... and guitar but also the tabla and kithara. He is of the view that ancient music cannot possibly be 'dead', due to all the writings on ancient musical theory that are still accessible1. Primary sources offer us a wealth of information on this topic, and one of these lies in Plato's utopian opus, the Republic, in which harmonic theory (inter alia) is discussed in detail, as it is in the Philebus and the Laws as well as in works by other ancient philosophers, such as Aristides Quintilianus. However, the nature of the music education programme as set out in the Republic is a source of great interest, as it poses questions not just about the importance of Greek music and how it should be taught to the young Athenian scholars, but also about the nature of the Republic itself. What does the system entail, what does Socrates hope to achieve ...

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