chelidon

i think one of my favorite ancient greek words is ψυχαγογέω, ‘to lead souls, to drag souls’, because it is both used for hermes leading the shades of the dead to the underworld but also for that incredible empathic bond that is created between the artist and the public during the (oral, in this case, but not only) performance, the moment in which the artist reaches the ὓψος, the sublime and is thus capable of ‘dragging the souls’ of the public in one great collective emotional experience