Music and Metamorphosis in Greco-Roman Thought

"Where does music come from? What is at the root of musical pleasure? What can a song do? Are musical instruments endowed with magical power? Can music die? These are some of the questions that the Greeks and the Romans asked about music, song, and the soundscape within which they lived, and that this book examines. Mythical narratives (in Greek muthoi, in Latin fabulae) are the earliest, longest-lasting, and most privileged place where the ancients engaged with such issues and suggested answers to these questions"--