Silenus’ Song (Virgil Ecl. 6.27-86) -A Source For Ovid’s Pythagoreanism in The Metamorphoses?

Abstract Pythagorean ideas in Silenus’ song in Virgil’s Eclogue 6 are set out. The role of music in ordering a transcendent, stable world and changing cosmos and in accessing the transcendent world is shown to be stressed by Virgil. A modern-philosophical account of musical transcendence is provided, as well as an explanation of its continued attractiveness for poets and philosophers who ponder the notion of immortality. The same ideas are then shown to be emphasised in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The conclusion is drawn that the Metamorphoses owe their philosophical dimension to Virgil’s Pythagoreanism in Eclogue 6.