders on Ida, but is not the same. At any rate, Sophocles, in his Polyxena, representing Menelaus as in haste to set sail from Troy, but Agamemnon as wishing to remain behind for a short time for the sake of propitiating Athena, introduces Menelaüs as saying, But do thou, here remaining, somewhere in the Idaean land collect flocks of Olympus and offer them in sacrifice.
[10.3.15] They invented names appropriate to the flute, and to the noises made by castanets, cymbals, and drums, and to their acclamations and shouts of "ev-ah," and stampings of the feet; (Eve or Sophia-Zoe) (See The Eve-Zoe connection) Greek
and they also invented some of the names by which to designate the ministers,
choral dancers, and attendants upon the sacred rites,
I mean "Cabeiri" and "Corybantes" and "Pans" (gender-bent) and "Satyri" and "Tityri,"and they called the god "Bacchus," and Rhea "Cybele" or "Cybebe" or "Dindymene" according to the places where she was worshipped. Sabazius also belongs to the Phrygian group and in a way
(Priests of Cybele were effeminate and emasculated themselves. Paul said in Galatians 5:12, "As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!" The agitators "drove people out of their homes (churches?) )
is the child of the Mother, since he too transmitted the rites of Dionysus.
[10.3.16] Also resembling these rites are the Cotytian and the Bendideian rites practiced among the Thracians, among whom the Orphic rites had their beginning. Now the Cotys who is worshipped among the Edonians,
and also the instruments used in her rites, are mentioned by Aeschylus; for he says,
O adorable Cotys among the Edonians, and ye who hold mountain-ranging instruments;
and he mentions immediately afterwards the attendants of Dionysus:one, holding in his hands the bombyces (reed flute) toilsome work of the turner's chisel, fills full the fingered melody, the call that brings on frenzy,
(Note: Melody is derived from to grind into powder as in SOP. Instruments were used to panic the enemy in war.)
while another causes to resound the bronze-bound cotylae (cups or cymbals)
and again, stringed instruments raise their shrill cry,
and frightful mimickers from some place unseen bellow like bulls,
and the semblance (eikon or echo) of drums,as of subterranean thunder (underlying bass), rolls along, a terrifying sound; for these rites resemble the Phrygian rites, and it is at least not unlikely that, just as the Phrygians themselves were colonists from Thrace, so also their sacred rites were borrowed from there. Also when they identify Dionysus and the Edonian Lycurgus, they hint at the homogeneity of their sacred rites. (Music creates feelings of fight, flight or sex)
THOUGH I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 1 Cor 13:1
Sounding:
Echeo (g2278( ay-kheh'-o; from 2279; to make a loud noise, i.e. reverberate: - roar, sound.
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring Lu.21:25
Echos (g2279) ay'-khos; of uncert. affin.; a loud or confused noise ("echo"), i.e. roar: fig. a rumor: - fame, sound.
For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, Heb 12:18
And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: Heb.12:19
Brass is: Chalkos (g5475) khal-kos'; perh. from 5465 (great gulf) through the idea of hollowing out as a vessel (this metal being chiefly used for that purpose); copper (the substance, or some implement or coin made of it): - brass, money.
[10.3.17] From its melody and rhythm and instruments, all Thracian music has been considered to be Asiatic. And this is clear, first, from the places where the Muses have been worshipped,
for Pieria and Olympus and Pimpla and Leibethrum were in ancient times Thracian places and mountains, though they are now held by the Macedonians; and again, Helicon (home of Thespiaae and Eros) was consecrated to the Muses by the Thracians who settled in Boeotia, the same who consecrated the cave of the nymphs called Leibethrides.
And again, those who devoted their attention to the music of early times are called Thracians, I mean Orpheus, Thracians, and Thracians; and Thracians, (sweet singer) too, got his name from there.
And those writers who have consecrated the whole of Asia,
as far as India, to Dionysus, derive the greater part of music from there.And one writer says, "striking the Asiatic cithara"; another calls flutes "Berecyntian" and "Phrygian"; and some of the instruments have been called by barbarian names, "nablas," "sambyce," "barbitos," "magadis," and several others.
Below: Barbarian lying on a bed with the Barbaton
10.3.18] Just as in all other respects the Athenians continue to be hospitable to things foreign,
so also in their worship of the gods;
for they welcomed so many of the foreign rites
that they were