From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordAmphion is the legendary musician whose playing drew stones into the walls of Thebes.
- In TraherneTraherne inserts the story into a crowded series of attractions: medicine draws the sick, a feast the hungry, a miracle the curious, and music the stones.
- In this editionThe identification comes from the 2026 note.
- A place to beginThe moving stones are one example in the sequence leading to voluntary attraction toward Christ.
Meaning
Amphion is the legendary musician whose playing drew stones into the walls of Thebes. He provides an image of apparently effortless movement produced by attraction rather than visible force.
Use in the book
Traherne inserts the story into a crowded series of attractions: medicine draws the sick, a feast the hungry, a miracle the curious, and music the stones. All prepare the question of how the crucified Christ draws the soul. The apparently coercive language of being drawn is resolved through desire and perceived benefit. No physical chain is required. Amphion therefore belongs to the meditation’s account of willing response; his marvel intensifies the appeal without becoming a separate allegory in which each feature must have a Christian equivalent.
Places to read
- I.57The moving stones are one example in the sequence leading to voluntary attraction toward Christ.
In this edition
The identification comes from the 2026 note. Traherne names the musician and Thebes but gives no extended myth or claim of historical fact.
Source note
Primary text: I.57; mythological identification: 2026 edition note to I.57.