Apophthegmata Laconica

Plutarch

Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).

Ecprepes, an Ephor, cut out with an adze two of the nine strings of Phrynis the musician, saying, Do not murder music. [*](The story is repeated in Plutarch’s Life of Agis, chap. x. (799 F), and with variaions in Moralia, 84 A, 238 C (infra); Athenaeus 636 E; Boethius, De Musica, i. 1.)