À l’ombre d’Orphée : variations médiévales sur le mythe d’Amphion

Abstract

Amphion forms with Orpheus and Arion a trio of mythological figures that embody the efficacy of music : music tames tigers, charms stones, fascinates dolphins. Music has the power to subjugate nature and to awaken it. The myth of Amphion transmits the most radical form of this emotive power : stone, the creature least sensible, miraculous obeys the melody of his harp to the point of being emotionally moved. The character of Amphion also conveys a political meaning. Unlike Orpheus, he is a musician of the polis, of a city -specifically Thebes -which he has founded and governed. No wonder medieval commentators of this myth increasingly interpreted music as rhetoric : to move, to emote is a key word in the oratorical art. Moving, setting into motion is a key-word of the ars rhetorica. Finally, the figure leaves its imprint in the story of Alexander who destroys the walls of Thebes thanks to the sound of Ismene’s flute, in an inversion of the foundational myth of Amphion.

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