Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher of the fifth century B.C. He was a devotee of Apollo, a god associated in Greek mythology with music, and the invention of the lyre.
Pythagoras believed the spirit to be purified by study, particularly that of nature. He is said to have discovered the numerical ratios determining the principal intervals of the musical scale. This was combined with contemporary astronomers' ideas about the harmony of the spheres; the belief that perfect balance was expressed by the distance between observable planets.
These ideas and those of later Greek philosophers, reinterpreted by Christian thinkers, were the origins of the Renaissance concept of the music of the spheres.
From his original musical discovery, Pythagoras developed the concept of interpreting the world as a whole through numbers. He also made the study of music justifiable to philosophers.
Two of his successors, Plato and Aristotle, also regarded music and song as important. Each believed them to have an ethical effect on society, and their opinions were given much weight in their times.
One of the results of this respect for music can be seen in the regulation of its 'purity' by law. Twentieth century musicians, envying the esteem in which their counterparts were held in the classical world, should remember that, at Sparta, venturesome innovators are said to have had their instruments destroyed.
