The Pythagoreans believed (according to Aristotle, De caelo) that the stars make sounds as they move, and since their speeds are in the same ratios as musical concordances, the entire sound they produce is a harmony. We cannot hear it, for it is a constant background sound in our ears from birth. Plato presented a vision of eight cosmic “whorls” (Greek sphondulos), hollow and nested inside the other; on each stood a Siren singing one note, and from all eight there came a single harmony (Republic). Plotinus (Enneads) and Cicero (Dream of Scipio), among others, elaborated this vision; in Cicero … we learn that the uppermost stars give out the highest pitch, the moon the lowest; on earth we are deaf to the music, but when raised into the heavens we will hear it.
(Source: decadenza)
▲▲▲