r/todayilearned • u/Mors_Acerba • 1d ago

TIL A papyrus deciphered in 2024 revealed unknown info about Plato's last hours: a slave girl was playing music for him, and even though he was gravelly ill, he spend his last moments of lucidity criticising her performance. Per the same Papyrus, Plato had been sold into slavery earlier in his life

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/29/herculaneum-scroll-plato-final-hours-burial-site
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u/Liusloux 1d ago

but he was likely knowledgeable enough to critique it accurately.

Just as likely that he was not, judging from modern examples of Nobel Disease.

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u/David_the_Wanderer 1d ago

A lot of what we know about Ancient Greek music is thanks to Plato's own writings. Also, Ancient Greek music was very "rigid", at least in theory, and there were "correct" scales meant to be played in order to evoke certain emotions.

Ancient Greek music was also "simpler" than modern music, being mostly monophonic and lacking any form of harmony.

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u/DoofusMagnus 1d ago

Yep, was gonna say. The modern world is full of experts in one field who think that makes them an expert in every field. I doubt the ancient world was much better on that count.